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We don't live in an ideal world. We live in the real world. In the real world, the most practical thing you can do is learn to speak Spanish & Filipino - at least enough to ask a non-English speaking attendant to change your diaper.
There are PLENTY of instances of our fellow Americans abusing elder patients in hospital or in home care, so stop blowing your smoke.
That said, as one who has worked in hospitals and nursing education, you cannot practice in most states without taking the NCLEX and passing state boards. That was the case back in the 1980’s when nurses from the Philippines came to work at a teaching hospital I worked at in San Francisco....and continues today here in California and most states.
If you experience bad care in nursing facilities by non licensed staff it is because corporate healthcare does not want to pay for experienced and credentialed nurses.
Leverage your anger at them and those who want to strip regulations that require higher standards.
I am not angry at all- and not an anti- immigrant- just stating the facts. Please refrain from an inflammatory language.
This country needs a well thought out legal immigration procedure for the workers we need - not a public welfare burden.
Having people move to the US illegally often creates a burden- some families happy to live on very little money from the public sector here- their standards of livings very different from us.
The illegality of status creates an underclass for exploitation and creates crime in some cases. Plenty of examples
To think otherwise is delusional.
Apologies to mods and everyone- this comment is not about immigration, but how to solve the shortage of some workers in a long term care the right way.
I was impressed with the quality of immigrant workers at my MIL's place. Most of them had had "better" jobs in their countries of origin (journalist, for example) but could make more money doing NH work.
Many many Americans care for their parents themselves as they age. There are many people in their 60's caring for their parents who are in their 80's. Basically, people are living longer and their needs present a challenge that is not easily.
Yes. I sometimes wonder if those who talk about paying their nieces to care for them physically, consider that those nieces may be caring for their own parents by that time? It might become a problem if there are no contingencies set up.
Money is only a claim on a person’s labor - if there is no person available then no money in the world would help that.
I feel the same way and I hope we are both fortunate enough to avoid it. I’m currently watching, from a safe distance, a former neighbor literally at the end of her rope with no friends, no family, no resources and unable to care for herself properly. Assisted living would be a better place for her than the way she is living now. A friend she is now estranged from got her into a place that even took her dog but she “broke herself out” and returned to her apartment before the friend could settle it up. 5 years ago when she was 75, she had a house and a car and was totally independent. But a serious illness later and now she can’t even take her trash to the dumpster, get to the laundry room, get to the office to pay her rent, get her mail... One neighbor who I’m in contact with takes her to run errands but she can be unpleasant and he is feeling real put upon. She does nothing on the internet and has cataracts and can barely see the cell phone a distant relative got for her to hopefully bring her into the digital age. It is beyond sad and a cautionary tale. It’s like she lives in the 1950s and never made any attempt to modernize. So much stuff that she needs could be arranged with a few mouse clicks if she had started clicking back in the 90s but, before I moved I tried to set her up on Amazon but the only orders placed were the ones I helped her do. I know she won’t let the complex into her apartment for any reason routine pest control, ac filter replaced, smoke detector battery replacement, she has fallen at least 5 times where the fire department had to come pick her up off the floor. Once she fell into the wall on her way down and there is a gigantic hole in it now, the microwave doesn’t work and a ceiling fan in bedroom doesn’t work. I have no idea how it will end but the end will only come when someone else forces the issue. No running off to Mexico for her.
Very sad story. However, I will add that apartment complexes can enter any apartment if they deem it an emergency. No tenant can keep out a LL in an emergency. If she cannot take care of herself, then the apartment complex needs to step in and make sure her apt is safe, for her and for other residents living there. If she can't take out her trash, as you mentioned, then the LL definitely needs to get inside and make sure that her trash piling up isn't a health and safety issue.
Yes, some kind of assisted living would probably be better than where she is now, but do all of them take Medicaid, which I assume she qualifies for if she has no resources. I don't know how Medicaid works for assisted living, or if Medicaid is only for nursing homes.
You can live in a good quality nursing home in a safe Mexican city for 1500 a month. For 3000 a month, you could live in absolute luxury. Mainly your food will be fresh and local as opposed to the slop they pass off as food to American seniors in assited living homes. I have zero intention of even being in "assisted living". I certainy won't tolerate what I've seen go on in nursing homes in America.
It does take quite an effort and good health to orchestrate a move to another country, even if it's south of the border. I agree that care could be better, but not knowing the language would be difficult. Yes, the food would be much better in Mexico in a good quality nursing home vs US nursing home. I have visited friends in nursing homes in US, and the food is terrible institutional crud.
One more point about Mexico: When you go to the hospital in Mexico, it is expected that family or friends will go with you and help out. It's not like the US where everything is done for you. I wonder if that is the same expectation in a Mexican nursing home, that family and/or friends will accompany you and help out with daily tasks/needs.
Healthcare recruiters where I used to live (MO) went to the Philippines and hired a planeload of nurses and healthcare workers. Here in NM when I had in-home PT after hip replacement it was a Philippine PT specialist that did the evaluations. The actual physical therapist assistant was an American (local guy). My PCP doctor is from Pakistan and my ortho surgeon was US-born Indian. When my parents were in the nursing home 20+ years ago in rural MO it was mostly local healthcare people. I suspect things have changed by now.
Where are you located in NM? A big city? How was the quality of care you received from the professionals you described?
Btw, I am posting these kinds of articles in an effort to inform, and I am not saying that people should base their decision on how or where to live in retirement based ONLY the availability of health-related services. There are many factors involved, but if this kind of thing is at all important to you, then you need to be realistic.
However, the way that I look at it is that fast and modern medical services and professional care-takers are a relatively recent development, and less than 100 years ago, most people either depended on family to care for them in their extreme old age or bad health, were rich enough to hire personal caretakers at their own expense, or died. Although I might regret saying this 20 or so years from now, my husband and I would rather live most of our retirement in a beautiful and rural location, and if I am in anguish for a few hours or days or even a few years (in the case of my husband dying due to a lack of fast and/or good emergency care), so be it. As Baz Luhrmann wrote, "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
Very sad story. However, I will add that apartment complexes can enter any apartment if they deem it an emergency. No tenant can keep out a LL in an emergency. If she cannot take care of herself, then the apartment complex needs to step in and make sure her apt is safe, for her and for other residents living there. If she can't take out her trash, as you mentioned, then the LL definitely needs to get inside and make sure that her trash piling up isn't a health and safety issue.
The LL may not know the full extent. She does have the one neighbor that carries her trash and along with her nurse gets her mail and takes her rent checks up. One of her falls came after she took her own trash out and the dog leash tripped her. The only neighbor she can count on called me this morning complaining about her and all she expects from him. She is an object of great pity and I can’t see any of the neighbors complaining. The one good neighbor and her nurse are her universe and good neighbor is reaching the breaking point.
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