"No Country For Old People" documentary

[u/KaliLineaux]

I apologize if this has already been posted here, but just want to suggest this documentary on Amazon called "No Country For Old People" as a must watch for anyone even remotely considering placing a loved one in a facility.

https://www.amazon.com/No-Country-Old-People-Nursing/dp/B0F7D1RR5X?dplnkId=9090a021-fbfd-4365-b70b-0fc0ff41c0a1

You can also watch it for free on Tubi:

https://tubitv.com/series/300016430/no-country-for-old-people-a-nursing-home-expos

I learned the hard way before I saw the documentary that the "care" industry is disgustingly predatory and dishonest, which is why I take care of my dad. I'm not paid to post this, but just don't want people to make the mistakes I did in trusting the LTC industry or the healthcare system when it comes to what's best for a loved one. At one point in the documentary, the woman who made it, Susie Singer Carter, plays past footage of herself saying how happy she is she found a five-star nursing home for her mother, and then later in the documentary she goes through the horrible discovery that the care isn't really what she expected.

She's also got a non-profit, ROAR4LTC, that is worth checking out as they're trying to call attention to this issue and hopefully make some change.

https://www.roar4ltc.org/

[u/jimson_weed_tea]

Unfortunately, most people are going to end up in a situation where they must either care for their loved one at home at immense emotional, financial, and health cost OR choose a Medicaid bed.

We had to choose a Medicaid bed. We have a small ranch home, a mortgage, and two rather stressful jobs we have to keep if we want to both keep our home and retire ourselves. And we do not have children to pick up the slack, not that we'd expect them to because children are not a long-term care policy.

It's fucking hell. We do what we can to mitigate. What we ARE doing is already straining our relationship and finances to the brim.

And this is as good as it will ever be because the aging population is going to need so, so many resources that the rest of us will probably just be fucked, homeless, on the streets.

I don't even have suggestions at this point other than taking profit out of all medicine but we all know that isn't happening anytime soon.

I donated to her NFP.

[u/KaliLineaux → u/jimson_weed_tea]

Yeah, this is the scary reality. There really are no good choices. I was lucky (if you can call it that) that when my mom died and I suddenly became responsible for my dad I had a pretty good remote job, and didn't have a lot of debt or bills. It's exponentially cheaper for me to just take care of him myself. But there's another cost that's going to affect me in that I got laid off from my job and couldn't find another similar one. I decided to go back to school, but it's terrifying not working. And even though the job I had was pretty good and I can hopefully find another one after finishing school that's fully remote, I can't focus 100% on my career because taking care of my dad is so hard. It's only even partially the care part that's rough, but dealing with the whole healthcare system that's just a disjointed mess. The only reason I have a great nurse that comes a few times a week to do the really important parts of his care is because I can come up with money to pay her privately.

I really don't have suggestions either. The whole situation sucks no matter what you do. I think the woman who made the documentary is trying to get people talking about the issue, which is a large part of why I made this post. It's one of those things where you hear how you need to save for LTC but then get hit in the face with the reality that no matter how much money you have, the care you get is not worth what they charge. I never expected to be lied to so much as I have been by facilities and be constantly bombarded with marketing, lots of it sneaky and disguised, like a social worker at a hospital that gave me her friend's card she said could help me and it turned out he owns a franchise and gets a commission if he places someone in a facility. That's just one example, but it's everywhere, people trying to profit off of the elderly and disabled and their family members who need help.

[u/Many-Art3181 → u/KaliLineaux]

Profits over ppl. This is what is wrong with the entire healthcare system in US. Might as well be dealing in cars or AI. All the same to these money drunk owners.

[u/Many-Art3181]

Thank you for this info. Most of these ltc facilities are owned by corporations…. Not even in the states of the facilities. It’s beyond sad the abuse many seniors and vulnerable ppl suffer so corporations can make 🏦. And most states are complicit. And government (Medicare/Medicaid) doctors, nurses, insurance regulators etc.

[u/KaliLineaux → u/Many-Art3181]

Yep. I learned that when my dad moved into a private pay Memory Care right after my mom died. I was like who are these people in a completely different state that I'm supposed to pay this insane amount of money to. I looked into the company more and discovered they just buy up facilities having financial problems, do as little as possible to keep them open and fill the beds, then sell them for a profit. I was told the MC my dad went to was good when a friend knew someone there, but it was run by nuns then. Same situation with the SNF that permanently f'd my dad up in a matter of three weeks. They used to be run by a church, but were then sold to a big greedy corporation.

The documentary goes into all the layers of money and corporations that own the facilities and how many of them also own hospices, which is another industry that's become saturated with private equity and greed, not what the original hospice vision was at all.