[speaker001:] [Clicking].
[speaker002:] Well, Julie, uh, are you in a situation where you'd soon need to deal with, uh, special care for elderly?
[speaker001:] Well, I don't know. My grandfather is ninety-two years old.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And he is still living by himself. My grandmother died a couple of years ago [mispronounced]. But he doesn't want to, to move away. He lives in a little farmhouse on a farm.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And he recently had to have an operation but he just really doesn't want to go to a nursing home.
[speaker002:] Is he able to, uh, still do everything himself pretty well?
[speaker001:] Well, he was until this operation. He has arthritis.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] And now I don't really think he's doing that well. And my, a lot of my aunts and uncles live near him. And I have one aunt that really looks after him a lot.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] But, uh, my great-grandfather was put in a nursing home when he was a hundred and three.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, died six weeks after they put him in the home.
[speaker002:] Yeah. And I'm sure that kind of thing would influence your f-, grandfather's feelings. Because, uh, [lipsmack] I th-, you know, I think for a lot of people it really is the decision of, [pause] do they still have some of their life left. And
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, for, for, I'm sure, a lot of people going into a nursing home it's like saying my life is over and I'm just here for the rest of the stay [door]. And so I, you know, [sigh] I guess most of the time when I think about somebody going into a nursing home, [swallowing] it's more a case of where they are not able to look after their day-to-day needs. Yeah
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] they have can look after a lot of things but there's some of the day-to-day needs that they just are not able to deal with physically anymore. Uh, I know my, none of my grandparents were in a nursing home. They generally [sigh] were able to have someone care for them at home and they died [cough] [in background]. But they were all, goodness, younger than your grandparents [LAUGHTER]. Like they were in their eighties. That type of thing [lipsmack]. Uh, [lipsmack] but I did, uh, you know, I guess, uh, when I think nursing home I do think of people that are not able to do, take care of themselves physically. Uh [sigh],
[speaker001:] But I just don't think that nursing homes really do a very good job.
[speaker002:] [Inhaling] And that's, that's difficult part. Because I think what they often get used as is, uh, almost like a very high level or long-term care for, uh, similar to a hospital.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] [Inhaling] Uh, I know, like here in Saskatchewan, we have our [lipsmack] hospital care [NOISE] the care actually for the older people graded in level, in four levels. And a level four type of care would be someone that really requires long-term hospital care. Generally are not able to look after this-, themselves to very, to a very great extent, physically [inhaling]. Often times they even have mental difficulty with senility or Alzheimer's Disease [cough] [background] or those or, or physical and mental handicaps. Uh, you know, where they really require [swallowing] twenty-four hour supervision of some kind [NOISE]. Even though
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] it may be minimal [inhaling]. And, uh, [sigh] [clanging] but I think that it can be helpful in that, uh, it gets people the level of physical care they need. Uh,
[speaker001:] But I don't, I mean at least, I mean I think some nursing homes do that. But I think a lot of nursing homes really, uh, are guilty of neglect.
[speaker002:] [Clicking] Yeah. I th-, and I think it happens more in areas where it's, uh, [lipsmack] I guess, uh, a broad social medical system [cough] [background] where, uh, you know, there's government medical care and that kind of thing. If it's the lot where it's funded by the individuals [lipsmack] and, and I guess that's sort of my lack of understanding. I think that a majority of the places in the U S, uh, you know, there is some government aid available, but the majority of it is to the availability of the individual to pay [sigh] [clicking].
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, uh, if you're not able to look after yourself, then you have to rely,