[speaker001:] [Clicking].
[speaker002:] Okay. Uh, before a couple of years ago, I had a, a very narrow view of, of nursing homes and it was, uh, more like a funeral home. I always joked around about it being a funeral home and not really a nursing home. And, uh, then I had to do some volunteer work here in Tyler, Texas and I went to one and it just had a very good activities director. Everyone was cheerful and now I don't have such a bad view of nursing homes anymore. But I, I certainly wouldn't want to send my parent unless it was an absolute last re-, resort. Uh, I have a sister that is in nursing school and she's real interested in geriatrics.
[speaker001:] Well, that sounds good.
[speaker002:] Yeah. So, uh, she, she's real interested in, uh, what Ann Richards has been doing. She's, Ann Richards is really cracking down on, uh, the nursing homes and, I don't know, you wouldn't know anything about a Texas governor [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I've heard the name and that's about all it goes.
[speaker002:] Okay. Ann Richards is our governor in Texas and she's really cracking down on restrictions and what goes on in nursing homes. And, uh, my sister's real interested in that and, and getting into the, to that side of nursing.
[speaker001:] Yeah. That's one problem with the, the nursing home environment. It, the elderly, even out of the nursing home, are very open to abuse.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] Uh, you know, they don't always have their full wits about them.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] They're not completely up on what should be going on or what's not going on.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And it can be pretty sad. I've got a, had a grandmother who had a stroke. And she was in a nursing home for four or five years before she died.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] And, you know, it's the type of thing that she was living down in Florida. My in-, families was up in Maryland
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and the other part of her family was up in, uh, New York state.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] And, you know, it was very difficult for either them or my grandfather to take care of her since she was, uh, you know, could not do very much for herself after the stroke.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] And, you know, the nursing home was the, you know, best facility to put her in.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] You know, besides moving her up which is not a practical solution since both my parents work and both my, uh, aunts and uncle work.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] Which means it's, you know, very difficult for some-, you essentially need to have someone taking care of the person full-time.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] And, you know, there's also a lot of medical problems that can't always be completely handled in the home.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] Which makes it, you know, it's a necessary evil I think.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. It sure is. And some of the really nice ones that really take care of their people are so expensive. Because
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] cause they can afford to hire the people that are really going to care for the older.
[speaker001:] Yeah. And, you know, even there you have to watch out for, you know, you get one person who's a little bit dishonest working in there and, you know, the elderly sometimes have a lot of jewelry
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] and other stuff that just very easily tends to disappear in the nursing homes.
[speaker002:] Right. My grandfather passed away several years ago. I was much younger. But, uh, he was in the nursing home the last several years of his life and someone visited him every day. My grandmother did. But, uh, if she couldn't, someone visited him every day. It was in a very small town nursing home.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, uh, people didn't get paid much there at all. They didn't care about what went on.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] They would let a, let a patient get a lot of bed sores.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, uh, the, the people living in the nursing home would have all kinds of needs that wouldn't get met because they were just old people. And then, the nurses and doctors really didn't put any for, forth any loving care for them.
[speaker001:] Either that or they're just so understaffed that they can't afford
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] to put in the, uh, care that they need.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] Cause it's, you know, an elderly person can, you know, it's like a newborn baby. You need
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] to have twenty-four hour care
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] uh, answering all the needs cause they can't do much for themselves at certain points.
[speaker002:] Right. And nurses get so worn down.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh. And, you know, there's a lot of, number of the elderly are very, you know, complaining because they remember the way that things used to be.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] And remember being able to do things for themselves which, you know, they no longer can.
[speaker002:] Oh, sure. And they feel
[speaker001:] And it, very, very hard [mispronounced] for them to accept that.
[speaker002:] they feel pretty helpless.
[speaker001:] We just, uh, moved my grandfather into, not a nursing home but, you know, a transitional type facility.
[speaker002:] Is it, uh, like a retirement center?
[speaker001:] More of a retirement home. He's got his own efficiency apartment.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And they provide one meal a day.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, you know, the rest of the housekeeping and other meals a day are up to him.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But they do have, you know, group activities going on.
[speaker002:] How's he handling that?
[speaker001:] Uh, he'd much rather be living alone in his apartment down in Florida.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, you know, to move into that facility we moved him from Florida up to Maryland and
[speaker002:] Ooh.
[speaker001:] it's, it's a bit of a shock to the system, weather-wise, if nothing else.
[speaker002:] Oh, sure. There wasn't anything like that, that you could do in Florida?
[speaker001:] Well there was stuff like that in Florida but,