[speaker001:] 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 resort resort um I have a sister that is in nursing school and she's real interested in geriatrics
[speaker002:] well that sounds good
[speaker001:] 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
[speaker002:] I've heard the name and that's about all it goes
[speaker001:] 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
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] um you know they don't always have their full wits about them they're not completely up on what should be going on or what's not going on
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] and you know it's the type of thing that she was living down in Florida my families was up in Maryland
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and the other part of her family was up in uh New York state
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and you know it was very difficult for either of them or my grandfather to take care of her since she was um you know could not do very much for herself after the stroke
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and you know the nursing home was the you know best facility to put her in
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] which means it's you know very difficult for someone you essentially need to have someone taking care of the person full time
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and you know there's also a lot of medical problems that can't always be completely handled in home
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] which makes it you know it's a necessary evil I think
[speaker001:] um-hum it sure is and some of the really nice ones that really take care of their people are so expensive because because they can afford to hire the people that are really going to care for the older
[speaker002:] yeah 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
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] and other stuff that just very easily tends to disappear in the nursing homes
[speaker001:] right my grandfather passed away several years ago I was much younger but um he was in the nursing home the last several years of his life and someone visited him everyday my grandmother did but uh if she couldn't someone visited him every day it was in a very small town nursing home
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh people didn't get paid much there at all they didn't care about what went on
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] they would let a let a patient get a lot of bed sores
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] 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 forth forth any loving care for them
[speaker002:] either that or they're just so understaffed that they uh can't afford to put in the uh care that they need
[speaker001:] right right
[speaker002:] because it's you know an elderly person can you know it's like a newborn baby you need to have twenty four hour care
[speaker001:] um-hum right
[speaker002:] uh answering all the needs because they can't do much for themselves at certain points
[speaker001:] right and the nurses get so worn down
[speaker002:] 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
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and remember being able to do things for themselves which you know they no longer can
[speaker001:] oh sure and they feel
[speaker002:] and it very very hard for them to accept that
[speaker001:] they feel pretty helpless
[speaker002:] we just uh moved my grandfather into not a nursing home but you know a transitional type facility
[speaker001:] is it uh like a retirement center
[speaker002:] more of a retirement home he's got his own efficiency apartment and they provide one meal a day
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and you know the rest of the housekeeping and other meals a day are up to him but they do have you know group activities going on
[speaker001:] uh-huh how's he handling that
[speaker002:] uh he'd much rather be living alone in his apartment down in Florida
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh you know to move into that facility we moved him from Florida up to Maryland and
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] it's it's a bit of a shock to the system weatherwise if nothing else
[speaker001:] oh sure there wasn't anything like that that you could do in Florida
[speaker002:] well there was stuff like that in Florida but