THURROCK GP DR Emil Shehadeh, in his latest blog piece asks, quite simply: “Who cares?”
The garden was impeccably kept. Mr D’s daughter opened the door and led me to her bed-ridden father. The house was perfectly tidy and there were no offensive smells. Mrs D, in her 90’s, was well turned out. I attended to my patient and walked downstairs with Mrs D and her daughter. The daughter was covering for her mother for 2-3 hours every day, so that Mrs D could have some time of her own, just to keep sane. As I was leaving, my eyes caught sight of a black and white picture on the mantel piece showing Mrs D carrying her toddler daughter. The D’s also get some support from carers.
On the way back to the surgery I found myself reflecting. There’s a family who have not forsaken our Judaeo-Christian traditions and the ten commandments which say “ Honour your father and mother”. Mr and Mrs D carried their daughter, and now it is her turn to carry them. Honour is not just a word or even a feeling. It is a life of care for the parents who once cared for us. Parents, who gave up sleep and careers to raise us, deserve something back. It’s called care.
Care costs, the main expenditure being time and affection. Money is modern society’s way of measuring care. Michael Caine once said: “Save your money. You’re going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.”
Of course not all families are the same. Whilst some elderly people may have no family and may need the state to contribute, there are many families who look to the state to do their caring for them. The proportion of elderly people in our population has risen increasingly. Expectations have risen too. Yet the country can not afford to keep on increasing spending.”
The social care deficit has for so many years over-spilled into the NHS. The lack of adequate care has un-necessarily both generated un-necessary hospital admissions and prolonged them at a huge cost. This drains the NHS so that when those who should be caring for their parents need medical attention, they will have to wait longer for lack of beds and other resources, un-necessarily expended due to their abdication of responsibility towards their parents.
In this context, the cycle of life simply consist of 2 alternating roles: the cared-for and the carers; we are the cared-for when we are born and are young; in adulthood we care for our children, and grandparents; later on, also care our parents; when we reach old age, we hope to be cared for by our children and grandchildren. If those who could, accepted this natural cycle, the country would not have to cap costs.
The lesson of the good Samaritan is not only that the Samaritan stranger, out of the goodness of his heart, cared for the injured Jew, but that the injured man’s kinsmen walked by, leaving him to die. The kinsmen abdicated their responsibility of care.
We far too often look to the state to be our Good Samaritan. In a developed society, is it too much to ask ourselves: Do I really honour my father and mother?
Who cares?
A very wise man who uses words of wisdom. Unfortunately Society hand younger generations have made selfish attitudes. Yeh yer right, Who Cares?
The traditional family has been turned into a joke by those that despise it. Most know who they are. It has been replaced by the values these people proclaim to be righteous.
The all powerful state is now the best provider of care for the elderly and children. The burgeoning costs will grow ever larger driven by public and private sectors alike and backed by governments who will continue to hold the public to ransom through guilt.
All thanks once again to those that know best.
There is a lot of truth in what NoVoice has said.
Labour attacked anything that was traditional about this country as they sought to make everyone state dependant. That way it would help keep them in power. Never again did they want to be out of office for 18 years.
They also allowed the NHS to rack up excessive debts by building mega hospitals which no one could afford and creating a manager for every square foot of the new building.