Letters - March 20

letter writers | Mar 19, 2014

Elder Abuse

This letter is in regards to Elder Abuse. We’ve all been told about elder abuse in nursing homes, senior homes and even in their own homes. Nothing is ever said about financial abuse of our elderly in hospitals or by transfer services.

Did you know that the elderly are charged nursing home fees for their stay in a hospital when the hospital deems that they are no longer in need of hospital care or are on the list for a nursing home? If they don’t want to go to a nursing home, they are told they have to, that they cannot look after themselves in their own homes. They are brow beaten and coerced into going into a nursing home unless they can prove that they would have 24-hour care in their home, which they would have to pay for out of their own pocket except for four hours of home care per day.

The other problem is the transfer services. They charge outlandish prices for transfers (on a stretcher) from nursing homes to appointments; for instance, a trip to Ottawa is approximately $2600 plus waiting time; a trip to Kingston is $800 plus waiting time.

Our elderly live on fixed incomes – CPP and OAS, most of which is paid to a nursing home, where they are forced to live. They are forced to sell their homes - if they have a home to sell, give up their pets and their familiar surroundings to live in a place they do not want to live in. The elderly spend most of their days worrying about how they will pay these outlandish prices and some just refuse to go to their appointments because the truth is they cannot afford to pay these prices.

I think something should be done about this injustice being done to our seniors. I don’t know in good conscience how anyone can inflict this horrific financial abuse on our elderly, and believe me, it is financial abuse, according to everyone who has an elderly relative that they love and care for. These people have led productive lives. They had children, jobs, homes, friends, etc. They have been a big part of our history and this is the way they are being treated and cheated.

Shame, shame on you!

Brenda Boomhower

Re: Marriage and the Charter

March 13, 2014 issue has the same boring attacks, mostly wrong, and presupposed on errant projections, against Scott Reid that are a mainstay of your paper, the most silly being a comment, "does thousands wronged make one right" which in the context of most past liberal governments, both provincial and federal, would ring true.

Yet one Ian Whillans (Letters, Frontenac News, Mar 13/14) who unjustly attacks Jule Koch's reasoned commentary, has raised my curiosity several notches. He says, "The Bible that I have read and have done research on...", then goes on to talk about God as "he/she." Huh?

In my 63 years of life on this wretched planet and my own studies in the Holy Bible I have never seen anywhere that God therein is referred to as anything but in the masculine sense.

I am really excited though about this Mr. Whillans because if you can't show me where, I will be calling you with an offer to go 50/50 about your error and maybe with that as a base, we can start a new disorganized religion that we could make a fortune from. False religions that number "globally" and political correctness among them seem to be making a pile of money, and if David Suzuki and Al Gore can become idols that the misinformed masses make idols of, surely lil ole me and you can aspire to such similar heights and become millionaires in the process.

Edward Kennedy