coerced treatment

[Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema]

I also do some work part-time for a home-care agency under what, in New York
State is called the Lombardy Program. It offers, under Medicaid, up to 42
hours weekly home health aide service with a more frequent RN service than
other home attendant programs. It's good for people who can get up and walk,
but who need help with shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc. A lot of elderly
diabetics use this because they need a lot of nursing observation. Diabetes
is not, of course, a disease exclusively of poor people, but it tends to
affect people whose diet approximates the one many low-income people are
reduced to a lot of the time. (Partly also, a cultural issue of diet and not
a purely material one.). This is a good example of sound home care,
introduced mostly to make it possible for the large number of people with
certain kinds of medical issues to avoid going into nursing homes.
Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:


> >  > >Segregation is the historical reality for disabled persons, and not
> >>  >coincidentally the proliferation of institutions coincides with the
> >>  >rise of capitalism.
> >>  >Marta
> >>
> >>  That makes sense, but in that case, our argument would be _for_ home
> >>  care necessary for assisted living, directly or indirectly provided
> >>  by the state, & improvement of it for both disabled persons &
> >>  care-giving workers.  Clarifying what disabled persons & care-giving
> >>  workers need helps us better than a broad-brush criticism of the
> >>  medical profession tout court.
> >>
> >>  Yoshie
> >========
> >Ah, but we've just displaced the coercion; for we are saying that some
> >'home' must assume responsibility/liability  for the care of disabled
> >citizens and this becomes problematic if said citizens are nonetheless
> >capable of exercising their liberty to refuse treatment and shelter.
> >
> >Ian
>
> By home care I don't mean that the disabled will be taken care of by
> their family members.  Most likely, many adult disabled individuals
> desire to live independently -- alone or with friends or with
> partners -- of their family members, just as many adult non-disabled
> individuals do so.
>
> If you have an alternative in your mind, you might tell us.
>
> Yoshie