Pensioners falling and freezing to death

[Frederick]

I was horrified by the report of the two pensioners who fell  outside their back doors and froze to death.  This link shows how this sort of incident can be prevented and local councils will help with installation... Community service clubs  I know will help out with getting people one of these .

 I dont know what happens in France  I have no knowledge of the system there ... I think keeping a mobile  phone on a cord round the neck would be the alternative   . I hate it when I read these reports as it is so preventable . 

http://www.winchester.gov.uk/Documents/Housing/CommunityAlarms/lifeline_leaflet.pdf

[DerekJ]

However, my dad used to have one of these and there were numerous times when we went round to him and found he had left it somewhere and wasn't wearing it. We constantly nagged him but we still couldn't rely on him wearing it.  Good idea though.

[Gardengirl]

It was terrible reading about those people, and brings back very bad memories for me. There are ways to help prevent such things happen, as you show in your link.

We had my mother in law fitted out with one of those alarms when she still lived in her home in the north, along with 2 visits daily by carers; she also had very good relatives and neighbours nearby. However, she often forgot to wear it, lost it etc. She also had one in the care home she moved to in Norwich, but by then she couldn’t bend her fingers to press it.

My father wouldn't even think about having one - he very independent and quite adamant about it. He lived in NE England, also had good neighbours, a warden living nearby and my brother just round the corner; he was found outside his house early one November morning, having lain outside in his beloved garden all night. He didn't regain consciousness, and died of pneumonia a few days later in hospital.

[KathyF]

The problem is getting them to wear the alarm, Frederick. My 86-year-old mother-in-law has an excellent alarm system, connected to a social care agency 24/7, but will she wear the bracelet with the panic button?  Not on your life! She says she doesn't like to wear it and her clothes have no pockets to carry it around with her, so she leaves it lying on the chest of drawers, completely negating the purpose of the system. At least her system has a an infra-red movement sensor which will trigger an alarm call if she doesn't pass it within a certain number of hours, but that wouldn' tbe much use if she were outside in the freezing cold all that time. A big problem for the family and friends of fiercely independent elderly people still living alone.

[Frederick]

Perhaps its time for a TV campaign to get the message over .. There are plenty of other things regarding accident prevention and better

health that are pressed on us . Why not this as well ?

[idun]

I think that a campaign is OTT to be honest, maybe a few words to the young who go out skimpily dressed would be better placed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1334135/As-Britain-shivers-Newcastle-girls-prove-theyre-frightened-snow.html

Death, it is a fact of life.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="idun"], maybe a few words to the young who go out skimpily dressed would be better placed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1334135/As-Britain-shivers-Newcastle-girls-prove-theyre-frightened-snow.html .[/quote]http://newsthump.com/2009/02/22/geordie-man-buys-coat/

Sorry about the levity in a serious thread but I could not resist, Idun.

[Gluestick]

The emergency call  monitoring systems connected to a Central Station, with 24/7/365 cover are excellent.

I know not why the inertia and mercury-based Tilt Switch modules we worked on back in 1980 have never caught on.

The user simply clips it their clothes: quite small, and no action necessary from the user. They can also have "Out-of-range" trip, where the wearer has gone into the garden and failed to return.

If they fall, then the device trips: there is a built-in lag to preclude false alerts. (They can be set to provide an audio-visual warning for some time, prior to automatically dialling the central station. In case the wearer forgot and laid down for a zizz, e.g.)

They have to wear the module of course, and that's one of the probs.

We had a system fitted for my late Mum in Law. Had to explain to her a few times that no, calling the central station 'cos her curtains were falling down was not the core concept!

She actually did!

Bless her.

[:)]

And before Pach appears, 24/7/365 or 24/7366 on Leap Years.

[Gardengirl]

I love that one, Cooperlola - I always laugh at it! Like many funny stories, it's based on truth; to get those in the NE going out for the evening into something warm is quite a feat! I was reading in the paper today that police are having a publicity campaign to try to get across the idea that it's cold enough to wear coats!

My OH was quite amazed the first few winters he came up north - young people out filling the streets on freezing cold nights, wearing just strappy dresses or short-sleeved shirts! What a thing to be young!  [:)]

Gluestick, on some of the occasions when my MIL wore her alarm, she apparently had very nice chats with the lovely woman on the other end!  [:D]

[cooperlola]

Yes, GG.  I wish that the 50% of me (the Northumbrian bit) were that resistant to cold!  Happily, because my grandfather worked in the local colliery, my father's family got free coal so at least they kept their homes warm enough for the softie Southern (Lancastrian) grand-daughter's visits.

[Gluestick]

[quote user="gardengirl "]

Gluestick, on some of the occasions when my MIL wore her alarm, she apparently had very nice chats with the lovely woman on the other end!  [:D]

[/quote]

My Mum in Law did that too, when she was bored!

We had to try and explain the definition of "Emergency" to her.

Such as "I've run out of eggs!" didn't score.

Or, perhaps (the best one)...........

"My son doesn't bother to phone me!"

 I had great respect for her and we were close: and Mrs G and I joke she is probably driving 'em mad up there!

"Where are my wings? I want a set just like that Gabrielle bloke I met last week!"

[:D]

[Chancer]

I still own a shell suit identical to the one bought by that Geordie!

Everyone around me here in France is as soft as sh te and really exaggerate (in he French sense) in September when it was 16 degrees outside the girl on the checkout in Intérmarché was wrapped in many layers terminating in a padded puffa jacket, a scarf covering the lower half of her face and a pair of woolen fingerless gloves.

Whenever I take part in a randonée or cycle ride people arrive totally inappropriately dressed (a few geordie lasses would be welcome though) dont warm up, take off as if they are racing for their life (none of these events are races) and within 15 minutes they are red faced and stripping off ever more layers to wear around their waists.

At my diving club we practice at the pool twice a week, this week almost everyone arrived wearing more clothes than I did at 5897 meters altitude and they have only walked 15 paces to and from their 4*4's, many of them also wore winter wet suits in the pool necessitating wearing lead weight belts as well because "c'et tellement froid!" I pointed out to them the water is at 30 degrees and the air temp 28 degrees as indeed it is every day of the year, twice that of my logement!

Our trip to Nemo33 at Brussels tomorow is cancelled because it is too cold, 33 degrees air and water temp sounds just fine to me at the moment "pour me rechauffer"

Today I spent the day helping out at the Lycée for the Telethon, OK some snow fell, it is winter after all, half the volunteer prof's did not come in, those that did left after lunchtime (they wouldnt turn down a free lunch woud they!) because of the road conditions which in fact were very good and had spent the morning agonising about it and asking all of our customers who had braved the conditions to come in and get their cars checked over and washed just how bad it was out there, trouble is none of them had come any distance, their engines werent even up to temperature.

[idun]

A friend of mine from Dorset visits her sister in Blaydon 'as in 'the races') quite frequently. Her son used to go out with his cousins and one winter's night, just as they were leaving, she was saying rather loudly to him that he had forgotten his jacket.

She said that he was stood almost still, eyes pleading for her to shut up and his head shaking a 'no' ever so slightly. So in mid winter off he went with his Geordie cousins in a thin cotton shirt, he survived.

That is the thing ofcourse, some do not.

I wish that I had photos of the girls in Durham City one mid winter when it was as cold as it currently is. Skimpily dressed they were, I'm sure my french friends would not have believed what they were seeing.

It is ofcourse serious, dying in the cold, but I think this idea that everyone should live for ever and everyone should be saved, from everything. It just feels 'un-natural' to me.

[tinabee]

[quote user="Frederick"]

I was horrified by the report of the two pensioners who fell  outside their back doors and froze to death.  This link shows how this sort of incident can be prevented and local councils will help with installation... Community service clubs  I know will help out with getting people one of these .

 I dont know what happens in France  I have no knowledge of the system there ... I think keeping a mobile  phone on a cord round the neck would be the alternative   . I hate it when I read these reports as it is so preventable . 

http://www.winchester.gov.uk/Documents/Housing/CommunityAlarms/lifeline_leaflet.pdf

[/quote]

 

available here in France (also seen them in the chemist)

www.senioralerte.com

[Frederick]

Many thanks for the link Tinabee.. Its more important to have one in some French rural communities .

[Skydigitalhd]

Really this is a very bad that two old people had to face such a very terrific situation.It shows careless attitude of the children toward their parents who earned their whole life to make their children something better  and in return what did they get.This is the situation across all over the world.It is not the fault of government but it is the responsibility of younger generation to take care of their agiing parents who need as much care as a infant need.So younger generation should take note of it.I wish nothing will happen like this in future.

[Russethouse]

Honestly Skydigitalhd..........do you have personal knowlege of these unfortunate people ? Do you know for certain that they even had children, let alone if they live nearby or even in this country

 

[idun]

Ah for goodness sake skydigital, I could no longer 'force' my 86 year old dad to do something he didn't want to do than I could fly.

[cooperlola]

I think Skydigital's motives are somewhat dubious anyway....

My mother knows her life expectancy is likely to be much longer if she doesn't live with me!  The idea that kids have a responsibility to look after their parents is totally ludicrous.  The parents chose to have the kids - not the other way about.[6]

[Gardengirl]

No more could we insist on my parents doing something they didn't want. Two weeks a year on holiday at our house in the 'soft south', to quote my father, was quite enough thankyou! Nor can I imagine wanting to move in with our sons - fur would really fly!  [:)]

[KathyF]

Don't agree with your premise, Coops, [:)] but, even though we feel a strong sense of responsibility to my darling MiL, she is adamant she doesn't want to live with us or either of her other two sons.  She was widowed quite early and has lived on her own for the past 28 years, and she doesn't plan to change that if she can help it.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="KathyF"]Don't agree with your premise, Coops, [:)] but, even though we feel a strong sense of responsibility to my darling MiL, she is adamant she doesn't want to live with us or either of her other two sons.  She was widowed quite early and has lived on her own for the past 28 years, and she doesn't plan to change that if she can help it.[/quote]Tell me, Kathy, do you expect your kids to support you when you are old?  If you don't have any kids (as it's not obvious from your post) who will take care of you if the premise is that it is the childrens' responsibility?  NB I am not having a dig at you in any way - I am really interested to know (having no kids myself and having always assumed that I would pay for me until I drop dead.)

[Pommier]

Hypothetically, what would you do if your mother developed Alzheimers or similar so that she couldn't stay in their own home?

I think I'd reluctantly have to have her live with me because care homes don't seem to be great in the UK or France (and they're blooming expensive!!).

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Pommier"]Hypothetically, what would you do if your mother developed Alzheimers or similar so that she couldn't stay in their own home?[/quote]Well, she has sorted things out for that eventuality herself.  Having said that, she's already 88 and not showing any signs yet!

[KathyF]

We have two children and three grandchildren, Coops. If you mean support financially, then no, not at all. We have enough to live on, and being reasonably frugal souls, we have adequate savings. However, if I were old and alone and unable to cope on my own any longer, I would hope they would care enough about my welfare to see that I am appropriately looked after. Not by them personally, I hasten to add, as I don't think that would work any better than having my MiL living with any of her sons. But that they would care enough to make arrangements for me if I were unable to make them for myself and go on caring enough to ensure that this care remained adequate and suitable.

At present my MiL lives independently, many miles from any of her sons.  However, as her memory starts to deteriorate gradually, they keep a watching brief on her affairs and help her out in all sorts of ways, some small, some bigger, but none of them financial.

All this seems to me to be absolutely unremarkable behaviour in the context of family life. No, I didn't ask my parents to have me, but I'm extremely glad they did and am still grateful for their love and care and support when I needed it.  Sadly, they are long dead, so that I can't repay them in their old age, but I can for my MiL and am glad to do it.  I rather hope my children will feel the same in their turn.