interview question: forcing elderly into retirement home

[Guest med05]

Hi folks:

 

can anyone give some ideas on this question....

 

An elderly mother, who had just fallen and hurt herself but did not want to move into a retirement home. Her daughter who felt that her mother needed to move in order to be safe.... the daughter feels that the burden of caring for her mother would be too much....

 

what would you do as the mother's physician....

 

thanks

[Guest TimmyMax]

Refer to geriatrics and let them deal with it! :lol

[Guest canmic]

Now there's a way to torpedo your application

 

Actually, you refer it to the social worker and let THEM deal with it, cumon!

 

It's clearly a social issue and not a medical one!

 

Don't want to get the social workers union mad at you for asking someone else to do THEIR job now, do you?

[Guest endingsoon]

Remember to get OT/PT involved as well...not exactly sure why but everytime you have a problem like this they seem to be better at scaring people into compliance.

[Guest canmic]

In all seriousness, if the mother is medically OK (ie: doesn't require some sort of health care) and mentally OK (ie: isn't a danger to herself or others due to mental illness) then as her physician, your role is to stay out of family arguments.

 

Believe me, you do not want to get in the middle of this one, so handing it over to social services is probably the best way to go.

 

If you piss off either side in this argument, you won't be able to provide effective healthcare to the mother in the future, so stay the heck out of it.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I would go into Pediatrics.

 

(Actually, it is too late for me in family so I WILL deal with this. . . I'd probably have a team meeting with Social Work and all members of the family)

[Guest canmic]

And do you think that pediatrics doesn't have exactly the same problem?

 

Parents with children who are 'too much trouble' to take care of themselves, wanting them put in institutions...

 

Of course, we do have the insanity of the foster care system..

 

Suppose a family has a severely disabled child, so much so that SOMEONE has to take care of that child pretty much 7/24. Well, if one of the parents decides to stay home and do it, and not work, they don't get a penny, not even get a tax break.

 

BUT, if they put the kid in foster care, and a foster parent takes the kid in, the foster parent gets (different in each province, but in BC) about $3500 per month from the government for taking care of the kid.

 

Now, why doesn't the government give some of that $3500 to the parents to take care of the kid themselves? Good question...

 

(And you thought pediatrics would be the way out of the political stuff... :b )