Originally Posted by
Baa_Baa
Sadly my fathers experience and our family observations were very similar to what you describe, though not in Ryman I must say, but a non-listed aged care provider. It was not dire, but far from the standards we expected.
I think behind the scenes when you experience 'the system', the high needs care pathway to end-of-life is unfortunately often littered with less than perfect experiences. I am an age where I have many friends with parents having similar experiences, concerns and issues. Very very few have glowing reports. Regardless of provider, only those high needs 'residents' who have family support with the gumption to continuously challenge and hound the system have dependants (high needs residents) that are treated with respect, dignity and proper care they deserve. Heaven help the rest, albeit hopefully heaven is where they all end up.
Some might think this overly dramatic, though they perhaps have yet to experience the reality? The entry to elder care residential estates looks lovely in the brochures and for many is also in real life. Then on to residence care (like communal facilities), then low needs communal residence, then high needs (dementia and health generally), finally palliative care. The higher the need for care, the more fraught and likely is the exposure to substandard care and outcomes.
Anecdotal experiences are fraught I admit, however our experience with my father was very close to how Joshuatree describes it, similar to Rogers experience and nothing like Percy describes it (no disrespect). Sad but true.