Care Home in Thailand

I have read about this care home before wintersday on the face of it things look good. However I would like to investigate more, what are the hospital facilities like, what happens if your needs change etc. I think it's owned by British people isn't it.

No. I wouldn't want to die in a different country

There are a lot of elderly people on permanent cruises. Some have their personal carers with them. The food, services and entertainment are top class, a doctor and nurses are always on board - and it's cheaper than residential care.

There was a programme about this on Radio 4 recently

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bc6nt6

Our eldest and wife live and work there. Eldest grandson (19) has his work placement there.
I wouldn't be opposed if it gets to that.

No, I cannot imagine anything worse. You would be in a far country where everything looks different, feels different, where the carers however kind and competent wouldn't be ableto share any moments of contact over tv programmes and common cultural links.

One of my family went into a very nice care home in the UK where all the staff were Phillipinas, they were lovely people but there was no one in the home who had any experience of our ways of living, how our family life was, education system and certainly knew nothing of tv programmes over the last 50 years.

I was glad that my relation needed to move to somewhere near his family where the carers were more mixed, with Philipinas, but also carers of different ethnicity, most of whom had spent their lives in the UK.

I think the whole idea is quite offensive, treating old people as so much lumber, to be farmed out to anywhere in the world that can look after them cheaply, without any consideration of their interests, family connections, where no-one can visit except at great expense - and what will happen when they die? Will their families have to pay to bring their bodies back to the UK for burial or will they be consigned to Thai crematorium for an anonymous cremation.

Hetty a lot of elderly people on permanent cruises? Really? How many? What proportion of all those in care? What is the source of your information.

Hetty a lot of elderly people on permanent cruises? Really? How many? What proportion of all those in care? What is the source of your information.

I was told this by a friend who spent a lot of time as an entertainer on cruise ships. He said exactly what Hetty said - that it was cheaper than a care home and more luxurious, and that a lot of people do it.

DH just told me about this.

I threatened to send him there if he doesn't turn over from the snooker.

Yes - but I would be near my dear family.

Thanks Doodledog. M0nica, I don't know exactly how many. A couple I know sometimes work as dance teachers on cruises - and get a free cruise.

I found this:

theweek.com/articles/837253/are-luxury-cruise-ships-new-retirement-homes

Grannybags

No. I wouldn't want to die in a different country

I understand what you are saying Grannybags. I think M0nica is right that there are too many differences to make you feel totally at peace with life in the final years.
There is security in familiarity, and that familiarity for me would be in my own country.

wintersday, why not if you have the right state of mind and attitude. I wouldn't because of family and granchildren- but if not, why not.

Very different for you Marmite if family there. But what happens if one day they decide to up sticks and return to UK, or go to another location?

I can’t work out how a cruise is cheaper than a care home. If an elderly person becomes so frail that they require residential care then that same person on a cruise would need to have at least two carers accompany them, so thats 3 fares to find. They would also have difficulty in getting any travel or medical insurance so if they did need to use medical services on the ship they would have to pay for it. I have known nurses who have worked on cruise ships and it is usually critical care nursing they provide until the patient can be lifted off the ship when it is near land and taken to hospital.

I read about a couple who'd taken up residence in a Travelodge room instead of a 'Home'. They said it was cheaper, with a restaurant, cleaning, laundry, heating, and everything on tap.
But I did wonder what they'd do when their money ran out (presumably they'd sold their home and were living on the proceeds) or if they fell really ill. T
hey wouldn't get council funding like they would if they were in a Home.

EDancer ok for them, perhaps, until they may find they're incapable of looking after themselves, then what, as you say?

Personally, can think of nothing more boring or dispiriting than living in a Travelodge hotel room for the rest of my days.
What do they do?

I wonder why my friends ex husband who took himself off to Thailand many many years ago comes home for medical treatment ? I m not sure what the medical facilities are like there Could elderly ill people manage the heat ?

Hetty is right my friend goes on cruises and told me about elderly people who book up for three or four cruises a year to avoid care homes they say it’s cheaper and they are well looked after I ve heard about this for years

Years and years ago when I worked in a hotel we had an elderly lady ‘live’ there shed got a warm room and well fed, beds changed no housework etc

Hetty - I heard the same thing years ago - 5* facilities on board ship: gym, tailored exercise, good food, lectures, entertainment, laundry, hair dressing, medical attention and if the worst happens - I think you can be buried at sea. A modest Care Home around here is £800 a week, so the cost probably balances out over the year, when some cruises are off peak.

Oh yes, a burial at sea, ashes or whatever.

I should write that in my List of Wishes.

You have to be fairly fit to go on a cruise.

It's all go!

Don’t agree calistemon my friend goes on Saga cruises and tells me how the wheelchairs and walking frames are left outside the dining room and how the man in the next cabin to her used to knock on the wall and she used to go and help him dress each morning he gave her a present at the end of the trip she seemed to find it all quite normal
She also told me that there are occasionally deaths on board
She herself is not that healthy

I’m not really brave enough to go abroad for a care home. How would you get out if it wasn’t as good as the brochures/ marketing said it was?
I would be more inclined to sell up now and buy a flat or bungalow in a retirement village. The one local to us is in 7 acres of grounds, has a social club and you can pay for care as your needs change.

All the cruises I have seen are about £1,000 for a week, plus all the extras. Not cheaper than a care home, and while they may be suitable if your problem is physical frailty, I doubt you could stay on board if you had dementia - and most care home residents have mental impairments of some sort.

I remember reading about the couple living in the Travel Lodge. But again they were not mentally impaired and did not require social care of any kind.

To my mind this plan smacks of old furnitutre being bunged away in the attic and forgotten about, out of sight, out of mind.

What would happen if a LocalAuthority gave a contract to send all those requiring residential care to Thailand because it was cheaper than keeping them in a care home in the UK

MOnica
Your comments on the Filipino care staff are spot on, and any other migrant staff.
As most of us know the tv is always on in the communal lounge. Some of the programs give a lot of laughs and pleasure to the residents. Given the time the care staff will join in with the laughs, but if your not British born you can’t possibly get it.
It’s the same with residents wanting to talk about local connections. Once again, migrant any migrant workers can’t relate.
I’ve posted on this very subject before and once again the R word was directed at me.