Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

Nikkster

Phew! One intrepid traveller safely arrived at Gatwick with time to spare Was very helpful to have somewhere to vent so thank you!

GDB2222

PN, I do have a business plan for you to earn £1,000,000 (or possibly quite a bit more). It is for a gadget that fills a gap in the market for looking after elderly folk. I also think that it is quite feasible using current technology.

All it consists of is 2 computers, both linked to broadband. One is in the living room of the elderly person – or where ever else they usually sit. The other is in say the kitchen of the carer, assuming that is a family member. Both computers have WebCams and microphones attached, and these are on 24 7, but with a privacy button. The carer will just have a laptop, probably. The elderly person's computer will be linked to their television set.

That helps to cope with some of the isolation felt by elderly people, as they can participate in the carer's family life. When the kids come in from school, they can say hello to grandma, etc.

The computer can be linked to alarms and even a medicine dispenser.

Best of all, it can probably be arranged quite easily using Skype, although you will need to have some arrangement to automate Skype.

lostinrates

Nikkster wrote: »

Phew! One intrepid traveller safely arrived at Gatwick with time to spare Was very helpful to have somewhere to vent so thank you!

Hurrah! Hope she has a nice time.

chewmylegoff

vivatifosi wrote: »

As things stand now, I have very little faith that the police are capable of solving crime. They certainly aren't structured in a way that's fit for purpose. This isn't even about cuts, it started before that. I don't have any sympathy for whatever happens anymore.

i agree with this. i think there are a couple of significant problems:

(i) the resources of the police are very stretched

(ii) the police contain, just like every other walk of life, a mixture of good, bad and indifferent people, probably in much the same ratio as any other workplace

(iii) if you're good, you want to get off the street and do something interesting / challenging / that makes a difference. therefore the ones that are left of the beat / to deal with minor incidents (which, no offence, is what random assault is when compared to other stuff - i've been there as the victim of random assault (when i was 17) and the outcome was exactly the same as yours). this is not to say that the murder squads are amazing, but i bet they are a whole lot better than the people who walk the streets.

(iv) the older police who do not get promoted and stay as commonal garden pcs get jaded. most people don't just do the same job for 30 years without getting really bored of it. if you aren't much good and end up stuck on the beat as a constable, you are pretty much going to hate it after a while. constantly dealing with the dregs of society. locking the same people up again and again only to see them again next month with a tag on their leg, breaking the law again. same !!!!!! every day, you probably stop caring. plus a lot of them do anything they can to get off the street, so you have loads of older police sitting in back office functions earning £40k a year doing admin work that could be done by a 16 year old office junior. when you've been in the police for 25 years, what else are you going to do, you can't get another job and need to stay in the police long enough to get your pension (this is only going to get worse if, as i think they are, they change the police pension scheme so you have to work 35 years to get it instead of 30).

(v) plus half of the police on the streets are just pretend police with no powers who cannot do anything.

GDB2222

Nikkster wrote: »

Phew! One intrepid traveller safely arrived at Gatwick with time to spare Was very helpful to have somewhere to vent so thank you!

Did the car company simply think that she did not need to leave so early, so decided they could spend an extra hour in bed, without considering the anxiety this would cause?

chewmylegoff

lostinrates wrote: »

Dear chew, do you put your kaftan on to read the relationship board?

absolutely, i put a wig on as well, and high heels, and speak in a high pitched voice, because if anyone who frequents that board notices that you are male they will really go for the jugular. a nest of bitter man-hating vipers, that place is!

GDB2222

chewmylegoff wrote: »

(iv) the older police who do not get promoted and stay as commonal garden pcs get jaded. most people don't just do the same job for 30 years without getting really bored of it. if you aren't much good and end up stuck on the beat as a constable, you are pretty much going to hate it after a while. constantly dealing with the dregs of society. locking the same people up again and again only to see them again next month with a tag on their leg, breaking the law again. same !!!!!! every day, you probably stop caring. plus a lot of them do anything they can to get off the street, so you have loads of older police sitting in back office functions earning £40k a year doing admin work that could be done by a 16 year old office junior. when you've been in the police for 25 years, what else are you going to do, you can't get another job and need to stay in the police long enough to get your pension (this is only going to get worse if, as i think they are, they change the police pension scheme so you have to work 35 years to get it instead of 30).

Really, the police force cannot afford to be this paternalistic. In most other occupations, the people who had lost all their interest in the work would be "shed". Is a shame, of course, but that is how society is changing.

Nikkster

GDB2222 wrote: »

Did the car company simply think that she did not need to leave so early, so decided they could spend an extra hour in bed, without considering the anxiety this would cause?

She doesn't sleep very well, especially the night before going away anyway. But yes, I would have liked another couple of hours lie in. Almost saw the solstice sunrise!

Apparently the driver got all the way to our town, before the other traveller they had already picked up decided that they were supposed to be picking up her friend so they turned back. Now, I would have thought that the driver would have checked this with the office, but perhaps that's too sensible. Turns out these other two ladies are on the same 2 week trip... :eek:

chewmylegoff

GDB2222 wrote: »

Really, the police force cannot afford to be this paternalistic. In most other occupations, the people who had lost all their interest in the work would be "shed". Is a shame, of course, but that is how society is changing.

oh i absolutely agree. i'm not sure how you fix this really though, as it's going to be pretty tricky to sack them all. i was thinking about maybe having some sort of arrangement whereby police can sign up for shorter "tours of duty" as it were, so you sign up initially for 10 years and then if you haven't made it to DC or sergeant or something you get moved on. however, if you want to set that up, then there would need to be something to help people get a job elsewhere when they finish - a bit like if you go into e.g. the RAF as groundstaff you learn a trade which could be applied in the civilian world as well as the military. not quite sure what that would be in the police, but if you just start dumping people forceably and their rendered unemployable elsewhere, it will mean that the standard of staff you're able to recruit will probably go down the pan, making things worse not better.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

PN, I do have a business plan for you to earn £1,000,000 (or possibly quite a bit more). It is for a gadget that fills a gap in the market for looking after elderly folk. I also think that it is quite feasible using current technology.

All it consists of is 2 computers, both linked to broadband. One is in the living room of the elderly person – or where ever else they usually sit. The other is in say the kitchen of the carer, assuming that is a family member. Both computers have WebCams and microphones attached, and these are on 24 7, but with a privacy button. The carer will just have a laptop, probably. The elderly person's computer will be linked to their television set.

That helps to cope with some of the isolation felt by elderly people, as they can participate in the carer's family life. When the kids come in from school, they can say hello to grandma, etc.

The computer can be linked to alarms and even a medicine dispenser.

Best of all, it can probably be arranged quite easily using Skype, although you will need to have some arrangement to automate Skype.

I did consider doing this early on in the process, but once you're dealing with the elderly there's a whole new set of rules you never expected.

The reality is that unless the elderly person is willing, able, engaged, not 4rsey, then it's possible. For others, there's a combination of:
- elderly fiddling with it
- elderly knocking it/spilling things on it
- elderly becoming paranoid that "they are watching me"
- elderly not really understanding
- having to get an internet connection and a PC and a webcam into the room, somewhere, at a time when you're minimising/decluttering and ensuring that there are no cables to trip on and that it reaches a power socket and won't get unplugged every time they want a lamp on or Terry Wogan.



Once elderly, with some dementia, ..... they get locked into bizarre behaviours, they're unpredictable, paranoid, awkward, demanding, stroppy... and will dig their heels in