Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm wondering what it will be like for autistic people as we age and maybe need residential care, will there be any provision for us? Will the cognitive tests for dementia be modified to accomodate us? I could well see a situation where I'm asked to do something and can't do it because I've never been able to do it and its not a sign of cognitive degeneration.
How will care homes cope with us? Will we be force fed ABBA or The Beatles because thats what some well meaning NT decides was popular in our youth? What if we want to listen to the Sex Pistols or the Clash, or Pink Floyd? I see older people in care homes and what they're made to put up with in terms of "activities", a steady diet of soaps would make me wish to to impaired to care, will we be able to watch re-runs of Game of Thrones? What about our need for personal space? I've heard that called "self isolating" by dementia nurses, it dosent' seem to occur to them that for many of us hell is other people.
I'll end my life as a tramp succumbing to hypothermia rather than live in a "care home"...
(I've had hypothermia in my early twnenties and after the uncomfortable bit passes, it seems like a fairly decent way to go).
I've considered jail as a more viable old age pension plan than a "home". (I'd steal someone important's aeroplane, and joy ride it for a while, to an airfield of my choosing). Probably visit a friend for a while, then hand myself in for a ride back home to face the music.. Oviously I'd do it again whilst out on probation to ensure a decent custodial stretch, as I've no prior form teh one offence might not be enough to ensure jail.
Happily, it now looks like I'll not need to resort to either..
My Gran refused to be in a 'Home'. She had her dying wishes, passing away in the family residence.
It was for the best.
It’s such a pity that our parents generation, although caught up in rebellion against our grandparents yet falling victim to all kinds of brainwashing and manipulation, failed to heed and act upon the warnings and predictions of our grandparents before they passed in the 80’s and they paid a terrible price in their own old age for their failure to do so, where being in a home and having their pensions taxed and means tested was only a small part of this, which our generation witnessed once long out of the confusion of our teens when our grandparents passed - I’d hazard a guess that in their own old age, our parents realised they had made a terrible mistake which they regretted before their own passing - the mantle of responsibility for acting in a proper manner now falls to our generation, especially if some of us happen to be parents ourselves and it is one of many harsh lessons that we have had to learn the hard way during Covid