I spent much of today at the system’s geriatric campus. We have Thailand’s only accredited chronic care hospital and three nursing homes distributed and blending into a neighbourhood close by a public transit station so that family members can easily come and visit their relatives.
Like so much of the rest of the business, facilities are being upgraded so that the accommodation is best in class. I have to say that the facilities here make the ones ones I’ve seen in Toronto look a little shabby.
KNT is considered to be the country’s leader in geriatric care and we have a very strong bond with Thailand’s largest university, Chulalongkorn. We sponsor programming in the geriatrics department at the university where doctors, nurses, allied care providers and social workers are trained in many of the matters related to geriatric care, ranging from highly technical issues to social services.
I have a long and weird relationship with the old age part of the business here in Bangkok. For awhile, I was recognized on the street as Billboard Boy. I was the marketing picture slapped all over Bangkok touting the services offered at our geriatric facilities. Amazingly enough, years later, there are still a couple of the billboards still up, which is a bit strange. You’d think they’d find a new marketing pitch. Actually they have, but haven’t gotten around to changing every billboard yet. Fortunately, I am no longer on the website.
The slide show above shows some of the design features in our main nursing home. Along with the great facilities comes an awesome service that I’ve never seen anywhere in Toronto. I keep thinking that maybe we should move here in our very old age to take advantage of the great services, facilities and food.
Jimmy Carter rarely gets good reviews from the Tribe; however, he did say some important things, on occasion
One was an extension of his wife Rosalyn’s thinking when she wrote that now famous book on ‘caring for the caregiver’ (she became burnt out caring for her elderly grandfather, father and then Jimmy’s famous mom Lillian)
He said ‘Nations will some day be judged on how they treat their elderly’
I think Thailand both culturally and especially via extended care facilities like within K Hospital Group proves that the people of Thailand are well ahead of Carter’s and I believe eventual global thinking on elder care
Hard to believe that we have to house our elderly in the crappy places and have family shunted around with no respect, when we know we could do so much better and still understand budget constraints. Shame on us
Israel has a relatively good PSW system for elder care
Canada should adopt that model of 100% subsidy of caregivers in the home capping their income to control costs
They also recycle mobility devices paid for by the govt
Not here
They throw it away