Caring for the Elderly Ill

In Holland, government really knows how to look after their own. It is a small nation, a limited geography and just under 17 million people. The Netherlands, like its close Western European cousins, has a social conscience. An advanced, liberal-democracy, it is also a relatively wealthy country. But the Dutch are also very practical people. And now elderly, chronically ill or disabled people in Holland will be informed that they are respected as still-socially functional despite age and/or illness.

And because their capabilities, experience and functionality are respected in their country, they should prepare to aid the country in looking after their very own needs. After all, responsible individuals work to gain a living to be enabled to look after their fundamental human needs. Why should it be any different or the need diminished for the elderly and the ill? They are still capable of offering services, and indeed in so doing their pride is re-established.

Henceforth voluntary work will be expected by the elderly in return for their social care. Plans are underway to overhaul the Netherlands' welfare system. Drafted by the Dutch health minister, recipients of social care are to be "urgently requested" to perform voluntary work, to perform worthwhile social tasks useful to themselves and by extension the greater society in return for the benefits they enjoy.

"Loneliness could perhaps be overcome if the elderly helped pre-school children with language impairments improve their reading" reads the draft legislation, according to the Volkskrant newspaper. The unemployed can be obliged to perform community service for their welfare payments while the elderly, disabled, chronically ill cannot be forced, but they most certainly can be "urgently requested" to acquiesce.

All is not as it seems, however, spokespeople for the elderly like the director of ANBO, a Dutch seniors' organization said "I think everyone wants to be useful, inform or not", welcoming the proposals. Interestingly statistics have been released informing that now one in 30 deaths in Holland are a result of euthanasia.

The Dutch government has obligingly permitted mobile death squads to legally aid sick and elderly people to welcome death within their own homes. Euthanasia deaths have soared by 13% in 2012, compared to the year before. In 2011 3,695 deaths took place in Holland by euthanasia, increasing to 4,188 deaths accounting for 3% of all deaths the following year. No figures yet available for 2013.


What's the new national logo? Go, already!...?

One way trip: Euthanasia in the Netherlands is carried out by a doctor administering a strong sedative to put the patient in a coma, followed by a drug to stop breathing and cause death