L.A. Hospitals Sent Homeless to Skid Row

[Wind Dancer]

LOS ANGELES - Three hospitals acknowledge putting discharged homeless patients into taxicabs and sending them to the downtown skid row area, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Representatives of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center said they were helping patients because skid row offers them their best chance of getting services and shelter.

Patients are sent to skid row only if they are healthy enough, the representatives said.

"One of the challenges is that there are very few places that will take patients coming out of the hospital, even when they are medically cleared," said Mehera Christian, a spokeswoman for Kaiser Permanente Metro Los Angeles. "There are just a scarce number of places in the community to assist our homeless."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051126/ap_on_re_us/hospitals_skid_row;_ylt=AvYF_gMToatxGkOxogn_D6Cs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

[rucky]

1. good for them for giving them a ride somewhere. n/t

[Spinzonner]

3. Surely you jest

It's a sad, filthy dumping ground for lost souls.

This is just a way for them to wash their hands clean of those people.

They make no attempt to send them to the missions or other entities in the skid row area.

It's not realistic to expect hospitals to fix soicieties ills and solve the skid row or homeless problem, but they don't deserve any praise for dumping them either.

[cornermouse]

2. Actually, I've been thinking about this.

The republican congress has made filing for bankruptcy all but impossible and "tightened" the laws which affect how seniors dispose of their remaining property in order to become eligible for medicaid.

This isn't quite here yet, but when the elderly become ill and sent to a nursing home, will the nursing home be more or less estimating or betting on how long that person will live and whether that person will have enough assets to cover the bills? Will they have to provide an inventory of their home, bank accounts and other saleable items?

And if the money does run out before they die, will the nursing home then keep them in the nursing home and take the loss of income until that person dies or will the nursing home call up the family and say "Come get your mother/father. They can't stay here any more." or if there is no family available will the nursing home simply put that person out on the street? After all, the elderly person won't own anything any more because the value of their possessions will have been absorbed by the costs of their care. Any further care would be a loss and corporations (most nursing homes are corporations) don't like losses. Just wondering if this is how its going to play out.

[Wind Dancer]

4. The way this country treats the elderly is shameful.

Don't you wonder how many of these homeless are veterans? We don't have a great track record for taking care of them either. We lost 58,000 in Vietnam and 55,000 committed suicide after returning home.

There is something very wrong with this picture.

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. Wow - that's almost a 1:1 ratio on deaths/suicides

.
.
.

And I believe it sadly enough . .

Actually - I believe it's probably higher, knowing the way the DoD disguises it's numbers

And then there's the raging vets that kill their friends/relatives

Simply put

MANY - Many too many servicemen realize that they were not protecting their country when they committed atrocities under orders - razing villages, women, children, all . . .

Or "nintendo pilots" sending deadly missiles from afar then seeing dismembered children as a result of their "patriotism" after they return home - -

Not much wonder the US gov't hates the reporters that take on-scene pictures/videos in their war zones . . .

Worse yet, the vets that return home with problems get treated with disrespect, and have to fight for any benefits they are entitled to, IF they have enough mental stability to go for it so to speak

Others - end up on the street - not a military problem anymore - just let the local police handle the murders, rapes, burglaries that result from people in desperation

USA will not survive in this mode, but the "Powers that Be" don't care - You can be sure that the wealthy have their havens located other than in the continental USA -

Aw gee !!

We already know that - called "offshore" sumthing ur 'ruther - right?

"Oil Barons" have survived - and will continue to do so

unless the sheeples wake up -

which I suspect they will not

cable TV and a case of beer seems to suffice for TOO many

(sigh)

[Wind Dancer]

14. It's a hearbreaking situation.

Our troops come home suffering from PTSD yet are put on a waiting list for treatment. How many of those vets turn to alcohol or drugs to deal with the pain that is being ignored by the "Powers that Be?"

We had several vets murder their wives shortly after returning home to Fayetteville from Afghanistan. Obviously, these men had serious problems that were ignored, pure and simple. Our vets are used and abused, it must stop.

It's impossible to even know how many suicides or crimes are committed by our returning soldiers because they can no longer deal with the atrocities and violence from war. They deserve better!

[sandnsea]

6. They already do that

First they look for long term care insurance. Then they look to income. If the income is low enough, they get Medicaid assistance. But you have to sign over your house to get it. Medicaid continues even if care costs more than the property. If income is too high for Medicaid, then they begin pressuring the family to sell the home or come up with payment somehow. If you run out of all avenues to pay for care, you can only hope your income isn't too high to qualify for Medicaid. I really don't know what they do if there's no assets and no Medicaid, once the patient has been admitted. In Texas, if you're on life support, there is a mechanism for the facility to let you die.

[Wise Doubter]

5. How kind of them ..

I spent 90 days at the Salvation Army Harbor Light Rehab Center in `98, which is on 5th street AKA The Nickel right in the thick of Skid Row. It is the most depressing sorry place a person could live. People fighting over cardboard boxes for shelter - fighting over trash cans to dig in, people sleeping right on the sidewalk - on street vents for heat, etc,etc.

I truly feel for anyone who has to live there under those conditions ! Especially the children - And, there are MANY of them.

Seeing those people suffering mad me sober up QUICK!

I hope the hospitals don`t think they are doing anyone they dump there a favor. The missions are full.

Consider seeing a movie called On The Nickel

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081277/

[Wind Dancer]

7. I'm sorry you had to deal with the ugly side.

Congratulations on getting clean. On The Nickel sounds like a brutal look at Skid Row, will see if I can find it.



:hug:

[leesa]

8. And where are the hospitals supposed to put them?

[Nomen Tuum]

10. Why are the "Right To Lifers" silent on this?

Where are the Pro-Lifers?

Why are they silent?

Isn't all life sacred to them?

Or are they hypocrites?

[Hekate]

12. Into the hands of faith-based (and untrained) social services -- right?

Yessirree -- those churches are just lining up to fill their basements with the homeless and sick and generally down and out.

Good-hearted church ladies whose specialty heretofore has been jello-molds and hot-dishes can surely minister to dual-diagnosis folks who talk to themselves and forget to bathe. And to sane people put out of the hospital with dressings and drains still attached. Jesus will make it all better.

Breaks the heart is what it does. :cry:

To give some churches credit where it is due, there are congregations who try to give shelter and parking space to the homeless, only to have their neighbors set up a howl and take them to the courts.

Here's an idea: why don't we have the whole country chip in a few bucks apiece each year to build halfway houses and hire doctors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists who are actually trained in the helping professions? They *could* be acting out of their personal faith, but it wouldn't be a requirement by any means. We could call the money, oh I don't know, maybe a "tax."

Hekate

[0007]

9. Where are the "Faith Based Organization" that junior said

would work wonders? Where are the Jerry Falwells and the Pat Robertsons? Oop no real money souls there to take save!

[davsand]

13. Aren't these hospitals the "faith based" charities that are there to help?

Is this the "compassionate conservative" way to help the indigent? Put them in a taxi?? I'd be willing to bet at least a couple of those hospitals enjoy exemption from property taxes, local taxes and federal taxes--yet THIS is how they support the community that supports them. It goes on ALL over the US--not just there.

This IS faith based charity in action folks--get used to it because THIS is the world they envision for us all.


Laura

[Wind Dancer]

15. This administration is trying to dismantle all social programs.

There is an informative documentary, "God in Government", that addresses the enormous amount of money being allocated to "faith-based" charities. Many of these places preach "hell and damnation" yet ignore messages of hope and forgiveness. The money is only going to Christian groups.

We need to restructure the social programs in order to help those in desperate need. As long as this administration is in power, we will continue to privatize and give the churches money. It's a scary situation that we can't ignore.

From the documentary:

"The film begins and ends in the United States, the only nation founded specifically on the principle of a clear separation between religion and state. Here, the debate over the implications of the First Amendment has continued for more than two hundred years. Today, with a self-proclaimed, “committed Christian” President advocating faith-based initiatives in the welfare system, a vocal Christian right seeking to influence domestic and foreign policy, and an increasingly diverse religious landscape, the debate about the appropriate role of religion in America’s public square has become more urgent than ever."

http://www.godingovernment.org/

[stepnw1f]

16. F*cking Evil

Call it what you all want to call... this is evil.

[RobinA]

17. Duh!!

This is not news, where do people think homeless patients go after the hospital? And psychiatric patients get discharged to shelters after they are stabilized all the time. And for these folks, "stable" is a relative term. The only advantage these people have is if they are sick enough (they usually are) they can get disability, which makes MA a lot easier to get. For the well homeless who have an acute medical problem, forget about it, get a job with benefits buddy, no MA for you.

[Wind Dancer]

18. It needs to be addressed.

These problems exist and will only get worse due to the policies of this administration. I consider it newsworthy.

:rant: