Estonian Progress

BarbC

BarbC

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
3,886
Reaction score
531
City & State/Province
Central FL
We are starting to make a bit of progress with the Estonian government officials regarding the state of home health care at the local level. We actually received a written apology from the local social department for the utter ineptitude and lack of training displayed by one particular aide and they assured us that she would not be back (which made us worry about where she was going to be next assigned). Meanwhile, we are in contact with the patient's advocacy group and the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry head of services for the elderly and people with disabilities. The local level has yet to respond to my email concerning the quality of the home health care performance but they have 30 days in which to answer. This would be nice because they have a history of not responding to anybody's complaints.


The state of affairs is so deplorable that here is another example: It took several weeks to have my friend's mother moved to a nursing home, despite her completely failing health and dangerous dementia. Once placed, the center began demanding more money than originally contracted. They called and emailed every day, dunning him for extra money. Meanwhile, his mother was moved to a hospital, without his knowledge; underwent an operation, without his knowledge; lingered for two days, without his knowledge; and died, and they stlil didn't tell him. She had been dead two days before he found out from a family friend who went to go visit her and she wasn't there.

So he never got to go see her and say goodbye. There was no apology from them either.

I am hoping that the good people at the state level are able to pressure the local level into responsiveness and action. This week's results were slightly encouraging.
 
Sounds like quite a challenge. Good for you for taking it on.
 
keep your chin up barb and don’t let the turkeys get you down. Your efforts are noble and your perseverance shall be rewarded.
 
God Bless you, Barb - the citizens of Estonia have gone thru hard times which we cannot even imagine. It will take many more years till the govt. comes into the 21st Century. 60 years of Communism will be difficult to overcome. Had the good fortune to stay at a hotel in Maine a few years ago, all the staff in the housekeeping dept. were from Estonia. Hardworking, and wonderful folks. It was a pleasure to be around them all.
 
Hi Barb,
Good to hear from you! Was wondering about you yesterday and forgot to email ya.
I take it you missed the July return date? :D
 
How in the world did you wind up in Estonia? Where is that exactly; some where in Russia?

Sounds like you have challenges enough to keep you busy. Take care of yourself while you are making Estonia a better place!

Out
West
 
Bless you Barb for shouldering a tremendous load.

And No, Estonia isn't in Russia. It used to be until the three Baltic Republics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) got their independence when the Soviet Union broke up.I doubt Russia left much behind them when they left, so things could be really bad in Estonia.
 
Last edited:
It's starting to get cold here. We're right below Finland and even took the overnight ferry over to Stockholm for the day. The photo below is of a friend and I picking wild mushrooms in the seaside town of Narva-Joesuu a couple of months ago. The water was warm enough to wade in until you got to the drop-off where it was deep enough to swim, but there it was ice cold. The mushrooms are excellent. You need to peel the top layer off before cooking and they're a real delicacy.

005.JPG


This is the latest email from the Patient's Advocate. It makes one wonder just how frustrating the system really is when she's asking ME for advice on what to do next:

Thank you for the information and for keeping us informed about development of the issue.​

We have done some cooperation in international level as you suggest, but as concerns European Union we have understood that EU's emphasise when they speak about patient safety is more on preventing infectious deseases and to keep workplases safe. Therefore we have found not much connection with EU.​

When you read the Council Rec. on patient safety you see that it speaks about patient safety in context of " healthcare associated infections ". It means that the term of "patient safety" is very narrowly formulated by EU. However I realize that there is an attempt in EU to make the term "patient safety" more wider as they see also some other things: There are many causes of adverse events besides hospital infections: unsafe devices, prescribing errors, contaminated blood etc.If it is possible to speak about the safety of community based services in this context - that would be good but probably legally not binded.
We hope more help from the new directive about cross-border health care that is recently adopted by EU: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:088:0045:0065:EN:PDF and from the Fundamental Rights Agency (that is a new body under EU). We have worked with those initiatives during recent years.​



We have also done some cooperation with United Nations and Council of Europe since 1997 but unfortunately Estonian government tend to ignore them because those organisations cannot use monetary influence to pressure Estonia. All the reports and preceptions are taken as "suggestions" by Estonia that they may or may not to follow.
You suggested public exposure and peer pressure - that might really work beacuse Estonian politicians do not want negative attention. Do you have already some ideas about how to do this ? We do not have much experience in organising such activites internationally.​


My idea is to take it to the press and let them do an expose on it. Also, they need advocates on the city council or at the very least attending all meetings and insisting on putting the issue on each agenda. There is too much denial at the government level in an effort to appear to be doing their jobs and not wasting taxpayer money through bloated salaries, kickbacks and cronyism. The more people aware, the better the chance for change.

Anyone else have any ideas?
 
Last edited:
How about you write up an op-ed piece and see if you can get it published in the NYT? If they won't publish it, maybe you can use it to generate interest in reporting on the issue by sending it to various journalists or editors. Or get it published elsewhere. The NYT writer Nicholas Kristoff often writes about humanitarian issues in foreign, poorer countries... He has a blog, I think, and maybe you could solicit his advice.

I think weaving your own story into the article, how you did.. managed care for the elderly in the US, and now are in Estonia and here's what's going on, hitting your issues hard. I think it would be an interesting read, and generate support. I think your being in the story would help readers identify with it.

Also, maybe visit the local US Embassy or consulate and ask advice. They might put you on to new NGOs.
 
Barb, I know you have some serious stuff going on over there, but your photo raises a totally unrelated question. Do you normally drink Carlsberg lager using a straw? :D
 
You guys have sharp eyes. My friend, who is not in the picture, is a quadriplegic so yes, he drinks through a straw. :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

LVSteve
Observations on recent Progressive Insurance ads
2 3
Replies
77
Views
2K
rwsmith
rwsmith
6string
Went to the range. Got a kitten!
2
Replies
40
Views
2K
X62503
X62503
S
It's all just stuff...
2 3 4
Replies
91
Views
7K
rpv-ak
R
olfart
A Few More Tales from the East Texas Outback
Replies
1
Views
865
Buford57
Buford57
B
Memorial Day 2025
Replies
22
Views
2K
old bear
old bear

Latest posts

Back
Top