Here in Oz it is getting more & more that way. Have a chat with @Puff & the problems that he was having with his father.
I have a 96 yo mate who was hospitalised 7 months ago. He was found after 3 days by his cleaner by which time he had a bed sore on his bum to the bone & pneumonia. He lived alone, still had a full driving license & did his own shopping & house management, albeit recently with the weekly cleaner's & a niece & grand niece's visits. In the first 5 months they did nothing to get him up & walking, treated the pneumonia but continued to call him demented. He was probably delirious when first admitted. He still fluently speaks 5 languages & can converse in some others sufficiently to watch the news. In order to talk with him I have to book a phone call the previous day. Half the time they don't bother to make the calls to me.
When he was first hospitalised I had to write to his MP to try & get improvement for him. At least his ingrowing toe nails were treated by a specially imported podiatrist two days later as I pointed out this is one of the fastest ways to give someone gangrene.
I have now been told to not bother making representations as an adopted daughter of his 2nd now divorced wife has been lent on to say that he is being properly treated. I think that she has visited him twice but never phones so how does she know.
He grew up under Nazi occupation of his birth country, Holland but after that government reneged on the contract that saw him volunteer as a mercenary to try to regain the Dutch East Indies until they got a regular army out there resulted in him leaving for good.. According to him, when they did the regulars committed all sorts of atrocities that were then blamed on the mercenaries. He returned only long enough to recover his wages that had been stolen by his father, leaving to study in Paris then migrate as a high school teacher to NZ followed by Australia.

@FrayedBear In my case Queensland Health were making the directives. I won't miss the place. If the situation now, or past 2 years, had been around when my Dad first entered 3 years ago, I dare say he wouldn't have been in there.
You know there is something wrong when a facility has 9 managers in 3 years, 3 managers in a matter of weeks.
And Joe, in the end that was they option if we failed to gain access, get him out which would have been totally distressing on all. The staff were great, management no so.

@puff In the States, private nursing homes aren't free. They basically steal people's life savings and when the money runs out they put them in a low income public facility and take their social security monthly plus a subsidy from govt. I wouldn't let my mom stay in that hellhole so I signed her out. I couldn't afford $10K/mo to put her in a private home so I moved her in with me. I basically quit my job and took care of her until she passed away in 2013. She was happy and I put up with her dementia which got really bad. So if Australia provides elder care for their citizens, it may be better than here. I know NHS does in the UK.

@FrayedBear I'm sorry your friend is being forgotten by his daughter. I assume she's older as well. Life is hard on all of us and it sounds like this man led a long but hard life. 96 is pretty old, it doesn't mean he shouldn't have quality of life.

@barjoe It's a weird system here. If broke the government will get you in a home (not perfect, waiting lists) with the home grabbing the pension. If "rich", home wants a percentage of your assets plus your pension but if you don't want that, can pay a day rate. One guy in there was paying over $3000/ week as it was cheaper for him doing it that way than having them taking a percentage of his and his wife's wealth (his wife was in there, not him}. She died, but was like that a good 2 years eg lot of money when others pay nothing..
It's a bit messed up, they do look after all like the UK's NHS, so if you do end up in a nursing home you are better off blowing all your money first otherwise the buggers steal it. No incentive to save for old age with that policy, but no-one plans to end up in a nursing home either. Was a big wake up call for me personally.

@puff Same as in the States. My mom was sort of supporting herself, Her Social Security was $2K/mo that paid her Medicare and supplemental insurance and her meds. I hired caregivers out of her soc, to help out because I couldn't leave her alone and there were times I had to leave the house. I had to rent a stair lift and a hospital bed. Her care was a lot better from me and the girls we hired, than at that place. I cooked, cleaned, bathed her, towards the end changed her diapers. The best thing I've ever done. I don't mind. She took care of me a lot longer than I had to care for her.

@puff where are you now? Tassie?

@FrayedBear Qld

@puff I thought you said you moved states above. Have I misread\ misunderstood "I won't miss the place."? Are you still frying fish & chips then?

@FrayedBear I won't miss going to that nursing home I meant