Guy found dead in bed years later, how can this change?

[Zebra]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/03/world/main2059369.shtml

So I heard this on Radio 2 and it isn't the first and surely won't be the last. Much as the new systems in place are very convenient, surely we, the human race, can do better than this?

[nigsmig]

social isolation rocks! any advance on four years?

you never know, there could be a corpse slowly decomposing in your neighbourhood.

[Thunzi]

What would you suggest Zebra? I'm really trying not to sound horrible here but he lived as a recluse and had little or no contact with the outside world. It is unfortunate that this has happened and will no doubt happen again, but no one missed him. Is that societies fault, or his fault?

[Twiglet]

It is very sad but remarkably common. If that happened to someone here and they were under the care of social services or other agency, there would be some serious questions to ask. However as that story demonstrated, in todays society of direct debits and the internet, where you don't need to come into contact with any people, if you choose to shut yourself off from society then you sadly aren't missed and no-one is to know if something happens to you.

[troyhark]

It says that the dead man was 93 years old.

But if he died 4 years ago he was 89 when he died and you don't normally get older when you die or do you?!

[Thunzi]

It says the remains of a 93 year old man were discovered, which I'd say means he was 93 years old when he died 4 years ago.

[troyhark]

So is he 97 then?

[Thunzi]

No, he's still 93, as you already said you don't get any older once you've died.

[Zebra]

Well technically your remains do age, but that's being pedantic...

Anyway, although he was a recluse, what about the other guy who was reported, was it New York(?), he'd been dead ages too and he wasn't a recluse.

Then there was a woman in the UK, a history of being suicidal and an immediate history of making threats upon her own life, she was found 9 months later on her living room floor.

Surely people like that should be checked upon or have to attend somewhere in order to continue getting benefit or medication or something. With the old guy - again surely there could be a computer programme which could identify if a person has been out of general circulation, maybe police linked which can report use of cash cards, ID cards, docs visits and other memberships. Not to spy, just to raise an alarm if a person seems to disappear off the system.

[Thunzi]

Surely people like that should be checked upon or have to attend somewhere in order to continue getting benefit or medication or something. With the old guy - again surely there could be a computer programme which could identify if a person has been out of general circulation, maybe police linked which can report use of cash cards, ID cards, docs visits and other memberships. Not to spy, just to raise an alarm if a person seems to disappear off the system.

That is why there is such a big fuss about ID cards. Eventually they'd be used for everything and agencies would be able to trace where you were and when. A lot of people don't want that level of information to be available.

 

I can understand your frustration with the way things work, it annoys me as well but nothing can really be done unless they are willing to help themselves in the first place. I know of a case where an old lady was rescued as the milkman saw that the milk hadn't been collected for three days, that probably happens more times than I care to think about.