Wednesday, February 25, 2015

“I’d Step in Front of a Freight Train for Her.”

Those words were uttered by a woman as I spoke with her by phone recently.  This woman, whom I’ll call Jean, was addressing her conviction that we all need advocates to get through life well. She talked about her own advocacy in companioning her mother through the later years of her life as she battled dementia and faced ever-increasing need for supportive services.

And now Jean’s good friend, for whom she would ‘step in front of a freight train', is herself in a nursing home. Jean is a good role model for all of us.  Part of loving our neighbor as ourselves – one of the two great commandments – is being the advocate for our neighbor when he/she is more frail, more vulnerable, more marginalized and thus more dependent on another for his/her voice to be heard and honored. The advocate is the voice that demands:
       “I’m in charge of my own life.” 
       “I want choice to be a part of my day regardless of my mailing address.”
   “My life in a nursing home must be about more than safety and physical care. Rather, my life must be about purpose and meaning, about relationships, about beauty. All these aspects of life call from within to be present, honored and active regardless of one’s mailing address.” 
   “Moving to a nursing home should not feel like an imposition of a life sentence.”

Thank you, Jean, and all of you “Jeans” around the globe who hear that moral call of responsibility for the dear neighbor.

For whom are you called to be the advocate, to be the voice for the voiceless?  Who will be there for you when and if you need an advocate, a voice for you when you cannot speak?




Tuesday, February 10, 2015

BEING MORTAL Documentary on PBS TONIGHT



I have reviewed this excellent book recently on this blog. I received an email just this morning that a documentary has been produced and is being shown TONIGHT February 10th on FRONTLINE, PBS,

This is a succinct statement of the book of the same name by Atul Gawande, MD and the Frontline documentary. “The true challenge is combining all our medical knowledge and skills with the art of communication, to allow our patients to choose how they want to live—all the way to the end.” (emphasis mine)

Check your local PBS station for exact scheduling.  If you miss the live TV program, you can watch this and many other Frontline programs by going to the website here

Friday, February 6, 2015

The Morning Report

Do you remember that musical piece from The Lion King? I don’t have the talent for making my ‘morning report’ rhyme, but my reading this morning from news articles I get as a member of Leading Age seem to focus on a couple of important concepts around aging and aging services that I want to share here.

First, LeadingAge posted a video which addressed the question: “Should continuing care retirement centers expand into home and community based services (HCBS)?” Along with lots of good business and finance-related information, the speaker made the point that using HCBS allows the older person to remain in his/her own home.  And, the speaker continued, ‘That’s what everybody wants.’ No surprise there! The number of Americans living in nursing homes is not keeping pace with the growing number of Americans 85 and older. It is because there are more options for services outside the nursing home, options that allow the individual to remain at home and receive needed services there!  Additionally, HCBS services are less expensive than skilled nursing home services. That sounds like a win-win doesn't it.

In a way following from that very concept about the primacy of HOME, LeadingAge posted an article about a particular member organization where there is a focused emphasis on language. I’ve written about the impact of the words we use before on this blog.  These are the two articles: “If You ChangeYour Words You can Change the World” and “What’s in a Name

The LeadingAge article spoke to the reality that ageism is alive and well. This executive is quoted at the very end of the article about how our society generally views and thus treats elders: “It’s the last group or class of citizens in this country that we say it’s OK to institutionalize (emphasis mine) and it’s OK to marginalize  (emphasis mine) — in advertisements, movies and popular culture,”

In truth ageism is so embedded in our society that we do not recognize it many times. -How many of us accept without question policies that impact us personally and that are operative at a certain chronological age?  Are you aware of any such policies in your life?  I'd love your comments!

This prejudice of ageism should be rejected and protested with as much sense of outrage as we reject and protest racism or sexism.