Earlier today, I read a thought-provoking piece from David Frum at the Daily Beast, titled ?America the Anxious: Why We?re Freaking Out.? (On a side note, I wonder if the usage of the phrase ?freaking out? is unique to Gen X.? I find myself using it a lot and I seem to only hear it from other Gen Xers?)
?Getting old is very expensive: in only the five years from 2007 to 2012, the median cost of a year of nursing-home care jumped from $65,700 to more than $81,000. Medicare does not cover nursing-home care, and while Medicaid does, Washington, D.C., is abuzz with plans to squeeze spending on this program for the poor.
Ominously, as government prepares to shrink expenditures on aging boomers, the evidence is accumulating that they will need extra help.? Physically and psychologically, the baby boomers are in worse shape than the generation immediately above them: Only 27 percent of the people born between 1946 and 1964 are of normal weight. One third are obese-compared with only one quarter of the ?silent generation,? those born between 1929 and 1945.
Emotionally, too, the boomers? future looks frightening. Already one in three is unmarried-because they?ve been divorced, become widows, or never tied the knot in the first place. Meanwhile, because male longevity is improving slower than female longevity, we will soon see large growth in the population of boomer widows throughout the country.?
Ominous. Anxious. Alone. Obese. Lordy.
Civil? Mature? Gracious?? Although his thoughts address all ages, see Barry?s reflections in the prior post.
It feels like we have a lot of work to do.
To end on a hopeful note, I received an informative e-mail from a reader of my recent piece in The Atlantic that tries to think beyond traditional choices of senior center/nursing home/shuttling the elderly to casino as acceptable models of support for the elderly in our communities.? The Green House Project, directed by Robert Jenkens, seeks to re-imagine and de-institutionalize senior care within the current insurance and government reimbursement model.? Hosting 132 sites across the US, The Green House Project uses homes within the community to keep seniors connected to their communities of choice.? Their 18-minute video, ?Where Love Matters,? is informative and gives you a sense of the philosophy in action.? As someone who loves thinking about language, I was most drawn to how they use unique titles to transform and shape expectations of their staffing model.
?Because language holds great power, in The Green House model, words are used in a very intentional way.? Titles, for example, are different than in traditional long term care, to make it clear that we are not creating small nursing homes, but rather a radical transformation.
The Shahbaz (plural form is Shahbazim) is a versatile worker who provides a wide range of assistance, including personal care; activities; meal planning, preparation, and service; and laundry care for seven to ten elders. The Shahbazim also perform light housekeeping duties.
The Guide serves as coach and supervisor to the Shahbazim, and is responsible for the overall operations and quality of services in the home. The Guide may be responsible for one or more Green House homes, depending on the size of the community.
The Sage is a local elder who acts as a coach or mentor, facilitates the development and continued growth of the self-managed work team of Shahbazim and serves as their trusted advisor. This is a volunteer position.?
One thing that The Green House Project strives to do is to keep married couples together.? Unlike traditional nursing homes that often must split up married couples for financial reasons.? As Mr. Jenkens explains:
?Couples that have been married for 60 years are forced to live separately when one needs nursing home care. ?This is largely the result of government policies limiting nursing home ?beds? ? forcing providers to fill every ?bed? with someone who needs services to make the economies of scale work. ?This squeezes out a spouse who could share the room but would only pay room and board. ?This is a real tragedy for couples who have survived that long together and are separated just when they need each other most.?
We thrive best at home, we thrive best when we can stay in the relationships we know and have chosen.? The story and work of The Green House Project, like the story and work of PACE (Program for the All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly), inspires me and reduces my anxiety about the future; there are smart and compassionate people already out there working to re-imagine how we can not only live to old age, but live well.
Categories: Aging, Disability, Death, Dying, General
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Source: http://familyscholars.org/2012/08/18/anxiety-about-the-future/
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