August 5 Column

Recently a community relations agent for home health care and assistance made a presentation in the office. She set me to thinking about our needs as we grow older. I write this on the anniversary of Medicare in the spate of LBJ legislation. For years the medical establishment had inveighed against “socialized medicine” and predicted no end of dire consequences with it s passage. Their voices were heard, for a while. Then as the program took hold, its polling numbers started to climb and remain high. In the latest contretemps over medical care, an elderly gentleman yelled at his member of Congress “keep your government hands off of my Medicare.” We have more elderly people, due, in part, to better nutrition and increased access to health care. No, it is not a perfect system, but I much prefer looking at reform measures for a system that provides so much security to so many, as opposed to leaving the elderly to the tender mercies of insurance companies, hospital administrators, and charity. With so many people living much longer, but still in need of help and care, we have been slow to face the needs of not only a grandparent generation but of great-grandparents. At some point most of us are going to need some sort of assistance. In my lifetime, I am amazed at the development of retirement centers all over the country. As my mother started to decline, I tried to honor her desire for independence at the same time noting her physical and mental decline. I did a Bible Study and worship there, and while they complained that the food was too plentiful, I used to tease them about why I never heard them being ready to do another load of dishes. We have a long way to go in working through way to help the elderly make it through the obstacles of aging and preserve their desires for autonomy to the extent possible. It breaks my hear tot see people who have cared for themselves and families need to resort to a dependent posture. Perhaps that is the way of things, part of our social responsibilities to the preceding generation. In truth, some of our desire to create proper facilities is the difficulty many have in bringing a grandparent into our homes and try to care for a parent at the same time. I really respect people’s desire to stay in their own homes. At the same time, I wonder if we make too much of that and refuse to look for ways to make it possible to remain in one’s home or to find continuing varieties of options for our elderly. No one can walk into an assisted living center or even large institutions with step down units and think o the poorhouses or dank nursing homes some of us remember from our youthful memory. The many sides of care seem to me to require a social response. It is so hard for a family with young children to care for a parent, in time, knowledge, and money. I am familiar with two remarkable daughters who share the 24 hour care duties for their mother, but at great cost to their work and social lives. They reject being complimented for their acts of duty, born of love, but they soldier on. Some of that sacrifice needs to be shared. The greatest generation, who faced the Great Depression and won WWII, is fading from us. We create a template for succeeding generations to care for the elderly. I pray that we can apply just some of the dedication that I see in the Olympians and a bit of the creativity of creating video games to this clarion call to social justice in our time.