I suspect that it is not all that unusual for people of a
certain age to start to wonder about their future. Given the amount of media
attention that is occasionally paid to Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia,
the occasional joke amongst friends about "a senior's moment' (which is a
polite way of talking about a lapse of memory) or the perennial older person who
may be a bit forgetful on some television sitcom, it is not surprising that growing
old is, on occasion, part of our thoughts. And the news is generally not good.
Dementia and others related conditions are not curable and
our traditional methods of supporting people are quite frankly abysmal. The two choices for care are to either to
leave those individuals in the community with a patchwork of support systems
that rely heavily upon the family and potentially put both the caregivers and
the individuals at risk, or to warehouse people in large institutions that were
initially designed as quasi medical facilities staffed with too few staff and an
administrative structure that is focused on economic efficiencies. It is not
surprising that so many Canadians are advocating for laws that allow for some
sort of assisted suicide. Too many of us have spent time in those custodial
institutions with our parents. We have seen the lost souls wandering around,
frequently agitated because their memory loss prevents them from understanding
their world they now inhabited populated by strangers and sights that are
totally foreign to them.
There are some interesting alternatives being developed. In
Holland "De Hogeweyk' is a
village-style neighbourhood for elderly residents with dementia, offering
maximum mobility and an opportunity to lead a normal and active daily life"
(Detail
Online). It is a community especially shaped for individuals who are struggling
with memory loss by creating an environment that will feel familiar to them. Living
spaces that feel more like a community both in terms of size, of the era they
are decorated in and who lives in them. The assumption is if people can live in
small houses or apartment like settings, eat and spend time in places that look
like something they can remember from their past and socialize in whatever way
they can with people of similar backgrounds and experiences, then they will be
less anxious and hopefully happier.
This model is slowly
being exported to other countries. A year or so ago, Georgian Bay
Retirement home in Penetanguishene, Ontario created a similar type of environment
(CBC).
It has specifically designed rooms that allow the residents to feel as if they
are living in a world that is familiar.
Not everyone agrees that such environmental modifications
are either necessary or in fact helpful. There is an argument to be made that it
is unethical to lie to patients as to what is actually happening. That by
creating a false or pretend living space we deny to those individuals what
grasp they may have over today's world. From my perspective - if I no longer
can remember in any great detail the world I live in and if society does not
have the courage to allow the plug to be pulled, then the least it can do is to
let me live in a world, that may be false, but at least it is less stressful or
more comfortable.
The geography, the history and the very fabric of society in
Canada has for the last 60 years been shaped because there were (and still are) so damn many of us baby boomers.
Public schools were built to accommodate us, universities were expanded, the college
system was created, suburbs developed and now more alternatives will be created
for seniors. We know that we don't want to live in retirement/nursing homes. We
know that there must be alternatives. It is nice to see that some of those
possibilities are already in existence. There will be more.
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