The best perk that goes with being a columnist is hearing from readers. The two kinds of mail – – e and snail – -, along with telephone calls and face-to-face conversations with readers, enrich my life. Hardly anything pleases me so much as getting comments from those who have read my column. Even the occasional negative response makes me feel that my writing has made an impact.
Sometimes, however, readers make suggestions for future columns that are difficult for me to write about. I realize that columnists are supposed to act like know-it-alls. But I confess to lacking confidence in my ability to answer some questions adequately.
That’s the way I feel about an email sent to me by a reader in Boston last week. For several reasons I admire its author but wonder whether I can follow through on her suggestions.
About herself the writer says this: “I came to the US from a country where elderly respect is highly valued.” She then goes on to share her experience taking care of her father who died last fall after four years in a nursing home.
My correspondent remains disturbed about what she saw happen in that institution to residents “whose relatives just left them there.” Without people to advocate on their behalf, these residents did not get adequate care and, she says, even suffered personal abuse.
The writer leaves me with five questions that she considers appropriate for columns. I share them with you pretty much as they were written:
- What are the things a good citizen can do to make a positive impact on the lives of elders?
- How can elderly abuse be prevented?
- Is the statement “love is ageless” taken seriously?
- What are the organizations which coordinate volunteer work for elders?
- What does it take to ensure that elderly respect will become American Idealism?
Though the first, third, and last questions pose the most difficulty, perhaps I can group them together and attempt to speak to them first. How can the good citizens of the United States change our society so that our elders can live better and be held in higher regard?
To me, it’s largely a question of spiritual values. As the Swiss physician Paul Tournier once wrote: “I have come to the conclusion that there is one essential, profound, underlying problem, and it is that the old are unloved.”
In a society focused on economic progress to the extent that the United States currently is, it’s hard to find much space for other societal goods. When so many of us focus our lives on making money, putting people first remains a distant ideal. Elders and children alike can easily find themselves neglected.
To the extent that we place the highest premium on power and wealth, elders are bound to suffer some neglect. Too many of our older people lack the money and influence that in our time and place look like the only things that command respect.
However, I believe that, to a considerable extent, demographic changes will transform this situation. When the advance party of Baby Boomers reaches age 65 some fifteen years from now, we will see social values start to change. Aging will become more fashionable and those doing it will be better educated and wealthier than we have been. These future elders will demand better treatment than the current senior generation has received.
This leads into my reader’s questions two and four, about elder abuse and also citizen volunteering. Already we have a state-wide network, established almost twenty years ago to pro-tect older residents of Massachusetts against physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. Evidence suggests that this protective services program has proven its value by intervening many times on behalf of older people at risk.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, a state cabinet-level agency, takes overall responsibility for protecting people over sixty and works with twenty-seven regional agencies called ASAPS (Aging Services Access Points) to insure that reports of abuse are investigated and, when warranted, acted upon.
In addition, the Commonwealth sponsors a long term care ombudsman program that sends volunteers into nursing homes to investigate residents’ complaints and to advocate for changes. This, incidentally, is one area in which citizens will find an opportunity to offer their volunteer services in a way that can make a difference in people’s lives.
Other volunteer opportunities can be found through the agencies that serve older people. I recommend calling the Council on Aging in your city or town, the ASAP in your area, or the Executive Office of Elder Affairs. The latter can be reached at a toll-free number, 800 882-2003.
If you have access to the Internet, I highly recommend the agency’s excellent web page, http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eldershomepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Eelders. Here you can find detailed information with names of agencies in Massachusetts complete with telephone numbers, and links to agencies in other states as well.
Richard Griffin