Peace and dignity for the aged

Where, I've often wondered since his death, is the dignity and peace people like my father, and those older or less ill than he, crave and deserve?

November is the anniversary of my father's death. He was not a particularly old man-72 years old-when he told my stepmother, "I'm going," and suffered a final, massive heart attack.

In his last year of, he moved in a seemingly endless cycle from his home, to a hospital, to a nursing home, to his home again. Any dignity he knew that year he found mostly when he and his wife had the energy to create it. He would shave as well as he was able while sitting in a recliner, comb hair he had always been vain about, and put on a clean shirt in preparation for a visitor-maybe me. We'd sit together then, I on the arm of the chair and he aware, I'm sure, of my presence while he drifted between wakefulness and sleep. We shared a peace then that he also rarely found during his last long year.

Where, I've often wondered since his death, is the dignity and peace people like my father, and those older or less ill than he, crave and deserve? This issue of Health Progress offers answers to these questions and others related to long-term care in our country.

David Durenberger, Dale Thompson, and Lisa Shulman offer idea for changing financing and delivery of long-term care so that the country and its citizens can afford high-quality care in settings people prefer Articles on collaborative efforts between Catholic health care and Catholic Charities USA and the makeover of the Teresian House in Albay include examples of innovative, person-centered long-- term care. Brian Forschner and Steve Dawson both write on a key component of quality care-the caregivers themselves. Larry Minnix shares AAHS,A's vision of a better world fbr the elderly-one we hope this issue contributes to achieving.

Terry Van Schaik

EDITOR

Copyright Catholic Health Association of the United States Nov/Dec 2001
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