Source: Tender Hearts Senior Care
Losing your ability to remain independent in your own home or apartment is a major challenge facing many older adults, as well as children and adults with disabilities.
No one wants to go to a nursing home and even a move to an assisted living facility can be a difficult transition. As Atul Gawande points out in his book, Being Mortal, we have medicalized approaches to responding to loss of independent living, putting someone’s safety before their own wishes to maintain as much independence as possible and make everyday decisions about how they will live their lives.
For the past 50 years, one community-based organization in the Bronx has been committed to helping people remain in their own homes even when they have lost full independence in mobility or being able to cook or clean or care for themselves. RAIN was started by a nurse who responded to what she saw as a growing need for community-based, comprehensive services for homebound and elderly people.
On August 13th, Healthstyles producer Diana Mason talks with the CEO and others at RAIN about the work they do and their efforts to ensure that home health workers are not exploited, as often happens in home care agencies.
But first, she continues Healthstyles’ ongoing coverage about having the crucial but often difficult conversations about end of life preferences and wishes. This segment focuses on how legal advisers are increasingly incorporating these conversations into their discussions with clients who are putting together or revising their wills. In this segment, one nurse shares her own experience with an unexpected conversation with her lawyer, and her lawyer shares his perspectives on what people need to consider in planning for the end of their lives.
So tune into WBAI, 99.5 FM in New york City, at 1:00 PM on Thursday, August 13th, to listen to the program, or go online for a live stream at www.wbai.org. Healthstyles is sponsored by the Center for Health, Media & Policy at Hunter College, City University of New York.
