In the article, “I Know You Love Me - Now Let Me Die,” the author, Louis M. Profeta, argues that the American society today treats the dying as if their life is meaningless. He furthers his argument by using reminiscence to remind everyone how the elderly used to be treated. There was a woman who only had a few more days until her time was up, “[s]pent with familiar sounds, in a familiar room, with familiar smells that gave her a final chance to summon memories that will help carry her away… that’s how she used to die. We saw our elderly different then” (Profeta). When the elderly are dying, most of them want to be in a place where they are comfortable, so that they can die in peace. They want to remember all the times that made them happy …show more content…
Although they are surrounded by healthcare providers who are tasked with saving their lives, they are not in a place where they feel comfortable. The author’s purpose is to send a message to the American society that they should be doing the opposite of putting the elderly in the hospitals and nursing homes, and instead take care of them. In the twenty-first century, medicine “take[s] that small child running through the yard, being chased by her brother with a grasshopper on his finger, and imprison her in a shell that does not come close to radiating the life of what she once had” (Profeta). The elderly are forcibly being placed in hospitals and nursing homes by their families, who do not want to take care of them. The memory shows the patient’s childhood of when she was full of joy, and all of that was taken away when she was put in a healthcare facility. They are now trapped in a place where they do not want to be in with physicians who do value their well-being, and rely on the technology of medicine to save them, but do not value their wishes to end their own
The Sapphires is a real-life tale of a group of aboriginal sisters (and their cousin) who sang their way from a dusty outback to an entertainment tour of duty during the Vietnam War.
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch started out as a song. Munsch made up the lyrics for his wife and two born dead babies. He initially had the lyrics stuck in his head but could not sing the words. Every time he tried Munsch would tear up reminding him of his children that did not live life fully. One day when he was telling a story at the University of Guelph, it occurred to Munsch that he might tell it as a form of story through the song (Robert Munsch). This is how Love You Forever came to be a book and made many people cry. The story is about a mother who truly loves her son with no exceptions. The young child grew older as time passed the stages of life, but the mother still loved him unconditionally. The cycle changes from the mother
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End is a story that depicts the progression of the care of the sick and elderly as they reach the final years of their life. Gawande tells us various stories that clearly illustrate the differences between how dying was handled as far back as the nineteenth century to how it is handled currently. Treatment even differs between countries, as is explained when Gawande tells of his own family in India. For the most part, in the past people were not expected to survive far into old age. Therefore, care for the elderly used to be allowing them to live in a multigenerational home with their children and grandchildren to be the caretakers. Now, since the life expectancy is not as low as it was then, the children are not staying with their parents for longer than necessary, because both the parent and the child desire independence.
Letting Go by Atul Gawande provides an intriguing perspective on people’s stubborn expectations from the healthcare system. What should medicine do when it can’t save your life? Most everyone seems to believe they should fight to the bitter end, until they can’t possibly have anymore tubes coming out of them or medications going in. Gawande suggests that state of being is no longer living, so he raises the question of why people do it to themselves or their families. Gawande also provides the benefits of hospice care such as discontinuing medications. When patients stop fighting and start accepting the time they have, they gain more.
Dying in Oregon uncovers the latitude given to the State’s terminally ill patients in the self-administration of lethal medications. This approach, I believe, is wrong and unethical because it offers an illusion of proper cognitive ability in the patient yet such individuals may make impaired judgments based on their bleak futures. Euthanasia is a common trend in most western civilizations because of the need for dignity in death (Legoute, 2016). In fact, families with such patients cite their frustrations at watching the deterioration of a person’s health, which negates the lifetime achievements made by him/her. Images of disease-stricken relatives are ravaging and belittle the legacies of such loved ones. It is crucial for surviving members
Being acute of one’s feelings enables the mental state to be soothed, and as a result, the cultivation of courage is formed from positive thinking. For instance, through meditation, “we find peace… in the continuity of life…” (Collett 52). This mentality is comparable to the narrative of Dr. Bill Thomas in Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal because as a caregiver, he focused on the root cause of the “pain” of dependence in Chase Memorial Nursing Home.
One of my favorite songs is, “Love Yours” by J. Cole. He is one of my favorite artists and his words are very lyrical. In this song, he is speaking as a first-person narrator. Jermain Cole AKA J. Cole was born in Frankfurt, Germany but moved to North Carolina when he was an infant. He credits Tupac as one of his major influences on his music. Growing up he didn’t have much but on his birthday, he asked his mom for a beat machine. He started out in producing music, but then used his rap on his own beats throughout high school. When he was fourteen, he had two mentors that gave him his stage name “Therapist” for his soulful flow and rhymes. After graduating high school, he moved to the Big Apple to attend St. John University on scholarships.
Many people believe that health care providers should do everything in their power to keep the patient alive. Yet, a growing population is beginning to side with the argument that in certain situations a person should be allowed death with dignity. From a terminally ill patient’s standpoint, being able to go on their own terms rather than undergoing extensive treatment that often leads to extensive suffering in their final weeks and months, brings them peace. When surveyed, the number one priority of elders is being able to maintain their independence (Matthews, 2013). This generation, does not want to become a burden for their families. Physician assisted suicide allows the patient to end their life when they decide they do not have a tolerable quality of life
The article Ageism in Health Care Needs To End, Doctors Say, debates about how the culture of ageism among medical structures require adjustments. The article highlights that health workers usually treat seniors like they don't deserve the same concern as younger Canadians.
In Being Mortal, Atul Gawande painted a little depressing picture of the realities faced by the elderly in the US nowadays: declining health status, economic insecurity, and loss of independence. It seems once the older people move into nursing homes or assisted living facilities, they lose autonomy, dignity and privacy as the institutions are not able to fully individualize care. Even though the situation has been improving, it still shocks me to see how unhappy some of the elderly are in these circumstances. Realizing senior care facilities often fail to address all aspects of well-being, I would like to explore the issues of promoting both objective and subjective component in quality of care for the older people.
The paper focuses on the ethics of pain. Regardless of who we are, it is safe to say that pain is our biggest fear. Because good pain control is indicative to one’s quality of life it is important that it is addresses, especially when dealing with such a vulnerable population as the elderly. To complete this quality indicator, we will assess a day in the life of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home in Inver Grove Heights and how they address pain in the elderly.
A new culture of ageism is now in the medical world. So many Canadians look down on seniors that ageism has become the most tolerated form of social discrimination in Canada. Health care professionals like Nathan Stall, a future geriatrics specialist and Carrie Willkies, a registered nurse are both against this new norm. In both pieces, the central idea is clear, “The Eradication of Ageism in health care”.
To advance my current knowledge of how ageism affects older adults in relation to healthcare, I will review professional literature and interview two elders for their accounts of how they feel they are treated by their physicians, social workers, and other healthcare professionals. The individuals will be from different socioeconomic standings to find commonalities and differences of their experiences. Ageism is a significant topic for all social workers to understand and recognize when working with the older adult population for many reasons. Fist, as a social worker, one of the codes of ethics we are expected to live up to in our profession is to promote the dignity and worth of a person( NASW, 2017). By doing this, social workers recognize that older adults have the right to self –determination and decision-making ability for his/her life. An older adult who is not offered the same form of treatment for surgery based on age alone, is a form of ageism social workers
The key issues that I am going to discuss from my reflection are disempowerment due to a person’s age where either their family or care giver answer on behalf of the elderly patient and deny the patient of their own voice. Emotional problems are a common in the elderly and this particular psychological aspect often goes unnoticed.
Just the mere mention of “nursing home” causes most people to shudder and think, “I would never put my relative in such a ghastly place.” There are a great deal of horror stories that stem from nursing homes, most along the lines of , “ My mother was neglected after I put her in a nursing home. I would go to visit her and she would be lying in urine and have a new bruise, different than the one that was there last time.” There seems to be this popular perception that nursing homes are places where aging people go to wait out their final days and die; this causes many individuals to shun them. People are too caught up on these negative stories they