If I could pick out a book about my NPO of all the books we have read, this week\u2019s book would be the crux of my \u201cwhy\u201d I am doing the work. Could you indulge me in discussing my NPO and project a bit?\u00a0 The workshop I am designing for healthcare workers is called \u201cThe End is the Beginning.\u201d\u00a0 Most of us live our lives moving forward, and most of us dream of the future and plan for it, but if you are honest with yourself until you have faced the death of a loved one, your future thinking is in terms of dreams and all the \u201cgood stuff,\u201d right?\u00a0 I started this doctorate because I found myself working with people in the end, and yes, I know several 100-year-olds.\u00a0 In my decade of experience working at the end of people\u2019s lives, I have noticed each year it seems that people accept their dying process later and later.\u00a0 We have become a culture of \u201cthere\u2019s a cure for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 100-year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity <\/em>by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott hits the nail on the head.\u00a0 We are facing what is called the silver tsunami, and we are not prepared.\u00a0 As baby boomers live longer and face money and health running out before their heart does, we will face a societal crisis.\u00a0 Gratton and Scott state, \u201cGreater life expectancy is only good if life itself is good.\u00a0 What if life expectancy increases faster than the years of good health? This would lead to the Hobbesian nightmare of \u2018an epidemic of frailty.\u2019\u201d [1]<\/a><\/p>\n It is funny to think we all want a long life but fail to see what really happens in the end.\u00a0 Without wishing to be too vulgar, I would love to title a podcast someday \u201cEveryone\u2019s butt (&#@) will need to be wiped one day.\u201d\u00a0 We have categorized older people almost to the point they are out of sight, out of mind.\u00a0 So many of us do not consider \u201cADL\u201d as we get older. \u201cMorbidity is not just about disease; it is also about how people function as they age. A range of studies has examined what are called activities of daily living<\/em>. These are activities such as bathing, continence, dressing and eating that have an important impact on daily quality of life.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n What is difficult about getting older seems to be money, relationships, and autonomy.\u00a0 We spent ten days in Washington, DC, where our country fought for our freedom.\u00a0 We are a nation founded on fierce independence. However, we still need to gain the art of having intergenerational living.\u00a0 When we don\u2019t walk alongside the generations older than us, we don\u2019t bear witness to the end.\u00a0 When I talk with people facing the end of their lives, I ask them to think about the end.\u00a0 The 100-year life reveals the problems with money, autonomy, and physical and mental abilities the longer we live. \u00a0When you take your last breath, I challenge you to ask yourself where you want to be and who you want there with you.\u00a0 If you know this answer, it speaks directly to decisions you make now, whether it\u2019s healthcare choices, investing in long-term life insurance, repairing broken relationships, etc.<\/p>\n I could go on for so much more about this book. Jason mentioned it being a \u201cone-idea book,\u201d and I agree, but it is one of the most important ideas that every human on this planet does and will face. It\u2019s pretty darn important because it is the one thing, the book, that speaks to every person on the planet.<\/p>\n I want to close out with information on the \u201cDeath with Dignity\u201d Act. I will not try to persuade you in any direction of belief, but I think it exists because of the very thing this book is saying.\u00a0 First off, I want to say I have been present with a patient as they swallowed this medication, and from what I saw with where she was, her state of mind, the people in the room with her, and how peaceful and sure she was, it was beautiful and challenging.\u00a0 She had ALS and was slowly being \u201clocked\u201d into her body and was close to having to be 100% dependent on others without losing her ability to think. I\u2019m not sure I wouldn\u2019t make the same choice.\u00a0 Many people choose DWD because they don\u2019t want to be a burden; they don\u2019t have the money, or they do have the money but want it to go to their kids as a legacy; they have a disease that will be debilitating, like the one I mentioned.\u00a0 Below, I included a chart on how many in Oregon have accessed the medication (extreme uptick in last few years) and another chart that describes why people access this medication.<\/p>\n We are facing a silver tsunami. Since the pandemic, there have not been enough quality skilled workers in facilities to help care for patients. I don\u2019t have data to back that up, but I have lived experience of walking through skilled nursing centers with empty rooms because there are not enough staff, and my husband works in a hospital where many are stuck because there is no safe place to send them.<\/p>\n I want us to take our own 100-year life and recognize (I\u2019m going to be a wee bit socialist here, forgive me) but help our country fund Medicaid and Medicare so that we will have someone to wipe our butts! We must pay our healthcare workers more, consider hazard pay during pandemics, and (oh yeah, pay our teachers more!!).<\/p>\n Ok, I am done for now.DWD charts<\/a>[3]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Gratton, Lynda and Scott, Andrew J The 100-year life:Living and working in an Age of Longevity<\/em>, (London, Bloombury Publising, 2020).Pg29<\/p>\n