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Wednesday, June 17, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Of a certain age...
By diane Goble
Columnist
For many years, I’ve
helped people deal with
advance healthcare plan-
ning both as an author and
an educator. I currently write
a blog and articles encourag-
ing people to have the con-
versation with their family
about their wishes for end-
of-life treatment long before
it becomes necessary.
As a hospice volunteer for
many years, I witnessed too
many feuds among family
members who hadn’t openly
expressed their values and
talked about what treatments
they’d want or not want in
an emergency scenario. “Do
everything” may be one’s
first reaction, but it isn’t
always the best option and
hope isn’t a plan.
I have all my paperwork
in order and have discussed
my wishes for care and treat-
ment with my healthcare
representative in case some-
thing happens suddenly, ren-
dering me unable to compre-
hend the situation or com-
municate my wishes. I have
a pre-paid cremation plan
in place along with sugges-
tions to my kids for getting
together to scatter my ashes
off a designated mountaintop
while listening to a playlist
of my favorite music.
All my financial records
and personal information,
account numbers, passwords,
locations of items, my
advance healthcare directive,
last will & testament, powers
of attorney, tax records, titles
and so on are listed and in a
single location with instruc-
tions about who to contact
and what to do with what I
left behind.
I did all this not because
I’m a control freak, but
because I don’t want to
leave a mess behind for my
kids to have to figure out if
I should suddenly become
incapacitated or die. My
father dropped dead of a
heart attack. I had no idea
where anything was. It took
me five years of legal wran-
gling, dealing with unscru-
pulous lawyers, the IRS, his
creditors, his fourth ex-wife
... don’t even get me started
about that!
My mother, on the other
hand, was much more orga-
nized, which made it a lot
easier on my sister and me
when it came to manag-
ing her care and following
her end-of-life wishes. It
also helped me decide to be
pro-active about my own
final wishes.
And then, thinking I
was all set, I read an article
recently about how seniors
don’t plan for, not just long-
term care, but how to adapt
to the aging process as we
begin to lose our abilities
and I realized I forgot about
that part. I started to wonder
should I give up riding my
bike because, at this certain
age ... if I fall and shatter a
few bones, there’s a good
chance it could be a long
time before I return to self-
sufficiency. If I have a stroke
and end up in rehab under
Medicare rules, I could be
helpless and homeless by the
time I got out.
But this article went on
to talk about the concept of
community among elders, in
this case, a small population
within a larger metropoli-
tan area. These seniors were
appalled by the prospect of
continuation-of-care facili-
ties where people progress
from independent living
to assisted living to nurs-
ing home in one place — “a
place,” they say, “where one
enters standing up and leaves
in a box.”
A group of these neigh-
bors got together and created
a network of like-minded
people who were aging but
knew they didn’t want to go
into a nursing home. They
formed a group and started
a database, and people vol-
unteered to help each other
when someone needed
help. They rated and rec-
ommended good service
providers from plumbers to
doctors and home healthcare
aides. Those with cars drove
those without. People who
loved to cook shared meals
and baked cakes. They got
out and walked together, and
socialized with others as a
village.
These senior villages
have helped people stay at
home for far longer than
might have been possible
otherwise. A similar con-
cept was talked about a few
years ago in Sisters when a
project was being consid-
ered for progressive senior
living, but it never got off
the ground. Sisters seniors
who were no longer able to
live alone often had to move
to assisted-living facilities
in Bend, which meant their
loved ones had to drive back
and forth to provide care.
All this cognitive dissonance
puts tremendous stress on
families, schedules, finances
— everyone suffers.
However, in the emerging
market in Sisters, we are now
hearing about cluster homes,
affordable senior housing,
assisted-living facilities,
and more senior services to
meet the needs of the grow-
ing senior population. These
will create perfect “villages”
where seniors could be help-
ing seniors remain indepen-
dent and probably healthier
longer by keeping them
active and engaged. I hope
the people will take the ini-
tiative themselves and not
wait for the City to make
sure our fellow seniors don’t
have to choose between
safety and independence.
So now I know I have
to add to my future health-
care planning process what I
would want if I should unex-
pectedly need care, short-
term or long-term ... what I
can afford if I should need
home healthcare ... how to
get to doctor appointments,
the grocery store, city coun-
cil meetings... who will take
care of Cheech and Chong
(my cats) if I need to be hos-
pitalized ... who would I call
if I fall and I can’t get up?
Isn’t it time you should be
thinking about it and plan-
ning ahead as well?