Assisted living needs your support
“Where will I live and who will take care of me?”
That plaintive sentence has been echoing in my brain ever since I read the 2006 Mother’s Day Report from the Older Women’s League. The report warns that the need for long-term care is reaching “crisis proportions.” By 2030, “one out of five people in the United States will be 65 or older.”
The tradition of personally caring for family members continues and is called “informal care giving.”
Many of us remember our childhood in which families often took care of an aging family member. Today family and friends are providing 80 percent of the help needed for seniors to live independently. The overwhelming preference of seniors is to remain in their own homes and more than 8 million adults receive support services to make this possible. Funding for these services, however, is not keeping pace with inflation.
Assisted-living help over the past 20 years has allowed seniors to receive care that ideally promotes independence. Almost two-thirds of seniors receiving assisted living are women.
Institutional care, or nursing homes, account for more than $11 billion per year of spending. Many of us have experienced nursing homes and we know there is inconsistency in the care provided. The average patient stays two-and-a-half years, but many are like my loving mother-in-law, Cele, who spent the last decade of her life in a nursing home, seemingly unaware of her surroundings. She was one of the fortunate mothers with a devoted son who visited her almost every day through all those years to sit by her bed and hold her hand.
So, to answer the question posed by the report, no, we can’t guarantee where people will live, but we can make sure that there is someone or something to care for them. OWL has issued a “Call to Action,” urging us to raise our voices and insist there is an appropriate governmental role in ensuring that quality care is available, affordable and accessible to all who need it. Long-term care affects all of us and those we love. For more information, contact Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington at (509) 458-2509.
Readers remember
Lillian O. Forster of Spokane wrote me after reading last month’s column, “I recall well the radio ads for Ivory; yes, it did float, and some little boys, instead of bathing would sail the boats around the tub of water with paper sails pasted to toothpicks or other small pieces of wood, and give orders to each other as if they were Navy captains.” What a vivid picture you’ve painted for us, Lillian. Thank you.
Beauty on display
If you have not seen the exhibit, “Mutual Seduction: Cars and Costumes,” at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, I urge you to go. This combination of impeccably restored automobiles and exquisite gowns from the Museum’s vast collection is beautifully presented. For details, call the MAC at (509) 456-3931. Walking by the dresses made me think of this poem by Robert Herrick, which I had to memorize in the fifth grade:
“Upon Julia’s Clothes”
WHENAS in silks my Julia goes
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see
That brave vibration, each way free;
O how that glittering taketh me!