Social Justice Issues: The Elderly

I spent my growing up years, through college, living around an environment of caring for the elderly. My grandparents were administrators of a county nursing home, with my grandmother working as head nurse. I would often accompany her an her “rounds” and from a very young age became inspired by the care and nurture displayed by my grandmother to women and men who resided in this home. My grandmparents had been working as administrators of homes for the poor for a time before I was even born.

My mother was also trained as a nurse and I ended up working my way through college and some beyond as a certified nurses assistant in a nursing home, often volunteering to work holidays so that other health care professionals could have the time off with their families.

I came to loe and adore the residents – even the ones who appeared to be totally incoherent and bed-ridden and made sure I displayed the utmost respect for all of them. It pained me to see the occasional nurses assistant degrade the dignity of patients by treating them with ill respect.

To that end, I wanted to bring attention to an upcoming film I saw in today’s Deseret News on the elderly. It looks like it addresses the indigent and the care of residents in homes.

Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein will be in Salt Lake City Jan. 18 for a
screening of his documentary “Almost Home.” The documentary will air on PBS’s Independent Lens on Jan. 31.
The documentary was filmed inside a nursing home. Material about the film says it “rescues the real story of aging from an exile of denial.” It centers on the bonds and divisions created by “disability and dementia, children torn between caring for their parents and caring for their children, nursing assistants doing unsavory work for poverty wages and a visionary nursing home director committed to transforming his century-old, hospital-like institution into a true home.”
“Almost Home” will be screened at the City Library, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City at 7 p.m. After the show, local aging experts will join Lichtenstein for a panel discussion.