Title:	Centers for Ending
Authors:	Seymour B. Sarason
Keywords:	Centers for Ending
Issue Date:	2011
Publisher:	Springer
Description:	I never expected to write this very personal book about aged people and nursing homes. My late wife and I had extensive experience with these facilities in con- nection with our parents in the 1960s and 70s. These were sobering experiences for several reasons. The first was that what passes for care of old people was impersonal and devoid of any attempt to keep the minds of residents active, to prevent retreat into a private world that stayed private until they died. Their “bodies” were never neglected, but their minds were. The second reason for my sobering reactions was financial. My father fell a cou- ple of times and no one was in the room to see or hear his first cries. My wife and I decided to hire a practical nurse who would be with him during the day 5 days a week. We were fortunate to locate a person who, as my wife said, was Italian, but undoubtedly had all of the characteristics of the stereotypic Jewish mother and grandmother. She read his beloved New York Times to him (his eyesight was poor), had long discussions with him, took him in a wheelchair for walks in and out of the facility, and made sure he ate every bit of every meal. He lived contentedly for another 2 years. That cost us $21,000 for each of the 2 years. Today, the cost would be double that amount. That is when I realized that there was a two-tiered system: the haves and the have-nots. I was happy to be able to afford the financial sacrifices for my father’s care, but I also felt guilt that he was the only one in that nursing home to get the care that everyone else there needed but did not get. Hospitals and nursing homes are different kinds of places, but they have much in common. In the last chapter of Caring and Compassion in Clinical Practice (Sarason, 1986), I had written about my experiences to that point in my life with hospitals and nursing facilities. In writing that chapter, I did not know how signifi- cantly treatment and extended care settings would affect my life in the years ahead. In 1993, my wife and I were in a serious auto accident. My wife was killed instantly and I spent the next 3 months in three different hospitals, one of which special- ized in rehabilitation. Overwhelmed by the loss of my wife, I was only partially aware of my treatment and rehabilitation experiences during those emotionally and physically painful months. Fifteen years later, those traces emerged vividly! Having moved to a retirement community some years before, I fell, fractured my hip and pelvis, and had to enter the nursing care facility within the retirement community.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/50520
ISBN:	978-1-4419-5725-2
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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