Asking Questions
Contrast A long time ago (circa 2001), as I was finalizing paperwork at the nursing home where my aunt had lived out the last years of her life, the social worker looked at me and said something along the lines of “no matter what people say, you were always her advocate.” I’ve always thought that was a polite translation of “you’ve been the bane of our existence for the past several years because you questioned just about everything we did and you often made decisions that we didn’t agree with because you thought it was what your aunt would want.” This story is from before I knew much about caring for older adults. It’s from when I was the relative living closest to my aunt and fell into caregiving like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole. It’s from a long time ago and the landscape is definitely changing as the idea of person-centered, person-directed care gains a toehold. At that time in my life I worked at a major medical center. I...