Today in class we had a reflection on casa de manana and then had three groups of students present to us on topics they researched. Someone mentioned that a lot of people were younger than they looked, but it could be because of the stress they did not go through in life and how it is due to the privileges they have. And it is so true everyone has their own privileges and in life and they all come in different ways or forms, but for the residents in Casa it seems to be more privileged than residents we saw in the other residence like Sara. So, the aging of the residents in Casa were probably less worrisome and stressful evident from the graduate and undergraduate degree statistics, but it could also come because of different events in life. I am always fascinated how all these aspects in life are connected to one another and all holistically affect a person: such as transportation, community, family, financial stability, housing, nutrition, health, basic needs, and so many more components in life! They all coexist with one another and it’s time to stop seeing them in different components but rather all under one umbrella and accept they all can have the same affect to one another. After, our classmates shared their articles. The first group talked about vehicular transportation and raised the question of how old is it too old to still be driving? My firsts thoughts were there is no absolute age because every single one of us is uniquely different and I cannot be someone to judge on that. It is true we need to be able to evaluate when a person should stop driving, but not by age but rather by ability and if they are physically and mentally suitable to be able to drive. Maybe having an evaluation test every five years at the DMV or somewhere to ensure the safety of drivers like Jayson suggested. Another group presented on people with memory loss and how we can incorporate them in having a community and also caregivers. There was a big discussion on this but what was really eye opening for me was the role of a caregiver. Someone shared how they were a caregiver for their mom with cancer and she was just a high school student. It broke my heart hearing she was a caregiver at that age, but also made me respect her A BILLION times more because it is such a heavy responsibility and I respect her for giving her time for her mom. Though I may not know the role first hand I have seen it been played by my mom and cousins and I’ve seen the hardships they went through- it’s physically and mentally rough. I guess the reason it was a shocker to me that someone that age can be a caregiver was because I always imagined a caregiver as a nurse or hired person, but it totally passed through my head that a caregiver is much broader than a nurse, there is a whole spectrum on caregiving and now I understand more on caregiving. I do believe there should be more help for caregivers like mental health services, a stipend for their time, and nutrition help. The other discussion was on how can an ageing community feel less lonely in their ageing process in their community either urban or rural? I always had an idea that it can be lonely at that age because they can miss their family and friends, but I didn’t think of ways how they cannot feel lonely. I thought this was a great discussion on ways we can incorporate more ways to help them age in place and live a greater life and feel more connected to their community and different age groups. My first thought was having like little field trips to places around their area to explore just like casa de manana offered. They can have fun exploring and making friends while on the way. I also like a classmate’s idea of us, a younger generation, having conversation with them during walks so they can feel connected to other generations.
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MARICELA CANOWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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