Elder Right to
Live Life

We have a right to be seen for our knowledge, wisdom, history, and contributions, our friendships, and ideas. We have a right to not be grouped into a subset called “Old” and seen as being like everyone else of a similar age. We have a right to be seen as ourselves, not as a “patient” or “infirm” and thus needing to yield all choices to others.

We have a right to make choices about what we want and how to live out our lives. We have a right to be seen as having value, regardless of our age or level of infirmity. We have a right to choices that maintain our lives and our dignity, rather than force us to give it up because we are old and infirm.

We have a right to have our chronological age make no difference in whether or not we get or keep a job. We have a right to only be judged on the skill, knowledge, and ability we bring to the table.

We have a right to expect the options of reasonable medical interventions that can assist us in being able to continue to live out our lives. We have a right to not have others suggest we should simply give up or be denied help because we are old.

We have a right to the same financial resources for staying at home that would be expended to support us in long-term care, where we are less likely to thrive. We have a right to the same options for financial support now being paid to corporations that make large profits off of infirm elders, to instead be provided for resources enabling us to live out our lives in our own homes.

If we have any Medicare program we have the right to physical, occupational, and speech therapy of the duration and intensity and with appropriate targeted goals needed to help us regain and maintain the functional independence we need for living out our lives. We have a right, if we need Skilled Nursing Rehab to get that help in a way that helps us actually return home, instead of simply being a “feeder” to get moved into the facility’s nursing home bed permanently.

We have a right to have easy access to carefully vetted information about which prescription drugs are known to cause cognitive problems, debilitation, or other health risks. We have a right to make choices about what we put in our bodies (and what we pay for) based on an accurate and ongoing risk assessment, rather than be expected to simply be “compliant” which often leads to ignoring the actual causes of a downward spiral. We have a right to expect that primary care providers are carefully controlling for drug side-effects instead of paying little attention.

We have a right to have extreme care used in having a diagnosis of “dementia” or “Alzheimer’s” applied to us. We have a right to have any cognitive difficulty carefully and specifically assessed longitudinally using comprehensive neuropsychological tests, not simple screening tests or subjective impressions. We also have a right to have cognitive deficits addressed in ways that enable us to compensate for or regain functioning, instead of having the implication that the label itself means anything helpful.

We have a right to comprehensive, detailed, and accurate information enabling us to actually compare regular Medicare with private Advantage substitutes, instead of discovering too late that the private plan only covers a reduced version of regular Medicare or that the coverage is inadequate to be able to bounce back from a problem or even sustain our lives.

We have a right to fully live out our lives, being ourselves, having support when we need it, having resources to help us compensate for our limitations. We have a right to not be locked up against our will with others who are also locked up against their will in settings that simply dumb people down, often with drugs. We have a right to not be incarcerated because senior housing owners created Memory Units to enhance profit, inaccurately proliferate the fear that we will “wander”, and expect us to live out our lives in settings that actually reflect a poor environment for someone struggling with cognitive difficulty.

We have a right to hospital care that is delivered in a way that helps us be able to return home: helps us get up and moving, no catheters for convenience, minimal sedatin drugs, assurance of good nutrition, and support for understanding and fully participating in decisions affecting our own bodies and our own lives. We have a right to care that reflects what is known to help elders stay independent, rather than what is most convenient for staff or simply gives up on someone because they are old. We have a right to have the focus be on a discharge to home rather than the routine assumption that all elders will be discharged to long-term care.

We have a right to expect paid caregivers to have the skills needed to help us maximize our independence and long-term ability, instead of helping us in ways that actually reduce our ability, hasten our deterioration, and increase the likelihood that we will end up in a nursing home. We have a right to personnel who have learned how to care who we are and what we want, rather than what is simply convenient for them.

We have a right to settings where we have dignity, are able to be ourselves, where life continues to provide opportunities for meaning and purpose. We have a right to live out our lives in a setting where we have choices, love, and a sense of home instead of institutional care where there is no real life, we are forced to share a living space with someone we do not know, and must endure “care” that takes our dignity and our very personhood away from us.

We have a right to never have our rights to make choices taken away from us based on superficial, scientifically inaccurate reports. We have a right to have advocacy that helps assure that our choices, our money, our bodies, and our living situation are consistent with our preferences and values, even if we have diminished capacity.

We have a right to accurately and fully understand what we are giving up in signing Advance Directives, a Do Not Resuscitate order form, or a decision to enter hospice care. We have a right to fully understand the normal, usual, and easily life sustaining treatment we may be giving up. We have a right to know the usual time until death when one signs on to hospice care as well as whether the disease or treatment, itself, is what will likely end our lives. We have a right to plan our own death – if we want to be alert, interacting, and involved with loved ones until the very end – instead of simply being sedated down until we can no longer eat or drink. We have a right to not be coerced into signing on for hospice care to prevent “being a burden,” because insurance providers are insisting, or because it is the only way we can get the free help we need with simple things like bathing.

We have a right to have our Social Security protected instead of be a pawn for politicians promoting an ideology. We have a right to have it recognized as something we earned, not an “entitlement.” We have a right to have it recognized that at least 65% of us over the age of 65 depend on our Social Security for the majority of our income, and thus we have a right to be sure it is secure, will always be there, and is not at risk of the ups and downs of the stock market.

We have a right to those resources that help us stay connected to our environment by being able to see and to hear. We have a right to have it recognized that these things are every bit as critical to our well-being and promoting independence as a walker or wheelchair. Eye glasses and hearing aids are vital for protecting cognitive functioning and for preventing accidents, yet they are too often out of reach for poor elders. We have a right to have Medicare cover these devices that are critical for our safety and well-being.

We have a right to be seen for the contribution we make to society, the ongoing learning we experience and facilitate for others, and the wisdom we have from being the people with more life experience than anyone else. We are keepers of society’s wisdom and have a right to be seen for its value, instead of being written off as simply using society’s resources and giving nothing back.