Ever since the death of Brittany Maynard--the 30-year old with terminal brain cancer who ended her own life last November-- the issue of physician-assisted suicide has received an enormous amount of attention. Now it is back in the headlines as many states consider laws permitting the practice. It is an important and passionate debate, but for the vast majority of people, it misses [...]
Yesterday morning, a veteran of the decades-long effort to improve the way we deliver and pay for long-term supports and services asked me a question. Why, he wondered, should he believe that recent attempts to reform long-term care could succeed when so many previous initiatives have failed. Last evening, I may have found an answer. My wife and I went to see [...]
Yesterday, I participated in an AARP program with several authors of books on caregiving. One fellow panelist, the novelist Walter Mosley, was wonderfully provocative as he reflected on what he calls “the great equalizing effect of great age.” Mosley, whose mother was Jewish and whose father was black, put it this way: “White people become black people when they can [...]
On Thursday, I'll be participating in an ambitous program sponsored by AARP where 10 authors will discuss their experiences and views about the challenges of family caregiving. Most of us have had the personal experience of caring for family members and know about the subject first-hand. Some of our books, such as my own Caring for Our Parents, use the personal stories of caregivers to describe the nation's [...]