As the challenge of caring for America’s aging population intensifies, the issue is beginning to get the increased newspaper coverage it deserves. Case in point: an in-depth series that has been offered up from a small daily paper out of Utah (hat tip to The New Old Age).
Gray Area: Utah As It Ages features sparsely written vignettes examining the lives of elderly people in Utah when they were young and their current challenges with aging. Accompanying each story are intimate black and white photos of wrinkles, smiles, and struggles.
There are also audio slideshows that feature the shaky voices of those with dementia, the tone of concern from their spouses and loved ones, and the undeniable compassion felt by the direct-care workers whose lives become emotionally entwined with those for whom they care.
Commenting on national crisis
The Deseret News of Salt Lake City has crafted this comprehensive, beautiful online series that began in late October and runs through December.
Here is how they introduced the series: “When we think about our futures, most of us skirt the part of the picture that might include dementia, dependency and Depends. And we forget that it might also include newfound meaning, new friendships and second chances to reinvent yourself. In Gray Area: Utah As It Ages, the Deseret News will confront the ups and downs of — let’s not pussyfoot here — old age.”
One audio slideshow, called “The Juggler and the Opera Singer,” pays homage to Bill Gnadt, who was the world’s foremost juggler of heavy objects and power tools and Tatyana Sokolova, a former opera singer in Russia, who is the CNA who cares for him.
Summing up the issue
A Nov. 17 piece called Intimate Strangers, Who’s Caring for Elderly? sums up the issues for direct-care workers: “For all this hard work, and the kindnesses they provide for families who can’t or won’t take care of an elderly relative, CNAs are paid about $10 an hour. Nationally, nearly 30 percent of direct-care workers (who include CNAs and the noncertified personal aides who do home care) live in households at or near the poverty level, and more than half have no health insurance.”
“We pay them such paltry wages and expect them to take care of the people who should be our most revered,” says Marilyn Luptak, assistant professor in the University of Utah School of Social Work.
An accompanying audio slideshow features photos of frail elderly women being helped in and out of bed by CNA Juanita Albor who tells her story:
“You get to know them when they’re sick, when they’re sad, when they’re happy – we get to share everything with them. In fact, when I have somebody pass on, I go home crying.… You give them love. You give them everything. It’s impossible not to be attached to them.”
Making an impact
The journalistic effort seems to be having an impact locally. In conjunction with the series, the newspaper reported that 60 people turned up this month at the Salt Lake County Government Center to a town hall meeting on caring for aging loved ones and gaining access to Medicaid. Experts from various city, county and state aging and caregiver agencies spoke on a panel discussion.
“This issue requires economists, psychologists, social workers, physical therapists, doctors, nurses and lawyers because it takes a team approach, believe, to deal with this issue,” said Scott Wright, director of gerontology at the University of Utah. “So the biggest challenge is to get all these groups to work together so that we can have successful outcomes.”
A reception followed that featured photos from the series by Deseret News photographer Laura Seitz.
