Forum explores caring for elderly among us

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This article was published 20/02/2021 (2053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHY was the COVID-19 pandemic so devastating for older people in personal care homes? What can be done to prevent it in the future? And what is the role of faith groups?

Tackling those questions is the goal of “Who Cares? The Elderly Among Us,” an online forum Wednesday sponsored by Canadian Mennonite University.

“It’s not that cracks in our care for the elderly weren’t there already,” said Heather Campbell-Enns, a professor of psychology at CMU who is hosting the forum. “We’ve known about them for decades. The pandemic exposed them.”

Panellists will talk about how society cares for seniors today, understandings of aging, what we can learn from Indigenous culture about caring for elders, and how faith groups can respond to the issues raised by the impact of the pandemic on older people in care.

“The goal of the evening is not to come up with answers, but to start the conversation,” Campbell-Enns said. “We want to talk about how we can support elderly adults during a pandemic, looking at creative approaches, lessons learned, and how we can be more supportive of each other.”

In addition to the high death toll, the isolation due to the pandemic also impacted many other seniors emotionally and psychologically, Campbell-Enns said. It also hit people hard when seniors died alone.

“It impacted the way we deal with death and dying, and how we grieve,” she said.

For Campbell-Enns, the questions facing faith groups include how they can value and serve older adults, people who “are often invisible in society.”

“They have gifts as well, and we need to see how we can make use of them,” she added.

Panellists at the event are: Gary Ledoux, executive director at Bethania Personal Care Home; Barbara and Clarence Nepinak, Indigenous elders; and seniors Rosalie Loeppky and Walter Wiebe.

The forum runs from 7-8:30 p.m. Visit cmu.ca/face2face for more information.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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