Webinar urges action to help elderly, suffering from dementia

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), dementia has become a global epidemic. Among the 50 million people who have dementia worldwide, 6.2 million of them are Americans. That number may double in 20 years. There are only approximately two million beds in licensed facilities throughout the U.S.

During the July 26 webinar entitled, "Dignity and Dementia: Mapping the Church's Response to the Coming Crisis," Charles Camosy, author and associate professor of bioethics at Fordham University, said that COVID-19 has given society an opportunity to finally start talking openly and honestly about issues related to those who have dementia. In his recent book, "Losing Our Dignity," he challenges society to move forward with urgency and choose a path with clear social and moral benefits before the upcoming crisis spirals out of control.

Camosy met with other Catholic panelists:

• Kathyrn Jean Lopez, moderator of the discussion and Chair of the Pro-Life Commission of the New York Diocese;
• Occupational therapist, Sister Constance Veit, director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor, a religious order devoted to the service of the elderly poor;
• Another occupational therapist, Erin Younkins, director of the Office of Life, Justice and Peace for the Archdiocese of Baltimore;
• The Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann, Bishop of Orange, CA, actively participates in The Whole Person Care Initiative.  

Greg Metzger from New City Press team helped host the event.

During the pandemic, some families were not allowed to see their loved ones in nursing homes or assisted living centers.

As an occupational therapist, Younkins said she had seen a considerable increase in deaths from people with dementia over the past 18 months. "Isolation was definitely a big part of it." Sometimes when she walked into a patient's room with dementia, she would see a breakfast tray sitting untouched because no one had come to remind the patient to eat. And then again, at lunchtime, it's taken away and straightened out. The lucky patients are fed by their friends or family members, or additional caregivers. She said, "many families hire a caregiver because the level of care is lacking at some of these facilities." 

Sister Constance, who has dedicated her life to caring for the elderly, has also seen a decline mentally and physically in the elderly who did not have COVID due to a "lack of human interaction and meaningful engagement in activities. We became totally focused on protecting them from the virus. And yet, for many of them, they were languishing behind closed doors in isolation in their rooms," she said. 

"We have a lot of goodwill in our homes as little sisters and yet, what always gets the top attention is something that would get us in trouble in the survey. The major thing driving us is the regulatory guidelines." She said that during the pandemic, staff was limited by local, state or national level health departments and the CMS Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services on how much they were able to do to enrich their client's lives – "right down to the nitty-gritty."

They all agreed that as Church, we need to look at how to advocate for people and facilities – to make sure that our Catholic medical facilities are leading the way with the highest and best level of care and advocate for non-Catholic institutional residents.

More questions than answers were broached on the subject of caring for the elderly outside of institutions: How do we alleviate the challenges of caregivers, children, husbands and wives when their loved one loses access to socializing in their parishes or religious communities? How are we supporting families at the parish level who have to take care of grandma or grandpa or their spouse or parents? And how are we as a community surrounding those people to make sure that we can meet the needs of all these folks?

"Can the Church be at the forefront of helping people? Reach out to others in real embodied relationships, mutually beneficial, mutually life-giving, mutually energizing, mutually enriching relationships that we've already heard several people talk about, not just through the organization of parishes and dioceses. If we're going to really believe that they [the elderly] are our equals, we need to act like it," Camosy said.

"It seems to me; we have to reinforce that it's not somebody else's responsibility. It's ours, mine, yours," Bishop Vann said. "Don't wait to be asked."

Bishop Vann has been an advocate for the elderly since the 1980s when he was a parish priest, "nursing home folks were sick and dying from a real lack of human interaction." Even then, he said, many times, they were over-medicated and left in the halls. "I really tried to talk to them to get a response." 

He spoke about the "Caring for the Whole Person Initiative" as one powerful way the Church can accompany those most in need. The initiative of the Bishops of California and the leaders of Catholic Health Care, is "that all persons in congregations, communities and health care systems are loved, wanted and worthy, and will be prepared for and supported in health and serious illness through the end of life."

As an occupational therapist, Younkins said that it's a tremendous gift to work with people who have lived a lifetime. "It's a disservice to the younger generations to try to shield them from the reality of what death is and how beautiful it can be." She said that sometimes it takes a simple human contact, letting them touch your face or see your baby. "Maybe for those uncomfortable with making physical contact, they can help build a ramp outside their house, widen the doorway so they can get their wheelchair through. Parish leadership can call on people within their parish who might be nurses, therapists, or social workers. Have conversations about your experiences with the elderly and how meaningful those relationships are."

One of the listeners, Richard [no last name] texted Lopez, the webinar facilitator, in her Q&A box. She said, "Richard points out that he'd like to hear us talk a little bit more about the positive aspects of dementia. '– My wife has been declining for over 12 years, but this has been perhaps the richest time of our lives. To take one key example: forgetting and ignorance are occasions for a renewed sense of wonder. We go on walks every day, and where I see just another Robin, she smiles and points with delight at the wonderful creature, the name of what she cannot remember,'" she read. "And it underscores what you were saying, Sister Constance. "This is about human love – just being human with one another. And that's part of the problem. Isn't it? The dehumanization that we have across the board, where we see problems, not people. We also think we have to have the answer when it's God's grace that's going to get us through. Isn't it?"

This webinar draws inspiration from the book "Losing our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine Is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality" by Charles Camosy. You can order the book HERE.

To view the webinar in its entirety go  HERE.