February 4 Forum

The Salus Forum was convened for the eighteenth time on February 4, 2026. In attendance were Mitch Applegate, William Bergquist, Jeremy Fish, Bill Gillanders, Walt Mills, Jeff Smith, Gay Teurman, Mark Vukalcic, and Jack Westfall. The Trigger topic for this forum was provided by Dr. Bergquist who introduced the concept of late-life doula. The ensuing dialogue centered on the potential role to be played in contemporary health care systems by this proposed new form of human service for the elders in our communities.

Following is a narrative based on the February 4 Salus Forum dialogue:

Bill B

In some ways this very project we’re involved all of us together, relates to some things we’ve always been involved with at PSP or the professional school of psychology, which as Gay Turman was saying involves where the cutting edge of psychology and one of them is obviously in health and the relationship of health to psychology.  Close related to that is a major disease that we’re all going to suffer from at some point.

And that I personally am already suffering from it’s called growing older.  And it’s one of those diseases that we don’t get over.  Matter of fact, I think as many of you as physicians are fully aware, there’s not a lot of incentive for many physicians and other people in the healthcare profession to work with the older population because, in some sense, they don’t get over this particular disease.

I would like to briefly talk about some ideas I have about how do we address some of the major challenges we face during what I’m calling (and some other people are calling) the third act of life.  The first act is usually thought of as the first act of being when we’re successful as adults in life and the second act being when we retire. There’s a lot written about the second act.  As a man who’s now eighty-five years old, I think there’s a third act. Some of the issues I’m going through now in my life are a bit different from what I was going through when I was a younger man. Which brings in the notion of something called the doula.