February 4 Forum

Bill B

There’s also the matter of money. One’s financial base is a huge issue for many older people.  And it goes far beyond just simply whether you’re having someone help manage your portfolio.  What do we want to do with our money?  Do we want to have money for our children?  Do we want to live off where we are?  These are big, tricky issues. Do we even talk to our kids about our finances?  The whole issue of legacy, how often the way in which money gets distributed has a massive impact on families. The separation of children from one another.  Those are really difficult family dynamics that are going on.  And they’re not there earlier in life. They may start talking about it earlier, but the rubber hits the road at some point a little later.

Walt

Bill, I have a question about the late-life Doula. Could you go back to how you were thinking about what the definition is when you first presented?  So, I am at least a bit clearer.

Bill B

It’s interesting. The original Greek term is “servant”.  And if we think of the servant, and traditionally they were involved in all aspects of one’s life to support and serve. So, the child Doula is someone who’s working with the woman who’s about to give birth in many different ways, all the way from setting up the room where they want to deliver the baby to helping the prospective parents decide at any one point if they want to go to the hospital or stay at home.

Who’s going to be a birth doula?  What kind of training should they receive? And to what extent do they provide prospective parents with any training?  They’re not necessarily doing the training, but what kind of training does the woman get?  Does the husband join in?  How do they deal with the finances associated with birth and raising the child?  All of this is important for the prospective parents to consider. So, the Doula was someone engaged with all aspects of childbirth.

And an end-of-life Doula also provides services beyond the regular expectation of someone involved in hospice or someone providing medical support. However, I think we need to expand the notion of Doula to the provision of services over an extended period of time and to a wide range of late-life issues. Furthermore, I think the challenge I am offering you is health related. I think all the stuff we’re talking about here has to do with our health.  And Jack, I think that for most of us, we’re a little bit more vulnerable later in life in terms of our health. There are new forms of stress. A little bit of uncertainty can have an impact on us that may be greater than when we’re twenty years old.