78 million members of the baby boom generation are now beginning to enter their retirement years. Many will live into their eighties, nineties, or even beyond. They will offer rich gifts of wisdom and experience, but they will also strain society’s financial and health care resources. Many will ultimately contend with Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia.
Some find the figures alarming. By age 65, studies suggest that one person in eight may already have Alzheimer’s disease, usually undiagnosed and asymptomatic. Of those who live to 85, half will develop some form of dementia. How will we honor our friendships when our cherished friend no longer remembers us? How will the structures of our communities need to change to serve the needs of those journeying into memory loss and dementia? How can we find new ways to think about dementia as a part of our shared experience rather than as an individual medical problem? These and other themes will be explored in a Citizen Reach presentation offered by Susan and John McFadden at the Au Train Community Center from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thurdsay August 26.
Dr. Susan H. McFadden is Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. The primary focus of her work has been on the challenges and opportunities presented by aging and later life. Rev. John T. McFadden spent more than thirty years in parish ministry, and currently serves as workplace chaplain for Goodwill Industries of North Central Wisconsin. Together they have written a book titled “Aging Together: Dementia, Friendship and Flourishing Communities” to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in spring of 2011. In their book, they explore how we can maintain relationships centered in love and joy when a friend travels “the dementia road,” and how communities (including religious congregations) can value and include persons in the various stages of dementia.
John and Susan have owned a cottage on Sixteen Mile Lake for the past 12 years and hope to spend more time in the area as they enter their own retirement years. They have a particular interest in how smaller communities that are home to many retirees (as is increasingly true in the Munising - Au Train area) can serve as models of healthy integration of older residents, including those contending with progressive memory loss.
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WELCOME FRIEND, I offer you an intelligent perspective of AuTrain Township government.Please take some time to read these short articles.Whatever your reactions,I sincerely hope you will be enthused about attending the AuTrain Township Meetings.Please come to the Township Board Meetings; bring your ideas in person.Bring a neighbor. I'll see you there.... Peace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IN MY OPINION:
