"And Thou Shalt Honor" Program Focuses on Caregiving

by Pamela Piering, Director of ADS

(right) Nora Gibson, executive director of ElderHealth Northwest, and Northwest Caregiving Town Hall Meeting moderator Enrique Cerna, of KCTS Television. (Photo: Therese Frare)

What: "And Thou Shalt Honor"
When: "And Thou Shalt Honor" documentary at 7:00 p.m.
          Town Hall Meeting to follow at 9:00 p.m.
Where: KCTS, Channel 9

Last month I had the privilege of participating in a televised town hall meeting for Northwest family caregivers.  We heard directly from those who care for society's elders about the challenges and the joys of serving loved ones.  While there are programs that are publicly funded to address the needs of caregivers, the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of all care is provided by family and friends.  I know this truth directly, as I am a family caregiver for my 91-year-old mother.

This Northwest Caregiving Town Hall Meeting will now be shown on KCTS Channel 9 on Thursday, September 9, following the rebroadcast of And Thou Shalt Honor, a critically acclaimed documentary on the challenges of family caregiving.  The film airs at 7:00 p.m., the local town hall meeting at 9:00 p.m.

We were joined by the governors of thirteen states for a part of the dialogue.  Here is an interesting summary of that section, as prepared by Mary Koch, who writes for several Eastern Washington weeklies:

I was attending a "Northwest Caregiving Town Meeting" in Seattle last week. I sat in a hotel ballroom filled with people who had poignant, personal stories to tell about caring for family members:

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"I saw my 91-year-old dad cry for the first time." The tall woman had an authoritative manner. Still, she choked backed tears recalling the painful event and added softly, "That was very hard."
 
• One man told of his 87-year-old mother, a stroke survivor, being cared for by his 88-year-old father, who is suffering from macular degeneration. 
  
  
• An American-Chinese man noted that caring for family members is at the core of his culture. His mother, who has Parkinson's disease, has suffered broken ribs from numerous falls, and his wife, a busy young mother and professional woman, nonetheless finds time for the older woman.
  
  
• A man with connections in high places told how he found himself asking some basic questions: "How do I help Dad? Where can I get help?" Even with his connections and to his amazement he discovered, "There was no simple way to find answers."

Those speakers were, in order, the governors of Montana, Idaho, Washington and Virginia. The caregiving meeting was held in tandem with the National Governor's Conference, and about a dozen governors joined the caregivers' discussion.

The people in that room ranged from the powerful to powerless, affluent to scraping-by, urban sophisticates to rural realists. What we all held in common was frustration and love. Three seats down from Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, who chairs the National Governors' Association, sat David, who earns $8.43 an hour as a paid caregiver.  Next to him, in a wheelchair, was David's client. David makes an infinite difference in the life of his client and family. Few families can manage 24-hour care without some paid help or respite. Yet, noted David, our system places minimal value on his work.

Agreeing with him was a family physician from Seattle. "The people in this room are the angels of health care," she said. "They provide 95 percent of the care and get 5 percent of the health care dollar."

For more information

The KCTS website has more information about And Thou Shalt Honor and the Northwest Caregiver Town Meeting. The site also includes a listing of community resources and other useful websites.

The official And Thou Shalt Honor website includes more information about the documentary, as well as news updates for caregivers and a directory of caregiving resources.