Value the purpose of life. I met a care manager at a Community Comprehensive Care Center
On the other day, I went to a Community Comprehensive Care Center which is in charge of the area where my parents live in Yokosuka for the first time and I met a care manager.
The center is located on the top of the hill in Yokosuka from where the Tokyo bay can be overviewed.
What I consulted was about 83-year old my mother living apart
My mother worked as a nursery teacher until retirement.
After retirement, she has continued her volunteer activities to read aloud picture books to babies, child students and elderlies visiting elementary schools, district centers and nursing homes with her friends.
However since March this year due to COVID-19, all the activities have been stopped. She no longer goes out except walking to nearby supermarkets for shopping.
Maybe because of that, she has been forgetting things a lot lately. She often forgets what I say, and repeats the same story over and over. She looks having trouble hearing and may have difficulties to keep up with family conversations.
Even if her volunteer activities get restarted, she may not be able to work well as before. Hence it may be possible that she would not be able to continue the activities in near future.
Then more and more she may have difficulties to keep her memory and it would become difficult to continue living with my father in their own house.
Suddenly I noticed and became worried.
Community Comprehensive Care Center is a place to consult anything related to elderly people
Well, I, myself pay nursing insurance fee every month but I had no idea how to use it. I also learned first time ever, that nursing insurance system and organization are driven by the municipality.
The Community Comprehensive Care Center is a community base where we can consult with care managers and professional carers about anything related to elderly people living in the community. Even citizens who don’t use nursing insurance yet are welcome to consult. Not only for family but also for elderlies in the neighborhood, we can consult with them.
But what is it like exactly? It’s not as familiar as a school or a hospital as we can imagine.
I was a little nervous when I made a first call. However, a care manager picked up the phone right away and listened to me. I took an appointment and promised to visit the following week.
The purpose of life is essential for everyone
I asked my mother to come with, but she said “I’m still good, I don’t need public support”, so I visited by myself.
The care manager said, “oh, she does reading aloud? That’s a wonderful hobby. The purpose of life is very important to elderly people, too. Please support your mother to continue.”
The care manager immediately understood after hearing my explanations that “reading aloud of picture books is an important purpose of life” for my mother.
Honestly, I have never thought of my mother’s hobby or activity as “her purpose of life”.
My mother is looking forward to join the activities restarted as soon as COVID-19 gets calm down. However, I totally thought that she could no longer continue them in near future.
Instead of thinking that “she will no longer able to continue”, I learned to change my mind to see things from different perspective as “how can she continue? and what I can do for it?”
I also consulted all other worries about my parents’ living by themselves, what kind of care services they can use, and how I can take care of them living apart etc.
The care manager gave me professional advices and she proposed to visit my parents’ house if they were OK.
I wish to be cared by such professionals when I gets old enough!
Do what you like. Keep playing
In Tazuko Masuyama’s photo book, there are many pictures included that lots of elderly people work joyfully in nature. She was an amateur photographer who had started to take pictures of her home village Tokuyama-mura, that was submerged by dam construction.
She wrote, “there is no elderlies with dementia in this village”. There are many things to do by each season, they receive lots of gifts from mountains and rivers, and they make necessities for their life by hand.
They look so flourishing. There must be lots of tough things in the village life, however she said even about the winter with heavy snow, ” We really look forward to the winter. We have dinner and drinking party all the time with neighbors.”
It looks that life, work and play would be in one continuity.
Even in the city, there used to be active elderlies. The retired senior citizens in the Edo era, were busy joining seasonal events such as cherry-blossom viewing, autumn foliage hunting, going out to see Kabuki plays, and eating delicious seasonal foods. They played much!
I think, “the purpose of life” is to keep playing what you like continuously as long as you live.
The purpose of life is different for each person. There also may be a purpose of life, “why does he/she do such a thing?”
However, as we all become adults, we would like to be free from the evaluation of others and keep playing, wouldn’t we? While I can, as much as possible.
The care manager said, “about driving a car, we consider very carefully. Retiring the driver’s license sometimes make some people so demotivated.”
As we gets older, we may be shocked by the inability, comparing with ourselves in the younger age..
That’s why I think it would be better to have as much “purpose of life” as possible.
Let’s play!
