Elder care and nursing homes in the United States of America

This episode is another based on group therapy and what I’m dealing with my mother being in a nursing home.  These are observations I have made for my mother as well as the other residents of the home.

The reading is Whitmans “Thanks or old age”

I also use the bill Murray film Groundhog Day to express the similarities between repetition and seeing your life from point of old age.

Today’s episode is an update on my life dealing with my mom in a nursing home.  I went to group therapy and told them what I feeling.  They told me I was angry because my own life had disappeared.  I don’t agree.

The reading is HP Lovecraft’s “Dagon”.  I chose it for obvious reasons.

If you are a victim of rape like me or any kind of abuse you can always reach out to me and talk.  I’m here to listen 

No judgment ever

Respect vs Rules

In this episode my topic is based on my experiences with my mom’s nursing home and all the paperwork involved with her care.

I talk about the nucleus of medica in America: who’s gonna pay this bill?

I read from Irving Goffman’s “Asylums”.  I focus on the binary deviations of organizational structure and function.  These revolve around the private vs public, as well as, the individual vs group.

In the end this episode is about the roles we play in society and our inability to accept the natural law of our roles changing over time.

Ray Bradbury once called people “books just walking around”.  Well, I believe people are time machines too.

This episode I continue documenting my life as I transition my mother to nursing care.  I talk about packing her stuff and it ending up in storage.  I talk about her sadness turning to anger at her aging goes natural, but wrong according to her reality.

I read Mending wall by Robert frost 

Today’s episode is based on recent events involving my mother and her falling.  She had been living on her own and fell.  Luckily the pharmacy was delivering her meds and found her.  No one knows for sure how long she was out.

I look at the past week and how it is going being her son.  Am I a good son?

I read the funeral poem by Mary Frye, do not stand at my grave and weep.

There is no reference to group therapy in this episode.

Today’s episode is based on holidays and their meaning within the framework of the celebration itself. I take some the analysis from our group session.

I read “Nature” from Longfellow. I think it is a great poem on death.

What is Halloween?  Christian or Gaelic or other?

What is it to be religious in todays world? Of celebration of the dead?

This episode is about reflective morality.  I read from the book, The moral life by John Dewey.

Ethics is defined as the science of conduct within the ranges of good/bad or good/evil.

I discuss my metaphor for ethics: driving an automobile.

I also discuss Bentham and the concept within Philosophy of law :legal positivism.  I talk about the justice/revenge paradigm as well as topics of conformity and application of law as it resides in the punishment of not conforming.

This episode is just basic celebration stuff.  I talk about being a suicide and keeping time..  I talk about my best friend in grade school.

I read from “Something wicked this way comes” by Ray Bradbury.

Happy Birthday to all of You!!

Form follows Function.  Or so it goes.

This episode again ventures into political philosophy here in America while at the same time dealing with some opinions of mine about my group therapy format.

The reading for this episode is taken from the Federalist Papers: specifically, no. 10.

James Madison admits something about the human that have always found a bit shocking; especially for someone supporting the revolution against King George.

At the nucleus of any group dynamic is trust. This trust is based on the mutualism agreed upon so the group can function as a group and meet all the needs for its individual participants. 

this episode is a tangent of the standard as summer has made group therapy light in attendance and topics thinner than usual.  This episode deals with the timeless assumption that america is an asylum.

Asylum is defined as a place or people that needs care.  I think that fits perfectly.

I maintain the format by reading prior to podcast, and this time I go with “Democracy in America” written by Alexis De Tocqueville.  I read from Volume 1, the introduction as it begins with a history lesson of his homeland of France and rides out upon the day on the horse of equality which I refer to as a sensation (my words not his).

I may or may not make a series of this topic during the Melting months of hellsummerhound.