Security v. Freedom

 In an article for HomeAid Health Care's blog, its Director of Operations, Kate McCarthy, considers how Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs relates to Late Adulthood.  

Here's how Kate describes Level Two, Security (Safety):

Once physical survival is safeguarded the next rung up the ladder is security.  This is an issue that many adult children of aging parents worry about and often the source of conflict between the generations. 

The elderly, especially those who feel vulnerable due to injury or illness, desire a sense of security. Yet they will often react with anger at being treated like a toddler, especially from their offspring. 

Sensitivity is needed when discussing security concerns such as driving, maintaining the house or even being alone at home.  When intervention is taken for safety sake, the aging can strongly react to the loss of their independence.  It is wise to replace that loss through transportation services and in-home care.


Excuse me, but I think she misses the mark.  It practically took my breath away that the first thing she talks about relates to adult children of elderly parents, not to the aged parents.  Where is a mention of the reality that no matter how much we do to ensure the safety & security of older family & friends, THEY know how vulnerable they still remain to falls & unexpected hospitalizations?  Not a peep about the reality that every day they face that fear.   

 

Am stunned reading, "The elderly, especially those who feel vulnerable due to injury or illness, desire a sense of security."  ALL of my significantly older friends feel vulnerable TO injury & unexpected illness.  No matter how fit they are, each knows he or she could suddenly need a wheelchair, a move from independent living to "personal" care.  Those fears hang like a sword of Damocles!  

Kate might have loads of credentials & training, while I have none, but what she wrote about Maslow's 2nd Level just seems so off base to me.  Winced reading, "It is wise to replace (a sense of lost independence) through transportation services and in-home care."  Seriously?  Arranged transportation services & in-home care underscore & highlight the loss of the basic freedoms that are foundational to independence, freedoms so much a part of our normal lives, we don't even realize they exist until they are gone.  


Take it from me - there's not a elderly dependent person on the planet who doesn't know all too well that...