Podcast An old issue: EPISODE 10 – Today for Them, Tomorrow for Us! (Part 2)

Hello, I'm Ricardo Crispim, and this is the 10th episode of the podcast "An Old Issue"! I hope everyone is doing well on that side.

In the last episode, I spoke to you about a presentation I made with a group of students at a vocational education institution in Porto.

Here’s a footnote: The project of these young people, involved in the cause of aging and old age, along with other remarkable initiatives, reinforces my belief that it is possible to continue believing in a brighter future for older adults, in other words, for our loved ones and, of course, for ourselves!

Now... Back to the last episode. I shared some tips with you that I got from this participation in Porto. As it is my custom, one of the tips was to ACTUALLY listen to older adults. You know, I truly believe that listening to older people is a superpower. It's a superpower within the reach of very few, and do you know why? Because in most cases, we still insist on treating older adults like giraffes in a zoo. Moving on!

This exercise of active listening puts us in a very interesting position, leading me to the second tip: put ourselves in the shoes of older adults, who, as we know, are often ignored. And, if we do nothing, it is this place of invisibility that will be waiting for us when we grow old!

Lastly, the third and final tip involved staying in a place of restlessness, of unease, and I asked the students to put themselves in this place. The 3 years of training at the school they attend, albeit valuable in providing them with reflective technical skills, are manifestly insufficient for the challenges they will face when entering the job market. Few experiences compare to the wonder of increasing our square meters every day, but also that of those around us.Well, enough of this preamble as the conversation is getting long, so let's move on to the remaining tips!

Notebooks. Yes, my next tip is related to notebooks! I truly believe in the potential of a "simple" notebook.

So, a notebook is an irreplaceable object and is intended to provide a simple and quick place for notes, quick thoughts, to-do lists, drafts, reminders, or any type of information that needs to be recorded quickly and accessibly.

A notebook can be invaluable for jotting down excellent practices, promising practices, good practices, so-so practices, and practices that are complete atrocities against human dignity. In a notebook, we can jot down everything, keep it, and take it home to think about what was written there.

Ok, you already understand that I acknowledge the immense potential in a notebook.

Going back a bit in my story, when I worked in the nursing home and supervised internships, one of the first things I jokingly said to the interns I supervised was, "- If you don't always carry a notebook with you, I'll fail you!" The truth is that a few weeks ago, a former intern, now an excellent professional, spoke to me and confessed that even today, after several years, she always carries a notebook with her.

In an institution, demands are many. It's natural that we might forget something that was said to us. So, if it's noted in the notebook, the risk of forgetting what was said reduces by 99%, according to the International Journal of Notes and Related Materials. An arbitrary article which I found in this journal indexed in nothing referred to the fact that, and I quote: "By recording verbal and behavioral manifestations, not only is the record made, but also the opportunity for a more thorough observation is expanded, allowing, under appropriate circumstances, an effective improvement of the object that benefited from the annotation."

To illustrate the argument presented by the author of this article, I'll share some observations I scribbled in the notebook that's in front of me right now:

Care for older people in nursing homes is deeply exhausted and on a collision course if nothing is done quickly.

Oh, this one's good: Active and healthy aging is not promoted with paternalistic and directive practices where professionals are in charge.

In this notebook, I have also written the following: active and healthy aging will not exist if older adults are not given the opportunity to decide on the most basic things, such as, for example, urinating or defecating in the bathroom whenever they want.

I have also written here that... here it is... evaluating is a right of older adults living in these institutions. In most situations, older people are relegated to peripheral positions when evaluating something, erroneously assuming that they lack reflective abilities to evaluate an activity in which they have been involved. This evaluation should, in fact, involve dialogue and active listening instead of simple paper questionnaires.

One of the last things I wrote in this notebook has to do with the absurdity of having to create and finance intergenerational projects because if these are not created, the young and the old do not associate. This only proves that not only are we not smarter, but we are just like our counterparts from the Stone Age. And, even in the Stone Age, it seems they protected each other more than we do today.

That's it for today. I have a few more notes here, but I'll let them mature. Thank you for being on the other side and for helping me think.

I remind you that InEnglish is supporting this podcast by providing the full translation into English of what I say here. I'll leave the link in the description.

I’m counting on you in the next episode. Oh, by the way, in the next episode, I will discuss the following question: Do the old vote? Can the old vote? Until then.

I'm Ricardo Crispim. Take care.