From the Missouri State Library:
A feature-length documentary chronicling a year in the life of a retirement community in America's Midwest will premiere on PBS this month.
Almost Home (http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/almosthome/), which will air on February 21, appears on PBS just as a tidal wave of baby boomers reaches their 60s, meaning that half of our country is reckoning either with its own aging or that of a loved one. Almost Home follows one couple bonded by their struggle with Alzheimer's and another divided by the challenges of Parkinson's; "sandwich generation" children torn between caring for their parents and managing their own affairs; nursing assistants doing crucial but unsavory work for poverty wages while juggling precarious lives at home; healthy elders who fear the day they may have to move to the dreaded nursing home; and a visionary nursing home director feverishly working to alleviate such fear by transforming his impersonal, regimented hospital-like institution into a warm "home" that promotes autonomy and inspires independence instead of fear.
Many state associations committed to nursing home reform and changing the culture of aging are planning private viewings of the film and hosting discussions and forums throughout the spring. I encourage public libraries to contact local or state senior services agency or the Pioneer Network (http://www.pioneerexchange.org/), if your state has one, to find out how the public library can be involved in this awareness raising effort.
Thanks,
Nancee
Nancee Dahms-Stinson
Consultant, Youth & Senior Services
Missouri State Library
nancee.dahms-stinson@sos.mo.gov
http://www.sos.mo.gov/library/development/
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