Centers for Ending: The Coming Crisis in the Care of Aged People

by the late Seymour B. Sarason, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychology (Springer) The author used his firsthand experience as both practitioner and patient in senior facilities to reveal professional and moral failings. Sarason discusses such issues as insensitive medical personnel, poorly trained nurses and aides, indifferent administrators, and a prevailing culture that is content with treating “bodies” instead of complete human beings. He argues that such deficiencies engender feelings of loneliness, isolation, depression, and dependency among residents of these facilities; and he recommends the formation of a presidential commission to confront the crisis.