Summary: Most people are unwilling to confront aging-even many seniors live in denial of it. Some fear losing their independence and autonomy, while others simply can't accept the graying of their hair. This program explores the varied landscape of aging in America, presenting the realities-physical, medical, emotional, and economic-of growing old in a youth-obsessed society. Whether they are well off...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Thanks to recent advances in medicine, longevity is on the rise. But will America's youth-oriented society finally develop the maturity to respect its elders? And will the Medicare and Social Security infrastructures be able to meet the needs of the Baby Boomers? In this program, experts including medical ethicist David Solomon, the directors of the Aging with Dignity Institute and the Forever...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program addresses the problem of anxiety in the elderly and the diseases associated with the problem. Interviews with sufferers of GAD, Geriatric Anxiety Disorder, provide insights into the agony of the condition. General anxiety disorders, their symptoms, and physiological manifestations are examined, including chemical imbalance, psychosocial implications, and the emotional impact on the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Aging is a series of transitions, some gradual and some abrupt. How do people come to terms with these changes? This program examines the aging process from beginning to end, defining age from the viewpoints of biology, psychology, society, functionality, and the law. The impact of current behaviors and attitudes on one's future self is also discussed, as well as dying-itself a part of life-and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: At the end of life, what many Americans want is physical and spiritual comfort in a home setting. In this program, veteran PBS journalist Bill Moyers presents the important strides being made in the area of palliative care at pioneering institutions such as New York's Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. These advances are bringing peace to those who fear that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The news of a loved one's impending death is often accompanied by an initial reaction of fear. In this program, introduced by NewsHour's Ray Suarez and facilitated by Frank Ostaseski, founder of San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project, seven everyday people reflect on their experiences with loss, grief, and healing. Discussing what they fear, how they would say good-bye, and other deeply personal...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Raising complex and timely questions about the warehousing of America's prison population, this program accompanies photographer Ron Levine on his mission to depict the physical, emotional, and psychological conditions of aging inmates-including those nearing death. Levine focuses his work on Alabama's Hamilton Institute for the Aged and Infirm, the first prison created specifically for elderly...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Whether they want to or not, four out of five Americans will likely die in hospitals or nursing homes, and the care they get will depend on both who is providing it and who is footing the bill. In this program, veteran PBS journalist Bill Moyers introduces crusading medical professionals-including staff members of the Balm of Gilead Project in Birmingham, Alabama-who have dedicated themselves...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, NewsHour correspondent Susan Dentzer reports on life and death in Sun City, Arizona, a vibrant retirement community where hospice is the preferred form of end-of-life care. Dartmouth Medical School's John Wennberg and others consider the desire of many senior citizens with terminal illnesses to make peace with death rather than fight it. They also confront the fact that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although many cultures venerate their elders, looking to them as living repositories of wisdom and experience, America, with its "forever young" self-image, does not. Lacking societal support, how are Americans supposed to age well-to grow older with grace and understanding-and make life's final decades a meaningful experience? This program features the stories of exemplary individuals who,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Faced with complex regimens of medication and diminished tolerances for alcohol, many elderly Americans run the risk of falling into the trap of substance abuse. In this program from The Doctor Is In, senior citizens discuss how they deal with these challenges, while Dr. James Campbell, director of the geriatric center at MetroHealth Medical Center, and Carol Colleran Egan, director of older...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Death, which sooner or later comes to all, is treated as a strangely taboo subject in America. In this program, veteran PBS journalist Bill Moyers describes the search for new ways of thinking-and talking-about dying. Forgoing the usual reluctance that most Americans show toward speaking about death, patients and medical professionals alike come forward to examine the end of life with honesty,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Franca and Peter Napoli said a long goodbye to their 4-year-old daughter Christina, who died of a brain tumor. Linda and Glen Woods lost two sons, one in a car accident, one to suicide. And Margaret and former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau's son Michel drowned. In this powerful program, three couples describe the ordeal of losing a child and their search for meaning in the face of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This informative program explores the choices open to terminally ill patients and their families, presenting the options available for comfortable end-of-life care that attends to physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Medical experts and caregivers discuss the difficult choices that arise, including the moral and legal controversies and medical options available when a cure is no longer an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: As many as one in five older Americans have late-life depression, which can lead to suicide. In this program from The Doctor Is In, three senior citizens describe how they have coped with this life-threatening illness. Medical commentary is provided by Charles Reynolds III, director of the Late-Life Depression Evaluation and Treatment Center at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the drive to save lives, American medical technology prolongs the dying process for many, creating a number of end-of-life scenarios that have done much to rob death of its dignity and significance. This Fred Friendly Seminar, moderated by Harvard Law School's Arthur Miller, brings together a diverse group of panelists, including Yale professor Sherwin Nuland, author of How We Die;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: More and more Americans are looking for opportunities to exert some measure of control over where and how they die. In this program, veteran PBS journalist Bill Moyers unravels the complexities underlying the many choices at the end of life, including the bitter debate over physician-assisted suicide. Three patients, their families, and their doctors discuss some of the hardest decisions,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: To decrease the suffering of terminally ill patients, some doctors routinely prescribe strong painkillers-medications that, in effect, actually hasten the patient's death. What distinguishes such treatment from physician-assisted suicide? This program discusses legislative initiatives designed to protect patients from "disguised euthanasia"-and addresses the volatile question of whether such...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006