Excerpt from: Forbes (click for full article)
Yesterday morning, a veteran of the decades-long effort to improve the way we deliver and pay for long-term supports and services asked me a question. Why, he wondered, should he believe that recent attempts to reform long-term care could succeed when so many previous initiatives have failed. Last evening, I may have found an answer.
My wife and I went to see a powerful play called How to Write a New Book for the Bible. It is an unsparing look at the real-life experiences of the author, Bill Cain, who cared for his mother during the last year of her life. Cain, a Jesuit priest and writer, absolutely nailed the reality of caregiving— the pain, the intimacy, and even the humor.
But the play got me thinking about my friend’s question: How is it different this time? The answer may be that caregiving is finding its way into the arts and popular culture in ways that it never has before. And that may both reflect changing public opinion and drive policy reform in ways traditional lobbying cannot.
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