Summary: A person who is 50 years old today has a good chance of living into his or her mid-80s-but with that longevity comes a higher likelihood of a decline in brain function as life nears its end. With this in mind, neuroscientists have created a system for strengthening the brain and improving its performance. In this documentary, Michael Merzenich of The University of California, San Francisco, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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: 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 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
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: 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: In this program, Joan M. Erikson describes her search for a better living situation for her frail husband, Erik H. Erikson, and then presents a poignant recounting of his subsequent death. She uses these experiences to suggest strategies to meet the physical and emotional needs of the fragile elderly and to support those who work with them. With a personal understanding of the challenges of old...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1995
View online at AVOD
Summary: Developmental psychologists Paul and Margret Baltes proposed a model of adaptive competence for the entire life span, but the emphasis here is on old age. In this program, the Baltes illustrate their SOC (selection, optimization, and compensation) model with engaging vignettes of senior citizens leading fulfilling lives, including writers Betty Friedan and Joan Erikson and dancer Bud Mercer....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
View online at AVOD
Summary: Betty Friedan, who originally gained fame for her pivotal role in the Women’s Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, continued to be an insightful and outspoken social critic for the rest of her life. In this program, Friedan discusses the research she did about the myths and realities of aging and her personal experience of being over 70. Her zesty style of speaking and her sharp analysis of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1994
View online at AVOD
Summary: “Wisdom and integrity are something that other people may see in an old person, but it’s not what that old person is feeling.” In this program, Joan M. Erikson offers a frank and personal reexamination of the last stage of the life cycle—a stage she believes that she and her husband, Erik H. Erikson, tended to romanticize when they formulated their eight-stage life cycle theory decades earlier....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1995
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program describes the physical and psychological characteristics of the three stages of adult development, along with some factors that influence wellness as men and women age. Universal determinants of health are covered, including lifestyle choices, gender differences, and environmental conditions. Addressing the emotional development of adults, the video outlines Erik Erikson's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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: 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: 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
View online at AVOD
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: As people get older, the information they receive from their eyes and ears becomes degraded and the brain's ability to make sense of that information slows, putting elderly people in jeopardy of losing their independence. But what if a person could do something to dramatically improve his or her senses and cognitive abilities? This program, specifically designed to help people get the most from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: When a patient at a long-term care facility is depressed, confused, or displays aggressive behavior, it can create a stressful environment for other residents as well as numerous frustrations for the staff. This program is designed to help nursing assistants build support skills and develop a bedside manner as they meet the emotional needs of patients-while also avoiding burnout. Topics include...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Every day, 25 million Americans provide care for loved ones. This program, hosted by NewsHour's Ray Suarez, looks at the rich rewards and wisdom that often attend such care, as well as at the hard work that home healthcare entails. Drawing on the direct experience of family members and others, including author Beth Witrogen McLeod-whose book Caregiving, the Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: When a loved one's fate lies in another's hands, the decisions can be overwhelming. This program, hosted by NewsHour's Ray Suarez, follows two families as they grapple with life-and-death decisions inside an ICU. A doctor, an ethicist, and others help these families through the process of making decisions on behalf of those who are no longer able to communicate their wishes. La Vera Crawley, of...
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: 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: 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