Unseasonably cold, driving rain and soupy mud greeted the 400 kids taking on the 5.7-kilometre Little Mudder course at Otway on Thursday. The risk of catching a cold, twisting an ankle or bruising a shin was certainly there but the chances of youngsters having fun, accomplishing a goal that takes perseverance and getting filthy in the process were much higher.
Now imagine busloads of seniors, coming from nursing homes and assisted-living facilities across Prince George, heading out to do the same thing.
It's the same course, same cold and wet conditions but somehow what's safe for immature children is irresponsibly risky for seniors with decades of life experience. Instead, today's seniors are too often treated like toddlers, unable to decide for themselves that the muddy good time to be had on an outdoor obstacle course isn't worth the risk of falling and fracturing a femur. This isn't just the concerns of overly cautious care facility administrators but a society that sees old people like fine china - valuable, fragile collectibles that should be locked away in the cupboard so they don't get broken.
Put another way, it seems seniors, regardless of their mental and physical health, shouldn't have any fun or any control of their lives. Instead, they should sit patiently in their wheelchairs, safe from injury, waiting for their next meal, their next visitors and death.
The ongoing construction of new seniors facilities and the plans to build more in Prince George are necessary developments as a growing segment of the population, particularly the baby boomers, move into their elder years.
Putting up four walls is easy. Making them more than warehouses for the old will be the hard part.
In his book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In The End, Dr. Atul Gawande talks about the despair found in traditional seniors facilities, with their lack of privacy, strict schedules and safety-first institutional practices. Seniors sharing a room with a stranger and then waking up, eating, going to the toilet, having a bath, receiving visitors and going to bed, all on the institution's schedule, is the same procedure used in hospitals and jails. Even seniors with chronic health conditions don't deserve to be treated as patients or prisoners.
Gawande points to a growing movement to house seniors with dignity, which means putting their individual needs over the smooth, efficient operation of the facility and structured staff procedures. That means a small collection of private rooms with easy access to common areas to cook, eat and socialize, something much closer to a real home.
That means allowing the residents to get up when they want, go to bed when they want, eat when they want and socialize with whom they wish, when they wish, as long as they aren't being disruptive. That means letting the residents personalize their living spaces with plants and even pets.
That means a broader definition of health and safety, one that puts quality of life ahead of risk of harm.
If the diabetic wants a piece of cake on her birthday, she can dig in with childish glee in front of the nurses, rather than sneaking it behind their backs.
If the 95-year-old prone to fainting spells wants to go for a walk in the sunshine, he stands, grips his walker and heads outside, without having to get permission from someone who will say he would be safer inside, sitting in a wheelchair.
Seniors, like the youngest of children and certainly like all adults, want to decide for themselves how to fill their days with both routine and freedom, both privacy and community, to a degree that gives each day meaning.
"In modern society, we have come to assume that debility and dependence rule out such autonomy," Gawande writes.
It's great to see beautiful, modern buildings under construction specifically for seniors, especially as the vacancy rate for seniors housing continues to drop, across the province and the Prince George region.
Seniors, regardless of their ability to take care of their personal needs, deserve more than a roof over their heads, three squares a day and a warm bed. They deserve the control to throw caution to the wind, to have some fun, to feel the sun on their face and that burst of sugary goodness from a piece of chocolate cake they really shouldn't be having.
It might not always be the safest way to live but that's what living should look like at the end of life.
