End of Life Education Programs will not start in January, but later in the spring due to the severity of the flu in Colorado and our whole country.
End of Life Education, which has in the past met the third Thursday of the month at the Community United Methodist Church at 434 Lewis St., is being postponed until later in the spring.
Last week Joan Mieritz turned in an article to The SUN on Monday morning thinking we’d get an early start on End of Life Education programs. On Tuesday we heard on national news that Colorado was the state with the highest incidence of the flu in the nation. Later there was news that 15 million cases of flu have been reported in the U.S., 180,000 hospitalizations have happened and 7,400 flu deaths have happened already this year.
Later in the week there was other really bad flu information that a major problem this year is that the virus selected to make the flu vaccine last August mutated and is no longer a problem. The good news is that those having been vaccinated should still have lower incidence of hospitalization and death.
This past week New York surpassed Colorado for having the most flu, but both states have record breaking numbers.
We will have to wait until flu season is safely over before we can meet to study End of Life Education.
End of Life Education is a difficult topic, but many people have been helped by the talks, lectures and discussions held in the past. Our culture has not developed to accept death as part of life. I have never heard of anyone being too prepared.
Mieritz will again be facilitating the programs and is looking for a few helpers to set up tables, etc. and clean up after the program. We would also like someone to lead people attending do brief balance exercises as a break. There was a balance program given several years ago in Pagosa and we can use the book to create a shortened version of exercises. Falls are one of the most dangerous problems for seniors as they age. Balance exercises are simple, but very effective.
Check The SUN for future articles on End of Life Education.
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