Lastly, the environment of a "cold, sterile, large building" such as your offices or hospitals are quite foreign and distasteful to most rural elders.

As urban health care providers, we rarely even notice the familiar noises of machines, sirens, and helicopters. However, every sound is unfamiliar and disruptive to the rural elder.

Relaxation is all but impossible in such an environment when a lifetime has been spent in the open countryside -- nights with nature sounds and moonlight skies, fresh air via an open window, the ability to escape dangers of fires when sleeping on a ground floor, and surrounded by family and lifetime friends.

Copyright 2000