Three Secrets of Living Well

A grant from Community Health Network Area (CHNA) 15 supported this fourth series of FISCO event.

The Friends of Indian Senior Citizens Organization (FISCO) of Burlington MA held its fourth  seminar   â€œThree Secrets of Living Well” on January 25 at the Burlington Council of Aging. This presentation  was designed to make seniors aware of the fact that we all plan for retirement and travels but not so much about health and aging which is critical to productive and healthy living in later years of life.

Two speakers from EpioneMD , an online platform which provides virtual advance care planning and serious illness coaching to individuals and caregivers, presented the seminar. Dr. Ashwini Bapat, founder of EpioneMD and Lisa Catalano, a social worker with EpioneMD, walked through the steps to navigate aging and illness with confidence.

They  started the presentation by asking audience to define their values and understand the resources available to them. The health value is critical to wellbeing of an individual along with the awareness of the available resources like home care, support groups and care availability in the later years.

They explained palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.

Palliative care is provided by a specially trained team of doctors, nurses and other specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. The care is based on the needs of the patient, not on the patient’s prognosis. It can be administered irrespective of age or any stage in a serious illness. It provides service which includes improvement of quality of life  with advance care planning, family and Care giver support , relief of suffering from symptoms and stress and finally hospice care to provide dignity, humanity and connections.

Finally, they discussed how to develop a personalized advance care plan and framework for making healthcare decisions. The Health Care Proxy which is a simple legal document that allows one to name someone you know and trust to make health care decisions for you if, for any reason and at any time, you become unable to make or communicate those decisions.  Living will  specify the type of medical treatments an individual wants or does not want at the end-of-life. These wishes can guide medical decisions if one is terminally ill or permanently unconscious.

EpioneMd  concluded the presentation by addressing the benefits in communicating your goals and wishes to medical team that aligns with your values.

Minuteman Senior Services and Zaika Restaurant of Woburn supplied hot vegetarian meal following the presentation.

Friends of Indian Senior Citizens is actively engaged in improving the mental health, nutrition and good physical health of Asian Indian seniors. We invite you to visit thefisco.org for information about our programs. The next seminar, “Nutrition and Aging” will be held on Tuesday February 15 from 10:30 – 11:30 am at the Burlington Senior Center on Zoom. It will be presented by Stuti Purohit, a Senior Clinical Dietitian, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Catherine York, a dietician and Nutritionist for Minuteman Senior Services in Bedford. A free hot Indian vegetarian lunch will be served. 

Please also join the seniors vegetarian lunch program held on Wednesday and make new friends and re-connect with old ones. Write to Raman Gandhi, President of FISCO for more information and to join FISCO: ram2005gandhi@yahoo.com or thefisco@gmail.com

|