Granai della Memoria

Maria Grazia Gaggini, born in 1961, has worked for over forty years in the management of the elderly in the Verbano Cusio Ossola area. In this long period of time he was able to observe the evolution of geriatrics in the care of the elderly, initially limited to treating the body only within the health facilities and then gradually with the activation of home and post-hospital care. Maria Grazia, first obtained the title of nurse and then that of Health Assistant, contributed to building a support network in the area aimed at the care of the "old", not limiting her attention only to the biological medical aspects, but having in mind a holistic sense of the person inclusive of cultural, emotional and affective aspects. Among these elements, food, neglected in its cultural and emotional content, plays a central role, almost never taken into consideration within health facilities. The long narrative deals with thorny aspects such as the management of the "old" in family contexts, the decision to entrust them to structures when they are no longer self-sufficient, the all-Italian peculiarities of the relationship between the elderly and their families. Among these, for example, the figure of the caregiver emerges, an essential support in Italy for families with elderly people who hides many pitfalls: "everything has a price". The right to a dignified death is the last intense chapter of this important contribution.