The experience of making the Living Will with senior academics from the University of Maturity

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.1592652225102

• Palavras-chave: Elderly, lifelong education, university of maturity, death, living will, transgenerationality.

• Keywords: Elderly, lifelong education, university of maturity, death, living will, transgenerationality.

• Abstract:

  Death is rarely addressed in our society, and it is necessary to remove it from the taboo status and treat it as part of our existence. The COVID 19 pandemic has emphasized the need to talk about this topic. The elderly identified as risk public since the beginning of the pandemic were greatly affected by social isolation and fear of contamination. From this context, the activity of making the living will - TV was carried out with the elderly from the Universidades da Maturidade (UMA), from the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT). This is an experience report. The method used was the phenomenological, insofar as we tried to rescue the meanings attributed by the subjects to the object studied. UMA is a Nationally recognized and awarded Social Technology – TS. The ST presupposes a set of transformative educational strategies, developed from the specificities of the subjects and built with their active participation, proposing solutions for social inclusion and improving the living conditions of those involved. The assumptions of TS are in line with Paulo Freire's liberating and emancipatory education. The TV is a document where the person expresses their wishes about the care and treatments they wish to undergo or not if they have a life-threatening illness, respecting the principles of human dignity and autonomy, as well as wishes about farewell rituals and the choosing the person responsible for carrying out its directives. The workshop was divided into four classes, taught by us, a lawyer and a psychologist, as part of a multidisciplinary intervention. The objective was to promote reflections on finitude and desires for the moment of death, with the possibility of making the TV. The intervention is justified by the importance of promoting an education for death. We concluded that the reflections were powerful, shared timidly at first, and from the familiarization with the TV proposal, the majority participated actively. Students who have been at UMA for more than 2 years showed greater openness and proactively participated in classes, while those who entered less than two years (pandemic period) showed greater resistance. The elderly emphasized the importance of TV to enforce their wishes and guide the family in a delicate moment. Finally, we reinforce the need for an education for death, as part of the life cycle, in all stages of human development and in a transgenerational way.