Name: Benjamin Winokur-Applebaum

Social Justice Group: The Rights of the Elderly

Date of Fieldwork: December 11, 2017

Name of Organization: I.M.AGE

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Dr. Deborah Heiser

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

I interviewed Deborah Heiser (who is an elderly comfort worker) about what she does with her job and how she does it.  Deborah uses her job to meet with seniors who have depression and work with them to increase their emotional intelligence.  We learned that she does her job by going to seniors with extreme cases of depression and talking to them.

What I learned:

We learned why Deborah needs to do her job.  Deborah needs to do her job because the older you become, the more your emotional intelligence develops, so when you are living in your 80s and 90s, you will have some very complex and sometimes difficult emotions.  Deborah does her job because her grandmother suffered from depression as well and did not have someone to help her treat it correctly; Therefore, she now takes care of people like her late grandmother.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

We learned that as little as 25 years ago, people would say that seniors with depression had a mental problem and would be put in a very unsuitable place such as an asylum or safe house.  I also learned that it is so important to care for and do something for these seniors because there are very few people who care or understand them.