As our population ages with its emphasis on hyper-cognitive power and productivity, we must begin to acknowledge the equal moral status of people with physical and cognitive disabilities as someone not less significant than that of someone who is more lucid of mind. And, we must better support those who support this growing population.

Stephen G. Post, Ph.D. is among a handful of individuals awarded the National Distinguished Service Award from the National Alzheimer’s Association. Post is a leader in research on the benefits of giving and on compassionate care in relation to improved patient outcomes and clinician well-being. In 2001 he founded The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which researches and distributes knowledge on kindness, giving and spirituality. Post served as a co-chair of the United Nations Population Fund Conference on Spirituality and Global Transformation. He’s a professor in the Department of Preventative Medicine at Stony Brook University and founder and director of the Stony Brook Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics. He is the author of: Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving (Broadway Books 2008), The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2nd edition 2000), God and Love on Route 80: The Hidden Mystery of Human Connectedness (Mango 2019) and Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People: How Caregivers Can Meet the Challenges of Alzheimer’s Disease (Johns Hopkins University Press 2022)

Interview Date: 8/19/2022 Tags: Stephen G. Post, caregiving, dementia, Alzheimer’s, assisted oral feeding, tube feeding, Willem de Kooning, Oliver Sacks, Health & Healing, Philosophy, Science, Death & Dying