Press Herald Interviews Kaye About Elderly Suicide
Lenard Kaye, director of the University of Maine Center on Aging and professor in the UMaine School of Social Work, spoke with the Portland Press Herald about elderly suicide for an article on a murder-suicide in Gouldsboro that involved a 65-year-old and his 75-year-old wife who had suffered from painful and degenerative arthritis for several years. Kaye said he believes it’s never OK to take someone’s life, and adds he finds it difficult to hear that some older adults think suicide is an understandable path. “There’s an acceptance in our society that there’s little life ahead of them and little reason to continue living,” he said. “That is wrong. The system failed. To say nothing could have been done to ease their suffering is incorrect.”