Elder Care

BitterPill Book Jacket
In the New York Times Paula Span reviews A Bitter Pill: How the Medical System Is Failing the Elderly : John Sloan M.D.

“We do a rotten job in society, a terrible job, of looking after the frail elderly,” Dr. John Sloan says.

Dr. John Sloan, is a family physician who cares for elderly patients in their homes here in Vancouver, British Columbia.

After consulting with patients and their families, often at length, Dr. Sloan often finds that what works better is to make comfort the top priority. “They don’t want to be physically and mentally miserable,” Dr. Sloan said of his patients. “My answer is to take the emphasis off the high-tech, expensive, futile health care system, and be a little kinder.”

Here is someone who has taken a long hard look at how we should be treating the elderly. Who doesn’t see the sense in intervention when “comfort” and “function” should serve as a priority.

It occurs to me that Dr. Sloan is quite a unique physician, and those in his care are very fortunate. “House calls” are somewhat of a bygone era. Many elderly experiencing emergencies only have the option of trips to an ER dept. At a time of life when the advantage of a family physician or geriatrician who is aware of their history presents great advantages.

For each of us the time will come when we will be faced with such decisions. In our culture, accepting that all interventions to preserve life in the face of preventing death is not easy. We often hold on to just one more procedure or intervention which will save a life.

The ambiguity of aging makes family decisions more difficult. The challenge is how we should be focusing on the needs and comfort of the elder rather than on our own anguish.

This is one book that I am definitely going to add to my bookshelf.

Source: New York Times

Elder Abuse Awareness PosterWorld Elder Abuse Awareness Day involves activities to bring greater recognition of mistreatment of older adults wherever they live throughout the world, and to highlight the need for appropriate action. It is intended to give abuse and neglect of older adults a global relevance that will sustain and move prevention efforts for-ward throughout the whole year and years to come.

Throughout the world, abuse and neglect of older adults largely remains under-recognized, or treated as an unspoken problem. No community or country in the world is immune from this social problem.
Abuse and neglect of older adults is a complex and multi-faceted problem. Elder abuse encompasses many different types of harms and can occur in domestic, community or institutional settings.

Raising awareness of elder abuse is a challenge. The issue requires complex, mul-tiple and integrated responses from a very wide range of sources at individual, institutional, societal and global levels.

The United Nations has noted that the world needs a global response to the problem, one which focuses on protecting the rights of older persons.
[continue reading…]

Tai Chi Eases Depression in Elderly

seniors tai chi,The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country — six times the   national rate.

And we’re not getting any younger. In the next 35 years, the number of Americans over 65 will double and the number of those over 85 will triple.

So the question becomes, how to help elderly depressed individuals? [continue reading…]

Hearing loss and dementia linked

ear trumpetSeniors with hearing loss are significantly more likely to develop dementia over time than those who retain their hearing, a study by Johns Hopkins and National Institute on Aging researchers suggests. The findings, the researchers say, could lead to new ways to combat dementia, a condition that affects millions of people worldwide and carries heavy societal burdens.

Although the reason for the link between the two conditions is unknown, the investigators suggest that a common pathology may underlie both or that the strain of decoding sounds over the years may overwhelm the brains of people with hearing loss, leaving them more vulnerable to dementia. They also speculate that hearing loss could lead to dementia by making individuals more socially isolated, a known risk factor for dementia and other cognitive disorders. [continue reading…]