B.J. Miller talks about his transition from a triple amputee to an MD focused on person centered care at his unique Zen Hospice in San Francisco.
Just to let you know, Klein Galland will give a presentation about Hospice care here at Skyline on Tuesday January 24th at 3PM.
I heard from a resident’s son on the elevator today that she’s giving up her car but not too sad because she’s hooked up with a new concierge ride service called gogograndparent!
So if it’s after hours or Michael is busy and it’s hard to figure out Uber, you might just want to call the gogogranparent phone number and push “1” to get your ride, then push “2” later to get your ride back (after registering with them). I haven’t tried this yet but it looks a bit more expensive than Uber since there’s a relatively small concierge fee tacked on.
But the convenience for short trips might make us all more of a go go grandparent!
Most people on Medicare are of very modest means. The slide show below shows that the 50% of the Medicare population had incomes below $24,000; whereas 5% had incomes above $93,000 and only 1% above $163,000. Click on the slides below for very nice graphics about the Medicare picture.
From Scott Simon on NPR: “There’s been a lot of death in the news these last few days, between Syria and several celebrities. As we close the year, we might recall some things said by some people we lost that will stay with us for a long time.
“Prince, who died at 57 after making music to dazzle generations, said, “It’s a hurtful place, the world, in and of itself. We don’t need to add to it.”
“Elie Weisel, who survived Auschwitz to reveal the Holocaust for so many, died at 87. I thought of his words when Aleppo fell this month to the Syrian regime.
“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views,” he said, “that place must become the center of the universe.”
“Arnold Palmer was also 87. He brought his steel mill town values to the country club game of golf, and said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”
“Garry Marshall, the writer and director, was 81, and once advised: “Learn to work with people you wouldn’t go to lunch with.”
“Muhammad Ali, the champion of the world — still, for many people — was 74. He said a lot of things outlandish and wise, in a life that was almost overfilled with triumphs and misfortunes.
From the NYT: “The robotic cats, called Joy for All Companion Pets, are made by Hasbro. They hit the market last year and cost $99 — considerably less than previous generations of robotic therapy animals, which have been around since the dawn of the millennium. “No litter box. Just love,” the slogan on the Hasbro website says. The cats come in three models: orange tabby, creamy white and silver with white mitts.
“Home got its first one in March. Ms. Farkas tried it out on a resident in her late 70s who was searching in a panic for her long-deceased parents. Usually, someone in this situation would be given a tranquilizer. Instead, Ms. Farkas handed her a robotic cat. The woman calmed right down.
“She has her own cat now,” Ms. Farkas said.
“Hebrew Home has since acquired 24 more, and there are plans for an additional 25, or possibly 50, she said.
“Research on whether the benefits of robotic therapy pets are lasting is inconclusive, but in six months, Ms. Farkas said, she had seen many residents form close bonds with their animatronic friends.”
Click here for the NYT article.
This innovative approach may be helpful with some individuals. It is less intrusive and less labor intensive than some of the technologies out there. And no litter box or trips to the vets! But a controlled study didn’t demonstrate lasting effects. We need to continue to find ways of connecting with residents descending into dementia – art, music, human interaction, animal interaction, and trials of various technologies. However, technology is never going to replace the human touch.
No, Ed Whitlock isn’t a resident in a CCRC. This 85 year old is nowhere near retiring from his running career which includes world records in almost every distance age rated category from the mile to the marathon.
He’s has recently become the oldest person to run 26.2 miles in under four hours. No, he has no secret diet, no trainer, doesn’t lift weights or stretch much. He just runs – and obviously maintains that slim runner’s body. Scientists are trying to figure out why certain people can excel as an “older athlete” but the answers aren’t clear. Click here for the full story from the NYT.
Here in Seattle we have a Federal Judge, Wally McGovern, who a few years ago won a 90-and-over national doubles tennis title in a USTA sanctioned tournament. Moral of the story – keep moving in the New Year!
There continues to be hope that the use of technology can somehow improve the functioning of the brain, perhaps slowing or preventing the onset of dementia. There are many studies, but a recent peer reviewed literature review in a scientific journal shows the effects of “brain training” are unfortunately quite limited: “we find extensive evidence that brain-training interventions improve performance on the trained tasks, less evidence that such interventions improve performance on closely related tasks, and little evidence that training enhances performance on distantly related tasks or that training improves everyday cognitive performance. We also find that many of the published intervention studies had major shortcomings in design or analysis that preclude definitive conclusions about the efficacy of training, and that none of the cited studies conformed to all of the best practices we identify as essential to drawing clear conclusions about the benefits of brain training for everyday activities.
Scientists discuss the controversies and lack of rigorous studies in this article and conclude: “There is some evidence that physical exercise improves cognitive performance. Because heart health is related to brain health, diet is also likely involved. And there is considerable correlational evidence that people who are socially and cognitively engaged in stimulating lives, by working, volunteering or other forms of active learning, are in better shape cognitively than those who are not,” she said. “But there is no evidence for magic bullets.”
“In January, the creator of the brain-gaming company Lumosity agreed to pay $2 million to settle charges from the FTC. The charges alleged that Lumosity deceived consumers with unfounded claims that its games could sharpen thinking in everyday life and protect against cognitive decline. The developers and marketers behind the LearningRx brain-gaming programs settled similar charges in May, paying $200,000.”
From the Seattle Times: “Lou Pepper, the respected former CEO of Washington Mutual and named partner of Seattle law firm Foster Pepper, died Friday. He was 92.
“Mr. Pepper was an executive who took the time to check in on how his employees were doing, regardless of their position within the company. He built the local bank during its most successful days, and never lost sight of its “Friend of the Family” motto.
“And when the bank collapsed in 2008, Mr. Pepper, who had retired years earlier, created a fund to help the former employees who had lost everything in the crash. Throughout his career, he always made time for his wife, Mollie, and four children.”
There’s a lot (most everything) about Walt Whitman that I don’t know. Recently I’ve been introduced to a wonderful web site called brainpickings, delightfully filled with essays such as this one about Walt Whitman’s views on health care and the art of healing.
I did not realize his involvement as a hospital volunteer during the civil war and had little knowledge of his thoughts on healing. brainpickings is a gem!
Notice from the police sent along by Frank C.
We wanted to post an important reminder about parking areas. There have been several recent car prowl related arrests that have occurred in secured parking areas. Just this morning, East Precinct Patrol Officers arrested a car prowl suspect who had followed another car into a secured parking garage. This is commonly referred to as “tailgating”.
Please, please be sure to keep your eyes open for any car that may be trying to follow or “tailgate” you into any secured parking lot or garage. Please always be sure to check that a door or gate has closed behind you after entering or exiting any secured parking area, and if you see something suspicious, call 911! As an added reminder, please also be sure to remove personal belongings from your unoccupied vehicles.
Enjoy the holiday season and take a little extra precaution so those amazing gifts make it under the Christmas tree! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year friends!!
Amber Matthews #7852, Operations Admin.,Seattle Police Department | East Precinct
1519 12th Ave. Seattle, WA 98122 D: 206-684-4370 | F: 206-684-4591 | E: amber.matthews@seattle.gov <mailto:amber.matthews@seattle.gov>
Winston Churchill was famous for napping which is supported by his answering this question: “Mr Churchill, to what do you attribute your success in life?’
He responds, “Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down. And never sit down when you can lie down.”
So should we lie down more? Aeon has an interesting essay about this.
“The legendary Roman dining couch, known as the klinai, was made from wood or stone, covered with cloth, and designed for lying down. I sometimes wonder how comfortable it really was. Then again, since people 2,000 years ago weren’t acquainted with comfort in the modern, well-cushioned sense, they probably enjoyed it much more than we would today. The klinai was perfectly adequate for the purpose of munching grapes, drinking wine, exchanging philosophical opinions, and meeting potential lovers.
“As a sophisticated art form, however, lying down was perfected much later. Take the divan. The word means different things under different circumstances: a Turkish divan consists of a mat on the floor or a flat ledge that can run along an entire wall. In a French boudoir, a divan means an upholstered bench, often decorated with tassels and fringe, in the middle of the room. The term can even be used for a row of chairs clustered around a raised platform. Ultimately, divans and couches came to be associated with ‘oriental’ behaviour and a kind of literary dilettantism – thanks to the likes of Thomas De Quincey, the 19th-century English essayist and wastrel, who succumbed to opium while reclining on a chaise. Later, writers ranging from Truman Capote to the former US poet laureate Charles Simic would confess to producing their best work while horizontal.
“Until recently, lying down was seen as the horizontal counterpart to the dreamy rambling of the melancholy flâneur, walking about without pursuing any goal in particular. When we lie on our backs and direct our gaze up toward the ceiling or sky, we lose our physical grasp of things. We relax our state of hyper-vigilance, and our thoughts soar.
“Indeed, the general disdain for lying down was ‘unhealthy’ and ‘hypocritical’, according to G K Chesterton, the English critic renowned for his contrarian wit. In the essay ‘On Lying in Bed’ (1909), he championed each person’s freedom and flexibility to decide when to get out of bed, or to enjoy lunch ‘sometimes in the garden, sometimes in bed, sometimes on the roof, sometimes in the top of a tree’. Although Chesterton recommended that these bouts of leisure (which did not include sleep) be ‘very occasional’, he insisted that it was unnecessary to justify such aimlessness, except in cases of serious illness. ‘If a healthy man lies in bed,’ he explains, ‘let him do it without a rag of excuse; then he will get up a healthy man.’ However, he warns, if he lies down with a scientific or medical purpose in mind, ‘he may get up a hypochondriac’.
“The Chinese author Lin Yutang wrote in 1937 that ‘our senses are the keenest in that moment’ when we are lying down, and added that ‘all good music should be listened to in the lying condition’. Our mental makeup and even the structure of our perception can change with a shift of posture. Responses that seemed perfectly natural a few minutes earlier, when we were standing upright or sitting, become inexplicable. Questions that were so important appear in a different light when we view them horizontally. Voices and even the ringing of a telephone might no longer reach us with the same urgency as when we were standing.
The prestigious and venerable New England Journal of Medicine has spoken up strongly on the prospective drastic changes proposed in health policy:
“Representative Tom Price of Georgia, an orthopedic surgeon, will be President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services (HHS)…. Price has sponsored legislation that supports making armor-piercing bullets more accessible and opposing regulations on cigars, and he has voted against regulating tobacco as a drug. His voting record shows long-standing opposition to policies aimed at improving access to care for the most vulnerable Americans. In 2007–2008, during the presidency of George W. Bush, he was one of only 47 representatives to vote against the Domenici–Wellstone Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which improved coverage for mental health care in private insurance plans. He also voted against funding for combating AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis; against expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program; and in favor of allowing hospitals to turn away Medicaid and Medicare patients seeking nonemergency care if they could not afford copayments.
“Price favors converting Medicare to a premium-support system and changing the structure of Medicaid to a block grant — policy options that shift financial risk from the federal government to vulnerable populations. He also opposed reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and has voted against legislation prohibiting job discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and against enforcement of laws against anti-LGBT hate crimes. He favors amending the Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage.”
Knute Berger from Crosscut compiled an interesting list of Northwest non-fiction from this year. Have you read “The Egg and I” or “The Plague and I” by Betty MacDonald? Well local author Paula Becker has written a long deserved biography about her. The rest of the list is equally interesting including a new book by author Timothy Egan. For the full list, click here.
From Crosscut’s Chason Gordon: “So you still haven’t bought presents for your friends or family or the person who’s blackmailing you. Fret not, for I’m here to pretend to help.
“Personally, I’ve never had a problem finding a gift at the last-minute, because there’s always an open gas station nearby. But you might have higher standards. Let’s go over some of the best local options.”
Click here for the list which progressively gets pretty wacky!
