There’s a new book in progress about “oldhood.” Writer and Professor of Geriatrics Louise Aaronson points out in a NYT Opinion column that we don’t really treat the new-old and old-old any differently. Studies often don’t include the elderly. We don’t know enough about when to re-vaccinate but we do know that immune systems dwindle with age. So medicine is treating 70 year-olds and 90 year-olds pretty much the same, despite the fact that our organs, metabolism and almost everything else has changed with time – usually not for the better!
From the NYT: “Treatments rarely target older adults’ particular physiology, and the old are typically excluded from clinical studies. Sometimes they are kept out based on age alone, but more often it’s because they have one of the diseases that typically accompany old age. And yet we still end up basing older people’s treatment on this research, because too often it is all we have.
Equally troublesome is the failure of studies to measure outcomes that reflect older people’s priorities. Most would rather live comfortably and independently for a shorter time than live for a slightly longer time confined to a bed or nursing home.”
Don’t you agree?
Although the focus is mostly on medical issues, this article ought to somehow infiltrate the thinking of the Skyline management–and of the entire “industry” (as they like to call it). The sentence “Human diversity reaches its apex in old age” ought to be part of the basic operating principles of Skyline.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/opinion/sunday/vaccinations-elderly.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Agree. There is a spectrum of health, illness, abilities and disabilities both in IDL and the Terraces. If you’ve seen one resident, you’ve seen one resident. We can’t be simplistic or generalize about our population. Focusing on the individual in a holistic way will help us all to add quality to our lives. Aren’t we all unique? Part of the problem is that we live in 4 boxes – IDL, Assisted, Memory Care and Skilled Nursing. Rarely do we fit neatly into one of these boxes. As we transition to different levels of care we need continuity in our care levels – rather than discrete bumps. Our leaps into a new box may be inevitable over time, but we need to be attentive to the individual despite the bureaucratic and regulatory environment in CCRCs.