With California on the precipice of an older adult population explosion – part of the greatest demographic shift in the history of planet Earth — there must be a comprehensive state plan to train workers to support all of these aging people. Right?
Author: Matt Perry
Dr. Michael Wasserman, a geriatrician for 30 years, tells this story about a call he once received from a nursing home: a resident had just lashed out and struck a staff member, so the nurse wanted to know if she could prescribe the anti-psychotic drug Haldol.
As farmer’s markets explode all over California and people start to view food as a form of medicine, family farms are emerging as the backbone of a blossoming “shop local” movement and the desire to reconnect with both neighbors and nature. Yet an aging California population also means that older adult farmers – “agrarian elders” – are retiring at a record rate and taking decades of irreplaceable wisdom with them.
Rural California. The good life. Far from urban sprawl, it offers open spaces, traditional values, small town friendships…
… and rising suicide rates.
What if you had the perfect technology solution for isolated seniors… and nobody wanted it? Welcome to TeleVisit.
Sometimes, super sizing your meal is just too much. The same could be said for a state senator’s bill on aging reform, which was deemed “too far reaching” in its lengthy list of recommendations when it was first introduced – and defeated– last year by the Senate Health Committee.
Getting sick is expensive. And so is dying… especially from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. A recent study revealed that of the three leading killers in America – dementia, cancer and heart disease – dementia was by far the most expensive to treat before a patient’s eventual death. So, postponing its onset can be beneficial to both patients and families paying bills.
For Christmas I was blessed with the perfect gift for a columnist on aging – the autobiography of legendary singer Tom Jones. While many entertainers have resurrected careers long considered dormant, few have done so the way Jones has – by transforming himself from kitschy sex god into a contemporary pop icon who has worked with the likes electro-synth musicians The Art of Noise and legendary producer Wyclef Jean.
The 2010 documentary “Waiting for Superman” explores the failed American educational system, using Superman as the film’s central metaphor for the heroic measures needed to save a shattered school system. In California’s aging community, he’s also desperately needed.
You’re sick, constantly in and out of the hospital, faced with an unending series of tests, tubes and monitors. You may soon qualify for hospice, but not yet. Instead, you remain stuck in that frustrating netherworld between acute medical interventions and end-of-life care.