“THE GIFT OF CARING” RESPONDING TO AN EXPLODING OLDER POPULATION 40 North Shore Towers Courier n July 2016 By Lily Cohen Lilly Cohen was introduced to “The Gift of Caring” by her daughter, literary agent Susan Cohen. The book is so meaningful to her because she was a long-term caregiver, an administrator at an academic center for the study of aging, president of a national support organization for spousal caregivers, and is now an older person with many experiences as a patient. Some ninety North Shore Tower residents recently attended a Hadassah program, featuring Marcy Houle, co-author of “The Gift of Caring: Saving Our Parents from the Perils of Modern Health Care.” This new book describes the health care problems of our exploding population of older adults, our system’s failure to address them, and provides empowering strategies for managing health care in the later years. Marcy Houle, a biologist and writer, daughter of a renowned orthopedist in the Portland, Oregon, area kept a log of her parents’ physical and mental health problems and care experiences over 14 years. After they died, she teamed with Dr. Elizabeth Eckstrom, a noted geriatrician, to write a book that combines real-life problems with professional geriatric perspectives on solving them. The book was recently awarded the prestigious 2016 Christopher Award for “exposing the hidden side of modern health care practices for aging Americans.” According to the organization’s website, the first Christopher Awards were presented in 1949, by founder Father James Keller “to salute media that ‘affirm the highest values of the human spirit.’ In so doing, The Christophers hope “to encourage men, women and children to pursue excellence in creative arenas that have the potential to influence a mass audience positively.” “This is a book that not only older people should read but also their middle-aged children who one day may have to make vital medical decisions for them,” Houle said. In her Hadassah talk, she underscored the importance of recognizing and responding to the “three Ds” in caring for elderly people: (1) Dementia vs. Delirium, (2) Dehydration and (3) Drugs. As to the first, when older people are rattled from a serious infection and do not seem to make sense, they are often suffering from delirium, a temporary condition. Dementia is cognitive decline, a permanent condition. Doctors not trained in geriatrics, particularly young ones working in hospitals, cannot tell the difference between the two, and frequently misdiagnose, attributing any older patient’s confusion to dementia. Delirium goes away when the fever or infection subsides. The third “D” is particularly important in today’s clime of rampant over-prescribing of drugs and rise in addiction. The book includes a helpful list of drugs that older people should not be taking, according to the American Geriatric Association. It was compiled by Dr. Eckstrom and others and is called the “Beers List.” Houle also discussed the lack of geriatric training in the United States. Only 3% of doctors have ever taken a single course in geriatrics. Many of them simply write off a lot of symptoms that seniors endure as “just old age.” Yet, with an expanding population of older people, the need for more geriatricians is critical. One of the reasons for the paucity of doctors specializing in this branch of medicine is that geriatricians get the lowest reimbursements of any medical professionals. And, therefore many young doctors, faced with a huge debt burden following their training, opt to specialize in more lucrative branches of medicine. Houle also told the Hadassh audience how important it is for older people to have an updated base line health history form to show to any medical practitioner at the outset of a visit to an office or a hospital. This updated form, which should be reviewed with the person’s primary care physician, contains critical data such as: health and mental health status, medications, list of specialists, and patient’s current activities of daily living. In other words, essential information that hospital doctors might not have. Health status forms were distributed to members of the North Shore Towers audience. “The Gift of Caring: Saving Our Parents from the Perils of Modern Health Care” by Marcy Cottrell Houle and Elizabeth Eckstrom is available through Amazon and bookstores. Photos courtesy of Lilly Cohen “‘The Gift of Caring’ has the potential to radically change how we as individuals and a society think about aging. This book will touch every family, and eventually every individual. ‘The Gift of Caring’ is not the end, but the beginning, of what must become an aging revolution.” —Taylor Corbett, CEO “Datalogy” “It is the singular most helpful book on aging I’ve read, both the personal story and the proactive information from the co-author. Within the last decade, my mother, father and sister died, and so much of what you wrote about was familiar, especially the vulnerability. “Now I want to buy copies for so many who are both living the last chapter of life and those who care for those who need help.” —Melissa Madenski, a reader “Ultimately, ‘The Gift of Caring’ is about love, and what’s connecting us.” —Sarah Dugan, caregiver of her mother for five years Author Houle and Lilly Cohen Marcy Houle signs copies of her book during a recent visit to North Shore Towers
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