This is the story of Narcy Houle’s father, a highly respected orthopedic
surgeon, developed Alzheimer’s. During
the course of the disease, he broke his hip. One day when we visited him at the
nursing center, about six months after his accident, we found him sitting in a
row of patients all wearing pink bibs, left on after they had finished eating.
Like the others, his head was bent toward his lap; though his eyes were open, they
were not focused on anything. His shoulders slouched, like a rag doll’s, and his
mouth hung slightly ajar.
What he needed was a geriatrician.
Most health care professionals have had little to no training in the care
of older adults. Currently, 97 percent of all medical students in the United
States do not take a single course in geriatrics.
Recent studies show that good geriatric care can make an enormous
difference. Older adults whose health is monitored by a geriatrician enjoy more years
of independent living, greater social and physical functioning and lower
presence of disease. In addition, these patients show increased satisfaction, spend
less time in the hospital, exhibit markedly decreased rates of depression and spend less
time in nursing homes.
See:
An Aging Population, Without the Doctors to Match by Marcy Cottrell Houle (NY Times, September 23, 2015)
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