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September 2008 Archives

September 2, 2008

So Much To Learn

The always interesting Alex M sent me the following clip...

Although Sara Garrett calls collaborative, community-based development a radical idea, she still expects it to become more mainstream.
Garrett is the brains behind the MotiveSpace Symposium, a two-day event at which developers, designers and planners will discuss what’s known as “collaborative housing development” – a more community-based approach to design and development.

A native Portlander and a current architecture graduate student at the University of Toronto, Garrett believes inhabited space should connect people, not push them away from each other.
On Sept. 20 and 21, at Portland City Hall, the MotiveSpace Symposium will touch on a variety of topics pertaining to collaborative developments and grassroots infill projects, such as how to design, develop and eventually inhabit areas that contain plenty of shared space.

According to Garrett, it’s about tearing down boundaries and barriers.

For her, “cohousing” developments are among the more appealing types of community-driven projects because they create a greater sense of personal interconnectivity.
At traditional cohousing complexes, for example, not only do the residents share community space, they also typically cook for each other.

“The cohousing community has so much to teach us,” Garrett said.

The full article is here.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 2, 2008 8:26 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 3, 2008

Yep

The Crabby Old Lady throws it down...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 3, 2008 6:28 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

'Superstar' on aging

[Editor's Post]

Physician and elderly care pioneer launches experimental course at UMBC

Readers paying close attention will remember Bill's twitter a couple weeks ago about having dinner with Tanika White from the Baltimore Sun. Looks like they had a nice chat:

When it comes to aging issues, he has been called a visionary, a culture-changer and a prophet. And last week, he became simply Professor Thomas.
On Thursday, Thomas began teaching "Aging 100: You Say You Want a Revolution," for freshmen at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's Erickson School on Aging, Management and Policy.

The class, which he helped develop, is experimental. Only about 15 to 20 students will attend the inaugural course. But UMBC administrators think that the eventual reach of the class will be far greater.

"Among experts on aging, Bill Thomas is a superstar," said UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III. "[He] is one of the most thought-provoking scholars in this field. ... And he is serving as a kind of magnet in attracting people to the Erickson School and to the Baltimore area."

Read the full story here.

-- Kavan

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 3, 2008 2:03 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 4, 2008

Mental Age

Alex M forwarded this fascinating little piece written by Douglas Copeland. He talks about how men view aging. Copeland is a well known writer and he was born in 1961. Here are two even more famous people who werre born in 1961.

gandolfini-clooney-1p.hmedium.jpg

Below are some snips from the article along with my comments in bold.

Copeland writes...

A few days ago, I had a business lunch with a guy I thought was about 10 years older than I am. I'm 46, and he looked to be 55 and resembled every English teacher you've ever had. At the end of lunch he said, "You know, I was born the same week as you..." and went on to discuss all the same music we listened to in high school. Meanwhile, it was all I could do to compose myself while looking around for a reflective surface — a knife blade, the hologram on my Visa card — to convince myself I didn't look 55 like this guy did. I felt as if I had progeria, that disease in which you age half a century in five years. That's what growing older does to a guy.

Progeria is a strange, terrible and fascinating birth defect that accelerates the aging process in children.

Ashley is doing really well for someone aged 14, most kids with this syndrome do not live to see their teen aged years.

We've all bumped into friends who look like hell. Our first thought is always divorce, booze, or one of those other wicked speed bumps on the road of life. What's really happening, of course, is that your friend is in the middle of a progerial plunge. Time passes, and more time passes, and then you see that friend in the checkout line of a Safeway one afternoon, and you realize he's not drinking or having troubles. He's just aging. The kicker: So I must be too. That's when you head to the produce department and check yourself out in the mirrors above the lettuce and celery.

This is an interesting and terribly fearful position. We all begin normal aging near the end of our 20's. It is a sign of how deep our cultural denial is that this absolutely universal phenomenon (aging) is offered up as something so alien that it can only be recognized in others.

I have this theory about men and aging. We have two ages: the age we really are, and the age we are in our heads. Most men are almost always about 31 or 32 in their heads — just ask them. Even Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons” is 31 in his head. One of the most universal adult male experiences is of standing before a mirror and saying, "I'm sorry, but there's been a horrible mistake. You see, that's not really me in the mirror there. The real me is tanned, throws Frisbees, and kayaks the Columbia River estuary without cracking a sweat."

I find it useful to remember that when writers (myself included) make "universal" statements about the experiences of others, they are really talking about themselves. The appeal to universality is a fig leaf that protects the writer's tender ego. Anyway, I see that in myself and I suppose it might be true for other writers as well.

In myself I've come to notice that aging comes in spurts. I've asked others, and they pretty much agree. I'll look the exact same way for a decade, and then — wham! — God hits the progeria switch and for two years the downhill plunge begins anew.
And then it stops again.

He would be more accurate if he had written "In myself I've come to notice that my awareness of my own aging comes in spurts.

My body will plateau for another decade, until the next time it decides to collapse a bit more. Which is funny, because in a weird plot twist, I'm probably in better shape now than I was at 20. Many reasons: I quit smoking in 1988 (though I could start again right now), I stopped eating crap two years ago, and last year, I finally found a gym that doesn't allow music: no John Cougar Mellencamp blasting at maximum volume while circus freaks in harem pants and the thong equivalent of a T-shirt make those embarrassing orgasm noises while bench-pressing the mathematical squares of their IQs. Instead, I can think and enjoy my time working out without a massive sonic brain invasion. It makes all the difference. And what do I think about in the gym? Muscle tissue breaking. And then I try to decide whether to rebuild or pack it in. My ligaments are iffy about whether they should snap or strengthen. My body tries to decide whether to age or become more powerful. And as a control freak, it bugs me so much that a lot of this stuff is beyond my control. Exercise, sure, but at the end of it, instead of looking thinner, I may merely look gaunt. Or haggard. Or — ironically — my age.

Strangely, for a writer so obviously concerned with avoiding the stereotypical markers of age, the paragraph is the linguistic equivalent of "And those damn kids better stay off my lawn!!!!!!!"

[snip]

Lately, I've begun to have this heretical thought that people were never supposed to live to be old enough to age in the first place. We forget that until the 1950s or 1960s, senior citizens were extraordinarily rare, and the seniors one did see were begoitered, often-limbless, shrunken-apple-head people who wheezed and cackled.

This is terribly bigoted, mean spirited and false. Imagine commenting on the relative "invisibility" (within the dominant culture) of African Americans being rendered in similarly charged language. Nasty.

A hundred years ago, if you hit 70, you deserved every shred of respect you got. These days... well, does one deserve respect for wanting to look 55 at 70? Does wanting to appear younger in any form deserve any respect at all? In the 1990s, I helped design a plausible future for the film "Minority Report." One of the things I came up with was "young old people." Tom Cruise's character in the movie was actually 70 years old, even though he looked 35. Now that I think of it, maybe Tom Cruise really is 70. If that turned out to be the truth, would you be surprised? Be honest.

How about this?

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 4, 2008 6:38 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 5, 2008

Cultural Creatives

Brent Green has a nice write up on the driving force behind the concept of the

"Cultural Creative"

I think I fit the description.

Take the quiz to see where you stand.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 5, 2008 6:23 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

September 6, 2008

Power-Up Brains

In this week's issue of Journal of the American Medical Association, a group of doctors from Australia attempted to look at the effects of exercise on cognition. They chose a smallish (170) group of youngish (avg. age 68.7) people who reported trouble remembering, but who had no definite evidence of dementia.

Half of the people were encouraged to perform at least 150 minutes of moderate home-based exercise each week. They also received a behavioral intervention to help keep them on track. The rest were given the usual "good health habits" advice, but with no specific information on physical activity.

After 18 months, the exercise group had a small but significant improvement in cognitive function, compared with the control group.

An accompanying editorial felt that the study was encouraging, and that the benefit of exercise was equal to or better than that seen with "cholinesterase inhibitor" drugs for dementia. (Doctors in other countries have a less favorable view of the value of these drugs than American doctors. I tend to agree with them.)

All well and good, but let's step back a bit. This appears to be a good study, though it doesn't break a lot of new ground as far as recommendations for healthy living are concerned. My beef is that this prominently featured article highlights a trend of medical journals in publicizing Alzheimer's research that follows one of only two directions - prevention or cure.

These are admirable goals to pursue, but meanwhile a third research goal is, in my opinion, all but ignored by the medical profession: improving the lives of the millions of people who already have the disease or will get the disease in the coming decades. There is a wealth of literature around this, but it seems to be primarily the domain of psychologists and social workers. The medical journals (a) don't touch it, and (b) perpetuate a medical view that assumes that between prevention and cure lies nothing more than a world of psychiatric drug treatment, institutionalization, generic interventions and custodianship.

Even many people who work for the charitable organizations have bought into a view of dementia as little more than tragedy. It's hard to find people who talk of Alzheimer's with words like life, engagement, growth, meaning and autonomy. "Quality of life" studies often measure only medical outcomes or quality of care.

Until we have a radical attitude adjustment and start to view people with dementia primarily as people rather than a disease, we will continue to be blind to myriad opportunities to enrich their lives to a far greater measure than any medication has ever accomplished.

-- Al Power

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 6, 2008 9:22 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Not Going To Deny It

This made me laugh...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 6, 2008 9:24 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

September 8, 2008

Stress and Memory Loss – an explosive cocktail

I attended the Montréal Ageing and Design conference over the past three days and I would like to share with you some things I have learned with great pleasure.

Montréal is a great city, my friends and I took our time to eat good food and drink wine, nothing seems rushed here. Laid back, friendly, bilingual Canadians. Oh yes, before I forget, from the conference, one of the most impressive lectures:

"Stress and ageing – an explosive cocktail." A lively and charming presentation by stress researcher Sonia Lupien, Ph.D., from Montréal*. As the "middle generation,“ we think we are stressed, but in fact children and our Elders are more stressed. Stress, not ageing, has a devastating effect on our brain.

What causes stress?

Four additive factors lead to stress, such as novelty, unpredictability, threat to one’s ego and the sense of low contol (acronym NUTS).

All four factors are continuously present in the life of Elders in an institution. Due to this environment they suffer from depression and memory loss, both reversible if we encourage social support through friends, family and staff, through supporting active grandparenting, laughing, physical exercise, singing, praying, listening to music, hugging, kissing and just being.

You can measure all this by taking saliva samples, testing for cortisol, a stress hormone. Suddenly the "touchy-feely soft facts“ of companionship, reciprocity and spontaneity as promoted by the Eden Alternative appear to have a "hard“ scientific backing.

-- Christa Monkhouse (out for some more wine again)

*Lupien S.J., Fiocco, A*., Wan, N., Maheu, F*., Lord, C*., Schramek, T*., Tu, M.T*. (2005). Stress Hormones and Human Memory Function across the Lifespan. Psychoneurondocrinology, 30:225-242

http://www.hlhl.qc.ca/crfs/lupien.html
http://www.hlhl.qc.ca/stress

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 8, 2008 9:27 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 9, 2008

Love in the Afternoon

"A Parisian private eye's daughter (Hepburn) decides to investigate a philandering American millionaire (Cooper) and winds up falling in love with him. Cooper's a little old for the Casanova role but Hepburn is always enchanting."

Reminds me of something. Something. Something. What is it? In the news lately... Hmmmm.

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 9, 2008 9:52 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 12, 2008

Power-Up Friday: Taking Stock

As the presidential debates begin and we start hashing over such issues as national security, terrorism, the economy, the environment, etc., I'd like to pause and ask what is it that truly makes a country strong. I have my own opinion (of course). I place a nation's strength and solvency squarely on three fundamentals, which I will refer to with the old moniker of "Health, Education and Welfare".

Health - in order for a nation to be solid and productive, its citizens must have access to good preventive health, and must be secure in having access to effective treatment, should they become ill. A sick population cannot produce, cannot innovate, cannot protect itself from any kind of challenge. Unfortunately, this is not our situation.

With a third of our population either uninsured or under-insured, and an industry that favors expensive intervention over prevention and human services, we are in a precarious position. We already spend far more than any other nation on health care, and many of our outcomes are much worse than many other nations. This situation does not show signs of improving in the near future.

Education - An educated citizenry is the best resource for progress in our rapidly changing world. We are clearly lagging behind many other countries in this measure. A friend of mine recently related that she was asked to help a college student with his calculus homework. She was a bit nervous until she discovered that the problems were similar to what she had learned in middle school in her native Japan!

Unfortunately, we seem to have become a nation that does not value education as highly as we should. We seem to be more concerned with whether our next President can be the kind of person who can "share a beer with the guys". Any candidate's attempt to speak intelligently is often dismissed as "elitism". For the record, elitism, (favoring one group of people over others), better describes those whose policies favor the wealthy, or those who give multibillion dollar no-bid contracts to their former companies.

I don't know about you, but I would want the person who inherits the most powerful job on the planet Earth to be very, very intelligent.

Welfare - a dirty word for many. We have become, more and more, a nation that finds fault with those in need, and the gap between the haves and have-nots widens every year. We seem to have forgotten that charity -- giving without expectation of return -- is a cornerstone of all of the major religions, from the Five Pillars of Islam to the Diamond Sutra to the Sermon on the Mount.

I subscribe to the belief of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who in the 18th century declared, "a decent provision for the poor is a true test of civilization". (BTW, he's also the guy who said "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels".)

In summary, I believe that in our zeal to maintain our position on prominence in the world, the US is forgetting its fundamentals; hence the crumbling infrastructure which, in turn, impacts our economy, energy policy, competitiveness, and overall security. History has shown that most empires and dominant nations do not last longer than 200 years. We need REAL change if we are to avoid being the latest casualty.

-- Al Power

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 12, 2008 3:19 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 15, 2008

Is Grandpa Bad for the Environment?

Erickson School Masters student Rachel Maisler passed along this interesting blog entry from Slate.

Here is a taste...

Everyone's always talking about how an aging population, with more retirees, is going to wreak havoc on Social Security and the federal budget. Here's my question: What impact will that have on the planet? After all, my grandparents don't seem to care much about global warming, their refrigerator is from the 1970s, and they use an awful lot of air conditioning at home. Give it to me straight: Are Grandma and Grandpa bad for the environment?

More Here

Also they have a special Geezer's Issue you might like.

(H/T Rachel!)

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 15, 2008 6:47 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Monkhouse Mondays: Montréal Ageing and Design Conference

I would like to share some more learning: A Japanese speaker talked about universal design. He asserted that we should equip older persons’ homes with all the universal design features which can help reduce disability and support functioning. Only 2 percent of homes are currently equipped to compensate for functional limitations. What we do instead, he asserted, we tend to send human resources, people, carers, into homes where adaptation would do. These carers provide no social company, because their job is rushed, timed by the minute.

I asked him if he had ever quantified how many human resources could be put to better use elsewhere, if we adapted peoples’ homes universally? He said he had not, but agreed that we should.

-- Christa Monkhouse

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 15, 2008 5:37 PM |Permalink |Comments (2)

September 16, 2008

The World is Changing

In Bykovsky, a village of 457 on Russia's northeast coast, the shoreline is collapsing, creeping closer and closer to houses and tanks of heating oil, at a rate of 15 to 18 feet a year. Eventually, homes will be lost, and maybe all of Bykovsky, too, under ever-longer periods of assault by open water. "It is eating up the land," said Innokenty Koryakin, a member of the Evenk tribe and the captain of a fishing boat. "You cannot do anything about it."
To the east, Fyodor V. Sellyakhov scours a barren island with 16 hired men. Mammoths lived here tens of thousands of years ago, and their carcasses eventually sank deep into sediment that is now offering up a trove of tusks and bones nearly as valuable as elephant ivory.

Mr. Sellyakhov, a native Yakut, hauls the fossils to a warehouse here and sells them for $25 to $50 a pound. This summer he collected two tons, making him a wealthy man, for Tiksi. "The sea washes down the coast every year," he said. "It is practically all ice - permafrost - and it is thawing."

More Here

The thing is that we, like the woolly mammoths of old may not like the direction these changes are taking.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 16, 2008 6:56 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

Indian Summer New Hampshire

This is the view from the conference center where I am speaking.

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 16, 2008 4:58 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 17, 2008

CREEPY!

Nancy Fox, former executive director of the Eden Alternative sent along this note and link...

I write about this sort of thing-- the Adultification of Chidlhood-- in the book What Are Old People For?

The extreme! High heels for babies!

Some people are getting a big kick out of an emerging fashion trend for babies — high heel crib shoes for girls too young to walk. Others are certain it’s yet another sign that the republic really is going to perdition in a handbasket.

The latest rage for the preverbal set is the creation of two Seattle moms, Britta Bacon and Hayden Porter. Friends since childhood, the two were taking Bacon’s daughter, Kayla, to a party for her fourth birthday when they started reminiscing about when Kayla was an infant.

Porter, who admits to being obsessed with shoes, found herself thinking how hilarious it would have been if Kayla had had high heels as an infant

How much, how much farther can it go???

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 17, 2008 6:01 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

September 18, 2008

Changing Choices

Aging once offered few options to older adults choosing living arrangements. We've come a long way from the stark and difficult choice between home and impersonal institutional settings.

The expression aging in place has long been a rallying cry promoting independence among older adults. Studies show that 85% of elders aged 65 and older prefer to stay in their homes as they age. However, many people mistakenly believe institutional care to be their only residential alternative. Making a choice between toughing it out in their own homes or shuffling down a drab hallway to face fruit cups and mystery meat is an easy one.
Yet growing old in one's home may not be the safest, most socially conducive, or cost-effective housing choice. An increasing number of developers and gerontologists recognize aging as part of a community as a compelling new way to help older adults remain independent and emotionally fulfilled.

"After World War II, the idea of aging in place became everything that being put into a nursing home was not," says William Thomas, MD, a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Erickson School and the founder of The Eden Alternative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to deinstitutionalizing nursing homes. "We believed that it was the miracle solution to healthy aging, but living alone with no family nearby can be a really difficult thing to do even though conventional wisdom says it's what's best."

And More Chrunchy Goodness...

While communal housing for older adults is relatively new, intergenerational communities have been around since 1991, with about 5,000 people living in close to 85 cohousing units across the country. These neighborhoods are generally made up of about 40 households per community with older cohousing neighborhoods running a bit smaller.

Janice Blanchard, former director of the Denver Office on Aging, believes that cohousing communities resonate for many baby boomers, given that many left their parental homes to live together, sometimes with a lover, often with friends, delaying marriage and childbearing for years.

"Living in community is not a radical idea. In fact, it is our natural state," Blanchard says. "Homo sapiens, like our ancestors before us, are a tribal, communal animal; it is unnatural as a species for humans to live alone."

Laura Beck lives in EcoVillage at Ithaca, a cohousing community located in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. As a program director for Eden at Home, part of William Thomas' nonprofit, Beck delivers educational seminars to improve quality of life for care partner teams. She has also written extensively on cohousing and aging in community.

"Cohousing is a model where people come together intentionally and go through a shared-intention living process. It's not a commune; people own their own homes," Beck says. "There is shared infrastructure including a common house within each neighborhood. Everybody owns a piece of it; it is an extension of our homes."

Beck describes a pedestrian environment in which cars are kept away from the center of the neighborhood that is "very intergenerational," with ages ranging from newborns to people in their mid-80s. Decisions that involve the shared infrastructure are made by consensus. "This is a great opportunity to see how the intergenerational dynamic plays out, watching children create relationships with elders that are not their own grandparents," she says. "They can learn from each other, and it happens organically every day."

Beck writes about the strong sense of ownership that residents develop through community building. Unlike developer-driven projects or NORCs, cohousing residents design a locality that reflects their needs. The process takes about two and a half to three years to complete and involves building relationships with neighbors long before the physical land exists. Developers may guide the planning process but the community's mission and character, according to Beck, are in the hands of the residents.

Excerpted from...

Changing Choices — Aging in Place in the 21st Century
By Athan G. Bezaitis, MA
Aging Well
Vol. 1 No. 3 P. 30

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 18, 2008 6:08 AM |Permalink |Comments (3)

Changing Aging in the Gem State

Where I'm staying:

Great discussion of long term care policy in the Governor's Council Chamber at the New Hampshire statehouse:

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 18, 2008 8:47 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 19, 2008

Sri Lankans for Obama

Emi Kiyota writes....

My Japanese friend who works in Sri Lanka sent me the attached picture. The man in the picutre visited a temple in Sri Lanka with lotus flowers to pray for electing Obama for the next president in the USA. I was quite impressed by his devotion to supporting Obama from Sri Lanka!!

Yes%20we%20can.jpg

Look for more from Emi Kiyota in the future...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 19, 2008 6:26 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Power-Up Friday: Changing Aging blogroll addition

There's a new blog out there that's worth following: http://alt-alzheimers.com. Thanks to Emi Kiyota for pointing me to it. The purpose of the blog is to challenge the dominant view of dementia in our society.

This blog has a varied and interesting cast of contributors, including: Jess Ballinger, a scientist and historian; Peter Whitehouse, a Case Western neurologist who has recently challenged the biomedical paradigm with his book "The Myth of Alzheimer's", co-written with Danny George a medical anthropologist; Mona Johnson, a former telecom analyst and care partner for her late father; Dr. Richard Taylor, a noted writer and lecturer who has chronicled his own experiences with an Alzheimer's diagnosis, and Don Moyer, who's a little bit of everything.

This group heads a site devoted to hearing opinions and theories that step outside the box we have created for this symptom complex. They don't all follow one philosophy and they welcome all perspectives.

This is a great idea. Only by letting people interact in a forum without "rules" can we hope to continue to re-define the very human experiences that comprise the landscape of "dementia".

Check it out!

-- Al Power

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 19, 2008 10:50 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 21, 2008

Number 500

Wow.

Just wow.

It does not seem possible that Blogmeister Kavan threw the switch and changingaging.org went live just a year ago. This is the 500th post since that day. Special thanks to guest posters Al Power and Christa Monkhouse for their insightful additions to this blog.

Over the past couple of months the readership has increased significantly. I'm not sure why this has happened but I am very happy about it. Because we have so many new readers, I thought that I would celebrate year one with a "Greatest Hits" post a day from the Changingaging.org archives.

Not to worry! We will also have current material.

One last thought, the epic tsunami of spam that washes over the internet can be kept away from our comments section if we limit participation to people who have a TypeKey ID. It is simple it is free and it stops spam from clogging our comments.

Best to all our readers and here's to a fantastic year two.

Bill

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 21, 2008 9:09 AM |Permalink |Comments (2)

September 22, 2008

Monkhouse Mondays: 2025 and the care gap

Ingrid, a journalist from the Netherlands, interviewed me about the Eden-Alternative in Europe a few weeks ago. The name of the magazine she writes for is "2025“. The name was chosen because 2025 is the peak of ageing in the Netherlands. At the same time, it came to my mind that a large proportion of the current (also large) cohort of experienced nurses and other carers will be retired. A deep care-gap is foreseeable. Nobody seems alarmed. No true human resource policy or management initiatives are in sight. More so, nursing and caring worldwide undergoes serious devaluation*: "Widespread cost constraints and sociopolitical attitudes that devalue care, lead to erosion of working conditions, with resultant potentially catastrophic nurse shortages“. Is Europe sleepwalking into disaster?

As an ever optimistic person, this does not often happen to me, but somehow, for a day, I was left speechless.

*Original article: The Devaluation of Nursing: a position statement, by Helen Allan, Verena Tschudin and Khim Horton, University of Surrey, UK, published in Nursing Ethics 15 (4) 2008 p 549 - 556

-- Christa Monkhouse

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 22, 2008 2:47 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

Time is Wrong

Reposted from One Year Ago!!!

A report on national service by one of our national news magazines is a good thing but what message do Time's editors choose to emphasize with the cover art?

National Service is, or could be, a good thing. (Full disclosure, I never served in the military, Peace Corp, Vista or any other kind of National Service myself.) The problem is that the magazine slants its National Service coverage toward the issue of youth and service and away from what elders are already doing to advance the common good. This framing is consistent with the dominant cultural theme which says: "Old Age Equals Decline." If that was true (and it is not) then the only hope for our society would lie with the young. In fact, we live in a time when there is an unprecedented opportunity for young and old to be together, work together and make change together.

The model who sat as Rockwell's model is now an 83 year old grandmother. The iconic image of the original "Rosie the Riveter" remains powerful image because, even six decades after it was made, it retains the capacity to remind us that some things are worth struggling for and sometimes the struggle for the good can be found close to home-- in our own neighborhoods and communities.

So- in the spirit of Time's Rosie Remix, I have a challenge for UMBC's Visual Arts/Graphics Majors--- Make me a remix of the Time cover that gives that poor woman on the cover a mighty mane of Gray Hair and some wrinkles. Send your Remixes to me at wthomas@umbc.edu and be sure to put "Remix" in the Subject line. I will post the best of them on this blog.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 22, 2008 8:21 AM |Permalink |Comments (3)

Walking Watkins Glen

Jude and I hiked the gorge at Watkins Glen this weekend.

B E A U tiful...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 22, 2008 12:04 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Financial Mess

This is a superb explanation of how we got where we are today.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 22, 2008 10:09 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 23, 2008

The Power of Community

"Having close friends and staying in contact with family members offers a protective effect against the damaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease according to research by physicians at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The study, which is currently posted online in The Lancet Neurology, will be published in the May print edition of the journal."

Community is essential to well being and this is especially true for elders. That said, we are sailing into a historical aberration. In the decades to come, more and more elders will spend more and more time separated from family, friends and neighbors. This is a path that leads to great suffering and it must be undone.

Click here for a handy list of Nine things you can do to prevent Alzheimers.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 23, 2008 6:24 AM |Permalink |Comments (3)

The Zen of Dementia

This just in from one of my favorite new blogs...

posted by pjwh

Dementia changes people and changes relationships, sometimes for the better. In the latest edition of Newsweek (September 22, 2008), author Sara Davidson shares her story about her relationship with her mother who became less demanding and more accepting of life as her cognitive impairment progressed, much to the surprise of the family. This is not the first time we’ve heard the story of a relationship improving with progressive cognitive impairment.

My friend Robert Green is quoted representing the standard view that experts are only interested in negative behaviors. Yet carers such as Ann Davidson, Elinor Fuchs and Judith Levine who have written books (and are in our book) about their experiences know that relationships change in complex ways, some very much for the good.

In Sarah’s piece I am described as a practicing Buddhist who wants the world’s religions to attend more to the challenges of dementia. Just as they provide perspectives on life and death so too they should attend to the challenges of cognitive aging.

I consider myself an amateur (note the root of that word is “love”) Buddhist, not a regular practitioner. I have studied and practiced meditative approaches, for example in Japan and at Naropa University in Colorado – a wonderful place where the spirit of learning is very much alive). Buddhism is both a science of mind and a spiritual practice that recognizes that false expectations and personal desires are at the root of suffering.

As quoted in Newsweek and from my own conversations with him, Oliver Sacks, too, believes that interesting parallels can be drawn between “being present” and emptying the mind in Buddhism and the mental state of dementia. I am not suggesting that enlightenment and dementia are the same, but rather that thinking deeply about their relationships may enlighten our attitudes about the cognitive challenges we all face as human beings who age. Just as fully embracing our mortality makes us appreciate life deeply, can reflecting profoundly on dementia help us recognize our own intellectual limitations as sentient creatures. Can we become more heart-full and wise as a result? Moreover in the daily struggles with cognitive impairment, meditation may be of practical benefit in helping people with dementia address issues of attention and anxiety. Open your own mind and heart to broader and deeper ways of thinking and perhaps your fears and suffering will be alleviated.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 23, 2008 11:55 AM |Permalink |Comments (6)

September 24, 2008

Chipmunk Economics

I've been watching the SCHIP tragi-rama and, for me it least, it has all of the overtones of the recent Social Security brouhaha. Its the same story with Medicare, Medicaid, WIC, SSI...etc., etc. etc.

Here is that story:

"Despite all evidence to the contrary, there is no such thing as the common good. It turns out that we are all alone in this world, rich and poor alike--- well not exactly alike. Anyway, again despite all evidence to the contrary, it is best if we learn not to rely on each other. We are, it seems, a race of chipmunks each of us racing alone to toward the creation of our own, individual, pile of nuts. If your stash is big and well-hidden, then congratulations, you deserve to make it through the winter. If your stash is small or not so well hidden, or stolen or ruined, well then that's just too bad. You can't expect any other chipmunks to give a damn about you.
"It's every chipmunk for himself and the devil take the hindmost."
---- Richard Dawkins

Interestingly, the story told above collides with everything we know about morality, ethics, theology and, especially, human nature. We are not chipmunks, and never have been.

It is said, by those who know, that before the invention of the freezer, the best place to store surplus meat was in a neighbor's stomach. In other words, sharing the surplus in good times with the expectation that we will be helped by others in hard times is woven into the fabric of our species. Social insurance programs (like Social Security) take this principle one step further and create a situation where members of a nation make a promise to each other and then work to keep that promise, generation after generation.

Efforts to lead us away from the promises that, we, as a people, have made are, when you get down to it --- inhuman.

We are not chipmunks, never have been, never will be.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 24, 2008 6:26 AM |Permalink |Comments (5)

Blanchard Wins Days: Aging In Community

[Editors Note -- This is a guest post from new Changing Aging blogger Janice Blanchard. Janice is a gerontologist and nationally recognized writer, speaker and thought leader on aging issues and we're honored to have her join the Changing Aging family. Her posts will run Wednesdays, or Blanchard Wins Days.]

Most older Americans would prefer to “age in place” – to live in their current homes with supportive services if necessary as an alternative to institutional long-term care. Indeed, people go to extraordinary measures to accomplish this goal. While many consider aging in place suitable, others find it a hollow victory, particularly when it occurs in a home that poses physical, financial or emotional challenges and makes meaningful connection with family, friends, neighbors and the community difficult or impossible. For this and other reasons, an increasing number of people now envision a third way—“aging in community.”

In short, “aging in community” presents a proactive, grassroots model that intentionally creates supportive neighborhoods to enhance well-being and quality of life at home and as an integral part of the community for people of all ages and abilities, particularly elders. Aging in community promotes a deliberate consciousness to be “a darn good neighbor.” Relationships between community members are informal, voluntary and reciprocal, and therefore, sustainable over time. Aging in community promotes social capital - a sense of social trust and interdependence enhanced over time through positive interactions and collaboration in shared interests and pursuits. Elders’ wisdom and experience are recognized and honored and opportunities are promoted to share this with others in the community.

A great example of an aging in community neighborhood, is Generations of Hope in Rantoul, Illinois. The visionary founder, Brenda Krause Eheart, recently won the 2008 Heinz Award for her success in building a “community-based model for adoptive families and senior citizens.” Yesterday, the New York Times featured

an article and slide show of this innovative program.

In the Wins Days to come, I look forward to sharing more about other emerging models of aging in community.

-- Janice Blanchard, MSPH

Based in a shuttered Air Force base in Rantoul, Ill., Generations of Hope matches elderly people to serve as surrogate grandparents for children in foster care. For Irene Bohn, 84, a retired schoolteacher, the role of beloved grandmother to Angelo Laws, 9, and his three siblings, has been the happiest and most important of her life.(Photo: Sally Ryan for The New York Times)

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 24, 2008 10:41 AM |Permalink |Comments (3)

September 25, 2008

I'm Talking Old

Well-being-- it is what we all want-- young and old alike.

TOKYO - The world's oldest man celebrated his 113th birthday on Thursday, telling reporters at his home in southern Japan about his joyful life and healthy appetite.

"I'm happy," said Tomoji Tanabe as the local mayor presented him with flowers and a giant tea cup glazed with his name and date of birth. "I'm well. I eat a lot," he added.

Tanabe, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living male last year, eats mostly vegetables and believes the key to longevity is not drinking alcohol.

More Here

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 25, 2008 6:34 AM |Permalink |Comments (7)

September 26, 2008

Movie Stars Are Immune from Aging

Well maybe not, maybe they get older right along with all the rest of us...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 26, 2008 6:33 AM |Permalink |Comments (5)

September 29, 2008

Monkhouse Mondays: Prevention instead of cure

In Switzerland, like elsewhere in Europe, health insurance pays for some preventative measures in young people, some even contribute to a fitness-center enrollment and weight loss programs. Insurance does not, however, pay for systematic preventative visits to older people at home to assess their small health deficiencies in order to prevent bigger ones which accumulate over time.

Our system thus spends a lot of money on few people (who have to move to a nursing home because of a health-crisis, such as falls).

How long will it take until we spend a little money on many people? To prevent falls, we could be checking their eyesight, bone density and balance and inform them how to make their home safe and fit for their increasing frailty.

The medical model, after all, is a reactive one, and it seems, outmoded and expensive too! It could be replaced by a "chronic care model“ (Watch this video to get some ideas how it could work)

Christa Monkhouse

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 29, 2008 11:55 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

Hannah and Haleigh

Dr. Thomas asked I post a notice letting Changing Aging readers know that he may not be be blogging for a short period of time. His daughter, Hannah, has been hospitalized due to complications involving a severe medical condition that she and her sister Haleigh were both born with. She is stable, but in critical condition, and your thoughts, prayers and well wishes are very much appreciated.

Christa, Al, Janice and myself will be filling-in for Bill this week so please continue to check back daily and share your thoughts and comments.

--Kavan Peterson, Changing Aging Web Master

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 29, 2008 11:57 AM |Permalink |Comments (7)

September 30, 2008

Outrage of the Week

This from the BBC website on 9/19 :
British "ethicist" Baroness Mary Warnock was quoted in Scotland magazine as saying
that people with dementia should be able to voluntarily end their lives if they feel
they are "a burden to others or to the National Health Service".

Her comments, framed as empowering people to make advanced directives in the event
of worsening disease, instead expressed the view that people with dementia are
hopeless, wasting resources and burdening their loved ones.

What a far cry from the kind of life and growth many of us are giving to people with
all forms of dementia every day of the week! What a sad commentary that an ethicist
would feel that people with this disease should be judged more harshly than those
with any other medical illness!

--Al Power

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September 2008 Archives

September 2, 2008

So Much To Learn

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 2, 2008 8:26 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 3, 2008

Yep

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 3, 2008 6:28 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

'Superstar' on aging

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 3, 2008 2:03 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 4, 2008

Mental Age

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 4, 2008 6:38 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 5, 2008

Cultural Creatives

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 5, 2008 6:23 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

September 6, 2008

Power-Up Brains

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 6, 2008 9:22 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Not Going To Deny It

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 6, 2008 9:24 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

September 8, 2008

Stress and Memory Loss – an explosive cocktail

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 8, 2008 9:27 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 9, 2008

Love in the Afternoon

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 9, 2008 9:52 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 12, 2008

Power-Up Friday: Taking Stock

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 12, 2008 3:19 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 15, 2008

Is Grandpa Bad for the Environment?

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 15, 2008 6:47 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Monkhouse Mondays: Montréal Ageing and Design Conference

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 15, 2008 5:37 PM |Permalink |Comments (2)

September 16, 2008

The World is Changing

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 16, 2008 6:56 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

Indian Summer New Hampshire

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 16, 2008 4:58 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 17, 2008

CREEPY!

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 17, 2008 6:01 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

September 18, 2008

Changing Choices

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 18, 2008 6:08 AM |Permalink |Comments (3)

Changing Aging in the Gem State

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 18, 2008 8:47 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 19, 2008

Sri Lankans for Obama

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 19, 2008 6:26 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Power-Up Friday: Changing Aging blogroll addition

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 19, 2008 10:50 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 21, 2008

Number 500

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 21, 2008 9:09 AM |Permalink |Comments (2)

September 22, 2008

Monkhouse Mondays: 2025 and the care gap

Posted by Kavan Peterson on September 22, 2008 2:47 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

Time is Wrong

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 22, 2008 8:21 AM |Permalink |Comments (3)

Walking Watkins Glen

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 22, 2008 12:04 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Financial Mess

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 22, 2008 10:09 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 23, 2008

The Power of Community

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 23, 2008 6:24 AM |Permalink |Comments (3)