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The long-term care implosion has already begun in the United States.
The unprecedented, prodigious global growth of the aging population
demands attention and a radical response and reform from both policy
makers and professionals on the front-lines of geriatric care.
In the United States, there is a prevailing perception that the
influx of elderly will burden the health care system. Cost containment,
tacitly and explicitly, is growing in support and popularity, and as a
result, more elders can not obtain medical and mental health care.
Physicians are finding elderly difficult to treat because of their medical
complexity, psychosocial issues and lack of funding from Medicare and
Medicaid programs. A significant number of primary care physicians limit
the number of new geriatric patients; this is more pronounced with rural
elderly and Medicaid (low-income) recipients who have difficulty locating
and accessing doctors. All the while, health care costs are exponentially
increasing. Critics of the system emphasize that one-third of our medical
spending on the elderly may be for needless or ineffective procedures.
Families of elders are still responsible for the costs of long-term
care, and some projections state that approximately 80% of geriatric care
comes from elders' families and friends. The cost of these services
exceeds $196 billion (Arno, Levine & Memmott, 1999), and yet, despite
the abundance of psychological research that supports "aging-in-place" /
family support services, legislators and policy makers continue to ignore
this reality and the need for reform.
According to the Dept. of Health and Human Services, long- term care
facilities in the United States continue to have too few personnel
necessary to adequately meet the most basic needs and care standards. And
despite the doubling of government reimbursement to these institutions,
staffing did not increase. Rather, the resources were used to support
profitable takeovers of smaller facilities(Center for Medicare Advocacy).
Medicare costs continue to escalate, and because medicare does not
cover the outrageously expensive tab of long- term, skilled nursing care,
American elders are compelled to propel themesleves into poverty by
selling and manipulating assets so that Medicaid pays for these services.
The euphemism for this sanctioned impoverishment is called "spending
down." I can not begin to fathom the erosion of dignity and self-worth
that occurs when the elder acknowledges that his/her hard earned assets
have quickly dissipated in order to receive health care during the frail
years of their life.
What about prescription coverage? Probably more that 60 % of
geriatric patients in the United States have some form of medication
insurance coverage. But the American Association of Retired Persons notes
that more than half of drug costs are stll paid by seniors alone with no
reimbursement. The cost is more expensive for seniors than what hospitals
and HMOs pay. Recently, several pharmaceutical companies offered
assistance to seniors with well-intentioned prescription plans, but this
is still not enough. Because of the inability to pay, many elders either
discontinue the medicine or alter (reduce) the dosage without their
physicians' knowledge or authorization.
What can and should we, as professionals, do to change these
injustices? This reminds me of a parable--a man stood in anguish before
God screaming because of all the anguish and pain in the world. He cried
out, "look at the suffering and pain in your world! Why don't you send
help?" God responded, "I did send help...I sent you."
We can become change agents by actively advocating and agitating for
the following:
1) Support a holistically culturally-competent model of health care
that includes the psychological, physical, nutritional, social and
spiritual elements of care. Ongoing training that includes these elements
for long-term care staff in the management and amelioration of the most
common disorders of the aged is vital.
2) We must strenuously advocate for practices that emphasize the
ethical treatment and care of the elderly. Health care professionals must
apply the golden rule and platinum rule of ethics to caregiving.
3) We have to rigorously advocate for innovative training programs
developed to foster competence in geriatric professional care. We must
teach physicians, nurses and long-term care personnel to practice
increased emotionally supportive care rather than the fatalistic,
abandonment-oriented, sterile, depersonalizing care we often witness, hear
and read about. Mandatory geriatric rotations that include a psycho-
spirtitual and family-systems oriented emphasis are vital. We must train
professionals to include family and caregivers in all phases of the doctor
-patient relationship. Family members are indeed the secondary victims -
the silent sufferers - of the elder's disease process.
4) Palliative care must become an integral part of care. The term
"dying with dignity" should be more than rhetoric, it should be practiced
and breathed. A significant number of elders die with excruciating
physical pain, and many die alone, with no connection to a present,
caring, loving individual helping them to make the sacred exit.
5) Every effort should be made to support family caregiver programs
ranging from respite care to in-home nursing care. This may result in
increased qualtity and financially prudent outcomes for the elder, the
family and the health care system as a whole.
6) We must further the research on brain plasticity and resilience
and support psychosocial activity programs that strenghten mental capital
and slow the progression of dementia-like syndromes.
7) It is imperative that we advocate and enforce a zero-tolerance
policy on long-term care neglect and abuse of the most helpless of our
society -- institutionalized elders. Why are the elderly perceived to be
so qualtitatively different than children? Why does one lose his/her
sacred humanness once they become wrinkled, gray and enfeebled? Arguably,
if the atrocities and neglect that occur in long-term care facilities
today would occur in a child day-care center or school, the public outcry,
media exposure and legal/criminal consequences would be fierce and swift.
I am certain that the institution would immediately be shut down and the
perpetrators and management would be publicly brought to justice.
8) Finally, we must constantly become introspective and explore our
attitudes and perceptions about the aging and dying process. Empathy and
presence are vital ingredients.
Martin Luther King Jr. left us with a very appropriate quote that has
immense relevance to the care of our elderly: "I have the audacity to
believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their
bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality, and
freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn
down, other-centered men can build up."
Stanley M. Giannet, Ph.D.
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine,
University of South Florida, College of Medicine
Associate Dean of Arts, Letters & Social Sciences, Pasco-Hernando
Community College, Florida
President, Giannet Consulting Services, Inc. Florida.
Vice President, Board of Directors, Gulfside Regional Hospice, Inc.
Florida.
Medical Spokesperson and Advisory Board Member, Alzheimer's Family
Organization, Florida.
Reference:
Arno, P.S., Levine, C. & Memmott, M.M. (1999). The economic value
of informal care-giving. Health Affairs, 18, 182-188.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
02 February 2004
Dr. Stanley M. Giannet
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
University of South Florida College of Medicine, Florida USA
Progressive Meditations on the Essential Transformation of Geriatric Care
The long-term care implosion has already begun in the United States.
The unprecedented, prodigious global growth of the aging population
demands attention and a radical response and reform from both policy
makers and professionals on the front-lines of geriatric care.
In the United States, there is a prevailing perception that the
influx of elderly will burden the health care system. Cost containment,
tacitly and explicitly, is growing in support and popularity, and as a
result, more elders can not obtain medical and mental health care.
Physicians are finding elderly difficult to treat because of their medical
complexity, psychosocial issues and lack of funding from Medicare and
Medicaid programs. A significant number of primary care physicians limit
the number of new geriatric patients; this is more pronounced with rural
elderly and Medicaid (low-income) recipients who have difficulty locating
and accessing doctors. All the while, health care costs are exponentially
increasing. Critics of the system emphasize that one-third of our medical
spending on the elderly may be for needless or ineffective procedures.
Families of elders are still responsible for the costs of long-term
care, and some projections state that approximately 80% of geriatric care
comes from elders' families and friends. The cost of these services
exceeds $196 billion (Arno, Levine & Memmott, 1999), and yet, despite
the abundance of psychological research that supports "aging-in-place" /
family support services, legislators and policy makers continue to ignore
this reality and the need for reform.
According to the Dept. of Health and Human Services, long- term care
facilities in the United States continue to have too few personnel
necessary to adequately meet the most basic needs and care standards. And
despite the doubling of government reimbursement to these institutions,
staffing did not increase. Rather, the resources were used to support
profitable takeovers of smaller facilities(Center for Medicare Advocacy).
Medicare costs continue to escalate, and because medicare does not
cover the outrageously expensive tab of long- term, skilled nursing care,
American elders are compelled to propel themesleves into poverty by
selling and manipulating assets so that Medicaid pays for these services.
The euphemism for this sanctioned impoverishment is called "spending
down." I can not begin to fathom the erosion of dignity and self-worth
that occurs when the elder acknowledges that his/her hard earned assets
have quickly dissipated in order to receive health care during the frail
years of their life.
What about prescription coverage? Probably more that 60 % of
geriatric patients in the United States have some form of medication
insurance coverage. But the American Association of Retired Persons notes
that more than half of drug costs are stll paid by seniors alone with no
reimbursement. The cost is more expensive for seniors than what hospitals
and HMOs pay. Recently, several pharmaceutical companies offered
assistance to seniors with well-intentioned prescription plans, but this
is still not enough. Because of the inability to pay, many elders either
discontinue the medicine or alter (reduce) the dosage without their
physicians' knowledge or authorization.
What can and should we, as professionals, do to change these
injustices? This reminds me of a parable--a man stood in anguish before
God screaming because of all the anguish and pain in the world. He cried
out, "look at the suffering and pain in your world! Why don't you send
help?" God responded, "I did send help...I sent you."
We can become change agents by actively advocating and agitating for
the following:
1) Support a holistically culturally-competent model of health care
that includes the psychological, physical, nutritional, social and
spiritual elements of care. Ongoing training that includes these elements
for long-term care staff in the management and amelioration of the most
common disorders of the aged is vital.
2) We must strenuously advocate for practices that emphasize the
ethical treatment and care of the elderly. Health care professionals must
apply the golden rule and platinum rule of ethics to caregiving.
3) We have to rigorously advocate for innovative training programs
developed to foster competence in geriatric professional care. We must
teach physicians, nurses and long-term care personnel to practice
increased emotionally supportive care rather than the fatalistic,
abandonment-oriented, sterile, depersonalizing care we often witness, hear
and read about. Mandatory geriatric rotations that include a psycho-
spirtitual and family-systems oriented emphasis are vital. We must train
professionals to include family and caregivers in all phases of the doctor
-patient relationship. Family members are indeed the secondary victims -
the silent sufferers - of the elder's disease process.
4) Palliative care must become an integral part of care. The term
"dying with dignity" should be more than rhetoric, it should be practiced
and breathed. A significant number of elders die with excruciating
physical pain, and many die alone, with no connection to a present,
caring, loving individual helping them to make the sacred exit.
5) Every effort should be made to support family caregiver programs
ranging from respite care to in-home nursing care. This may result in
increased qualtity and financially prudent outcomes for the elder, the
family and the health care system as a whole.
6) We must further the research on brain plasticity and resilience
and support psychosocial activity programs that strenghten mental capital
and slow the progression of dementia-like syndromes.
7) It is imperative that we advocate and enforce a zero-tolerance
policy on long-term care neglect and abuse of the most helpless of our
society -- institutionalized elders. Why are the elderly perceived to be
so qualtitatively different than children? Why does one lose his/her
sacred humanness once they become wrinkled, gray and enfeebled? Arguably,
if the atrocities and neglect that occur in long-term care facilities
today would occur in a child day-care center or school, the public outcry,
media exposure and legal/criminal consequences would be fierce and swift.
I am certain that the institution would immediately be shut down and the
perpetrators and management would be publicly brought to justice.
8) Finally, we must constantly become introspective and explore our
attitudes and perceptions about the aging and dying process. Empathy and
presence are vital ingredients.
Martin Luther King Jr. left us with a very appropriate quote that has
immense relevance to the care of our elderly: "I have the audacity to
believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their
bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality, and
freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn
down, other-centered men can build up."
Stanley M. Giannet, Ph.D.
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine,
University of South Florida, College of Medicine
Associate Dean of Arts, Letters & Social Sciences, Pasco-Hernando
Community College, Florida
President, Giannet Consulting Services, Inc. Florida.
Vice President, Board of Directors, Gulfside Regional Hospice, Inc.
Florida.
Medical Spokesperson and Advisory Board Member, Alzheimer's Family
Organization, Florida.
Reference:
Arno, P.S., Levine, C. & Memmott, M.M. (1999). The economic value
of informal care-giving. Health Affairs, 18, 182-188.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests