Slow medicine - care for seniors

[boomerkid]

In case you missed it there is a terrific article in the New York Times about the concept of "slow medicine, or slow care". The idea is that that way too much money and suffering are wasted on invasive and dangerous procedures at the end of life. Many end up causing death or a serious decline in quality of life. So slow medicine is what many gerontologists practice and advise - try to keep the quality of life and dignity over super-human efforts to fix things in one's later years. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/health/05slow.html]For the Elderly, Being Heard about Life's End[/url]

[papajuan]

what a great idea! My mother and father live in a great CCRC in Fort Myers - Cypress Cove. Whereas their regular doctors are slower to be invasive, every time one of them gets sick and goes to the hospital there is the danger that the medical staff wants to pull out every stop they have. As my sister says, when you go into the hospital they are trying to cure you, even if it kills you. Sometimes it just means saving you so you can back for a while and repeat the whole cycle all over again. Striking a balance is hard - with quality of life at issue.