Mental Health and Aging
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-07/mental-health-and-aging
Americans who turn 65 this year can expect to live another 19 years on average. The majority will cope well with the physical and cognitive changes of late life. Others will experience mental disorders that are not part of normal aging. The symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s are commonly known. But a host of other mental health issues confronting seniors – from sleeplessness to anxiety – often go unrecognized and untreated. At the same time our aging population is growing, the U. S. faces a serious shortage of geriatric mental health care workers. Diane and her guests discuss the mental health challenges facing seniors.
Guests
Dr. Marc Agronin
Medical Director for Mental Health and Clinical Research with the Miami (FL) Jewish Health Systems
Dr. Maria Llorente
Associate Chief of Staff for Mental Health, Washington DC VA Medical Center
Dr. Allan Anderson
President of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and Medical Director of The Bratton Memory Clinic in Easton, Maryland
Read an Excerpt: Dr. Agronin's Book
Excerpted from "How We Age" by Dr. Marc Agronin. Copyright 2011 by Marc Agronin. Excerpted here by kind permission of Da Capo Press / Da Capo Lifelong Books:
Comments
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I recently read on Hubski.com that gerontologist Aubrey de Grey predicts that the first person to live to see 150 has already been born and the first person to live for a 1000 years may be less than 20 years behind them. So called "preventative geriatrics", is a burgeoning field where eventually the elderly will go to doctors for regular "molecular maitenance". I wonder if any of your guests are familiar with Aubrey de Grey's work?
Thank you Diane, I love your show.
Steven Clausnitzer -(pronounced Clows-nit-zer)
Durham, NC
This is a serious problem facing our country on two fronts: One, Dr. Gregory Petsko is predicting an epidemic of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease in our country in the upcoming decades: http://michaelmaczesty.blogspot.com/2011/06/senile-america-2050.html
Secondly, 1 in 9 people on the planet is a teenager, and most of them do not live in the United States or in Western countries at all. The demographics are about to shift, largely: http://michaelmaczesty.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-adolescents-world.html
I have spent the last three and a half years in numerous nursing homes, assisted living facilities around the Dayton Ohio region. I can not encourage folks enough to go into these places in their neighborhoods, volunteer. They will not only learn about their own ongoing aging process they will find out there are so many folks able to share treasured and very valuable memories. Our elderly population is filled with treasure troves of incredible stories.
My recommendation to folks is go ask, listen and learn from our aging population.
Thank you for not focusing on Dementia. There are MANY more conditions that older people encounter which cause depresson - for example joint replacement, heart disease & cardiac surgery, any new chronic disease development; death of family members & friends, having to move -
Please ask them to discuss the issues of integrating mental health treatment in primary care and how to get middle class patients to use social services & mental health systems.
I have asked hundreds of international students studying here at Ohio University in Athens Ohio what they think the US's strengths and weaknesses are. I am always surprised by how many of them say things about how great our libraries are. Seldom do many of us think about this. But on your topic far more share that they think we treat our elderly in a dismissive and disrespectful way. They are often confused by this. So am I
Do your guest think that in the US more seniors feel ashamed and humiliated by the aging process than in other cultures?
We need a national volunteer program to visit and give our seniors attention program. High school students and many more would benefit personally from such a program
Yowser
Please ask your guests to comment on the importance of addressing hormone balancing as an integral part of addressing a variety of issues related to aging, such as cardiac health, improving bone density, muscle tone, mood, etc.
I have been researching this for 11 months and am amazed at the lack of information / understanding by medical professionals and patients about the huge effects that low and/or unbalanced hormones (all of them - not just the sex hormones) can have.
The mental health counselor at the Nursing home my father is in has determined that my father is suffering and has suffered from PTSD from his service in WW II. This counselor worked at the Dayton Ohio VA for 20 years.
We have not been able to get the VA to come and do an interview etc because they say they are overwhelmed by care for Afghanistan and Iraq vets. Can your guest address how many of our older Vets psychological scars have been ignored and how many elderly Vets do not get the psychological care they need?
As a consequence of a severe depressive episode in which I became suicidal, I was subjected to ECT, which I feel has drastically affected my long term memory. Is there any known effect of ECT on dementia or Alzheimer's?
Dave,
Winston-Salem, NC
I have been a care giver for several adults with dementia, all who were on "Aricept". This drug did nothing for the patients but give them stomach and bowel problems. This medicine creates a new health problem with these people. I highly suggest this medicine is not given. There was no positive outcome from Aricept.
--Audrey Kramer
According to a study in 1999 by the AMA (now JAMA), there is a 63% higher risk of dying to be a caregiving spouse of an Alzheimer’s patient vs being in a regular marriage w/o caregiving needed. 1 in 4 working adults are caregiving on average 22 hours a week and losing over $400,000 in income over their lifetime. Having long-term care insurance can remove a lot of the burden of 24/7 caregiving and help the family to keep the person home longer. New cash LTC insurance policies can pay for any needs once a person is seriously cognitively impaired or deficient in 2 activities such as bathing and dressing. With the Boomers at 65 and aging, the Medicare and Medicaid systems are in danger--we are going to be on our own if we want quality care. The US Dept of Health has info at www.longtermcare.gov.
One of your callers mentioned the research of Alan MacDonald, who cultured the spirochetes that cause Lyme disease in brains from the National Alzheimer's Disease Brain Bank. He later studied 10 brains from the Harvard McLean Brain Bank and found evidence of Lyme disease. Pamela Weintraub, a senior editor at Discover Magazine, writes about this in her book, Cure Unknown. I believe she discussed this on your program a few years ago. She was one of your guests who discussed the controversy over the diagnosis and treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease. Are doctors screening for possible infectious causes of dementia, such as syphilis or Lyme, before assigning the label of Alzheimer's?
Debbie in Michigan made an astute and perhaps today's most helpful comment about healthy aging: The fact that the involvement of family and friends trumps medications and clinical solutions for not just dementia but most issues of
aging.
The point was made today that programs that provide social support for the elderly do not have a big lobby in DC but big pharma does. Use of medications to replace quality care is a major problem both for the elderly and our out of control healthcare costs.
There is a solution at least in part in the continued involvement of family and friends in the lives of their elder loved ones. For example, family councils in nursing homes have been shown to improve the quality of care for nursing home residents. Just as a PTO or PTA functions in a school, a family council can bring together different points of view, resolve issues and support caregivers in a very difficult situation.They also provide support for everyone involved,including the nh staff. It is a right under federal law for families and friends of nursing home residents to form a council.
Pills and policies and research and psychiatry all have their place but the sleeping giant that must be roused to resolve the quality of life issues for our elderly is the all powerful consumer-- the family.