X-Message-Number: 29697
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 09:29:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: 2Arcturus <>
Subject: Living Old

--0-1112402787-1185985777=:29896


This caught my eye, cross-posted from the CR list. Something more, 
unfortunately, for cryonicists to think about. With an added concern about the 
brain damage and loss of personal identity that might begin long before 
pronouncement of death...
   
  FRONTLINE: watch online | PBS -- Living old, 2006


For the first time in American history, "the old old" -- those over 85  --  are 
now the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. Medical advances have 
enabled an unprecedented number of Americans to live longer, healthier lives. 
But for millions of elderly, living longer can also mean a debilitating physical
decline that often requires an immense amount of care. 


  And just as more care is needed, fewer caregivers are available to provide it.
  In "Living Old," FRONTLINE investigates this national crisis and explores the
  new realities of aging in America.
   

  "We're on the threshold of the first-ever mass geriatric society," says Dr. 
  Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2002 to 2005.
  "The bad news is that the price that many people are going to be paying for 
  [an] extra decade of healthy longevity is up to another decade of anything but
  healthy longevity. . We've not yet begun to face up to what this means in 
  human terms."
   

  Vast numbers of our elderly are living lives that neither they nor their 
  families ever prepared for or imagined. Through the perspectives of the 
  elderly, their families and the doctors and nurses who care for them, "Living 
  Old" explores the modern realities of aging in both urban and rural America. 
  The hour-long documentary takes viewers on an intimate and powerful 

journey that raises new and troubling concerns about what it really means to 
grow old.
   

  For millions of Americans, living longer means coping with multiple chronic 
  illnesses, increasing frailty and prolonged periods of dementia, which may 
  last for years and sometimes even decades. Only one in 20 people over the age 
  of 85 is still fully mobile, and roughly half will develop some form of 
  dementia. "Everything started to go at 82 years," says Rose Chanes, now 96 and
  in assisted living. "I don't hear, I don't see. . You've got to be crazy to 
  call it a blessing to live like this. . I call it a curse."
   

  For the elderly and their families, the emotional toll is often severe."With 
  my mother, it's been a slow process, but in the last few months,.. things have
  escalated," says Mary Ann DiBerardino, whose parents, married for 68 years 
  and both in their 90s, now share a room in a nursing home. Her father has 
  advanced Parkinson's, and her mother has Alzheimer's. "It's difficult some 
  days when I'm not sure if [my mother] doesn't eat because perhaps she's 
  forgotten how to use her utensils," says DiBerardino. "Or does she not know 
  how to swallow? I keep trying to fix things, and even though my head says I 
  can't, your heart wants to fix everything. Even with my nursing background and
  caring for [the] elderly and terminally ill, nothing has prepared me for 
  taking on the role of caring for my mother."
   

  In an attempt to lessen the burden on families and to ensure that their wishes
  are fulfilled, many elderly write advance directives, such as living wills, 
  powers of attorney and do-not-resuscitate orders. "But the fact of the matter 
  is, it's really impossible to describe all of those circumstances that one is 
  going to face," says Dr. Kass. "[And] it's simply not true

 that we can know in advance how we ourselves will feel about many of these 
 things once we find ourselves not 45 and fit, but 75 and viewing life with a 
 different lens."
   

  Decisions about life-prolonging treatments are also becoming increasingly 
  complex. "My son . asked me to sign a paper that would authorize termination 
  in case of [a] hopeless-looking condition," says Estelle Strongin, a 
  94-year-old practicing stockbroker. "And I said, 'No, I'm not signing that.' 
  There are a lot of cases where doctors have said this patient has three months
  to live, and they've lived 30 years." When asked why so many of the elderly 
  are signing such documents, Strongin responds that they sign because they do 
  not want to see their children suffer. But, she adds with a laugh, "I said to 
  them, 'I don't care-suffer.'"
   

  As the nation ages, many believe that our health care system, with its focus 
  on treatment and cure, is woefully ill-equipped to handle the new realities of
  long-term care. "Nobody's bothered to think about what the repercussions are 
  of trying to keep people alive longer and longer," says Dr. David Muller, dean
  of medical education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and co-founder of 
  Visiting Doctors, a program that provides primary care to homebound elderly in
  New York City. "[It's] another bypass surgery, another transplant, . without 
  anyone worrying about 'Well, what's next?'"
   

  With families smaller and more dispersed than ever before, and more doctors 
  choosing medical specialties over family medicine, many fear that the country 
  is on the brink of a national crisis in care. "One out of five people are 
  going to be older adults," says Dr. Jeffrey Farber, a geriatrician at Mount 
  Sinai, "and there's not really anyone trained to care for them."

   

       
Got a little couch potato? 
Check out fun summer activities for kids.
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