Seasons's Greetings and Bad Art

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ALL THE BEST FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

This was supposed to be a Christmas tre, but, well, it didn't quite turn out. Oh well.

An Example of a Good Care Facility

I went to see Westminster House in White Rock the other day. It was impressive because of a couple of things.

One is that they do not have a marketing person. Their Administrator does the tours. That is a lot of money saved and that they can put into care. It also means they have people doing a service that knows something about geriatrics and aging.

The second thing is that they have real aging in place. That means all of their rooms are licensed and as people decline they can stay right there until they take their last breath. They don't have to move around to other rooms. That shows a basic understanding of relocation stress, which can occur even when someone has to change floors in the same building.

Most impressive, it also means they have figured out how to deply their staff so that the organization is fitting the residents needs, and not the other way around. Most places ask residents to change rooms at a certain point when their care needs become greater, so that they can manage with the staff. So I don't know how they do it, but congratulations to them.

The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming. I think I didn't park in the right place-- no problem, it wasn't a big deal.

It is not super elegant. So if you want a place that looks like a five star hotel, go somewhere else. But if you want to live in a place that just, somehow, can feel like home, Westminster House is the place for you.

Interesting to me is that it is run by a church, Hope Reformed Church of Vancouver. It is not overtly religious, that I could see, but it seems to me that underlying any genuine spirituality is caring and concern--and that is where the religion comes through, in a very nice way.

To be sure, there are a couple of things which are not optimal--the hallways and layout are confusing, at least at first. They could do with some more public lounges and in the ones I saw, the furniture looked pretty institutional. But those are things that can be managed with some good signage, or a good interior designer.

What they have is flexibility. That says buckets about the organization and the people running it and supporting it.

Prescription for a Hug

In todays "For Better Or For Worse" comic, the elderly wife of a man who is home recovering from a severe stroke is talking with the doctor. He is prescribing an anti-depressant for her husband, and then asks her how she is coping.

"It's not easy being a caregiver. Are you OK? Tell me honestly," he says to her.

She is tearful at that and says, "Can you give me a prescription for some hugs?"

If you are a caregiver, don't wait for the prescription--ask for the hugs. They help.

Take care of yourself, during the holidays and always.

Premiers Council on Aging and Seniors Issues

This report is really remarkable for a number of reasons.

The caliber of the people who wrote it and made up the task force

The number of people and groups who made submissions

The reach of the committee.

The thoroughness of the report and the thoughtfullness of the recommendations.

Read the full report: http://www.cserv.gov.bc.ca/seniors/council/docs/Aging_Well_in_BC.pdf

Weight Loss

Well, this isn't really about eldercare. Okay, it isn't at all about eldercare, but I was thinking this morning, at about 6:00 a.m. as I was on the eliptical trainer pushing up my pulse rate , that it is probably really best to come to the gym in the morning.

In the evening, I fully believe, after a full day of people shedding pounds and calories, all of those pounds and calories are floating and bouncing around like atom sized beachballs in a dodgeball game, waiting to find a new home by attaching themselves to unsuspecting gym bunnies and such. In fact, the gym atmosphere is probably stuffed chock full of these things, invisible to the naked eye. While you are trying to lose pounds and limit calories, they are waiting for you--and there is more of them than there is of you. So of course it is harder to lose weight; the faster you drop a pound or calorie, there's another one right there, just waiting to take it's place!

However, by the morning, all these leftover, shedded calories and pounds have either slowly escaped through the air ducts during the night or they have either settled to the floor and thus can be swept up and thrown away. Or perhaps it is the just the calories, which are kind of gasious that have escaped into the atmosphere, and the the pounds, being heavy, have fallen to the floor.

Just make sure the gym staff vacuums before you start. Otherwise you will just stir those pounds right up again. Even so, it will take a while for the atmosphere to fill up, and for those leftover pounds to start floating around again. Think about it--do you realize how much a pound weighs? ( See answer below.) Once they have settled for the night, those puppies won't be easily started up again.

At any rate, if you are going to the gym regularly, but do not feel you are making progress, I would recommend you try going early in the morning.

If you found this posting helpful, you probably need more help than I can give you. Call a doctor.

(Answer to question, above, "Do you know how much a pound weighs?": Well, I am not saying but if you have to look here for the answer, forget calling the doctor. Go straight to the nearest hospital emergency room. Just don't leave the house on your own.)

Mandatory Retirement--Not

Congratulations to the Premiers Committee in B.C. on aging, for coming out squarely against mandatory retirement. And, to the Premier for supporting that.

I know there are drawbacks--jobs for younger people. Changing what was a right to a choice can also cause problems.

But the benefits, and what it says to people, I think are more important. It is like an official redefinition of the meaning of being older. It actually plays catch up to both what people have been doing forever--working long into their eighties and even nineties, but also to what baby boomers have been choosing to do--define for themselves what being in ones sixties or more actually means.

The key is to allow us to shift our thinking to the idea of life transitions and changes and to somehow make sure that we don't lose the ability to makes those shifts, through the redefinition of pension and Old Age Security payments ( maybe we can just change the name).

Like much else, I wonder if the change merely shifts us back to where we were many years ago--with people working all their lives, and having value all their lives. I am not a historian , but I would suppose it does. The difference was, perhaps, that then there was no choice.

For a summary of the report, please see http://www.cserv.gov.bc.ca/seniors/council/summary.htm