Overmedication and Dementia

Very good and scary article in the New York Times regarding the use of medication to control behaviour in Nursing Homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y&oref=slogin&oref=slogin


ALWAYS ALWAYS:
be aware of the medications your relative is on when in a care facility, or at home

know the side affects.

Make sure a proper assessment has been done to see if there are reversible causes for what looks like a non-reversible dementia

Nursing Homes and INspection Reports

Thanks to the Vancouver Sun for their investigative report on incidents and care in nursing homes. They identified some serious issues, but best of all, they have listed incident reports and inspection reports for Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal.

It is pretty amazing that this information had to be obtained through Freedom Of Information, and not just posted as a matter of course for the public. In the U.S. you can get copies of all medicare funded (which is most) facilities, and what they have done to correct deficiencies.

Be aware: It is important that people read these with a bit of care. Take note of what the actual incidents and citations were for, some facilities may have lots, but they are relatively minor. If you use them to make a decision, ask during a tour about the problems, and what they did to fix them.

Read my book, "Nursing Homes: the Family's Journey." On my website I have some tools and info about getting good care in nursing homes.

For inspections in Vancouver Coastal: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/care/vcinspections.html

For inspections in Vancouver Coastal: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/care/vcincidents.html

For Fraser Health Complaints: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/care/complaints.html

For Fraser Health and Coast Garibaldi inspections: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/care/fcginspections.html

For Fraser Health and Coast Garibaldi incidents: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/care/fcgincidents.html

Alzheimers as a leading cause of death

This factoid from the Alzheimer's Association:

" The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics today reported that Alzheimer's disease has surpassed diabetes as a leading cause of death. Alzheimer's is now the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States."

What do we know about keeping our brains healthy: well, many things, actually, but a couple basics.

1. Exercise
2. Social interaction

Personally, I am optimistic that within ten years there will be huge advances in our treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. The impact of this treatment will be enormous. The major one is that it means that many, many older people will have more choice about where they live the last years of their lives. It also means that there will be considerably less spending on older people than is currently projected, because of decreased needs for caregivers, care facilites.

And unfortunately for yours truly, less need for people like me and companies like Diamond Geriatrics.

Oh well. I always wanted to be in theatre anyway.

Bank Trusts

I just had a meeting with Christie Walker at Scotiatrust. She is one of the people who manage people's things when they aren't able to or takes over from families when they feel overloaded. Often people see private banking or trust companies as just an expensive luxury. But they have their place--they can take the stress out of busy family members, and they can take the conflict out of family relationships. They can help restore trust between family members. For long distance caregivers, they can be available to do the banking things that are hard to do from far away. They can protect the elderly from fraudsters and scammers. Different trust companies have different services. You can contact Christie at 604-718-7120