Doc: We’re lucky if we get to be old
By Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post
“I have a confession to make,” Bill Thomas announced several months ago at a conference on aging in Oregon. “I am an old man.”
“No, you’re not!” an audience member called out. It was meant, no doubt, as a compliment: Despite his gray-streaked beard and crow’s feet, the 56-year-old geriatrician-***-thespian crackles with high-octane energy. And isn’t that what we all want to hear as we age? That we don’t look old? That we seem younger than we are?
It’s not what Thomas wants to hear. After more than 20 years of trying to make life better for old people, he believes the correct message is the opposite: That we are lucky if we get to grow old. That there is a “third” phase of life beyond adulthood that can be as rich as either of the phases that came before.
The Harvard Medical School-trained physician and professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s Erickson School of Aging is known for sparking explosive new ideas in elder care. He is particularly well-known for pioneering “The Eden Alternative” — a radical system of humanizing nursing homes by introducing live animals and plants.
Harvard Medical School….”radical” new methods…
UNBELIEVABLE!…this is right up there w
with the multi million dollar studies that gave us MEN ARE DIFFERENT THAN WOMEN!
30 years ago the/my students at C-V Ranches in Jackson Hole Wyoming took flowers, dogs and ‘kitties’ from the local animal shelter to the ‘old’ peoples home for games and visits.
This was not a study costing millions. Rather, Dr. Bill Thomas left his emergency room job to work at a nursing home. I do not mean to discount the work you did many years ago, but rather to note that efforts to humanize the care of the frail elderly have continued on many fronts.
You and other readers may be interested in the excellent book, “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Happens in the End” by Atul Gawande.
Kay…known for explosive new ideas in elder care
The article says that it took twenty years for Harvard trained Dr Bill to figure this out.
I was simply pointing out that myself and others have known all about these century old methods on the natch, for ages.
The people that abuse defenseless populations will continue to bury themselves in our corrupted systems as they have
always done and we the people must remain vigilant and continue to weed these abusers out.