{{ Much of the geriatric medicine specialty originates in Northwell’s home base: New York City. There, Robert Butler, MD, earned his medical degree in 1953 and not long after began to notice gaps in his education when caring for older adults. Their health needs were more complex, interrelated, and varied, yet they were treated as no different from younger adults. Driven to know more, he joined the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C., to explore healthy aging, embarking on an irreversible journey.
Through the 1960s and early 1970s, Dr. Butler grew more impatient with the status quo healthcare treatment of older adults in America. He observed prevailing attitudes of paternalism, infantilism, avoidance or mere caretaking rather than meaningful treatment.
Dr. Butler made no effort to hide his frustration with the title of his 1975 book, “Why Survive? Being Old in America.” In it, he argued that healthcare professionals were not adequately trained to meet the needs of older patients.Their medical conditions were considered uninteresting by teaching institutions and stereotyped as cantankerous and bothersome. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and resonated with other physicians, expanding the circle of healthcare professionals seeking specialization in the care of older patients. }}
“When the older population is growing by about 10,000 a day, and the population of children is declining, you have this massive imbalance, which is not just a healthcare issue. It’s a huge economic issue,” Mr. Dowling said.
This is THE economic issue of the next 20-30 years. If you want to improve the QUALITY of your latter years, there is nothing more vital to that goal than avoiding those things that trigger inevitable physical decline (extreme sports that tear up joints and limit mobility later in life, smoking that leads to emphysema, etc.) or increase the likelihood of cognitive decline (stroke, Alzheimers, etc.). If you DO wind up needing long term care for those issues, the healthcare world of the future is going to be a very dark, unpleasant experience. And the primary reason will be the lack of labor. A gigantic nest egg won’t help you pay a premium for labor that is unobtanium at any price.
