By Bruce Horovitz, Kaiser Health Systems ... "The best bucket lists aren't usually about skydiving or climbing the Great Wall of China," said Marc Agronin, a geriatric psychiatrist who is vice president for behavioral health and clinical research at Miami Jewish Health Systems in Miami. "Our bucket lists need to be in line with our core … [Read more...] about CNN: Building a better bucket list, even in their 90s
The Wall Street Journal: Why Many People Abandon Friends and Family with Dementia–and Shouldn’t
Marc Agronin (@MarcAgronin) is a geriatric psychiatrist at Miami Jewish Health in Miami, Florida and the author of “How We Age” and “The Dementia Caregiver: A Guide to Caring for Someone with Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Neurocognitive Disorders.” Several years ago, a close family member was diagnosed with breast cancer. The diagnosis was … [Read more...] about The Wall Street Journal: Why Many People Abandon Friends and Family with Dementia–and Shouldn’t
Caring for an Alzheimer’s patient? This man will help you
BY ANA VECIANA-SUAREZA A harsh reality inspired Marc E. Agronin, a geriatric psychiatrist and expert on dementia, to write his latest book. “It became very clear early on in my career that caregivers needed help,” said Agronin, vice president for behavioral health and clinical research at Miami Jewish Health Systems. “They were struggling … [Read more...] about Caring for an Alzheimer’s patient? This man will help you
WSJ: It’s Time to Rethink the Bucket-List Retirement
In the search for the next big adventure, retirees are too often missing out on the most fulfilling aspects of later life For many seniors, the bucket list has become the ultimate celebration of aging. Healthier, heartier and richer than generations of retirees before them, they’re spending their golden years chasing once-in-a-lifetime … [Read more...] about WSJ: It’s Time to Rethink the Bucket-List Retirement
How to Build Your Own Geriatric Team
MARC AGRONIN: Recently, a woman in her 80s came to my office panic-stricken over a diagnosis of dementia. Her doctor had done a cursory exam of her cognition, bestowed the damning diagnosis, and prescribed twice the recommended starting dose of a medication for her memory. She then began suffering from severe appetite loss and nausea. Missing … [Read more...] about How to Build Your Own Geriatric Team
How Technology Will Revolutionize Long-Term Care
MARC AGRONIN: Henry went viral. Over 1.7 million viewers and counting have witnessed this wheelchair-bound nursing-home resident being provided with his favorite music piped into headphones from an iPod. This clip, from Alive Inside, a movie about the Memory and Music project that brings donated iPods to individuals in nursing homes, is one … [Read more...] about How Technology Will Revolutionize Long-Term Care
Why Is Aging Still a Joke?
MARC AGRONIN: The news, it seems, is not good. Health-care costs will be overwhelmed, we are told, by the “silver tsunami” that is on the way. Even a gentler description of the coming “age wave” as opposed to a destructive flood still seems to portend trouble. World War G-for-geriatric is at hand and, lacking any true fountain of youth, we are all … [Read more...] about Why Is Aging Still a Joke?
The Nursing Home of the Future Will Be in Our Homes
MARC AGRONIN: In 2011, the first baby boomers turned 65. In 2031, these same baby boomers will begin turning 85, and a bubble of supposedly frail and cognitively impaired elders will begin swelling the nursing-home population. Or will they? While it’s true that by 2030 the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that … [Read more...] about The Nursing Home of the Future Will Be in Our Homes
Let’s Close the Alzheimer’s Diagnosis-Disclosure Gap
MARC AGRONIN: “Frank, but not blunt” is how one textbook on medical ethics advises its doctor-readers to impart bad news to a patient. Most doctors today are generally good at this approach, girded by in-depth tests, scans and tissue samples that confirm the diagnosis. Gone is the doctor’s paternalism of days past when serious diagnoses like cancer … [Read more...] about Let’s Close the Alzheimer’s Diagnosis-Disclosure Gap
A Humane Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide
MARC AGRONIN: Since the inception of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act in 1994, approximately 750 individuals having taken their own lives with the assistance of a physician, representing 60 to 70 of those who sought out and received a lethal but legal prescription. Routine data collected from these individuals indicate consistently that the most … [Read more...] about A Humane Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide