The triumph of aging

By Gertrude King

Gloomy stories about the challenges of aging and care have become a media constant. This is why it was so refreshing to hear Dr. Samir Sinha’s keynote address at the Ontario Hospice and Palliative Care Association’s annual conference in April. He suggested that we look at aging not as a disease, but a triumph.

Dr. Sinha pointed out that when Medicare started in 1947, the average age of a Canadian was 27 years; now the average is 47. This means the population has been able to grow larger and live longer. Good public health practices and medical developments have had the impact that they were meant to.

So we have these positive results, but with this growth our thinking about health and aging must change. Care needs are evolving and stakeholders are demanding national strategies on care, on palliative care, on dementia, on euthanasia.
Those aged 65 or older account for nearly half of all health and social care spending, and 42 per cent of all hospital-stay costs. A spending goal of across-the-board cost reduction, however, misses the mark.

A better focus is to get those with chronic aging diseases and social frailties out of acute care beds and into situations which better meet their needs and wishes. Fragile 90-year-olds caring for an equally aged spouse; adult children hours away from a sickly, widowed parent; the isolated neighbour noone checks on – these common situations are not best answered by a trip to Emergency and an extended hospital stay.

Sensible solutions are becoming accepted wisdom. Good health practices are increasingly geared to aging issues: falls prevention programs; Nurse Practitioners, paramedics and pharmacists having greater scope of practice; increased caregiver support; localized hospice facilities.

A broad spectrum of solutions needs to be part of addressing the aging challenges. The statistics need not be doom and gloom. They are tools to help us navigate the coming years.