Elderhood

by Louise Aronson

  Education

  populations that dominated health care a century ago Association of American Medical Colleges. (2018). Curriculum reports. Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/cir/curriculumreports/.

  a specialized rotation in geriatrics Diachun, L., Van Bussel, L., Hansen, K., Charise, A., & Rieder, M. (2010). “But I see old people everywhere”: Dispelling the myth that eldercare is learned in nongeriatric clerkships. Academic Medicine. 85(7), 1221–1228.

  put health professionals off old patients Bagri, A. S., MD, & Tiberius, R. (2010). Medical student perspectives on geriatrics and geriatric education. Journal of American Geriatrics Society. 58, 1994–1999.

  futile or harmful treatment Butler, K. (2013). Knocking on heaven’s door: the path to a better way of death. New York, NY: Scribner; Zitter, J. N. (2017). Extreme measures: finding a better path to the end of life. New York, NY: Avery.

  Resilience

  “death by a thousand clicks” Eisenstein, L. (2018). To fight burnout, organize. New England Journal of Medicine. 379, 509–511.

  “the need for the need” Cole, T. (March 21, 2012). The White-Savior Industrial Complex. Atlantic.

  “in spite of his age; in spite of his losses” Fadiman, A. (2017). The wine lover’s daughter: a memoir. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

  Attitude

  “Letter from Greenwich Village” Gornick, V. (2014). Letter from Greenwich Village. In J. J. Sullivan (Ed.), The best American essays 2014. (61–62). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  “the minimum of discomfort to self and inconvenience to others” Athill, D. (2009). Chapter 15. Somewhere towards the end. (1655). Kindle ed. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

  marked increases in old age Stone, A. A., Schwartz, J. E., Broderick, J. E., & Deaton, A. (2010). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. (107)22, 9985–9990.

  marked ageism World Health Organization. (2018). Ageing and life-course.

  Preventive health measures improve health Westerhof, G. J., Miche, M., Brothers, A. F., Barrett, A. E., Diehl, M., Montepare, J. M., et al. (2014). The influence of subjective aging on health and longevity: a meta-analysis of longitudinal data. Psychology and Aging, 29, 793–802; Kim, E. S., Moored, K. D., Giasson, H. L., & Smith, J. (2014). Satisfaction with aging and use of preventive health services. Preventive Medicine, 69, 176–180.

  people with more positive attitudes about aging Levy, B. R., & Myers, L. M. (2004). Preventive health behaviors influenced by self-perceptions of aging. Preventive Medicine. 39(3), 625–629.

  intervention that strengthened positive age stereotypes Levy, B. R., Pilver, C., Chung, P. H., & Slade, M. D. (2014). Subliminal strengthening: improving older individuals’ physical function over time with an implicit-age-stereotype intervention. Psychological Science. 25(12), 2127–2135.

  self-fulfilling prophesies Sargent-Cox, K. A., Anstey, K. J., & Luszcz, M. A. (2014). Longitudinal change of self-perceptions of aging and mortality. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. 69, 168–173.

  ageism is more common than sexism or racism Carretta, H. J., Sutin, A. R., Stephan, Y., & Terracciano, A. (2015). Perceived discrimination and physical, cognitive, and emotional health in older adulthood. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: Official Journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. 23(2), 171–179.

  Design

  patient-centered design features Reiling, J., Hughes, R. G., & Murphy, M. R. (2008). Chapter 28: The impact of facility design on patient safety in R. G. Hughes (Ed.) Patient safety and quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Siddiqui, Z. K., Zuccarelli, R., Durkins, N., Wu, A. W., & Brotman, D. J. (2015). Changes in patient satisfaction related to hospital renovation: experience with a new clinical building. Journal of Hospital Medicine. 10(3), 165–171.

  Health

  … and social problems Ribera Casaro. J. M. (2012). The history of geriatric medicine. The present: problems and opportunities. European Geriatric Medicine. 3, 230.

  Perspective

  “I could imagine my way into old age” Dovey, C. (October 1, 2015). What old age is really like. New Yorker.

  what we usually accept as objective reality Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. London, UK: British Broadcast Corporation.

  “the face” of Lancôme Hughes, S. (July 9, 2016). Isabella Rossellini: “There is no work between 45 and 60—you’re in limbo.” Guardian.

  “pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit” Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Definition of beauty. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beauty.

  13. Aged

  Nature

  “Sara Thomas Monopoli … when her doctors learned she was going to die” Gawande, A. (August 2, 2010). Letting go. New Yorker.

  obvious biological changes of a long life Ritch, A. (2012). History of geriatric medicine: from Hippocrates to Marjory Warren. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 42(4), 368–374.

  “few persons appear to die of old age” Rush, B. (1793). Account of the state of the body and mind in old age, with observations on its diseases and their remedies in Medical Inquiries and Observations, 2, Butterfield (Ed.). Edinburgh, UK: Sinclair.

  “patient-centered care” What is patient-centered care? (January 1, 2017). NEJM Catalyst.

  rather not have medical interventions Pelham, B. (April 2004). Affective forecasting: the perils of predicting future feelings. American Psychological Association.

  Human

  catchphrases like “patient-centered care” Bardes, C. L. (2012). Defining “patient-centered medicine.” New England Journal of Medicine. 366, 782–783.

  “to enable it to perform its function” Diski, J. (2016). In gratitude. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.

  words and gestures associated with true empathy Newton, B. W., Savidge, M. A., Barber, L., Cleveland, E., Clardy, J., Beeman, G., & Hart, T. (2000). Differences in medical students’ empathy. Academic Medicine. 75(12), 1215.

  training makes doctors less empathetic Neumann, M., Edelhäuser, F., Tauschel, D., Fischer, M. R., Wirtz, M., Woopen, C., et al. (2011). Empathy decline and its reasons: a systematic review of studies with medical students and residents. Academic Medicine. 86(8), 996–1009.

  “the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient” Peabody, F. W. (1927). The care of the patient. JAMA. 88(12), 877–882.

  individual and collective approaches For a good example of this, see the work of Race Forward or read this article: Murphy, T. (2017). A new way to look at race. Brown Alumni Magazine.

  Consequences

  “ordinary medicine” in old lives Kaufman, S. R. (2015). Ordinary medicine: extraordinary treatments, longer lives, and where to draw the line. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

  Another feeding tube also wasn’t an option Finucane, T. E., Christmas, C., & Leff, B. A. (2007). Tube feeding in dementia: how incentives undermine health care quality and patient safety. Journal of American Medical Directors Association. 8(4), 205–208; Dzeng, E., Colaianni, A., Roland, M., Levine, D., Kelly, M. P., Barclay, S., & Smith, T. J. (2016). Moral distress amongst American physician trainees regarding futile treatments at the end of life: a qualitative study. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 31(1), 93–99.

  the rest of us won’t Friend, T. (April 3, 2017). Silicon Valley’s quest to live forever. New Yorker.

  “I do not wish to compete” Lively, P. (October 5, 2013). So this is old age. Guardian.

  where he could end his life Westcott, B. (May 3, 2018). 104-year-old Australian scientist to fly to Switzerland to end life. CNN.

  “don’t count the number of naps” Hall, D. (2018). Notes nearing ninety. Narrative Magazine.

  Acceptance

  housecalls lead to better care Leff, B., Carlson, C. M., Saliba, D., & Ritchie, C. (2015). The invisible homebound: setting quality-of-care standards for
home-based primary and palliative care. Health Affairs. 34(1), 21–29.

  only the right answer for John and his family Sudore, R. L. (2009). A piece of my mind. Can we agree to disagree? JAMA. 302(15), 1629–1630.

  Death

  “a part of life again” Kübler-Ross, E. (1970). On death and dying. New York, NY: Collier Books/Macmillan Publishing Co.

  14. Stories

  “On Sixty-Five” Fox Gordon, E. On sixty-five. (2014). In Sullivan, J. J. and Atwan, R. (Ed.). Best American essays 2014. New York, NY: Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt.

  “so without redeeming moments” Grumbach, D. (1991). Coming into the end zone: a memoir. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

  “the time had come to size it up” Athill, D. (2008). Somewhere towards the end. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

  “and unfortunately calls the shots” Lively, P. (October 5, 2013). So this is old age. Guardian.

  “And that, of course, causes great confusion” Lessing, D. (May 10, 1992). Sunday Times.

  “That is my problem” Sarton, M. (1997). At eighty-two: a journal. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

  “in whatever you are doing” Athill, D. (2008). Somewhere towards the end. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

  “and I’m feeling great” Angell, R. (2015). This old man: all in pieces. New York, NY: Anchor Books.

  “humiliating, debilitating, and isolating” Butler, R. N. (1975). Why survive?: Being old in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  Coda

  “a polemic voice” Mailhot, T. M. (2018). Heart berries: a memoir. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint.

  Opportunity

  moments of peak intensity Frederickson, B. L., & Kanheman, D. (1993). Duration neglect in retrospective evaluations of affective episodes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 65(1), 45–55; Kahneman, D. (2000). Evaluation by moments, past and future. In Choices, values, and frames, D. Kahneman, & A. Tversky (Eds.). (693). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

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  Angell, R. (2015). This old man: all in pieces. New York: Anchor Books.

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  Aries, P. (1982). The hour of our death: the classic history of western attitudes toward death over the last one thousand years. New York: Vintage Books.

  Athill, D. (2008). Somewhere towards the end. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

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  Butler, R. N. (1975). Why survive?: being old in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

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  INDEX

  AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), here

  AARP, here

  abuse, elder neglect and, here, here, here

  accessibility, here

  accomplishment, reduced, here

  accountable care organization approach, here

  Account of the State of the Body and Mind in Old Age (Rush), here, here

  active dying, here

  Acute Care for Elders (ACE), here, here

  acute myeloid leukemia, here

  adaptability, here

  adulthood and revised life cycle, here. See also young adulthood

  Adult Protective Services (APS), here, here

  advance directives, here, here

  advanced old age

  age-related mortality in, here

  contrasted with earlier stages, here, here