Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/610563
71 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Chuck Lauer: Do Your Homework on the Effects of Aging By Chuck Lauer, Former Publisher of Modern Healthcare and an Author, Public Speaker and Career Coach W hat a drag it is getting old." at was Mick Jagger's scorching remark at age 23. But the truth of the matter is we all get old, even a 72-year-old rock superstar. All of us have to grapple with getting old — and with death that lurks on the other side. Like many Americans, I've been able to ward off the aging process a little bit. In the mornings, I work out at a fitness center near my home, and then I walk the dog. It's one of the high points of my day. e dog used to be Yodie, my Alaskan Mala- mute, but Yodie passed away about two years ago, and now I walk Renny, a bulldog owned by my son and daughter-in-law, who live nearby. It's nice having my son and his wife nearby and my wife at home with me. But not everyone has family around them as they get older. On our morning walk, Ren- ny and I pass by a large house along the way where a very agreeable elderly woman has lived on her own for many years. As we pass by, I usually grab her pa- per and fling it up toward her door so she doesn't have to walk down her long drive- way to pick it up. If she's outside, she waves to me, and sometimes we have a brief chat. It's always very pleasant. A few days ago, I caught a glimpse of her as she picked up her paper and went back inside. A moment later, she came back out again and gestured for me to come up the driveway. She had something to tell me. "As soon as I can get things or- ganized," she said, "I'm going to sell the house and move." She told me she planned to go to an assisted living center several miles away. en she got very frank with me. "I've been living alone for some time now," she said. "It gets very lonely." I muttered some- thing that I hoped was comforting, but she looked at me and said, "I'm afraid that one of these mornings, they'll find me dead on the floor. I don't want things to end up that way." I said I was sorry she'd be leaving the neighborhood, but she was making the right decision. Moving into an assisted liv- ing center can open up the world again for someone who has been living on her own. It even makes sense for many elderly cou- ples. You can make friends and take part in a lot of activities without having to go outside. I asked her how old she was. Eighty- nine. And when did her husband die? Twenty-three years ago! She seemed amazed at the stretch of time that had passed since then — all on her own. I told her that I'd be glad to help her in any way, and then Renny and I moved on. Since then, I've been thinking about all the elderly people there are in my area who are living all alone. ey've lost their husbands or wives and can't afford a live- in companion. Many people can stay quite active into their nineties, but their life isn't the same. Oen their spouses have passed on, and their kids have moved far away. Aging gets all the more challenging for people who have dementia. I read in the paper the other day that dementia is one of the three leading killers of Americans, along with heart disease and cancer. All three involve many years of decline. e other two require expensive drugs, sur- geries and hospitalizations, but to a large extent these costs are covered by health in- surance. Dementia, on the other hand, has no effective treatments. But according to a new study, it's even more expensive than cancer and heart disease, partly because much of the cost isn't covered by Medicare or other insurance. e study, in the new issue of the An- nals of Internal Medicine, found that the average out-of-pocket cost for a person with dementia was $61,522 over five years — more than 80 percent more than for people with other diseases. ere is no ef- fective treatment to slow down dementia, "There are 36.5 million people in the United States who have been thrust into the role of amateur caregiver." "