Interviewed along with other medical and healthcare experts, Muriel Gillick, MD states that 50-65% of those living in assisted-living communities have moderate or later-stage dementia, a number that has risen in recent decades due to the increased use of home-care services. But is assisted-living really the answer ?
Dr. Gillick, a physican who specializes in the care of patients with advanced illness (palliative care) or age (geriatrics), challenges conventional thinking about the usefulness of assisted-living communities. Because a large percentage of individuals in assisted-living now have cognitive impairment, these facilities may not be able to care for them adequately.
The goal of the assisted-living model is to maintain independence and privacy, However, according to Dr Gillick, author of several books including The Denial of Aging: Perpetual Youth, Eternal Life, and Other Dangerous Fantasies and Lifelines: Living Longer, Growing Frail, Taking Heart, these patients have poor executive functioning, i.e., can’t plan, organize, and need to be constantly reminded of what is going on around them or what they are doing, and are much too impaired to live independently. Indeed, how to balance the issues of independence and privacy with the provision of necessary, quality health care is clearly a challenge.
To read the Harvard Magazine article, click here.