I read the article "Little old ladies are crashing the system" from the Globe and Mail, after having just had coffee with a friend who works very hard as a social worker with older adults who have been hospitalized. We were just discussing many of the challenges of trying to help older adults within this system, as well as what is involved in giving older adults safe, appropriate, and respectful care according to their needs and wishes.
This article hits on some of those issues, though Margaret Wente only skims the surface of the extreme circumstances faced by many older adults who enter and exit the Canadian hospital system. I think the point that care needs to be designed for the comfort and well-being of an older adult in the present is salient and points to an area where over-stressed and under-paid staff, a desire for system "efficiency" above all else, and a financially strained system, are resulting in over-processing older adults while failing to actually account for their immediate and future health and comfort.
Click HERE to view the article. I tried to embed it...but it looks like doing so would violate Globe and Mail copy write...
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