Expert on elderly’s health needs

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 5

Expert on elderly’s health needs

By

LYN HOLLAND

No community can anora to dismiss the health needs of the elderly, according to an American authority on geriatric care. Every year more people were living over the age of 65, 85, and even 95, said Associate Professor Lois Prosser in Christchurch yesterday. By 1990 to 1995, 25,000 New Zealanders were expected to have Alzheimer’s disease, a disease which most commonly struck the elderly, she said. “When you get a problem as large as that, people need to think about planning for it,” she said. Professor Prosser is in New Zealand with another expert on geriatric nursing, Mrs Mary Opal Wolanin. As guests of the Mental Health Foundation they are trying to generate “interest and sensitivity” toward the health care of the elderly, particularly those with AlZgSmer’s disease. ' < ’ Alzheimer’s disease;’com-

monly known as senility, has been referred to as a silent epidemic. According to Professor Prosser, people do not like to talk about behaviour they find unacceptable or embarrass-

ing. Little is known about the disease, which is estimated to affect one in 12 people over the age of 65. The cause is not known, nor is there a known cure. More research on it was needed, she said. “Just because we do not know what happens does not mean we should not look.”

Part of the research problem is that people had never lived as long, and so past data were lacking. But there were also problems with funding priorities and the community needs to consider those priorities, she believed.

Most money was spent on providing buildings and services for acute problems, not the long-term care that the elderly needed. V*

“Very little has been planned for the care of the ageing person who will need more and longer care in the future. People need to think about that.”

In Canterbury, it has been estimated • that 2300 people suffer from severe confusion and memory loss.

“If you had 2000 people with bubonic plague you can imagine what would happen in this community ... but because it is an ageing problem people say there is nothing that can be done.

“I think there are plenty of things that can be done to improve the quality of life. That is what it is all about,' improving the quality of life.”

One common response to the needs of the elderly has been the conversion of old hospitals into homes for long-term care of the elderly, and sometimes a “prison-like atmosphere” has resulted.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if architects and others could dream a little bit, to make places where people could smell the flowers and live like human beings,” Professor Prosser said. But she had been impressed with the care of the elderly she had seen in New Zea Fad. A “caring care,” she Wied it

Providing a loving, protected environment was essential. Saying kind things was important, but non-ver-bal gestures such as touching and just “being there” were also needed, Professor Prosser said.

“It is tragic for the family. There is nothing we can do except give care.”

Professor Prosser’s, interest in the elderly is not confined to those who cannot care for themselves. In Arizona she runs a “wellness” self-care centre for the elderly. The emphasis there is on giving people information and choices to ensure healthy lifestyles. Her advice may be as simple as suggesting a bowl of cereal if they cannot sleep at night or taking a long walk before going to bed, rather than a sleeping, pill.

“The whole medical care system is built on disease ... my job is to keetpfhem out of the system.” ’