More Aging, More Caretakers

The population gets older. I think everyone from Washington D.C. to Hollywood has noted the change in the demographic.

Did anyone notice, however, that an older population means more illness and senescence? More illness and senescence means more caretakers.

I have several patients who are caretakers. Professionally.

A few of them have been clever enough to manage to get paid to be caretakers, in counties where the county permits this.  Most caretakers don’t know what hit them. They speak to me as if things were fine one day and their life was a shambles the next.

The caregiver profession seems, from all I see and all I hear and all of my patients who happen to be caregivers, to have become a cottage industry of sorts, a new pre-occupation for therapists.  We need to research more things that work, to do more things that work — to treat senescence better. Or even better, to prevent it.

There are some ripe ideas on the horizon, generally from the world of natural and alternative medicine.

The most powerful thing we could possibly do is to hope that the young folks observe and learn that decisions people make when they are young will affect them the rest of their lives and surely play a factor in whether or not they will require a caretaker.

Decisions like involvement in drinking, smoking, and drugging.

Be sure to share this article with your friends or relatives who may find it helpful — I really appreciate it.