Ethical Dilemmas

It’s been almost 2 decades since the FDA approved any new therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. In that time, patients and families – as well as their care providers- have struggled with the reality of limited benefit from current medication options and a failure rate of 98.5% of…

If there’s one silver lining that may emerge from the COVID pandemic, it may be our societal recognition that death is very much a part of life, and often requires the same sort of thoughtful planning we inevitably give to other life milestones. If you’re fortunate and considerate of your…

Receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is often the end result of a long and difficult process begun when memory or cognition begins to deteriorate and when other types of dementia are ruled out. What’s more, by the time a diagnosis is made there are likely few effective therapeutic options for…

While the news about the coronavirus and older adults continues to be worrisome, what’s also disturbing is the continued presence of ageist stereotypes and our portrait of older adults during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, as a group of noted geriatricians and gerontologists recently proclaimed, “Older adults have shown remarkable…

Palliative care specialist Rachel Clarke, writing in The Guardian, perhaps sums up this moment better than anyone else: “Whether we like it or not, society’s greatest taboo- death and dying- has been thrust unequivocally centre stage.” Indeed, virtually none of us will escape the reality that loved ones, friends or…

Certainly, there’s nothing new about ageism in our society. Bias against older individuals, and treating seniors as second class citizens, is something many of us have experienced as we’ve entered our later years. Perhaps what’s new, however, is the public airing of attitudes that were previously kept private, due to…