Age bias is not always hostile or deliberate. In geriatric care, it can appear as caution, protection or a recommendation that seems reasonable.
We may believe we are predicting an older patient’s potential when, in some cases, we are helping determine it. Lower expectations create fewer opportunities, and fewer opportunities can produce less improvement.
Some children encounter cancer long before they take a biology class. A parent, grandparent, sibling, teacher or friend can be diagnosed, and suddenly kids hear unfamiliar words while also watching someone they love change physically and emotionally.
Trying to protect children by saying very little can leave them to fill in the blanks themselves.
Children need adults willing to explain hard things honestly, in ways they can understand.
For an older adult who has spent a lifetime making decisions about where to go, when to get up and how to live, entering a skilled nursing facility should not mean that every decision involving mobility suddenly becomes someone else’s.
As California physical therapists who work in nursing-homes, we confront this tension every day.
It strikes me that embarrassment is a huge barrier to participation in physical activity for aging people, and it’s not even the most substantial one. Other obstacles include lack of money or transportation to attend an age-appropriate exercise class. In some cases, older adults are hobbled by arthritis or are wheelchair-bound. And sometimes taking a walk isn’t a viable option when a neighborhood doesn’t feel safe or the sidewalk is cracked and pitted.
I’m one of many people who are increasingly living longer with or past cancer. In the 1970s, only 49 percent of patients survived five years after their illness, but that rate has risen to 70 percent. Doctors now commonly talk about cancer as a chronic disease which can be managed.
But even as older cancer patients receive the gift of extra time, greater longevity brings its own challenges.
Recent ICE actions threaten the stability of the current and future caregiver workforce, impacting those who are undocumented, as well as nearly 500,000 workers with legal status.
On Feb. 26, 109 organizations sent a letter to Congress calling for reining in ICE actions due to the harm to older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers.
Shari Horne spends much of her day caring for her husband Hal in their sunny apartment in Orange County’s Laguna Woods, where she was once mayor.
I’m sharing the Hornes’ story in my inaugural column for the California Health Report. Over the next year, I’ll write about health equity and aging, drawing on my personal experiences, as well as those of the people I interview.
As a rehabilitation clinician and director working directly with older adults, I see how effective early mobility support can be. Mild losses in leg strength or balance respond well to structured, simple routines when they are addressed early. The greatest need is access.
Several programs across California demonstrate how this access can be expanded.
California, through the Master Plan on Aging, has led the nation in recognizing the unique and increasingly urgent needs of older adults.
But Gov. Newsom’s recently released budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year could cut aging and disability-focused programs. We’ve heard firsthand from older adults, people with disabilities and family caregivers about the challenges in accessing support and affordable housing. Many people feel left behind by the system.
Modeled after AmeriCorps, the program would recruit high school or college graduates to spend a year providing nonmedical care to seniors with cognitive impairment.