Health and Disability

In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia, reaching and taking Moscow, but failing to get a Russian surrender and without supplies to stay in Moscow. His armies had expended every last bit of support they had to get into Moscow. When the Russian army pushed back,  Napoleon’s Army started a long, disastrous retreat which destroyed his forces largely through starvation (including cannibalism) and death from exposure.

The resemblance to the Democratic party’s effort to pass a health care bill are uncanny, and the loss of the Senate seat in Massachusetts is the equivalent of arriving in Moscow and finding no food, buildings, or people that could be used to support the “victory”.

It remains to be seen how much of the current health care bill’s provisions will be lost in the new environment (it wasn’t by any standard a great bill up to this point), but one reasonably likely casualty will be the inclusion of the CLASS act, the only part of the bill that had improvement of the LTC system as a goal, and a weak concept at that considering the problems that the American LTC system has.

And that is just the beginning. Right or wrong, supporting the health care bill will be seen as a political liability for much of the country in the 2010 elections. Ben Nelson, who staked his political career on his support for this bill, will now suffer all the same political problems for a significantly weaker bill. I suspect that other Democratic senators who only won their seats  the last time around by moving away from liberalism will face uphill battles.  And of course, there will be significant losses in the Democratic House as well in 2010.

A strategic failure of the first order.  A feasible outcome is a frozen Senate, incapable of actually support President Obama on anything important (look at how weak their support for health care has been with the so called “veto-proof” majority), and a much weaker Democratic House.  And don’t be surprised by signs of cannibalism in the Democratic Party.

There are worse possibilities as far as health care is concerned. However the health care bill turns out, NO ONE will try for significant health care reform in my lifetime. The American health care system will continue to crumble like the infrastructure of Detroit, and when a solution becomes politically feasible again, because of the sheer incompetence of the health care system, the problem to be solved will be far larger and far more intractable than it is now.

The only redeeming feature is the Republican compulsion to play “Russian Roulette” (see how I maintained the metaphor?) with their party’s message.

A very sorry and disappointing state of affairs…..

Illicit drug use by seniors is on the rise. That could lead to a significant increase in the need for drug treatment services for seniors over the next decade, according to a new report.

The baby boom generation has a high rate of lifetime drug use, according to the report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). As that population ages, the number of adults using illicit drugs is also likely to rise, SAMHSA predicts……

BuzzNet Tags: LTC,Boomers,drug use

Aging baby boomers more likely to need drug treatment than older cohorts, study finds - McKnight's Long Term Care News

A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General confirms that the regulatory documentation requirements for durable medical equipment Medicare claims are “confusing, onerous and must be improved,” according to a DME provider group……

BuzzNet Tags: LTC,DME

Report underscores problems with durable medical equipment Medicare claims process, group says - McKnight's Long Term Care News

In 2006, a year after the FDA issued mortality warnings about prescribing antipsychotic drugs for the elderly, nearly 30% of nursing home residents received the medication -- despite the fact that a third of them had no indication for the drugs, a study revealed…..

This elevated risk associated with facility-level prescribing was seen for patients with dementia but no psychosis (RR 1.40, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.59), and in residents with neither psychosis nor dementia (RR 1.54, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.91), the researchers reported in the Jan. 11 Archives of Internal Medicine.

An unrelated study, also released today, indicated that office-based physicians were in fact cutting back on prescription of antipsychotics for dementia as a result of FDA warnings……

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Geriatrics/Depression/17892

In the 1980s, consumer groups exposed substandard care in some U.S. nursing homes, as well as instances of even more dire problems like abuse and neglect. These revelations led the Institute of Medicine to issue a report recommending major regulatory changes and, in 1987, Congress passed a sweeping set of nursing home reforms that required facilities to provide individualized, or "person-centered," care. As a result, some providers began to move away from the institutional model of nursing home care and toward a more homelike environment in which residents could have a say in their day-to-day lives. In 1997, leaders in the industry formed the Pioneer Group to advocate for person-centered care and create a movement for "culture change" in the nation's nursing homes……

http://bit.ly/83etCs

Nursing home resident advocates in Illinois are pushing for new, stricter rules on the use of antipsychotic drugs among elderly nursing home residents, in order to prevent misuse of the drugs as a form of chemical restraint in nursing homes.
Illinois Citizens for Better Care, a grassroots organization that fights to improve nursing home care in the state, is pushing for new state laws and regulations that would prevent nursing homes and doctors from using antipsychotic and psychotropic drugs as a form of chemical restraint on the elderly, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica…….

http://bit.ly/5UuH9S

Inveterate cell-phone addicts may feel that the devices help them to work smarter and -- surprisingly -- they may be right.

If they're mice, that is.

In mice prone to an animal form of Alzheimer's disease, long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation typical of cell phones slowed and reversed the course of the illness, according to Gary Arendash, PhD, of the University of South Florida in Tampa, and colleagues.

A similar exposure in normal mice -- for two hours a day over seven to nine months -- improved their cognitive abilities compared with controls, Arendash and colleagues said in the January issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, which is the research journal of the Alzheimer's Association…..

"This is no call for anyone to self-medicate," Thies said.

And other reactions to the study ranged from "interesting" to "nonsense."

Original Article Link

…..At the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), technology is playing a key part in helping people with Alzheimer's disease reconnect to their memories and their loved ones—if only for immediate periods of time. We call it our “Well-Tuned” program and its impact has been extraordinary.

The technology I mentioned is the iPod, which can be loaded with music that is emotionally significant to the individual with Alzheimer's disease. The music may spur memories thought long gone or stimulate recognition of a loved one that moments earlier was no more than a blank face. It may also help a person with Alzheimer's disease function and transition throughout the day, from energizing them during their waking hours to helping them wind down as bedtime approaches.

The iPod music play list is customized, changing from person to person based on their experiences, cultural backgrounds and frame of reference. As with lovers who grow sentimental when “their song” is played on the radio, the right music stimulates the personal associations that it is connected with, sparking memory and renewed “presence.”…….

http://bit.ly/746TlG

Raising The Standard: Palliative Care In Nursing Homes