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Elder Orphans: will you become one?
NamelessRiver
Veteran
These excerpts are from: http://www.cmellc.com/geriatrictimes/g040203.html:
Kenneth W. Wachter, Ph.D., chair of the department of demography at the University of California at Berkeley, in an interview with GT, estimated that the number of Americans between the ages of 70 and 85 "without a living spouse, without any biological or stepchildren and without living siblings or half-siblings" will total more than 2 million people by the year 2030.
"We know from epidemiological studies that after age 80, the prevalence rate of Alzheimer's disease is between 22% and 40%, depending on which study you read," Joel Streim, M.D., president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, told GT.
Seattle psychiatrist Ronnie S. Stangler, M.D., told GT that she has a patient in similar straits. "He's 85 years old. He's outlived his wife. One daughter died in a fire a few months ago, and his only other daughter was just diagnosed with breast cancer. If something happens to her, he won't have an advocate. Except his psychiatrist."
Isolation seems to be a hallmark of the current era. Bruce G. Rosenthal, a spokesperson for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, pointed out in an interview with GT that, at present, "as many as 60% of nursing home residents are estimated to have no regular visitors."
With roughly half of U.S. marriages likely to end in divorce, the number of people without family connections may increase. He followed couples who divorced late in life and found that only about 8% remarried within five years.
Down's syndrome individuals used to die in their 20s or 30s. Now they're living into early old age--60 to 75--and are really not accustomed to living independently in the community when their parents die. You have a set of much older orphans who really don't have the resources to manage in community. They're isolated for the first time at a late stage of their lives. These people will require institutionalization unless they can get services at home.
This is a somewhat unexplored problem that tends to increase. As life expectation and individualism increase side by side, it is very likely that some of us will encounter this problem later on. Just something worth the time to reflect. Can you imagine what this people go through? Their bodies and minds betray them, their friends and loved ones are gone, and they are in a society that doesn't have a place for them :-/
Kenneth W. Wachter, Ph.D., chair of the department of demography at the University of California at Berkeley, in an interview with GT, estimated that the number of Americans between the ages of 70 and 85 "without a living spouse, without any biological or stepchildren and without living siblings or half-siblings" will total more than 2 million people by the year 2030.
"We know from epidemiological studies that after age 80, the prevalence rate of Alzheimer's disease is between 22% and 40%, depending on which study you read," Joel Streim, M.D., president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, told GT.
Seattle psychiatrist Ronnie S. Stangler, M.D., told GT that she has a patient in similar straits. "He's 85 years old. He's outlived his wife. One daughter died in a fire a few months ago, and his only other daughter was just diagnosed with breast cancer. If something happens to her, he won't have an advocate. Except his psychiatrist."
Isolation seems to be a hallmark of the current era. Bruce G. Rosenthal, a spokesperson for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, pointed out in an interview with GT that, at present, "as many as 60% of nursing home residents are estimated to have no regular visitors."
With roughly half of U.S. marriages likely to end in divorce, the number of people without family connections may increase. He followed couples who divorced late in life and found that only about 8% remarried within five years.
Down's syndrome individuals used to die in their 20s or 30s. Now they're living into early old age--60 to 75--and are really not accustomed to living independently in the community when their parents die. You have a set of much older orphans who really don't have the resources to manage in community. They're isolated for the first time at a late stage of their lives. These people will require institutionalization unless they can get services at home.
This is a somewhat unexplored problem that tends to increase. As life expectation and individualism increase side by side, it is very likely that some of us will encounter this problem later on. Just something worth the time to reflect. Can you imagine what this people go through? Their bodies and minds betray them, their friends and loved ones are gone, and they are in a society that doesn't have a place for them :-/
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Palzang