Aging, is and always has been, a team sport!

I am a big fan of some of some of the leaders who I consider the pioneers in reshaping how we think of aging in this country. One was Dr. Robert Neil Butler, MD who first coined the word “ageism”, started the first geriatric medicine program in the country (at Mt Sinai Medical Center), was the first Director of the National Institute on Aging and won the Pulitzer Prize for his groundbreaking book on aging called “Why Survive? Being Old in America”. Sadly Dr Butler passed away in 2010. But he left us a legacy of his work.

Another leader who is still very active is Dr Bill Thomas, MD,  geriatrician and a professor at the Erickson School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He has founded two movements that aim to reshape nursing-home care: The Eden Alternative and the Green House Project. Dr. Thomas his wife developed the Eden Alternative in the early 1990’s as a bodybuilding-seriously.net philosophy to deinstitutionalize long term care facilities by alleviating the “three plagues” of boredom, helplessness and loneliness. In 2008, The Wall Street Journal named Dr. Thomas one of the 12 most influential Americans shaping aging in the 21st Century. US News and World Report described Dr. Thomas as a revolutionary, “With his startling common-sense ideas and his ability to persuade others to take a risk, this creative and wildly exuberant 46-year-old country doctor has become something of a culture changer–reimagining how Americans will approach aging in the 21st century.”

Here is a sample of some of Dr Thomas’s (for America) revolutionary statements on the plethora of dismal nursing homes in this country:

“One important way we can reduce the fear associated with communal living arrangements, and improve the lives of frail elders and their families, is to abolish nursing homes in America. Currently we have more nursing homes than Starbucks outlets. Our archipelago of institutional long-term care facilities houses 1.6 million elders and adults living with disabilities. Most of them are serving life sentences, stripped of privacy, independence and choice. Ironically, the buildings are aging even faster than the people in them. They won’t survive to house the coming boom of elders. Should we rebuild them, as thousands of developers are already doing, and subject another generation to the cruel embrace of the institution? 
 
The fact that so many people, whose only crime is frailty, are confined in this way is powerful evidence that we live in a deeply ageist society. We dread aging because we associate growing older exclusively with disability, depression, dementia and death. In fact, old age is a complicated life stage with abundant opportunities for growth, joy, meaning and worth. Around the world and through the ages, elders have proven their value as peacemakers, storytellers and sages. They are the glue that holds families and communities together, and we need them now more than ever. “

He writes this in response to the fear that so many old people have about living in groups, and rightly so given the vast majority of the existing models. But, he says, as in the title of this blog post, AGING IS A TEAM SPORT! How I have described it, along these same lines, is that “It takes a village!”, stealing from Hilary Clinton’s old book title. I have seen this over and over, that the highest quality of life belongs to those older people who have a loving and competent circle of family, friends, caregivers, church members, health professionals, etc around them when they need them. 

Older people nowadays want to stay home and “age in place”. This is understandable given the alternatives! It’s time for us to create warm, welcoming, vibrant group settings where individuals can have privacy and alone time for contemplation, and friendship and support and connection when they want that to. I’m sure we can figure this out. And we should because the boomers are fast coming down the aging track.

Dr Thomas has started the Green House Project, a new model aimed at creating a real home that provides care but also supports those seeking to redefine the worth and meaning of late life. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, more than 100 Green House Project homes have opened in 32 states since 2003, and more than 100 others are in development.