{"id":6815,"date":"2022-01-07T08:07:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T13:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=6815"},"modified":"2022-01-07T08:07:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T13:07:55","slug":"they-treat-me-like-im-old-and-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2022\/01\/they-treat-me-like-im-old-and-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They Treat Me Like I\u2019m Old and Stupid\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ageism is all too common in medical settings, and it\u2019s been escalating\u2014and getting more attention\u2014because of the pandemic. Journalist Judith Graham describes the problems older people are encountering in this article written for<\/span><\/i> Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>KHN posted her story on October 20, 2021. It also ran on <\/span><\/i>CNN<\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Joanne Whitney, PharmD, 84, a retired associate clinical professor of pharmacy at the University of California-San Francisco, often feels devalued when interacting with health care providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was the time several years ago when she told an emergency room doctor that the antibiotic he wanted to prescribe wouldn\u2019t counteract the kind of urinary tract infection she had.<\/span><\/p>\n

He wouldn\u2019t listen, even when she mentioned her professional credentials. She asked to see someone else, to no avail. \u201cI was ignored and finally I gave up,\u201d said Whitney, who has survived lung cancer and cancer of the urethra and depends on a special catheter to drain urine from her bladder. (An outpatient renal service later changed the prescription.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, earlier this year, Whitney landed in the same emergency room, screaming in pain, with another urinary tract infection and a severe anal fissure. When she asked for Dilaudid, a powerful narcotic that had helped her before, a young physician told her, \u201cWe don\u2019t give out opioids to people who seek them. Let\u2019s just see what Tylenol does.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whitney said her pain continued unabated for eight hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the fact I was a woman of 84, alone, was important,\u201d she told me. \u201cWhen older people come in like that, they don\u2019t get the same level of commitment to do something to rectify the situation. It\u2019s like \u2018Oh, here\u2019s an old person with pain. Well, that happens a lot to older people.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whitney\u2019s experiences speak to ageism in health care settings, a long-standing problem that\u2019s getting new attention during the COVID pandemic, which has killed more than half a million Americans, age 65 and older.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ageism occurs when people face stereotypes, prejudice or discrimination because of their age. The assumption that all older people are frail and helpless is a common, incorrect stereotype. Prejudice can consist of feelings such as \u201colder people are unpleasant and difficult to deal with.\u201d Discrimination is evident when older adults\u2019 needs aren\u2019t recognized and respected or when they\u2019re treated less favorably than younger people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost 20 percent of Americans who are 50 or older say they have experienced discrimination in health care.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In health care settings, ageism can be explicit. An example: plans for rationing medical care (\u201ccrisis standards of care\u201d) that specify treating younger adults before older adults. Embedded in these standards, now being implemented by hospitals in Idaho and parts of Alaska and Montana, is a value judgment: young peoples\u2019 lives are worth more because they presumably have more years left to live.<\/span><\/p>\n

Justice in Aging, a legal advocacy group, filed a civil rights complaint with the US Department of Health and Human Services in September, charging that Idaho\u2019s crisis standards of care are ageist and asking for an investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other instances, ageism is implicit. Julie Silverstein, MD, president of the Atlantic division of Oak Street Health, gives an example of that: doctors assuming older patients who talk slowly are cognitively compromised and unable to relate their medical concerns. If that happens, a physician may fail to involve a patient in medical decision-making, potentially compromising care, Silverstein said. Oak Street Health operates more than 100 primary care centers for low-income seniors in 18 states.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emogene Stamper, 91, of the Bronx in New York City, was sent to an under-resourced nursing home after becoming ill with COVID in March. \u201cIt was like a dungeon,\u201d she remembered, \u201cand they didn\u2019t lift a finger to do a thing for me.\u201d The assumption that older people aren\u2019t resilient and can\u2019t recover from illness is implicitly ageist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stamper\u2019s son fought to have his mother admitted to an inpatient rehabilitation hospital where she could receive intensive therapy. \u201cWhen I got there, the doctor said to my son, \u2018Oh, your mother is 90,\u2019 like he was kind of surprised, and my son said, \u2018You don\u2019t know my mother. You don\u2019t know this 90-year-old,\u2019\u201d Stamper told me. \u201cThat lets you know how disposable they feel you are once you become a certain age.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the summer, when Stamper was hospitalized for an abdominal problem, a nurse and nursing assistant came to her room with papers for her to sign. \u201cOh, you can write!\u201d Stamper said the nurse exclaimed loudly when she penned her signature. \u201cThey were so shocked that I was alert, it was insulting. They don\u2019t respect you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nearly 20 percent of Americans age 50 and older say they have experienced discrimination in health care settings, which can result in <\/span>inappropriate or inadequate care<\/span><\/a>, according to a 2015 report. One study estimates that the annual health cost of ageism in America, including over- and undertreatment of common medical conditions, totals $63 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

One nursing home resident in every five has persistent pain, and a significant number don\u2019t get adequate treatment.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nubia Escobar, 75, who emigrated from Colombia nearly 50 years ago, wishes doctors would spend more time listening to older patients\u2019 concerns. This became an urgent issue two years ago when her longtime cardiologist in New York City retired to Florida and a new physician had trouble controlling her hypertension.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alarmed that she might faint or fall because her blood pressure was so low, Escobar sought a second opinion. That cardiologist \u201crushed me\u2014he didn\u2019t ask many questions and he didn\u2019t listen. He was sitting there talking to and looking at my daughter,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Veronica Escobar, an elder law attorney, who accompanied her mother to that appointment. She remembers the doctor being abrupt and constantly interrupting her mother. \u201cI didn\u2019t like how he treated her, and I could see the anger on my mother\u2019s face,\u201d she told me. Nubia Escobar has since seen a geriatrician, who concluded she was overmedicated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The geriatrician \u201cwas patient,\u201d Nubia Escobar told me. \u201cHow can I put it? She gave me the feeling she was thinking all the time what could be better for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pat Bailey, 63, gets little of that kind of consideration in the Los Angeles County, CA, nursing home where she\u2019s lived for five years since having a massive stroke and several subsequent heart attacks. \u201cWhen I ask questions, they treat me like I\u2019m old and stupid and they don\u2019t answer,\u201d she told me in a telephone conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

One nursing home resident in every five has persistent pain, studies have found, and a significant number don\u2019t get adequate treatment. Bailey, whose left side is paralyzed, said she\u2019s among them. \u201cWhen I tell them what hurts, they just ignore it or tell me it\u2019s not time for a pain pill,\u201d she complained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the time, Bailey feels like \u201cI\u2019m invisible\u201d and like she\u2019s seen as \u201ca slug in a bed, not a real person.\u201d Only one nurse regularly talks to her and makes her feel she cares about Bailey\u2019s well-being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust because I\u2019m not walking and doing anything for myself doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not alive. I\u2019m dying inside, but I\u2019m still alive,\u201d she told me.<\/span><\/p>\n

They wanted a doctor who would help them live, not figure out how they\u2019re going to die.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014Shelli Bischoff <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ed Palent, 88, and his wife, Sandy, 89, of Denver, similarly felt discouraged when they saw a new doctor after their long-standing physician retired. \u201cThey went for an annual checkup and all this doctor wanted them to do was ask about how they wanted to die and get them to sign all kinds of forms,\u201d said their daughter Shelli Bischoff, who discussed her parents\u2019 experiences with their permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very upset and told him, \u2018We don\u2019t want to talk about this,\u2019 but he wouldn\u2019t let up. They wanted a doctor who would help them live, not figure out how they\u2019re going to die.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Palents didn\u2019t return and instead joined another medical practice, where a young doctor barely looked at them after conducting cursory examinations, they said. That physician failed to identify a dangerous staphylococcus bacterial infection on Ed\u2019s arm, which was later diagnosed by a dermatologist. Again, the couple felt overlooked, and they left.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re with a concierge physician\u2019s practice that has made a sustained effort to get to know them. \u201cIt\u2019s the opposite of ageism: it\u2019s \u2018We care about you and our job is to help you be as healthy as possible for as long as possible,\u2019\u201d Bischoff said. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame this is so hard to find.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joanne Whitney, PharmD, 84, a retired associate clinical professor of pharmacy at the University of California-San Francisco, often feels devalued when interacting with health care providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more \u2018They Treat Me Like I\u2019m Old and Stupid\u2019<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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