This is bumped from the comments. Steve Gurney is a leading edge thinker, publisher and advisor in the arena of aging services. Here is his take on Paro the Baby Seal Robot. July 9th, 2010 One of my clients made a big deal about having the first Paro in the US a few years ago. […]
Enough with the Robot Baby Seal
The people behind Paro the Robot Baby Seal seem to have retained the world’s best public relations firm. They’ve scored stories in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. I don’t get it. Or, maybe, I do get it and I hate admitting the ugly truth. American culture sees aging as primarily a […]
Help or Hindrance?
The executives of a healthcare organization with over 1200 employees have renegotiated the health insurance plan terms and costs for the new fiscal year. There are several plans offered by this employer, one plan (HMO) has by far the lowest monthly premiums and is the plan that over 95% of the employees opt for. The […]
Distant Relative
You receive a call from a relative saying your 94 year old Aunt B. who lives in the west, has been rushed to the hospital and is in intensive care. Earlier in the day she had been having respiratory distress at her home and her son had transported her to the hospital for treatment. She […]
Autonomy Versus Safety
Mr. X was an older man that had a history of alcohol abuse and was a resident of a nursing home. He enjoyed smoking cigarettes in the designated outdoor smoking area. There were specific times a day that the residents could smoke, which were supervised by staff. The smoking policy stated that all smoking materials […]
Who Should The Doctor Treat?
Katherine is in her early eighties and suffers from a cardiac valve condition diagnosed about a decade ago. She has been adamant with her cardiologist since first learning of the problem that she will not have surgery, even if eventually necessary to save her life. Her response anytime he has broached the subject has always […]
Should He Have Been There?
I recently witnessed a very real and painful moral dilemma that I would like to share. On Friday, April 30th my great-grandmother passed away in the small farm town of Columbus, Kansas. Throughout her remarkable life she demonstrated the importance of family and taught us how to love. She was 88 years old. My great-grandfather […]
When Can I Go Home?
Here’s my dilemma: Eleven years ago, at age 61, my single (divorced) father was transferred to a VA post-acute facility following major surgery. He lived there for what were to be the last two years of his life. The memory issues his adult children had begun noticing prior to his surgery had been diagnosed as […]
