Was I ever surprised reading the article from the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune posted in my Archive along with two other articles
that relate to my comment. They are:
Each is posted in my archive,
click on each article to go there and read it.
The first deals with care for people with AD and/or DM. I
found the article refreshing for what is being done for folks with AD and/or DM
because I am one of them. I was diagnosed with AD five years ago and I still got
it. I have learned a lot about it ever since.
I am one of these rare birds whose cognition and
communicating skills have not been as limited by my Dementia than other skills
which have, starting with my ability to drive and my ability to handle money,
which rates on a scale of a high 0.
I have been writing and speaking for these past five years
about what is needed, what is not being done for us, what this will soon add up
to crippling the economy of our country worse than it is now crippled!
I have lamented often if not endlessly. “There is not enough
concern about treating those of us with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and/or
Dementia (DM). This is putting all of us, the entire country at risk of Bankruptcy.”
The experience that leads me to this assertion is based on my life in Dementia
World right here in Minnesota (MN).
I worry about the lack of Care or Concern for my crowd. You can
call us the “You’d never believe we have it!” Or, some of us are called the
ones who do show signs but are nonetheless functional, able to care for
themselves with some help from their loving caretaker. We are those in the Early
Stage of Dementia.
I worry about everyone else as we all ultimately enter the “Home”
or are faced with the high cost of Home Care. The obligation to pay it is that
of both spouses where one of them needs to incur the expense.
If they have it, funds, like in middle class having it, these
funds will be sucked dry of their net worth in no time at all leaving the one
of them in the “Home” or at home qualified and paid for by Medicaid. It leaves
the other quickly “In the Street.”
Then there is the source Medicaid. Remember Medicare will
not pay for this, only Medicaid to the extent to which your State allows them
to spend the Federal Medicaid Money for “Care.”
We are in a current “Starve the Beast” mentality which will
likely see the demise of Medicaid, and see it soon. Then where do we stand?
Scary huh?
The Minnesota Plan is the first in the nation. The Minnesota
Plan is not near enough. Bases are not being covered by programs and help for
Early Stage. The cost of professional help, as reported in the first article
is:
The state fared less well, however, on several other measures, including
the cost of home health care and certain measures of home health care quality.
Nursing home cost runs 80 to 100
Thousand a year. Assisted living runs 60 to 80 Thousand a year. We can’t afford
this, our communities can’t afford it, and soon we will learn our country can’t
either. Minnesota is first, yet needs work badly. What does this do for the
rest of the States?
As a lawyer in my past life I
practiced a little bankruptcy law. Doing that I learned to take a client
through the relief the bankruptcy laws offered if after it places them at a
better place for having done it. If not it was not worth the pain of going
through it.
If my client were The United
States I would turn them down. There is no place for them to go!
The second article, When
Lapses Are Not Just Signs of Aging, speaks about Mild Cognitive Impairment
(CMI). He article describes CMI in this way:
… for millions of Americans with a neurological condition
called mild cognitive impairment, lapses in word-finding and name recall are
often common, along with other challenges like remembering appointments,
difficulty paying bills or losing one’s train of thought in the middle of a
conversation.
Though not as severe as full-blown Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, mild cognitive impairment is
often a portent of these mind-robbing disorders. Dr. Barry Reisberg, professor
of psychiatry at New York University
School of Medicine, who in 1982 described the seven stages of Alzheimer’s
disease, calls the milder disorder Stage 3, a condition of subtle deficits in
cognitive function that nonetheless allow most people to live independently and
participate in normal activities.
The nexus of the article to the
other two is this:
We are petrified by the
possibility of getting AD which has been so over blown and sensationalized by
too many into being the worst calamity that could happen to a person.
Well five years in I can tell
you having it is not near so bad as worrying you might get it. If we could quit
calling it ALZHEIMER’S, start calling it Dementia, realizing that there is not
a heck of a lot of difference. Doing so we would be better positioned to deal
with it. We can treat it early extend the good times of it in Early Stage and
be prepared as a community and country to deal with it when Nursing Home or
Hospice is the only alternative remaining before death.
Calling what I have CMI makes all
the sense in the world
The last article, briefly describes
our experience. It does so in describing a book dealing with a Doctor’s
experience of suffering our illness.
I include this article to demonstrate
the horror the disease is to each of us. That is nonetheless tempered by what
can be, what is and what should be done to help. It is not only good for us it
is essential for the good of our country.
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