05.31.07
Dendreon Gets An Rx
Shares jump after company says that its prostate cancer drug could go to market in 2008.Permalink Comments off
Decoding Your DNA Destiny
Super-cheap genetic scanning is set to jolt medicine, offering patients new insights--and painful choices.Permalink Comments off
05.29.07
High Costs, High Stakes
In an ever-more stressful business world, today's senior managers must protect their most important asset: their health and well-being.Permalink Comments off
05.28.07
Sunday in My Mother’s Garden: What’s this…
Sunday in My Mother's Garden:
What's this?
An insect eye?
Some strange pod from outer space? A fugitive ceiling light from a 1970's disco?
(Answer: Once it was a bowling ball.)
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05.25.07
The Trouble with Nursing Homes: It isn’t so much t…
The Trouble with Nursing Homes: It isn't so much the care as it is the nature of the beast:Nursing home priorities are matters like avoiding bedsores and maintaining weight -- important goals, but they are means, not ends. She left an airy apartment she furnished herself for a small beige hospital-like room with a stranger for a roommate. Her belongings were stripped down to what she could fit into the one cupboard and shelf they gave her. Basic matters, like when she goes to bed, wakes up, dresses and eats were put under the rigid schedule of institutional life. Her main activities have become bingo, movies and other forms of group entertainment. Is it any wonder most people dread nursing homes?
The things she misses most, she told me, are her friendships, her privacy and the purpose in her days. She's not alone. Surveys of nursing home residents reveal chronic boredom, loneliness and lack of meaning -- results not fundamentally different from prisoners, actually.
I'm pretty sure I would regard it as a prison, but I've known some people who are actually happier in the nursing home. They've all been very gregarious, outgoing people who love company. They are few, however, which is why movements like this are likely to catch on.
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