Aug 05 What if we focused on care over cure for a dementia?
Cooper and Nicole welcome Dr. Tia Powell, Physician and Bioethicist at the Einstein College of Medicine and author of ‘Dementia Reimagined,’ to share her medical, personal and historical perspective of dementia care. We need to start thinking not just cure but care with no cure ahead for the coming generation.
How can we do a better job and keep moving forward? Let’s use care to shift the way we think about dementia. There is an enormous burden of stigma with the diagnosis of dementia. If we really look at our communities and social interactions and figure a way to be more inclusive the burden would be so greatly lifted.
When do we focus on comfort vs treatment? What is good care at different stages for different people with dementia? In the beginning… maybe regular full tilt treatment could be beneficial but near the end is it beneficial? Is the burden of a medical of a treatment really worth it? If somebody is really suffering and it’s irreversible… we can make the end stage last longer or we can make it really comfortable. If suffering is all I can do is that a situation that I really want to prolong? It is a hard concept for a lot of medical professionals to wrap their heads around. We provide miserable deaths to a lot of people in America. We can do a better job by rethinking what’s good care for dementia at every different stage of this complex and long-lasting illness.
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