Slow Medicine: A New Approach to Elders' Quality of Life

Thanks Dorian for bringing this great article to our attention. 

I guess it is a bit surprising that slow medicine seems to be a "new" way of treating the elderly as they face life's end.  I suspect that once again society is looking back at how things worked in the past and trying to learn from our experiences.  Our society does move very fast and is technologically advanced. But in serious illness and terminal diagnosis the last thing we should be is quick about it!

Hope others find this material as refreshing as I did and are hopeful more medical institutions - schools, hospitals, staff, etc - learn about this soon - maybe even fast!

All the best, sue

For more help with caregiving, turn to our Caregiver Center.

This is the first time I heard about slow medicine. I know about DNR and hospice and all that. I hope this is truly decided by the elderly. Not abused by doctors.

This is a sad moment that it is their final hours. I am not sure how many people can deal with it calmly. Most people get emotional. Some elderly, depends on the culture or background, cannot deal with this calmly. Some depend on the children to decide for them.

I am sure this new concept may work out for the new generations like us whose age are in the late 40s, 50s or even 60s. For the 80s or 90s, their era was conservative and old-fashioned, and they will have a hard time to understand this.

Some even deny their disease such as Alzheimer's or minor stroke.

Again, this is up to the elderly, not up to the doctors. I worry that doctors have too much power to do anything they want.

Nina