An Aging Tsunami is about to swamp the United States
The first Baby Boomers – the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 – turn 61 in 2007. As a fast-growing state, Nevada is already feeling this demographic deluge. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of Americans 65 and older nationally grew by less than 4 percent. During that same period, Nevada’s 65-and-older population increased by 20 percent.
Nevada is medically unprepared
Elders constitute the majority of medical patients. This isn’t news. Older people get sick more often than younger people.
Nevada ranks last or close to last among states in terms of medical professionals per capita. This also isn’t news. It’s been the case for some time.
What people don’t realize is Nevada’s medical manpower shortage is much worse in the case of elder care. Less than 1 percent of doctors and nurses have the training required to care for older adults.
What does being ‘prepared’ mean?
When your son or daughter is sick or due for a check-up, you take the child to a pediatrician. Pediatricians are doctors specially trained to recognize and treat medical conditions common among infants, children and adolescents.
Elders have their own set of medical issues. Recognizing and treating those conditions requires the same kind of specialized training. It’s called geriatrics. The only difference between a pediatrician and a geriatrician is the age of their patients. Yet, according to the state Board of Medical Examiners, there are 393 pediatricians of various types in Nevada. There are only 59 geriatricians.
What you as a voter can do
Nevada is hurting for medical professionals of all stripes, but the need for geriatric training is the most dire because of the Aging Tsunami. The Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education has already approved creation of a Department of Geriatrics and Interdisciplinary Health Sciences within the Nevada School of Medicine. Contact your state legislators and encourage them to support actions to enhance the School of Medicine with this indispensable department.
Also, demand that specialized training in geriatrics be made part of the required education for doctors and other medical professionals. Presently only one state, California, has that requirement.
Other action is needed on issues such as prescription drugs. Elders taking multiple prescriptions from multiple specialists need occasional reviews of these therapies (such as the Sanford Center for Aging has offered) to make sure the drugs aren’t interacting and causing more harm than good.
For more information on helping educate lawmakers and other government officials about measures that need to be taken to brace for the Aging Tsunami, contact Larry Weiss, Ph.D., director, University of Nevada, Reno Sanford Center for Aging, at 775-784-4774.
Dr.Weiss was a delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, serves on the National Council on Aging Leadership Council and is president of the Nevada Public Health Foundation Board.