AlzHub

You're Either Part Of The Problem Or Part Of The Solution

Thanks to The Tangled Neuron for this post responding to a surprisingly shallow and poorly researched article on How To Run A Senior Living Home from Forbes.com.

Where is the "assisted" part of assisted living?  Looking at the assisted living industry as a numbers game should not be encouraged.  There's too much of that already.  This is an industry with problems.

Using Sunrise Senior Living as a role model was an immediate red flag for me.  A model for neglect, accounting and stock irregularities?  Sure.  Role model?  No.

Neglect Is A Symptom Of Greed

The Sunrise Senior Living saga gets uglier every day:

Accounting problems, suspiciously timed stock selling and a call for investigation.

-Corrupted Chamber of Commerce: Thomas Donahue by Matt Stoller at The Huffington Post.

"If it were possible to pick one person as the representative for American business in Washington, Thomas Donahue is that man.  He is the President and CEO of the United States Chamber of Commerce, the most important business lobbying group in the country.  He is also on the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee of Sunrise Senior Living, and was caught selling stock ahead of the revelations of accounting problems."

-SunriseShareholders.org

A project of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Capital Stewardship Program that owns a lot of Sunrise stock and wants an investigation into problems at the company.

-Sunrise Insider Sales Need Independent Probe, Pension Fund Says - by Mark Pittman at Bloomberg.com

"Five board members, including founder and chief executive Paul J. Klaassen and his wife, director Teresa M. Klaassen, sold $32 million in shares before a May 9 announcement that the company would review its accounting, pension fund spokesman Dan O'Sullivan said in a statement today that repeated claims made in last week's letter."

CBS News: Assisted Living, Erratic Regulation

CBS News aired a report last night (Nov. 13th) on the abuse and neglect that occurs in assisted living homes.

The short report, by Armen Keteyian, touched on a couple of the issues that have been covered here and on other blogs repeatedly.  The main focus of the report was the dangerous combination of problems within the industry and little to no oversight.

The report and video can be found on the CBS website here.

Now the reason for this post.  The majority of the comments on the CBS website under the article have been from within the industry and they are taking this opportunity to deny, spin and shift blame.  Reports like this on national news shows are too important to allow to be defused like this.

I'm asking, and hoping for, readers here to leave a couple of comments under the article on the CBS website letting the public know that there is indeed a problem, there is indeed too much abuse and neglect and that something needs to be done.

I left my comment under the name keith1740.

Consumer Reports On Assisted Living

Finding problems with the quality of care at assisted living facilities is, unfortunately, like shooting fish in a barrel.  Here's an article from Consumer Reports titled: Assisted Living - How much assistance can you really count on?

It shouldn't be any surprise that the answer is not much.  Also no surprise, the article includes examples featuring Sunrise Senior Living.

10 Things

Continuing the theme from my last post, here is an article from SmartMoney.com pointing out common problems faced with assisted living facilities.

The article is called "10 Things Your Assisted-Living Facility Won't Tell You" by Stacey L. Bradford.

Here's the list:

1) We promise more than we can deliver.
2) We can raise our prices at any time.
3) Our staff has very little training.
4) Medication errors are common and our pharmacy charges too much.
5) We face scant regulation.
6) You're practically on your own at night.
7) You may have to hire a private-duty nurse, too.
8) We stop spending once our beds are full.
9) Practically anyone can hang an assisted-living shingle.
10) Check your dignity at the door.

I personally had to deal with #'s 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10.  In fact, the only one I can definitely rule out is number 2 because our contract specified when prices could be raised.  It isn't surprising to me to see that Sunrise Senior Living* is mentioned more than once in the article.

Click here to read the entire article and each item on the list in more detail.  Scary stuff.

*Sunrise Senior Living and Sunrise Assisted Living are the same company.  They changed the "assisted" part of their name a few years ago in what now seems a rather prophetic move.

Alzheimer's Drug Trial To Begin For Flurizan

Myriad Genetics Inc. is set to begin the largest ever drug trial to test their new drug Flurizan.  Their website states that they are about to start a phase 3 trial (phase 3 is the last state of testing before a drug is sent to the FDA for approval for use by the general public) which will include 1600 patients over 18 months.

The drug is designed to block the production of beta-amyloid which is believed to be the cause of the plaque buildup found in Alzheimer's patients.

On a side note: The article that I'm linking to (and others) on this trial included something along the lines of: The company "aims to win an intense, international race among several biotech companies to find the first effective treatment to at least slow the disease's progression in the 4.5 million Americans who suffer from it".

I didn't see this claim to be the "first" on the company's website so I don't know where it came from.  Maybe it refers to the way the drug works.  I'd bet the makers of Donepezil (Aricept), Galantamine (Razadyne), Rivastigmine (Exelon) and Memantine (Namenda) would have something to say about who's first to be able to make the above claim.

Link:

Largest Alzheimer's Drug Trial Launched - Associated Press

Alzheimer's trials show positive results - Salt Lake City Tribune (article on Phase 2)

Alzheimer's Article By College Freshman Gabriel Oppenheim

Here's an article by Gabriel Oppenheim about Alzheimer's, monetary costs and priorities.

This article caught my eye because Gabriel is a college freshman from Scarsdale. N.Y.
It's encouraging to see someone his age showing concern and an understanding of how serious
this disease is and will continue to be.

Good job.

Alzheimer's research deserves attention.

Technorati Tags: NIH, Medicare, spring break

Medical University Of Ohio And Dementia Care Training For Students

The Medical University of Ohio is giving its medical students the chance to spend some time with Alzheimer's patients and caregivers.

I think this is a great idea and long overdue. Book learning only goes so far. Real world experience and exposure to what patients and caregivers go through will be invaluable to everyone.

School is probably the best and last opportunity students will get for something like this.

Read the article here:

MUO course strives to develop compassionate dementia care - by Luke Shockman, staff writer - Toledo Blade.

Technorati Tags: Medical University of Ohio, MUO

An Great Article On Alzheimer's By Norma Sherry

Here's an article that, to me, captures the frustrations and sums up the state of Alzheimer's knowledge very well.

The conflicting research studies, ideas, opinions and theories. How so little is known for sure about Alzheimer's even though it's been around for so long. Despite all the reported studies and discoveries, very little is available at the patient and caregiver level (the front lines) that helps.

Click the link below to read the article:

The Big "A" As in Alzheimer's by Norma Sherry from OpEdNews.com.

Technorati Tags: Norma Sherry

USA Today Q&A With Margaret Gatz

This post is a good follow-up to my previous post here.

USA Today's Kathleen Fackelmann asked Margaret Gatz, author of the recent study on the link between genetics and Alzheimer's, some questions related to the study.

The questions expand a little bit beyond just twins to what this means for the rest of us with family members who have or have had Alzheimer's.  I know that these are questions that I had and referred to in my last post.

A couple of the questions:

"If someone has a parent or sibling who has developed Alzheimer's late in life, what is the person's risk of developing the disease?"

"Can people who have a family history of late-onset Alzheimer's reduce their risk?"

Read the rest of the questions and all of the answers in the article here:

Q&A: Late-onset Alzheimer's - USAToday.com.

Technorati Tags: Margaret Gatz