GBONEWS: American Eldercide on Preventable Pandemic Deaths; Hospital, Heal Thyself; Fellowship Picks 5; Hey, PBS! Julia Alvarez (the author’s Mom) was UN’s “Ambassador of Ageing.”
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations.
September 25, 2024 — Volume 31, Number 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: GBONews, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. If you have difficulty getting to the full issue of GBONews with the links provided below, simply go to www.gbonews.org to read the latest or past editions. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. [pfkleyman@gmail.com]. To subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge, simply sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. For each issue, you’ll receive the table of contents in an e-mail, so just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. GBONews does not provide its list to other entities.
In This Issue: Your Angst-Free Non-Election Zone (not even a pledge-break).
1. THE BOOKMOBILE: *** American Eldercide: Margaret M. Gullette on Preventable Pandemic Deaths;
*** Hospital, Heal Thyself by Mark Taylor, one scientist’s plan to save U.S. hospitals, lives and billions (including a KGB spy);
*** “5 Books to Make Caregiving a Little More Manageable,” by Hope Reese, New York Times.
2. HOT DATES: *** Ageism Awareness Day. Oct. 9, 2024; *** Press Passes for GSA Scientific Meeting in Seattle, Nov. 13-16.
3. GEN BEATLES NEWS: *** Five Picked as Continuing Fellows for Journalists in Aging Fellows Program; *** “Liz Seegert on the summer of aging in American politics,” by Kevin Lind, Columbia Journalism Review; *** Sky Bergman’s Doc “Lives Well Lived” Renewed by PBS, Plus Her New Japanese Internment Doc, Mochitsuki.
4. WORDS FROM THE WISE: *** Hey, PBS! Julia Alvarez (the Mom, not her author daughter) was the UN’s“Ambassador of Ageing.”
1. THE BOOKMOBILE
*** American Eldercide: How It Happened, How to Prevent It, by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, University of Chicago Press (October 2024): In this latest of Gullette’s half-dozen books exploring aging and ageism, the Brandeis University scholar continues with her penchant for intriguing titles, such as 2017’s award-winning Ending Ageism: How Not to Shoot Old People, Rutgers University Press.
But her satirical tongue isn’t even half way into her cheek with this deadly serious and meticulously researched new volume. In American Eldercide, Gullette documents tens-of-thousands unnecessary fatalities among older Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book amounts to an indictment of greed in the U.S. health care system, and more fundamentally, the ageist attitudes permeating American culture.
Gullette states, “Most residents of nursing homes and veterans’ facilities who died of COVID, died prematurely.”
As COVID spread like wild-fire, she found, residents of long-term care facilities “soon constituted over 40 percent of the U.S. dead, a figure wildly disproportionate to [nursing home occupants’] minuscule share (0.6 percent) of the population.”
But why? She unraveled the data and found, “But these staggering tolls did not seem as surprising as they should have. The mortality rate confirmed a dehumanizing stereotype of residents as fragile.”
For-Profit Nursing Homes
According to Gullette, in 2020, the “excess deaths” from COVID in nursing homes, found the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “were up 32 percent over the normal rate in 2019.” She determined that the majority of those deaths were among seniors in for-profit facilities with “negligently low resources and staffing levels.”
Among the book’s authoritative voices, she quotes Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Stephen J. Elledge: “When people talk about deaths from COVID-19, they say, ‘Well, they were old. They were going to die anyway.’ . . . But people don’t appreciate the fact that even if you’re 70 or 75, you may still have [many] years of life left.”
Stressing that “tens of thousands of residents could have been saved and that ethical restraints were loosened or disregarded,” Gullette asked “the elemental question, What was wrong with the systems and with our culture, that the 2020 eldercide could occur at all?”
Her interrogation led Gullette to conclude, “No ‘conspiracy’ is necessary to explain the deadly patterns, the worst of which remain to be examined. My analysis shows that where carefulness should have guided care, a compound of ageist ableism, dementism, sexism, racism, and classism had settled deep.”
She states, “Twenty percent of the Americans who have died of COVID since 2020 have been older and disabled adults residing in nursing homes—even though they make up fewer than one percent of the U.S. population.”
Gullette, whose writing has appeared in such media as the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe, provides a seismic map exposing the sources U.S. ageism over time. Age bias, she shows, made the ground unstable for older Americans with every health and safety quake. (This editor was pleased to provide a blurb for the publisher’s use in promoting American Eldercide.)
Journalists can contact Kristen Raddatz to request a review copy and press information on the book at press_publicity@uchicago.edu. Say you saw it in GBONews.org.
*** Hospital, Heal Thyself: One Brilliant Mathematician’s Proven Plan for Saving Hospitals, Many Lives, and Billions of Dollars, by Mark Taylor, Wiley (November 2024).
It’s a familiar story – a brilliant scientist who comes up with an unexpected solution, defying conventional thinking and institutional inertia, is dismissed out of hand and fights for years until someone says yes. When idea proves successful, though, wider acceptance still moves more slowly than a driverless car in traffic.
Such is the story of Eugene Litvak, a Ukrainian mathematician and systems engineer. His dissection of hospital operations in the United States and Canada and insights that could save lives and costs, also suggest essential questions for health care and policy journalists to raise in their coverage of these issues.
An added bonus for readers of this policy-focused biography is this book’s unexpected and edgy account of Litvak’s decade-long effort to get out of the Soviet Union in the decade before its collapse.
Readers might imagine Taylor being possessed by John le Carré in recounting Litvak, as he was straight-jacketed by Soviet anti-Semitism, as he is denied research positions, even from authorities who praise his brilliance.
Furthermore, Taylor recounts Litvak’s precarious interactions with a KGB agent, one not yet in from the cold, who tries to recruit him to spy on other scientists. Litvak demurs, as he and his wife find themselves reduced to menial jobs for years, until one day — well, no spoiler here.
In 1988, Litwak was able to emigrate to the United States. While consulting with Massachusetts General Hospital, starting in 1990s, he observed erratic—and detrimental–patterns in meeting demands for inpatient beds. Facility procedures seemed unrelated to actual illness or patient loads, but instead to the hospital’s inefficiencies. He learned that medical centers across the country were experiencing severe patient overcrowding, reduced resources and burnout by health care staff.
Billions, Lives, Golf
As Amy Roeder, a senior editor at Harvard Public Health, wrote recently, “Veteran health care journalist Mark Taylor charts how Litvak developed his methods and makes a compelling case that they should be applied more widely.”
The journal’s section on the book includes an excerpt from Hospital, Heal Thyself describing how, Litwak, after years of rejection, often because facilities’ medical staffs saw inconveniences for their schedules in his system – such as doctor’s tee-times on the golf links — the head of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital said “yes” to trying the new operational model.
Litvak co-founded the Institute for Healthcare Optimization (IHO) in 2009, and has worked with hospitals in the U.S. and Canada to make seemingly minor operational changes that have resulted in multimillion-dollar annual savings for hospitals—and improved impacts in treatment.
Key outcomes of Litvak’s procedures, including for major hospitals, have been reduced emergency-room overcrowding and, applications of his algorithms to easing facility flow increasing nurse retention when so many are exiting medical care due to burnout.
To request a press review copy of Hospital, Heal Thyself, contact either Nick Davies at Fortier Public Relations, nick@fortierpr.com, (914) 356-5171, or Jean-Karl Martin at Wiley:jemartin@wiley.com.
*** “5 Books to Make Caregiving a Little More Manageable,” by Hope Reese, New York Times (Aug. 19, 2024): The Dek: “Health care professionals and other experts shared recommendations for anyone providing and receiving care.”
Reese wrote: “Here are five titles, recommended by health care providers and other experts, to help those who help others.”
* 1. The 36-Hour Day, by Nancy L. Mace and Dr. Peter V. Rabins — Now in its seventh edition, since being first published in 1981, this caregiving classic is essential reading for those providing care for people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias.
* 2. Helping Yourself Help Others, by Rosalynn Carter – Reese wrote, “The former First Lady of the United States was a trailblazer in recognizing what caregivers are going through.”
* 3. Travelers to Unimaginable Lands, by Dasha Kiper —This 2023 title uses case studies from Kiper’s years as a counselor and a caregiver enabling her to explore caregiving relationships.
* 4.When the Time Comes, Paula Span’s 2009 book presents portraits of families taking care of older adults. Among the topics they deal with are holding difficult conversations, such as whether to move a parent into a long-term care facility, and managing sibling rivalries. Span, who’s “New Old Age” column appears in the New York Times, posted on Facebook, “Nice to have this recognition for my now 15-year-old book about families confronting eldercare. When the Time Comes is out of print, alas, but available still as an ebook.”
5. Passages in Caregiving, by Gail Sheehy, recounts her 17-year “caregiving journey that began when her husband was diagnosed with cancer,” Reese wrote. Along Sheehy’s journey with her spouse, renowned magazine editor Clay Felker, readers meet a cast of caregivers whose experiences highlight eight stages of caregiving
6. Got a favorite, dear reader? While Reese’s choices are well worthy, GBONews invites your added suggestions. We all know the long stream of very good books on caregiving could yield virtual bibliography, so please limit your recommendation to not more than two titles. We’ll cite them in a later issue, and note the “winners” receiving the most votes. Send your caregiving book fav’s to pfkleyman@gmail.com.
2. HOT DATES
*** Ageism Awareness Day will be on October 9, 2024. Here are links to a few good resources on his occasion and other anti-ageism efforts.
- American Society on Aging Ageism Awareness Day
- Reframing Aging “Changing the Conversation” Toolkit
- Reframing Aging’s Learning Center
- Gero-What?
- This Chair Rocks, the book and website by Ashton Applewhite
*** Media Registration for Top Age-Research Meeting in Seattle, Nov. 13-16: The Gerontological Society of America provides complimentary registration to working members of the media for its Annual Scientific Meeting.
The huge conference, attracting 4,000 experts on aging from 50 countries, invites press-pass applications from “reporters, editors, publishers, electronic media producers, columnists, bloggers, and other editorial communicators, who reach general or specialized audiences on a regular basis with news reports or fact-based analysis,” says GSA’s website.
The Press Room this year at the Seattle Convention Center (Room #305) will serve as an operational base for reporters covering the meeting, available for networking, conducting interviews, and consulting with GSA’s communications staff. Attending journalists are also invited to the media meet-up and reception at the afternoon’s end on Friday, Nov. 15.
GBONews subscribers planning to be in the Puget Sound area can sign up now for a Press Registration, allowing you to search the conference sessions by topic areas, presenters’ last names, and keywords. If you have questions, contact Todd Kluss at tkluss@geron.org.
3. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** Five Selected as Continuing Fellows: Our last issue of GBONews listed the14 New Fellows in the selected to attend this year’s Journalists in Aging Fellows Program at the Gerontological Society of American Annual Scientific Meeting. In addition, we’ve chosen five past participants for the program as Continuing Fellows. Each will receive a travel grant from the program. The reporter include — along with a link to one of each one’s previous fellowship-supported stories:
* Clara Germani, senior editor, The Christian Science Monitor — “Biden says he’s ‘too old to stay as president.’ It shows the pull of ageism,” (Aug. 20, 2024).
* B. Denise Hawkins, freelance journalist — “Black-owned nursing homes continue little-known legacy, fill needs unmet by troubled industry,” Black News & Views (National Association of Black Journalists, Oct. 30, 2023) also featured by NABJ in March 2024, for Black History Month.
* Jessie Hellman, health policy reporter, CQ’s Roll Call – “Providers say Medicare Advantage hinders new methadone benefit,” (Jan. 4, 2023).
*Jyoti S. Madhusoodanan, freelance science journalist (Nature, Science, others) — “Why Cancer Treatments Might Not Work Very Well for Older Adults,” Undark (June 26, 2023), and Slate (July 6, 2023).
* Clavel Rangel, freelance investigative journalist – Three-Part Series, El Tiempo Latino (Washington-Baltimore, in Spanish only, May 8, 9 and 29, 2024). English PDFs are available from GBONews editor: pfkleyman@gmail.com. Among the stories: “Después de los 50 años, los migrantes también se enfrentan al muro de la brecha digital,” (“After Age 50, Migrants Also Face the Wall of the Digital Gap.”)
*** “Liz Seegert on the summer of aging in American politics,” by Kevin Lind, is the Columbia Journalism Review’s (Aug. 28, 2024) extensive Q&A with Seegert. Our Journalists in Aging Fellows Program co-director addressed not only about ageism in the current electoral season, but also on the shaky state of news coverage on aging in America.
For instance, she commented, “Once Biden dropped out, the conversation about age shifted to Trump. It’s still ageism because they’re still focusing on the trope that he’s now the oldest candidate in the race. Yes, that’s factually correct, but underlying that are all the negative implications that come with age. If you remove some of the more outlandish stuff he says and does, are they focusing on his capacity or are they focusing on the stereotypes that come with being old?”
And: “One positive thing that has come out of it is that we’re even talking about ageism. It’s an easy trope to fall back on, but at least I’m starting to have the conversation about what constitutes ‘old’ and what constitutes ‘too old.’ People are living longer, and that’s just the facts.”
*** “Lives Well Lived Director Sky Bergman Updates Us On The Progress Of Her Fascinating New Documentary Mochitsuki,” by Eric Althoff, Screen Comment (May 30, 2024):
The Lede: “In the proto version of her new [20-minute] documentary Mochitsuki, director Sky Bergmaninterviews Japanese Americans who were interned during the Second World War, as well as their many descendants.
“They describe for Bergman’s camera the value of the mochitsuki New Year’s ritual, in which the community comes together to pound rice to make mochi, a sticky [rice] dough to celebrate the new year. Typically this involves pounding the mixture with a hammer, with participants from young to old taking part in this unique celebration.”
Japanese Internment: “In the short documentary we learn how, even as their government stripped them of their constitutional rights for no reason other than ancestry, these American citizens of Japanese heritage continued to live as close to ‘normal’ as they could behind barbed wire, whether that meant forming baseball leagues or making the mochi to celebrate another year. … Bergman’s subjects speak of mochitsuki with a warmth and twinkle in their smile that, eight decades after FDR’s Executive Order 9066 sent their relatives to the camps, is inspiring.”
Who: “Given her earlier film, [Lives Well Lived], it is perhaps unsurprising that Bergman—also
Bergman—also Professor Emeritus of Photography and Video at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California—once again allows the older generations of Americans to be anything but silent.
Visit https://www.mochi-film.com/ for a delightful preview and more information.
* Four More Years! That’s the extension PBS has given filmmaker Sky Bergman for airing her lively 2021 documentary, Lives Well Lived. PBS’s endorsement affirms continued audience enthusiasm for program, which was inspired by her grandmother, the star of the doc. Bergman, based in Southern California, recently posted, “We have surpassed 1,500 airdates.” GBONews readers may find it on PBS Passport, or KANOPY , which is offers films at no cost through many local libraries.
4. WORDS FROM THE WISE
*** Julia Alvarez’s Reflections on an Agequake:
“Aging is about life, not just the continuation of life statistically, but life as an ongoing endeavor, engaging change, solving new problems, growing, learning, creating and sharing.
“Too many people in our youth-oriented societies view aging as an unmitigated process of decline. … They think that old age is necessarily a story of illness, poverty, isolation, desolation and depression. . . .They make growing old and exercise in failure.”
These are the words of the late Julia Alvarez. No, not the renowned poet and novelist featured in the engrossing new PBS American Masters documentary “Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined,” but her mother.
One of the most dynamic champions of older people this editor has had the honor to have met, Ambassador Julia Tavares de Alvarez (1926-2012), appeared on last week on by screen in conflict with and then reconciling with her brilliant daughter.
Alcvarez’s above quotation, which appeared in a United Nations booklet I recently came across from the 1999 UN’s International Year of Older Persons, continues, “Aging. . . is not a one-way street. We need older people just as much as they need us, and we ought to be able to depend on them more than we do. The dependence, of course, is mutual: it is interdependent.”
The new PBS documentary her poet-novelist daughter, Julia, now 74, makes only passing reference to the senior Julia’s career at on the world stage in fighting for the rights of abused women and, less so, her tireless efforts on the realm of global aging.
Editorial choices must be made, of course, and I highly recommend the American Masters program, by filmmaker Adriana Bosch. (It is streaming through Oct. 16, 2024.) However, GBONews readers should know that for almost a quarter century, the elder Julia became known informally, but globally, as the UN’s “Ambassador of Ageing.”
Ambassador Alvarez, according to HelpAge International in its 2012 obituary for her, states that she “was the driving force behind the second World Assembly on Ageing of 2002 and its resulting Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing and Political Declaration, which provides a comprehensive framework for the advancement of older people and issues of ageing worldwide.”
We’d met on perhaps two or three always memorable occasions in New York, introduced by Robert N. Butler, MD. Ambassador Alvarez, officially her country’s Alternate Permanent Representative to the UN, had established the Dominican Republic’s affiliate organization of the International Longevity Center. *
This editor recalls her, always garbed in light pastels or rich tropical colors, greeting each person she encountered with gracious warmth and an ear slightly tilted one’s way with keen interest in you and your perspective. She would earnestly advocate for the untapped potential of elders, particularly older women, as global resource deserving of more respect.
The elegant, white-coiffed Alvarez brought her background in psychology and sociology into service at the UN with a persuasive charisma that even then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan found irresistible.
Journalist Bernard Starr wrote of her confrontation with Annan over the UN’s mandatory retirement age of 60—except for certain senior positions, such as his. She sharply reminded him that the UN charter does not stipulate retirement at 60. The policy would change.
Also, as October 2024 approaches, please know that she had been instrumental in having the UN designate establish not only 1999’s assigned focus on aging, but also October 1 as the ongoing International Day of the Older Person.
The booklet I came happened on with Alvarez’s “Reflections on an Agequake,” includes these thoughts on the role of media in counteracting ageism stereotypes:
Alvarez wrote, “Men and women who work in journalism, advertising and corporate marketing have the power to create the frame of reference in which issues about aging are defined, perceived and discussed. We therefore must give them the news, broaden their horizons, expand their perspective, so that they may do the same for millions of others.”
A Note * Since Dr. Robert Butler’s death in 2010, the organization has emerged as a multinational consortium known as the ILC Global Alliance. It now has 17 organizations, including DR, from Japan to France. The U.S. organization is based within Columbia University’s Butler Columbia Aging Center. Among its programs has been the Age Boom Academy journalism fellowships.
The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2024 Paul Kleyman. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman
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