Quality of life is getting
harder to afford

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

Beverly Bernstein Joie painted a pretty bleak picture of the current state of geriatric care.
"The needs are expanding and the services are shrinking," she said.
Moreover, she said, there’s more to a care plan than what’s best for the patient. Insurance and the law play a big role.
"People think doctors make the decisions. The truth is, government makes the decisions," she said.
Bernstein Joie is president of Elder Connections, which has offices in Huntingdon Valley and two other suburban locations. The organization helps the elderly and their families deal with quality-of-life issues.
Last week, she and Barbara Bitros, executive director of Life Choice Care and Comfort, made a presentation at Glendale Uptown Home (formerly Golden Slipper Health and Rehabilitation Center) in Rhawnhurst.
Nursing home residents and the public were invited to the free workshop, titled Parenting Our Parents . . . Life Choices.
Life Choice Care and Comfort assists terminally ill patients and their families in a coverage area that stretches from Philadelphia to Allentown.
Medicare pays for personal care, medications for symptoms and pain, equipment and supplies, home health aide visits, social work services, a chaplain or rabbi and bereavement support.
Bitros said "hospice" should not be a scary word, that the care is about living, not dying.
"Hospice is hope. Hospice is life," she said. "It’s the best-kept secret in health care."
Besides heading organizations that provide elderly care, Bernstein Joie and Bitros share something else in common: they are caregivers themselves.
The women’s mothers are in their 80s and have a variety of health problems. Yet, both octogenarians smoke cigarettes. Bernstein Joie’s mother prefers Parliament, while Bitros’ mom likes Lucky Strikes.
The two professional caregivers understand that many elderly people don’t want to be told what to do, especially by their children. They want independence, choices and dignity at the end of their lives.
One way to accomplish that is by completing a form that provides advanced directives for medical care. Elderly folks — or people of all ages — can choose the person they want making end-of-life medical decisions for them and the kind of medical treatment they want.
"It’s your choice," Bitros said. "Write it down."
Bernstein Joie said the hospitalization of a parent results in shock and fear for their children. She wants to empower patients and their families to fight for care, even if they’re told by hospitals that they’re better or that doctors can’t do any more for them.
Elder Connections will help adult children of ailing parents make the decision whether to put their loved one in a rehabilitation facility or nursing home, or keep them at home, with visits from health aides.
Bitros said Life Choice Care and Comfort seeks to provide senior citizens and their children with information about hospice care before it is needed. That way, decisions are not made during the grieving process immediately before death.
At the end of her presentation, Bitros read the final column of humorist Art Buchwald, who was given three weeks to live by doctors because of kidney failure. Having suffered strokes and had a leg amputated because of diabetes, the funnyman did not want kidney dialysis.
Buchwald was in a Washington, D.C.-area hospice for four months, then lived another seven months after that, enjoying McDonald’s food, banana splits and creampuffs. He continued to work and even wrote a book, Too Soon to Say Goodbye. His kidneys began to function again, and he lived happily until dying in January.
Bitros thinks she knows why Buchwald defied the odds and lived longer than expected.
"Because he was in a hospice," she said. ••
To learn more about Elder Connections, call 610-355-0186 or visit www.elder-connections.com
For more information about Life Choice Care and Comfort, call 1-800-557-7570 or go to www.lifechoicehospice.com
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com