Jul 27, 2009 11:00 AM  CST  

Adult Failure to Thrive 

What’s the old saying? Something like, “it’s hard to get old but it beats the alternative.” Well, getting old sure does beat the alternative of dying young and luckily, as a nation, we are living longer. 

 

The average life span is about 80 years old. As we age most of think about planning for our old age. We want to have a place to live, some money, retirement, and if we can, we would sure like to have good health and financial ability to enjoy our old age. But, two things are inevitable—death and taxes. 

 

We’ll have to see what happens to taxes, but we know as we get closer to death most people become very weak and frail. Doctors often call this syndrome the adult failure to thrive. Other names include the dwindles or the spiraling decline, and we may just call it feeble or weak. 

 

With this decline, this failure to thrive we see four major elements. One is mental or cognitive decline. That is forgetfulness or the inability to do normal mental tasks like paying the bills or making a favorite recipe. 

 

There is physical decline, or the inability to spring out of a chair like we used to. It now takes both arms and maybe even a helper to stand upright or to walk a long distance. These folks may need a handicapped sticker so that they can park close to their destination. Or perhaps the decline has progressed, and riding in a car is no longer even possible. 

 

Then there is depression. As any of us start to lose our functional ability, when we can’t do what we used to do it’s very easy for us to get depressed. As people get older they often get very thin and skinny. They just don’t have an appetite. Go to a nursing home or retirement center and look at the oldest people. Very few of them are overweight, most are skin and bones. That loss of appetite and loss of weight is a natural phenomenon as we get very old.

 

Although getting old and having adult failure to thrive is a natural phenomenon with old age, it is often associated with many diseases such as Alzheimer’s, arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure and other disorders. However, there is no specific treatment for adult failure to thrive. We can’t cure it. We can’t make it go away. 

 

We can certainly recognize that it is a real process and put a care plan in place so that our older loved ones with memory loss and frailty, who don’t have the strength they used to have, those with depression and sadness and those without much of an appetite can be cared for. 

 

A care plan in the family or with home health, in a nursing home or assisted living center may be just the care that older people with adult failure to thrive need to enjoy life and the love of those around them who care.

 

Source: Covenant Hospice
http://www.covenanthospice.org

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