A Tribute to the “George Washington of
Geriatric Care”

By The Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith, S.J.

When the host of a public television show described Dr. Robert Butler as the “George Washington of Geriatric Care,” that was no exaggeration.

"Not only was he the leading voice on issues related to longevity and the study of aging, but he was a moral voice who insisted that society value our elders in its public policies and programs," said Michael J. Burgess, director of the New York State Office for the Aging.

Bob Butler, my personal friend and mentor, succumbed to acute leukemia at age 83, on the Fourth of July.

You may not have heard of him.

However, you have felt his impact, because it has reverberated throughout American society.

U.S. Secretary for Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius gave Bob this lovely and well-deserved tribute:

“I join the rest of the country in mourning the death of Dr. Robert Butler, one of America’s greatest champions for the health and wellbeing of older Americans. As the first director of the National Institute of Aging, the founder of the country’s first geriatrics department, and in a decades-long career as a physician and policy advisor, Dr. Butler brought critical new public attention and medical resources to improving the health of our seniors.

“He made great contributions as a researcher, playing a key role in the discovery that some of the debilitating conditions associated with old age could actually be prevented with the right care. But he made an even bigger impact as an advocate. He coined the term ‘ageism’ and then became its most determined critic, helping to transform a culture that too often acted as if people’s contributions to society ended on their 65th birthday.

“Dr. Butler’s own career showed just how wrong that view was, as he continued to be an international leader in geriatrics right up until his death at age 83. For his trailblazing work to help seniors live rich and healthy lives – to not just survive, but thrive – all Americans, young and old, owe him an enormous debt. We will miss him dearly.”

The New York Times obituary captures very well Bob’s life and work. “A Last Conversation” gives you a sense of his energy and personality.

Bob was an unpretentious man. He would be chagrined to be compared to George Washington but also with the coincidence that two other legends, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both died on a July 4th.

Requiescat In Pace.

The American Health Care System Is
Ill Equipped to Help Older Americans with One or More Chronic Diseases

The statistics are startling:

• 80% of adults age 65 or older have at least one chronic disease, and 50% have more than one.
• One third of adults age 65 or older feel confused about how to manage their disease after seeing a doctor.
• Chronic diseases account for 75% of America’s annual $2 trillion in health care expenditures. (You read that right – trillion.)

The American health care system as it is currently configured does a poor job of handling this huge problem said chronic disease expert Professor Kate Lorig, director of the Patient Education Research Center at Stanford University in a recent interview with Kaiser Health News:

“Right now, it addresses diseases or even parts of diseases or small sub-parts of the body. It does not address the whole, complex person with multiple chronic diseases. So, right now, what happens, if you’re lucky, you go to a primary care doc who kind of does the day-to-day stuff and then you see four or five specialists each of which do their little specialty part – none of whom really talk to each other except maybe to look at your laboratory tests on an electronic medical record if you’re really lucky.

“It is totally uncoordinated. It’s chaotic. It serves pieces of people, not whole people.”

The solution, says Professor Lorig, is that the U.S. health care system needs to be reorganized to treat the whole person.

At HealthCare Chaplaincy, we agree.

At HealthCare Chaplaincy we’ve long been concerned with treating the whole person – body, mind and spirit. For 50 years our chaplains have been frontline observers, working in a health care environment where fragmentation of care occurs all too often, serving as the connective tissue between the patient and the system.

Treatment of the whole person underscores our commitment as a thought leader and practitioner for quality, accessible and affordable palliative care.

We encourage you to read the Kaiser Health News interview with Professor Lorig here.

And learn more about the benefits of whole person and palliative care here.

Just as Physicians and Nurses Have Standards of Practice, Now Chaplains Nationwide Do, too

That’s the lead story in our bulletin The Beacon, which you can find online here. Among the stories you’ll discover:

• How HealthCare Chaplaincy has played a key role in creating these standards of practice.
• How Rabbi Harry Rothstein’s patients teach him.
• How St. John’s Riverside Hospital, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary, and HealthCare Chaplaincy have collaborated to educate seminarians.

Follow us on for the latest news about HealthCare Chaplaincy and the growing fields of palliative care and professional multifaith chaplaincy care.