GWaSH

Geriatrics with a sense of humor evolved from a series of continuing education talks I gave a long time ago. My guests with dementia in assisted living needed an approach from staff that honored their dignity and appreciated their illnesses and their humanity.

The World Health Organization defines ageism as “stereotype, prejudice and discrimination based on age.”

I listened to staff speaking an octave higher than their normal voices when talking to elders in the hospital and later to my guests in assisted living. Patronizing tones, calling people “honey” instead of using their names.

They weren’t being mean. They were imitating the attitudes of their organizations toward geriatrics.

I remember a time when physicians would take husbands out in the hospital halls to talk about their wives condition, instead of talking to the ladies.

Feminism put those attitudes to rest, mostly, but it took a century.

The geriatric population in the U S grew by 38% in the last decade.

Ageism had to go.

It was time for geriatrics with a sense of humor.

GWaSH involves sophisticated clinical skills.

It combines traditional one-on-one health care with evolving multidisciplinary team skills and emphasizes hospitality as the vehicle that delivers the clinical expertise.

People is assisted living are not patients; they’re people.

In my hospitality model, they’re guests of the organization.

The pair of Adirondack chairs became the symbol for GWaSH, the logo for my assisted living cultures and now a way for people to express their commitment to geriatric excellence.