Kim Peters, right, and her grandmother

Making the transition from the “for profit” world to the not-for-profit John A. Hartford Foundation has been an eye-opening experience. After a decade of pitching medications and strategizing over the benefits and deficiencies of a product, I realized that the overall well being of a person involves much more than getting a doctor to prescribe the best drug on the market.

Having spent my entire career in advertising, focusing on how certain medications provide solutions to specific health problems, I believed our health care system was working somewhat cohesively. I certainly was not naïve enough to think it worked flawlessly, but I also was not aware of just how badly it was performing.

But my perspective changed dramatically as I watched my grandmother suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. She lived thousands of miles away from the family and the doctors told us not to uproot her because it would be too much of a shock to her system. We listened, agreed, and discussed the options.

Since her health insurance only covered in-home care, we researched and hired someone we thought was a caring and qualified individual. Unfortunately, with Alzheimer’s it is often difficult to verify what is or is not a manifestation of the disease. When you and your family are too far away to monitor what’s happening daily, you must rely solely on others’ due diligence and honesty.

So it’s difficult to convey the horror, shock, and outrage our family felt when we discovered that what we were led to believe were manifestations of my grandmother’s disease were, in fact, the result of abuse. Jewelry and money were gone. And she had been subjected to verbal and, most likely, physical abuse as well.

Coping with caregiver nightmares and insurance problems certainly made me more aware of the major inequities facing older adults. It also caused me to become frightened at the thought of aging. Older adults, who tend to have the most health concerns, are too often tragically mistreated or forgotten. Other cultures outside the United States show tremendous respect for their elders. Many times, they are brought into the home to be cared for and revered. Here in the U.S., however, families often no longer live close together and it is even more rare for them to live under the same roof. Caring for the elderly frequently is left to professional caregivers or, if families can afford it, they place their loved ones in assisted living homes. Too often, much of their treatment falls through the cracks … for a multitude of reasons.

Regrettably, those of us who for various reasons do not live near our families have to rely on the doctors and caregivers to treat them the way we would if we were there. While what happened to my grandmother was unfathomable, I fortunately did have a much more positive experience with my great aunt. The women who cared for her were truly exceptional in every way and I thank them from the bottom of my heart!

Consequently, I learned that we must find a better way to train and screen caregivers as well as recruit highly qualified individuals to the field. It is essential that we create a high-level standard to measure, assess, and improve the overall quality of care for older adults.

I am excited over the work being done by the John A. Hartford Foundation to address these issues. I’m elated to know that the Foundation is not sitting idly by and will stop at nothing to ensure there is a necessary change and improvement of the health of our “Moms”, “Dads” “Grams” and “Gramps,” “Bubbies,” “Zeyties,” and—someday—ourselves.

There are many challenges and it’s certainly an uphill battle to be fought. One of the biggest challenges may not be in finding cures, but in convincing young medical students to invest thousands of dollars and years of their lives in obtaining an education that leads them to pursue the field of geriatrics—knowing it is among one of the most underappreciated and underpaid career paths. It takes people of true compassion and dedication, along with the staff of the John A. Hartford Foundation and its partners, to empower them to try new ideas and know that they have the support to do so.

While my heart palpitated upon realizing the difficult task ahead, the longer I’m here at the Foundation, the more reassured I feel. I am thankful that by the time my health begins to fade, which sadly will happen to all of us in one form or another, the staff here will have advanced the understanding and potentially helped solve many of the health problems facing our elderly.