Care of the healthy elderly

Observers of the geriatric scene sometimes wonder whether the 'accent on youth' claimed for the general postwar population has not subtly influenced the attitudes of our doctors. 'Old age' is a normal part of life and living but if one chooses to think of it as a disease, one will tend to treat the morbid process with medication and be uniformly disappointed in the results. This can lead to low expectations of one's abilities to help older people with any problems and an unnecessarily depressive attitude may develop which is unjustified in view of the facts. Older persons recover from most accidents and illness remarkably well.