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Silver Tsunami

This is a powerful, yet scary article from the New England Journal of Medicine.

The thrust of this article is that mental illness including depression and dementia are occurring more and more in the senior years. They have some solutions but my response to this is that we know already what prevents these conditions -- exercise and social engagement. To me, the solution is NOT in web based technology (as this is just more isolating). Creating ways to make true and real social engagement accessible and ongoingly fulfilling is the challenge. Additionally, making exercise pleasant, sustainable and rewarding is an absolute must. Lastly, providing a forum for seniors to feel connected to themselves as well as their worlds (including their future roles in their worlds) is required. Other societies do this -- so can we. These interventions are proven to work for preventing and reversing seniors' worst nightmares. The article does wisely point out that the solution is not in more geriatricians or psychiatrists. More realistically, it is in combining the expertise of doctors with non-medical, "unconventional" providers.

Pando Health Groups addresses all these issues simultaneously and effectively providing seniors with connection, purpose and meaning. Our whole focus for the young and old is maximizing peoples' capacity to engage and interact in meaningful and open ways. Our awareness/relaxation technique grounds the individual's interactive experience in a deep and real remembering of their natural connectedness to all of life. Our gentle exercises permit connection of the mind and body and make healthy movement and exercise more possible and enjoyable. We use doctors and nurses in combination with movement experts (from "alternative" disciplines) and awareness/relaxation teachers who specialize in guiding people to find peace inside themselves. This is the future and the future is here.

The Silver Tsunami is coming but it does not have to be disastrous or scary. Aging is natural and part of everyone's life. By working with aging in a real and open forum, we as a society and culture can bring peace to the storm and allow aging to be what it really is: a natural and beautiful time of life where emotional, physical and spiritual integration are possible and actually realistically attainable. The Pando Method allows for the systematic realization of this dream.


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