“Coffee may heighten Alzheimer’s symptoms.” That’s the scary headline of a recent McKnight’s article, and I suspect the readership needle on the web traffic meter is jumping...
This smart pill is hard to swallow
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 30, 2017
Reading the disturbing news in McKnight’s about the ingestible digital antipsychotic pill that tracks patient data has me all befuddled. I wish I could swallow a pill that would tell me how to feel...
Journey of Heroes deserves showing, not telling
By
Gary Tetz
Dec 15, 2016
Every year about this time, I tell you eagerly and often weepily about “The Trip.” The one where 12 veterans, many of them from World War II and living in long-term care, get to hop on a plane...
Staffing: solved
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 27, 2015
When I was a wee boy living in the Canadian wilderness, we needed to dig a well, so my dad hired a creepy-looking guy called a “water witch” to wander the property holding a forked stick out...
Happy Long-Term Care Day!
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 17, 2017
I had a birthday recently. OK, more than just recently. Tuesday. My long-term care colleagues were kind, supportive and treated me to an exquisite lunch. But the rest I’ve had to deal with on my...
A life well lived
By
Gary Tetz
Jun 20, 2012
That’s a fashionable phrase we hear a lot these days—”life well lived.” A long-term care provider I hold in high esteem has even used it as a marketing tagline. I happen to know this...
Coming out old
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 12, 2015
Growing old is a choice. I realize that now. But it took some straight talk from neurosurgeon and likely Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson to help me see the light.
LeavingAge
By
Gary Tetz
Feb 26, 2015
I’m feeling extremely unsettled lately. On edge. Anxious. It’s not the threat of rising sea levels, or the erosion of public confidence in the integrity of Nightly News anchors, or the possibility...
Scattering seeds
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 15, 2018
It was my birthday yesterday — the same day I found out that Fernald, a World War II veteran and one of the wisest, bravest and most adorable people I’ve ever known, had passed away.
The great eclipse
By
Gary Tetz
Aug 11, 2017
We’ve seen many partial political eclipses over the years created by both parties, where selfish interests and ambitions seem to blind them to the possibility of solving actual challenges together.