 Given
the choice, which of these scenarios do you think your
senior patients would go for: shuffleboard and margaritas
aboard a sun-drenched luxury liner, or bingo and Ovaltine
in the common room of a Scarborough nursing home?
This may seem like an odd question,
but an article in the November issue of Journal of
the American Geriatric Society claims that living
on a cruise ship costs roughly the same as an assisted
living facility (ALF). When two MDs at Northwestern
University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago
did the math, they found that it costs about $33,000US
to live on a Caribbean cruise ship year-round, while
on average an American senior will pay $28,689US to
live in an ALF. Canada's tallies are similar. For seniors
who don't qualify for government funding, costs can
be as high as $40,000 a year, depending on the province.
I'D
RATHER BE CRUISING
"Elder consumers may reasonably question why their money
should be spent on an unwanted experience," write authors
Dr Lee Lindquist and Dr Robert Golub in their article.
So what do Canadian geriatricians
think about the idea? "This article raises questions
about the ideal model of care later in life," says Dr
David Conn, Director of Psychiatry of the Baycrest Centre
for Geriatric Care in Toronto. "As the baby boom generation
enters into later life, they'll create more innovative
solutions to care for the aging."
The seafaring life's benefits go
beyond the pocketbook. "Integration with a diverse population
might alleviate feelings of being on a 'Ship of the
Damned' and potentially help improve depressive symptoms,"
write the authors. Dr Conn agrees — but not for
all patients. "There's a significant rate of depression
of about 15 to 20% among residents of long-term care,"
he says, but adds that cruise ship living would be "more
reasonable for cognitively intact people."
Besides the cost, cruise ships
are as well-equipped to handle seniors' special needs
as ALFs. They offer 24-hour physician and nursing services,
contain fully stocked medical facilities and are accessible
to those with physical disabilities. And the number
of room attendants and other support staff per resident
is much higher on a cruise ship than in an ALF. Although
their rooms are smaller, cruise ships have more spacious
and varied recreational facilities. And then there's
the weather...
For the extra few grand, who wouldn't
rather be living it large on the high seas?
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