What is Geriatric Consultation and In-Home Assessment? An Interview with Mary Hulme

Credit: Mary Hulme

Today, SevenPonds speaks with Mary Hulme of Moonstone Geriatrics. Mary is a San Francisco native who “packed up her 1966 Mustang and headed to the University of California, Santa Cruz [to] receive her BA in Psychology”. When she returned to the Bay, Mary received her Master’s Degree in Social Welfare from U.C. Berkeley, focusing on the geriatric population. Afterwards, Mary gained extensive experience in a non-profit mental health agency, a Seniors at Home program, and devoted 13 years of her life to the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center where she “was a key member of [a] team [pioneering a] new behavioral management clinic [for] families of patients with dementia.” Finally, Mary took the leap to found Moonstone Geriatrics: a company that “provides geriatric consultation, dementia education and community outreach.”

MaryFrances: What is the story of Moonstone Geriatrics, and what is your role with the company?

Mary: I am a licensed clinical social worker with specialized training in healthcare, geriatrics and dementia. After spending 18 years working in a variety of healthcare settings, I [decided to found] Moonstone Geriatrics. Now I serve private clients, helping [them] age with dignity by sharing clear information and practical solutions and their families.

MaryFrances: What are some of the services and packages you provide?

Mary: I provide geriatric consultations and in-home assessments to keep older people safely at home for as long as possible. But I also provide information and guidance about relocation options, should an older person need a higher level of care. I also teach communication strategies and behavioral management techniques for families living with, or caring for, someone with dementia.

MaryFrances: In your opinion, what are some of the most overlooked aspects of care for those nearing end of life?

Mary: Our healthcare system has become so complex and fast-paced that practitioners often cannot carve out the time to listen to a person’s story: how someone views their [own] life – and how they wish for that life to come to an end.

“Our healthcare system has become so complex and fast-paced that practitioners often cannot carve out the time to listen to a person’s story”

—Mary Hulme, Moonstone Geriatrics

It’s critical that we take the time to provide people with information and education. [Then] they can make sound and realistic health care decisions about the care they want as life draws to a close. Research shows that most people would choose a natural, dignified death to a prolonged, painful death. We need to empower [people with] the tools to map out the their priorities in regard to how they wish to approach their own death.

MaryFrances: Our culture tends to look at dementia patients as a family burden of sorts. How can we work to change this perspective?

Mary: Worldwide, the costs of dementia are set to soar. There’s an urgent need to develop cost-effective packages of medical and social care that meets the needs of people with dementia and their families/caregivers. We need to continue to invest in research and develop comprehensive policies and long-term care plans if we are to manage these future costs. Governments must make dementia a priority and increase focus on supporting family caregivers and ensuring social protection of vulnerable people with dementia. Remember, the person with dementia is not the only one living with dementia.

Mary’s Three Tips for Living with Dementia:

1. Change your expectations: Remember, they have a brain disease and can no longer manage to do what we hope or expect.

2. Let go of logic: Dementia is not a logical disease and if you try to approach it in a logical manner you will fail.

3. Log the behaviors: Keep track of dementia behaviors; note activities, times and outcomes. Look for patterns and triggers that result in anxiety or angry outbursts. Just as importantly, note projects or stimuli that contribute to calm and peaceful moods.

MaryFrances: Is there a meaningful, or unexpected moment in your work that you’d like to share?

Mary: The best part of my job is the joy I see in the faces of family caregivers who have learned how to stay “connected” to the person with dementia. This disease is exasperating, frustrating and baffling and often causes both psychological and financial stress for the caregiver.

Credit: aarp.org

Learning to let go and focus on the human connection that still exists can be a fulfilling and rewarding experience in spite of the hardships.

“Learning to let go and focus on the human connection that still exists can be a fulfilling and rewarding experience in spite of the hardships.”

–Mary Hulme

MaryFrances: What’s next?

Mary: I hope to expand my educational outreach to more families struggling to live with and care for someone with dementia. We cannot change the [fate of a] person suffering from this disease – we can, however, change how we approach and care for them.

MaryFrances: Thanks, Mary.

Mary: Thank you.

More SevenPonds Interviews:

• What is an End of Life Advocate? An Interview with Betsy Trapasso
• How Can We Support the Aging and Elderly? An Interview with Andrew Gaines
• What is Music Thanatology? An Interview with Sharilyn Cohn