I just finished reading “My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing “Slow Medicine”, the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones” by geriatrician Dennis McCullough, MD.

Although there have been a host of books about “death & dying” and “end-of-life” care as well as “how-to” books about financial trusts and living wills, this is the first book I’ve seen that tenderly encapsulates the beauty and pathos of what he calls “late life.”

The book is chock full ...

On March 6th Country Joe McDonald presented the world premiere of his musical tribute to Florence Nightingale at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists in Berkeley, California.

A veteran of the US Navy, Country Joe first became interested in Florence Nightingale in 1981 after attending a seminar on the problems of Vietnam veterans. One of the speakers was a Vietnam War nurse named Lynda Van Devanter. Joe says on his website that “she was the first Vietnam War nurse to ...

You may have heard of the ‘Slow Food’ movement which started in Italy in reaction to the pervasiveness of fast food chains.such as MacDonalds. ‘Slow Food’ evokes images of simmering crock pots but is more about families and friends sharing a leisurely meal as well as how our food is grown and distributed.

‘Slow Medicine’ also has it’s roots in Italy but the concept has been further developed by Dennis McCollough, MD based on his work with geriatric populations. He posits that although ...

The 31st Annual Conference of the Association of California Nurse Leaders started out with John Garamendi, Lt. Governor of California, who starting out with a few facts: 6-7 million Americans are without healthcare in this country and the “social compact has unraveled,” he said. The system is fragmented and one third of health care is spent on administrative costs.

He compared this to the Medicare system which started 41 years ago and has only 2% administrative costs and ...