Geriatric physicians provide medical care, counseling, and treatment to seniors, often focusing on pain management and mental health. They must understand how aging affects the body and adapt traditional treatments for end-of-life care. Certification and specialized training are required in many countries.
A geriatric physician provides medical care, counseling and treatment to seniors and older adults. Also referred to as “geriatricians,” geriatric physicians often maintain offices or offices that are uniquely designed for the unique needs of seniors. Although a geriatric physician is first and foremost a physician, many of the job duties go beyond basic medical care. Physicians who specialize in geriatrics often help older patients adjust to end-of-life problems and may focus more on patient comfort than permanent cures. A geriatric physician also frequently involves family members and other health professionals in the care of an individual patient.
One of the most important tasks of a geriatric physician is to understand how aging affects the health of the body. Seniors and seniors have some of the most challenging health concerns of any population. As bodies age and become fragile, traditional remedies for common ailments are less effective or stop working altogether. The tendency for several things to go wrong simultaneously also increases, and the body’s natural defenses are lowered. Geriatric medicine is dedicated to adapting traditional treatments for patients nearing the end of their lives.
Much of what a geriatric physician does is pain management. He or she will meet with a patient, assess the patient’s health and health issues, and look for reasonable ways to alleviate the patient’s suffering, if any. While the focus for many younger patients is on healing or restoring normal health, with the elderly, comfort is often more important.
Obviously, minor ailments can be cured even in the elderly. It’s the more serious conditions – most notably cancers and organ failure – that give geriatric physicians the longest break. Aggressive treatments that may have been appropriate in youth may no longer be treatments to which an elderly patient will respond favorably. As the body ages, there is often more and more time to go back.
Mental health management is another important task of the geriatric physician. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia have profound effects on the quality of life and autonomy of many elderly people. Mental degradation often deeply affects close family members as well. Geriatric physicians generally must be well-versed in treating and mitigating the negative aspects of mental degeneration, and they often have to spend a great deal of time providing information to the concerned family members. Many geriatricians also maintain a list of mental health and family counselors available for referral.
In addition to these principles, the day-to-day duties and tasks of any geriatric physician vary according to the contours of the physician’s practice. Some geriatric physicians work in practices dedicated to meeting the needs of older people in the surrounding community. Others work as specialists in general or family practice, or work in hospitals or hospice centres. No matter where they work, however, all geriatric physicians work to treat, heal, and comfort the aging body.
Most often, a geriatric physician is a certified geriatric specialist. Many countries, including the United States and Canada, require physicians to receive special training and certification credentials before presenting themselves as anything other than a general practitioner. To become a geriatric physician, it is usually necessary to specialize in geriatrics. This usually requires completing a dedicated geriatric rotation after medical school and subsequent passing a geriatric medicine exam. Most often, certification credentials must be renewed every two years, either by retesting or by attending seminars and conferences for continuing education credits.
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