By Dr. Marian Hannan and Dr. Maggie Syme for The Partnership for a Healthy Milton
When we think about aging, many reflect on how to stay in our homes and avoid becoming frail or in poor health. Recently, many health care professionals have been taking a more positive and preventive approach with their patients by focusing on what they call the Five Ms. The 5Ms are not a rock band; they stand for Mind, Mobility, Medications, Multi-complexity and What-Matters-Most.
This framework helps us focus on age-friendly specific needs. Mind encompasses cognitive health, mood and mental stimuli. Mobility involves walking, balance and function with an aim to prevent injuries. Medications include optimizing prescriptions for older adults over time to lessen side effects over the long-term. Multi-complexity addresses the need for coordinated care for those with multiple chronic diseases or illnesses, rather than a single focus upon one disease. Finally, What-Matters-Most focuses on what an individual prefers to focus on as part of treatment planning.
This public health approach to health care offers better communication between older adults and their medical providers, better coordination of care, and more input from a patient’s point of view that goes beyond a listing of laboratory tests. Health care for older adults has changed as the medical model moved from a focus on infectious disease, to a focus on lab testing for indicators of disease with a more holistic approach that addresses patients’ environments and an emphasis on how to live our best lives possible.
Adults over the age of 65 years are a growing portion of our population, and this is especially true in Milton. The evidence-based 5Ms approach to healthy aging provides an emphasis on age-friendly medical care that encourages prevention, more holistic communications between patients and health care providers, and considers the needs, desires and lived experiences of the patient.
At a recent medical convention, we heard a comment that while many doctors focus upon what gets accomplished in the 15-minute medical visit, 98% of people’s health experiences occur outside the doctor’s office. Consider how arthritis might affect how you walk, or how taking care of the grandkids makes you tired but also stimulates conversations. The 5Ms offer a patient-centered approach to bringing the reality of our lives into medical practice. Geriatricians, who specialize in working with older patients, are more apt to be trained in the 5Ms framework. A holistic healthy aging approach makes everyone stronger together.