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Forgive me for being on my high horse again, but as gluten free awareness expands...and products become ubiquitous, I am still finding very little awareness in nursing homes and assisted livings. And certainly not in hospitals. 

I have been active in the celiac community for decades. The work that the organizations have done in schools, colleges, the food and drug industry and legislation....is amazing, but the one place will we all end up, if we live that long, is in a facility, and that has been ignored.

I am spending a lot of my retirement taking care of elderly mothers, one now deceased, and all I can tell you is the nursing homes and assisted livings (many) that I visited before a mom moved in and after one did....knew nothing about glutenfree diets. 

Consider that if 1 in 130 people have celiac and 1 in 7 reportedly have gluten intolerance, there are hundreds of thousands of elderly residents who either cannot speak for themselves or are not correctly diagnosed.....experiencing needless and cruel suffering right now, for lack of a gf diet.

How many of them are living on pain killers, as my mother-in-law was,  and on medication for intestinal problems as a result of being fed gluten? How many are forced to wear diapers because they have loose bowels? (it happens.)

It is truly a shame how we treat the elderly in this country, and I don't know the answer, but I would be willing to significantly increase my donation to any celiac or gluten intolerant organization that starts to take the elderly seriously.  When I brought this up before, I was told, I should start the work and do it myself. Well, NJ am still dealing with my own mom, and it is all I can do to ask questions when I visit institutions.  As one person, I am not taken seriously by overworked, short staffed homes...and besides, they do what they want as soon as you leave.

All last year, my mother-in-law's nursing home, her personal doctors, and hospitals ignored her Living Will....and did everything to her that was explicitly written as not allowed...and she was clear and articulate.  And she often complained when the tray they gave her had someone else's needed meal on it...to no avail. So what happens to gluten free diets?.....

All I can say is that I hope the  drug companies get FDA approval for anti-celiac pills, before we end up in a facility.  Getting old is daunting without having to worry about gluten.

Anyone have any ideas?

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