#PROAGING: Republican Budget Realigns Medicare But Ignores Long-Term Care
The macro-economics of aging over the next 40 years do not look great: the first Baby Boomers reached the age of Social-Security eligibility 15 months ago, but the crest of this so-called ‘Silver Tsunami’ will not come until about 2030. It will not recede for another couple of decades. The issue is not the number of people so much as the economy’s ability/preparation to deal with the number. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, “The baseline 2010 Retirement Readiness Rating™ finds that nearly one-half (47.2 percent) of the oldest cohort (Early Baby Boomers) are simulated to be “at risk” of not having sufficient retirement resources to pay for “basic” retirement expenditures and uninsured health care costs. The percentage “at risk” drops for the Late Boomers (to 43.7 percent) but then increases slightly for Generation Xers to 44.5 percent.”
The combination of retiring Boomers with lengthening life expectancies with a general political trend to cut taxes for all while reducing services only to the poor has meant that the costs of long-term care are growing, while the will to adjust expectations or fund federal programs is shrinking. The FY2013 budget proposed by Senators Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), and Mike Lee (R-Utah) earlier this month has not much quelled fears of how Medicare will deal with the spread between long-living retired Boomers and the costs they will impose on an already stressed healthcare ‘system’.
| Category Affordable Housing, Aging, Assisted Living, Boomers, Community, Independent Living, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Retirement Living, Senior Housing, Study, Technology for Aging | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PROAGING: Technology Improves Exercise of Body And Brain
Last week we introduced an AARP report encouraging the development of ‘Technology for All,’ namely, technology that includes the interests, expectations, and needs of Baby Boomers. Here is an example of how technology makes a common exercise machine that much more interesting and beneficial: a computer screen offering a virtual tour for a stationary biker.
Hans Villarica of TheAtlantic.com presented a report found in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine that brings computer screens and visual stimuli to recumbent bikers in elder-care homes. The experiment was to encourage exercise among residents on incumbent bikes – some used bikes with screens that monitored their effort and presented a ‘tour’ while others simply rode the bikes for the same amount of time.
Not surprisingly, those who got a tour on what the study calls ‘exergaming’ found the experience of exercising more pleasurable. But the long-term study also showed added cognitive benefits of having the tour inspire/follow the exercisers who had the computer addition. As Hans summarizes the study’s medical/statistical conclusion: “Even though there was no difference in exercise frequency, intensity, or duration between the two groups, the cybercycle riders had significantly better executive function than those who used a plain stationary bike. They also experienced a 23 percent reduction in progression to dementia compared to the control group.”
The addition is simple, the technology is not expensive, and the user gets physical, mental, and emotional benefits. What’s not to like?
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Boomers, Fitness, GI Generation, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nursing Home, Resource, Retirement Living, Reviews, Seniors Life, Software Review, Study, Technology, Technology for Aging, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Mandated Cuts In Medicare Stifle Expansion Plans
Click to enlarge
This past October 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) put into effect new regulations concerning the payment or reimbursement of services to skilled nursing facilities and certain types of housing for older Americans. The reductions in payments were targeted at 3-4%. As the regulations were being finalized late this summer, we posted reactions from many facilities saying they would have to cut staff and/or services to comply with the ruling.
How are the cuts now playing out in the planning of elder care in America?
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Community, Health, Healthcare, National/International, Nonprofit, Nursing Home, Politics, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Senior Housing | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Telestroke/Telemedicine Tests Show Excellent Cost & Health Benefits
In a wonderful synthesis of health care needs, patient choice, cost effectiveness, and beneficial outcomes, a recent report from The Mayo Clinic‘s ‘Telestroke’ program demonstrates the payoff of the pilot program. Telestroke provides the communications means for rural doctors and hospitals to have online connections with neurological and brain specialists in urban research hospitals. The technology saves vital minutes (if not critical hours) by bringing the specialist virtually to the on-side doctor and patient, rather than trying to move the patient to the requisite hospital.
The technology involves more than simple network communication for referral or consultation. According to the Mayo Clinic’s site, “Doctors communicate using digital video cameras, Internet telecommunications, robots, smart phones and other technology. Having a prompt neurological evaluation increases the possibility that you may receive clot-dissolving therapies (thrombolytics) or other clot-retrieving treatments in time to reduce disability resulting from stroke.”
And the first tests offer the statistics of success.
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Boomers, Communications, GI Generation, Grandparents, Healthcare, Independent Living, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Silent Generation, Technology for Aging | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: iPad Technology Can Draw Out Memories And Skills For Elderly
One stereotype of the elderly and long retired is that they fear new technology. Yet many of the GI Generation and Silent Generation were, in fact, the ones who started the phenomenal research and development in the middle of the twentieth century that give us our hybrid cars and smart phones today. A recent report from the McClatchy-Tribune Information Services demonstrates how the caregivers of these generations are discovering how quickly and happily their clients and patients are responding to the latest mobile technology, the iPad.
| Category Aging, Apple, Assisted Living, Communications, GI Generation, Health, Healthcare, iDevice, Independent Living, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Nursing Home, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Silent Generation, Technology, Technology for Aging, Wellness | | 6 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Small Ailments, Left Unchecked, Can Lead To Big Concerns
Most (post-)industrial western societies tend to see aging as a decline from the creativity and energy of young adulthood. The experiences and wisdom of longer life tend to be downplayed against the physical changes wrought by age. But older people tend to know better: they want the young to appreciate that the teens and early twenties are the difficult years, whereas the engaged peace of being over 50 is really where the action is.
That said, those moving beyond 50 can not – and do not – deny changes in the body that must be dealt with: quicker fatigue, joint and tooth aches, changes in eyesight and/or hearing… The AARP’s website is reporting a new study at Neurology.org that links the ongoing and unresolved physical discomforts help increase the likelihood of the onset of dementia as well.
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Blogs, Fitness, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Study, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: A Good Read On Changing Retirement Opportunities For This Rainy Day
As the Eastern seaboard tries to find somewhere to put all this rain, besides on top of all the rain Irene left us, you might be looking for a good policy read to while away the dark and stormy night. Researchers Richard W. Johnson, Barbara A. Butrica, and Corina Mommaerts of the Urban Institute of have recently published the white paper, “Work and Retirement Patterns for the G.I. Generation, Silent Generation, and Early Boomers: Thirty Years of Change.”
The study was done with a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement Research Consortium (RRC) at Boston College. The paper/PDF can be downloaded from The Policy Archive.
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Communications, Community, Grandparents, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Publications, Report, Research, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Social Networks Bring The World To Seniors
The phenomenal growth of social network sites over the last decade or so is beyond repute. But for most of those years the growth came from those of Generation X (late 20s through 40s) and Millennials (born after about 1975) – both of whose members helped build as well as use the technologies of the internet, mobile devices and social networks.
But in recent years, the biggest movers in terms of usage are from the so-called ‘GI-Generation’ – those over 73. According to a recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project,
The fastest rate of growth was seen among the oldest generation of internet users, as the percentage of adults age 74 and older who use social network sites quadrupled from 4% in December 2008 to 16% in May 2010. Use of these services for all online adults in this time period increased from 35% to 61% over that same time period. (p.16; the entire report can be read here.)
What are they doing with their online time?
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Blogs, Communications, Community, Facebook, Grandparents, Health, iDevice, Independent Living, iPad/Tablet, Nursing Home, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Caregiving For Parents So Common Most Do Not Report It
Caregiving among younger people as their Boomer parents move toward retirement is so common that they do not even consider it caregiving. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) considers any fairly regular activity, like taking a parent to the doctor or over-the-counter testing for blood sugars, as part of their ‘Caregiver’ category, though the person giving the care rarely notes such activity in surveys or tax forms.
But what is also happening, according to research by the AARP, is that many children in their middle age are giving fairly advanced care without the training required to do things like taking care of catheters or monitoring medications. What might this kind of off-the-books care mean for those giving it?
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Communications, eNewsletter, Healthcare, Independent Living, Publications, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Resources For Issues Concerning Older Americans
Numerous resources are available online and in print for information about elder care, aging, homes for older Americans, etc. We would like simply to touch on a few that we think are quite valuable, and which we hope you will as well. We would love to hear from you if you have some favorites that are not yet on our radar as well.
We begin with a few online networks, blogs, and resources. The first is the LifeSpan Network based in Columbia, Maryland. The network consists of over 300 affiliated organizations, nursing homes, and health-care providers in the Maryland/DC/Northern Virginia region. The website offers information on products and services (including reviews), a jobs-posting page focusing on work in the health/elder-care economy, and on numerous conferences and events as well. The network has its own annual conference coming up this October 30 – November 2 in Ocean City, MD, for those who want to hear directly from the good people who are a part of it.
But wait, there’s more.
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Blogs, Communications, Community, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Twitter, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Likely Further Medicare Cuts Hurt Stocks Of Numerous Care Companies
While the ‘compromise’ over the debt ceiling was being shouted over, many analysts noted that the world’s stock markets were, at most, simply unnerved. They were not panicked because investors were confident that some kind of deal would be found and default was not really going to happen. What kind of deal drawn up to avoid the default was less important to them than that a deal would be done.
Yet, rather more quietly behind the overall market indexes most of us pay attention to, stocks for nursing-home companies and their service providers have taken a real hit over the last week. What has spooked investors in elder-care services, if the default has been avoided and Medicare was not expressly cut by the deal?
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Banking & Finance, Healthcare, National/International, Nursing Home, Politics, Retirement Living | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: $450 Billion in Unpaid Care Another Likely Drag On Economy
Without getting into the biological, religious, sociological… arguments of ‘why’, the fact is all human societies encourage, expect, even need families to support each other in ways that might appear contrary to self-interest. Parents want to keep their kids in school into their early 20s, for example, even though their counterparts a century often sent their children to work by their early teens – thus bringing much needed income to the family unit.
Eileen Connelly of The Associated Press reports that the economic burden nowadays lies much more at the latter stages of life than at the early stages. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), some $450 billion in ‘free’ health care is being given by family members of the chronically ill and/or elderly. The numbers have bloomed by some 20% since the Stock Market/Banking self-destruction of 2007. How might the trend develop over the next few years?
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Community, Grandparents, Health, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Politics, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Establishing A Consultancy to Support Baby Boomers Calls For A Long-Distance Run
Brenda Becker
We welcome a new contributor to our ranks, Brenda Becker, an aging-services consultant. Brenda’s consultancy connects seniors with the resources they need.
My husband loves to run. It all started, as it frequently does, when the numbers on the scale were a bit higher than he wanted to see. He decided to lose a few pounds, so ten years ago he hit the road and has not stopped since. At first there were short jaunts around the neighborhood, followed by organized running events in Baltimore, and then “destination” runs in New York City, Phoenix, Orlando, etc. Along the way, he learned a lot about how to support his passion. He, along with all seasoned runners, know that a foundation of proper training, healthy eating, and appropriate footwear can ward off injuries so they can enjoy their sport to the fullest.
While starting a new business is rarely seen as a sport, there are many parallels. To go the distance, one must understand the basics, build a solid foundation, work through the pain, set goals, and follow a passion. I didn’t think about my husband’s running obsession when I first created Top-Drawer Resources in early 2011, but now I can see that we are on similar journeys.
| Category Advice, Assisted Living, Community, Healthcare, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Storytelling | | Comments Off
Written by: Brenda Becker
#Aging: Bill Thomas – Elderhood Rising: The Dawn of a New World Age (Video)
As a followup to an article written by Dr. Ronch, Interim Dean at the Erickson School for Management of Aging Services (and an MKCREATIVE client) — where he discusses the paucity of Gerontologists in the USA — I thought it useful to post a link to a compelling video presentation made by another Erickson School faculty member, William Thomas, MD, at TEDx San Francisco recently.
In the early 1990′s, Dr. Thomas and his wife Judith Meyers-Thomas developed the Eden Alternative. Dr. Thomas’ groundbreaking work in person-directed care also led him to imagine a new approach to long-term care that became known as the Green House.
In the video, Dr. Thomas argues that a new lifestage might well evolve out of the growing number of baby boomers in our ranks so that the human lifecycle may soon come to be defined as “Childhood”, “Adulthood” and “Elderhood.”
Thomas suggests that the obsession with “Adulthood” is misplaced and that our elders are “disappeared” into retirement communities simply because they don’t fit the model of existence that has been defined for the “rest of us”. One could also argue that relocation is foisted upon many seniors because they are perceived as having nothing “new” to contribute to society, they are “unproductive”, and consume goods to a lesser degree than other members of the community. This argument is false, argues Thomas (as does this blogger).
Thomas suggests that the Baby Boomers will redefine aging in the same way, and to the same extent, that they redefined adolescence and youthful rebellion.
Watch this amusingly presented, but ultimately, sobering talk by the self-appointed ambassador of “Elderhood.”
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Communications, Community, Grandparents, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Retirement Living, Reviews, Seniors Life, Storytelling | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Aging: Study Reveals Being Homebound is Linked to Alzheimer’s
Image via Wikipedia
Steve Gurney (ProAging Information Network) reports on a new study that looks at the incidence of Alzheimer’s in “housebound” seniors. The study suggests that being housebound nearly doubles the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The new study, published online April 15 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, looks at something known as “life space.”
“[Life space] is actually a measure that has come into vogue with gerontologists lately,” said lead investigator Bryan D. James, a postdoctoral fellow at Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago. “Mostly it’s been a measurement of mobility, figuring out whether people are getting around their environment, how much they’re seeing that’s different from their couch or bedroom or living room.”
“The research doesn’t prove that being confined to the house causes dementia, and other factors could explain the association. Still, the findings raise questions about the possible cost of isolation,” said James.
Read the full article here.
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Grandparents, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Study, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Communications: A Beginners Guide to the Social Networking Services
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Leading Age (formerly the American Association for Homes & Services for the Aging) has published a useful guide on their website: it’s a quick look at what social networking is, why you should use it to connect to others and share resources, what the various services do for organizations/individuals, and why one would prefer one service over another. It’s a quick read and will help young and old alike know the difference between a “Tweet” and a “Twit.”
| Category Adult Kids, Advertising, Aging, Assisted Living, Branding, Communications, Direct Mail, Facebook, Geo-Location, Grandparents, Independent Living, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nursing Home, Permission Marketing, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Twitter | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Aging: Baby Boomers – A New Way to Grow Old
Image via Wikipedia
Baby boomers won’t grow old the old-fashioned way, experts say.
It looks like the baby boomers, who used to urge each other to “do your own thing,” will do precisely that when it comes to retirement, write Tom Valeo and Sylvia Davis at WebMD.com.
Some will imitate their parents and drop out of the work force as early as possible to begin a life of leisure, continuing a trend that began more than a century ago.
More than 80% of boomers, however, plan to work beyond the age of 65, according to the Merrill Lynch New Retirement Survey. Most will do so to supplement their Social Security checks, since at least one-quarter of boomer households have failed to save enough for retirement, according to the Congressional Budget Office. “They appear likely to depend entirely on government benefits in retirement,” the CBO report states.
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Grandparents, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Study | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Aging: The Business & Strategy of Seniors Housing & Care (Classes)
The Erickson School, at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is hosting an entrepreneurial seniors housing and care executive education course at the UMBC Technology Center, May 17-20.
Led by Mark Erickson, and featuring a diverse lineup of instructors, Business and Strategy provides 3 1/2 days of intensive education on strategy, positioning and trends, and the unique nature of the seniors housing and care sector.
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Community, Conference/Congress, Education: General, Grandparents, Independent Living, Nonprofit, Nursing Home, Resource, Retirement Living, Seminar, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Aging: Video On Design & Marketing To Baby Boomers
A number of weeks ago we presented a news story about how retiring Baby Boomers are changing the ways we all perceive design and consumerism in older age. Since then NBC news filled out the report with a posted video that includes Today’s Peter Alexander conversation with Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT’s Age Lab. We also get to see him don “AGNES,” a suit designed to impose the physical aspects of aging on a younger person. That suit has been used by commercial designers and engineers to help create products and access to products meant to improve the lives of older Americans. But don’t call them ‘Old.’
| Category Advertising, Assisted Living, Design, Health, Independent Living, Marketing, Research, Retirement Living, Technology, Video Interview, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Hearings On Fed Aid For Assisted Living
The passage of Health Care Reform last year hardly ended the debate about health care reform. Since the Republican takeover of the House in November, symbolic efforts have been made to repeal the law. Though repeal will go nowhere unless or until President Obama leaves the White House, hearings and committees have sprung up to find ways to de-fund or curtail the original statute. Indeed, Democrats seemed capable of explaining and defending the bill only after they gave the opposition a three-month head start on attacking it.
Today, two sets of hearings will focus on funding the Affordable Care Act, in particular its provisions concerning assisted-living services for older Americans.
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Conference/Congress, Healthcare, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nursing Home, Politics | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Aging: The Graying of Chicago
Image via Wikipedia
This article slipped through the cracks but we’re sure glad we spotted a reference to it on the Senior Housing News’ website: it’s a Crain’s Special Report asking whether an aging population affects a city’s economic future.
It is a great question and Crain’s Chicago Business ran an in-depth story (Feb 7) examining how Chicago’s senior population will impact business opportunities for the next 20-30 years. The article, according to Senior Housing News, is “a great example of how cities may want to look at the future profile of their city.”
| Category Adult Kids, Assisted Living, Grandparents, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
#Interview: Galina Madjaroff & Kevin Heffner, The Erickson School
As the Baby Boomer generation moves toward retirement, with people living longer and stronger, the perspective of aging in America must change. A unique graduate program at The Erickson School at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County (UMBC) goes beyond academics to reach its goal of educating a community of leaders who will improve society by enhancing the lives of older adults.
Galina Madjaroff (Lecturer) and Kevin Heffner (Director of External Relations) of the Erickson School are two of those people.
| Category Aging, Assisted Living, Community, Healthcare, Independent Living, Interview, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Technology, Web and Print | | 1 Comments
Written by: Cate Neilson
Aging: Playtime helps bind generations
A new study has confirmed an old adage: A family that plays together stays together. Researchers from Concordia University and Wilfrid Laurier University examined the ways grandparents can maintain close ties with their adult grandchildren. True to the old maxim, recreation emerged as the glue sealing intergenerational bonds.
Here’s a link to an article about the study and to the study itself.
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Grandparents, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Study | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Aging: Trials Exclude Patients Who May Benefit
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
The New York Times has reported that older adults use a disproportionate share of medical services, yet one in five clinical trials examined in a study excluded patients because of their age, and almost half of the remaining trials used criteria likely to exclude older adults.
The study, in The Journal of General Internal Medicine, analyzed 109 studies whose results were published in 2007 in The Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Circulation and BMJ, among others, according to the NYT reporter, Roni Caryn Rabin.
Rabin also reports that, “the average age of participants in the trials was 61. Many trials excluded participants who lived in nursing homes or had physical disabilities or existing medical conditions, all of which disproportionately affect older people.”
Rabin also states that, “fewer than 40 percent of the studies broke the results down by age subgroups, a type of analysis that suggests whether a treatment is as effective for older patients as for younger ones.”
She goes on to write that, “although including older patients with complicated conditions in clinical trials may make them more expensive and difficult to carry out, “the population in a clinical trial should reflect the population that will be treated in the real world,” said Dr. Donna M. Zulman, the paper’s lead author.”
Otherwise, she said, “we’re conducting large, expensive trials, and we can’t be certain whether the results apply to typical older patients, who are some of our most vulnerable and complicated patients.”
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nursing Home, Publications, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
#Aging: Will the Social Security Earnings Penalty Affect Me?
AARP published a useful Q&A as part of a series on tax-issue for those approaching retirement age. This particular article helps the reader identify which payments are classified as “Special Payments” under the current tax code and how they must be reported to the IRS.
Here’s a definition of “Special Payments” from AARP:
Special payments are payments you receive after you retire — for work you did while you were still employed. Usually, those payments will not affect your Social Security benefit. Such payments include severance pay, bonuses, accumulated sick pay, back pay or vacation pay, sales commissions, or other forms of compensation earned before you retired.
If you receive special payments, you should notify Social Security so that the agency will not count those payments as postretirement earnings. Otherwise, you may run into the earnings limit and temporarily lose some of your benefits. Or you may receive a letter from Social Security asking you to repay money you’ve received.
It is a good idea, when you retire, to ask your employer for a letter stating the various payments you are receiving for work previously done or benefits accumulated while you were employed. The letter should go to Social Security as proof of your special payments.
Click here to read article (and associated series).
| Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Banking & Finance, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria