#PROAGING: Technology Can Encourage Socialization & Longevity
Perhaps the greatest gift of life is the ability to share many its aspects with others. We have communication skills and empathies that can enliven mundane tasks and reinforce the greater joys and tragedies of the human experience. As social beings, we seek out these shared experiences from our earliest infancy to our later golden years. For many aging citizens, though, physical limitations and technological impositions can reduce opportunities for socialization, which in turn has been shown to decrease both life quality and life expectancy.
Most aging Americans want to live in their own homes as they age, but that desire also increases the likelihood of growing isolation and falling life quality. How might recent technological innovations keep seniors connected to their peers and their younger family members?
| Category Advocacy, Aging, Boomers, Civics, Communications, Community, Grandparents, Healthcare, Independent Living, Major Gifts, News and Current Affairs, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Aging, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
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.
| 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: GAP Index Highlights Global Challenges Of Care For Aging
The fact of the aging of the global population is something our readers are likely at least acquainted with. The phenomenon has arisen as life expectancy has lengthened even in developing countries and populations in developed countries often are not having enough children even to replace themselves. The result is that most national populations whose citizens or subjects are over 60 are quickly moving toward 30%. To put that number in historical perspective, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) posits that, before the Twentieth Century, the percentage of inhabitants over 60 was 5-8%.
The CSIS released a sobering report earlier this year that measured the ‘Global Aging Preparedness’ (GAP) Index. The report stresses the demographic facts of the so-called ‘Silver Tsunami’ (a tide that can not now be turned, even if we all started having larger families) and the current economic situations of a number of countries both rich and poor, both developed and developing. So how did the US do?
| Category Aging, Banking & Finance, Boomers, Civics, Community, GI Generation, Health, Healthcare, Healthcare, National/International, Nonprofit, Politics, Publications, Report, Resource, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Health: Study Shows Advantages Of Conversation No One Wants
Remember Obama’s Death Panels? No, they didn’t exist. But like ‘cooties,’ the scared and the immature just kept repeating that they were waiting to snatch us up. What the Healthcare Reform Bill wanted to institute was the opportunity – nay, the expectation – for families to have regular consultations with their doctors about end-of-life/palliative care that would per force be covered by insurance.
Healthcare Reform became law in the early days of 2010, and we have been litigating it ever since – and no one has found any mention of a death panel. But even requiring insurance companies to pay doctors for these end-of-life consultations has proven to be a political hot potato – even though evidence of their efficacy is mounting.
| Category Aging, Community, Dementia Care, Health, Healthcare, Healthcare, National/International, Newspaper Article, Politics, Publications, Report, Seniors Life, Silent Generation | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: AARP Busts Some Social Security Myths
As we enter ‘crazy time’ in the electoral calendar (a calendar that now runs from the Friday after the last election to the day of the next one), we will hear ever more about the desperate need to balance the federal budget and pay down the national debt. Few will strongly argue against these budget-balancing ambitions. The arguments are over just how to do that.
Social Security payouts make up some 20% of the federal budget, tied with national defense and one percentage point behind Medicare/Medicaid. Yet Social Security is usually singled out as one of the three federal line items that must be trimmed (Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and … um … oops.). The American Association of Retired Persons challenges five of the most commonly-stated myths about the state of Social Security, even in the midst of the economic malaise we continue to struggle with.
Myth Number One? Not surprisingly: Social Security is going bankrupt. According to AARP, that scary claim is untrue no matter how you divvy up the dollars. “Even in the unlikely event that nothing changes and the program’s entire surplus runs out in 2036, as projected, checks would keep coming. Payroll taxes at current rates would cover 77 percent of all the future benefits promised. That’s true for young and old alike, and includes inflation adjustments.”
Read the other four myths and the facts that refute them at AARP’s site. Then you can make an informed decision about how to vote in 2012, and how to plan for your retirement after that.
| Category Aging, Banking & Finance, Boomers, Civics, Community, eNewsletter, Healthcare, Independent Living, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Mandated Cuts In Medicare Stifle Expansion Plans
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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: How Might The 7 Billion Humans Age?
From the NIA/NIH report - Click to enlarge
Earlier this week, the human race passed the 7-billion mark, and continues to expand. Much of the attention given to that milestone as focused on the many thousands of births that take place each second all around the world, but especially in India and subsaharan Africa. Yet, the other side of the demographic story must also be taken into account: people live longer. They remain productive later into longer lives, and – as an aggregate – technology helps them live well beyond a few years of retirement.
Which means, despite the many births, the world’s population over 60 will be over 22 percent by 2050. Are we prepared?
| Category Aging, Civics, Communications, Community, Health, Healthcare, National/International, Politics, Publications, Report, Resource, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Which US Cities Offer The Best Lifestyle To Their Older Citizens?
Dave Letterman offers only a “Top 10″ list, but Bankers Life and Casualty has just published its Top 50 “Best US Cities For Seniors 2011″ and the list contains a few surprises – though, admittedly, not so many laughs.
The list was drawn up with an effort to establish some stable criteria that were, in turn, weighted to reflect the importance of each issue with older Americans. For example, healthcare opportunities are weighted to 10 at the top of the scale, whereas housing was weighted at 5, because many kinds of housing arrangements can be made for many kinds of seniors, whereas healthcare is a priority for all older people.
The good side about a weighted standard is that readers can judge for themselves if a certain concern outweighs other issues. For example, the city noted as having the lowest crime and the safest urban environment for seniors is Nassau-Suffolk County, New York (Long Island), yet the area did not quite crack the top 10. But if security/low crime is most important for you, you now know where to retire.
| Category Affordable Housing, Aging, Boomers, Community, Environment, Health, Healthcare, Healthcare, Independent Living, Marketing, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 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: Social Security Recipients Enjoy COLA For First Time In Two Years
Social Security has built into its law and budgets a ‘Cost of Living Adjustment‘ (COLA) tied to inflation and/or rising prices. Those prices have, if anything, fallen during The Great Recession, so recipients have not seen a COLA since 2009. But the Social Security Administration published its formula this week to account for a 3.6% increase for most people who receive their checks, beginning in January 2012.
The adjustment can not come soon enough for many seniors. As reported in The Associated Press, though inflation did not move over the last two or three years, incomes that retirees depended upon to supplement their Social Security benefits collapsed over those same years. What does the equation come out to for seniors?
| Category Aging, Banking & Finance, Boomers, Civics, Community, Healthcare, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Report, Retirement Living, Seniors Life | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Medicare’s Open Enrollment Opens – Save Elders From Poverty
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Medicare’s open enrollment for next year begins on October 15th and runs through December 7th (an unfortunate date in the lives of many of the GI Generation). Information on Medicare’s medical plans can be found here. General information for those new to the process can be found here. Medicare was founded in 1965 in an effort to buttress the insurance that most Americans lost at 65 or at retirement. It was meant as another strand of a safety net first weaved with the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, also meant to help the elderly avoid falling destitute.
Although Governor/Presidential Candidate Rick Perry (Rep., TX) stands by his assertion that such support as Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme, it has helped – unlike Ponzi schemes – millions of older and retired Americans avoid poverty. A new Census study clearly demonstrates just how successful the programs have been.
| Category Aging, GI Generation, Health, Healthcare, Healthcare, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Publications, Retirement Living | | 2 Comments
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 | | 3 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Study Shows Americans Optimistic and Unprepared For Retirement (Part 1 of 2)
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Over the last few days, National Public Radio (NPR) has been presenting the findings of an in-depth survey and study of how recent retirees and soon-to-be retirees (those over 50) view retirement. The report was conducted by NPR, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
The findings show a general optimism about retirement, though that general optimism is dampened by the credit crisis of the last three years. Yet that optimism is strongest among those who have not yet actually retired. Among the retirees themselves, optimism has been checked by the harsh realities of decimated IRAs, a credit crunch, and unexpected health issues.
What seems to be the state of retirement in the new millennium? The issue may be not that the state of retirement is so bad, but that expectations are strikingly high.
| Category Aging, Audio Interview, Communications, Community, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Public Media, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD