Who Moved My Dentures?

Who Moved My Dentures (Warren Publishing (NC) (May 30, 2004) is a book which dispels 13 different myths about long-term care and aging in America.

It does so through the stories of people living in long-term care, stories collected through the experiences of the writer, Anthony Cirillo, a healthcare executive and entertainer.

It was written to educate baby boomers, families and caregivers about long-term care facilities and to increase the respect for residents living in these facilities.

The book also contains useful information for choosing facilities, a glossary as well as information about the financing and policing of the industry.

The author also maintains a blog on aging issues called "Who Moved My Dentures". http://anthonyssong.blogspot.com/

Ten Questions to Answer

This site provides ten questions to assist in your decision making around the following issues:

• Before You or a Loved One Needs Long-Term Care
• Before You or Your Loved One Purchase Long-Term Care
• Before Choosing a Nursing Home or Assisted Living
• Before Managing Your Long-Term Care Services
• When You are Not Happy with Your Long-Term Care

http://www.tenquestionstoanswer.org/

The Forgetting

The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's is an Emmy award-winning documentary that takes a dramatic and compassionate look at Alzheimer’s disease, based David Shenk's best-selling book, The Forgetting.

The Forgetting premiered on PBS in January 2004 and was rebroadcast in August 2008 with The Future of Alzheimer's—a half-hour panel discussion hosted by David Hyde Pierce.

Pierce and a panel of Alzheimer's experts explain and contextualize the latest scientific findings, emphasize the importance in addressing and treating Alzheimer's within ethnic and racial minorities, and discuss the future of Alzheimer's research and treatment.

To watch the program online:
http://www.pbs.org/theforgetting/

New Medicare Nursing Home Guidance

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (HHS)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued new guidance for nursing home surveyors, further defining and clarifying several important dimensions of care to help improve nursing home residents’ quality of life and environment.

Beginning June 12, 2009, nursing home surveys will be conducted with a sharpened focus on resident rights in key areas such as:

• Ensuring they live with dignity;
• Offering choices in care and services;
• Accommodating the environment to each of their needs and preferences; and
• Creating a more homelike environment –including access for visitors.

Currently, nearly 1.5 million individuals live in approximately 15,800 nursing homes on any given day, and about 3 million people will spend some time in a nursing home each year.

+ Full Document (PDF; 521 KB)

The Future of Long-Term Care: What Is Its Place in the Health Reform Debate?

More than 10 million Americans require long-term care supports and services. Yet the system for delivering and paying for this assistance is deeply flawed. While most of the frail elderly and those with disabilities prefer assistance at home, many must live in nursing homes to receive Medicaid benefits, care coordination for those with multiple chronic illnesses is poor, and the system for financing care impoverishes many middle-income families. The national health reform debate allows policymakers to reconsider long-term care as well. This paper assesses proposals to restructure the delivery and financing of long-term care services.
 http://www.urban.org/publications/411908.html

Home Safety for Older Adults

The Home Safety Council's webpage geared specifically towards seniors and their families and friends, has a variety of resources to help seniors live safely.  You can create a custom safety checklist depending on the type of home you have, and visit “Tour My Safe Home” to check out safety tips for each room of the house. The site also has a section on fire safety, and information on fall prevention.

Aging Parents

The following are several new books on aging parents. Check for them at your local bookstore or library.


Life with Pop: Lessons on Caring for an Aging Parent by Janis Abarhams Spring. Avery, 2009.









My mother, your mother: embracing "slow medicine"--the compassionate approach to caring for your loved ones. New York: Harper, 2008. http://www.mymotheryourmother.com









Welcome to the Departure Lounge: Adventures in Mothering Mother by Meg Frediro. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2009.









When the Time Comes: Families with Aging Parents Share their Struggles and Solutions. Springboard Press, 2009. http://www.paulaspan.com/index.html

Sedatives and Suicide Risk

Sleeping tablets have been associated with a four-fold increase in suicide risk in the elderly, according to researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Geriatrics.

Research shows that even after adjusting for the presence of psychiatric conditions, sedatives and hypnotics were both associated with an increased risk of suicide.

The researchers speculate that the drugs may raise suicide risk by triggering aggressive or impulsive behavior, or by providing the means for people to take an overdose.

They also point out the possibility that these drugs may merely be markers for some other factor related to suicide risk, such as somatic illness, functional disability, alcohol use disorder, interpersonal problems, lack of social network, or sleep disturbance.

The study is available here.

Up: An Animated Film About Aging

Up is a 2009 computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, and is the first animated film to premiere on the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

The film, featuring the voice of Ed Asner, centers around a elderly man and an overeager Wilderness Explorer who fly to South America in a floating house suspended from helium balloons

Up has received almost universal acclaim from critics. As of June 8, 2009, Rotten Tomatoes reports that 98% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 181 reviews. The not able film critic Roger Ebert has awarded the film four out of four stars

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/

Saving Our Parents

Saving our Parents is a documentary that demonstrates the potential pitfalls facing today's aging adults. The documentary exposes scams and criminals that prey on the aging.

Professionals, experts and "victims" alike share their knowledge and insights with candor, in order guide aging people and their family and friends safely.

Segments Include:

• Predatory Caregivers
• Unscrupulous Conservators
• Inspiring advice
• Fraud and Senior Scams
• Elders impacted by Hoarding
• Motivational wisdom
• Nursing Home Neglect
• Long Term Care Solutions
• Intergenerational
  Care Tips

This documentary is immediately available for television distribution. In addition, it's also available to educational, governmental and senior-related institutions as an invaluable educational tool.

http://www.savingourparents.com/

Your Memory: What Changes and What You Can Do About It

Published by the National Policy and Resource Center on Women and Aging, this publication looks at how memory works, what happens as we age, and some things we can do to help improve our memory skills.

The publication is divided into the following topics:

• The Importance of Memory
• Some Facts about Memory and Aging
• Strategies and Techniques for Memory Improvement

Your Memory was written by Margie F. Lachman, Ph.D.. She is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Life Span Developmental Psychology Laboratory at Brandeis University and editor of Planning and Control Processes across the Life Span (1993) and Multiple Paths of Midlife Development (1997) with J.B. James. She conducts research on cognition and memory, personality, and the sense of control in adulthood and old age. Dr. Lachman is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and theGerontological Society of America.

http://iasp.brandeis.edu/womenandaging/Memory_M11.pdf

National Survey of Consumer and Workforce Satisfaction

Produced annually, My InnerView's National Survey of Consumer and Workforce Satisfaction in Nursing Homes is based upon the nation’s largest private dataset of satisfaction metrics for the senior care profession. Examining trends in consumer and workforce satisfaction in our nation's skilled nursing facilities, the report:

• Defines key indicators of performance excellence
• Underscores correlations between consumer and workforce satisfaction, workforce commitment and stability and regulatory compliance and clinical outcomes
• Establishes national benchmarks for consumer and workforce satisfaction that can be used to set performance targets for the profession
• Defines what drives satisfaction in best-in-class organizations
• Presents satisfaction metrics that can be used to create greater accountability and transparency in value-based reimbursement systems to support consumer-driven healthcare choices

http://www.myinnerview.com/resource_center/national_report_abstract/

Effects on Early Life on Elderly Health

This issue of the National Instiitute on Aging's Today's Research in Aging newsletter was produced by the Population Reference Bureau with funding from the University of Michigan Demography Center. This center coordinates dissemination of findings from 3 National Institutes of Aging demography centers. This issue was written by Diana Lavery, an intern at the Population Reference Bureau; and Marlene Lee, a senior research associate at PRB.

 
Personal choices made earlier in life can have lasting effects on elderly health. Decisions about exercise, nutrition, smoking, and drinking behavior, as well as some less obvious choices such as pursuit of higher education, whether or not to marry, and which neighborhood to live in all have consequences much later in life. Not only can such choices in one’s adult life affect elderly health, but so can characteristics of one’s childhood.

http://www.prb.org/pdf09/TodaysResearchAging16.pdf