CORE Community Resources

Residents of Bayfield, Wisconsin, a picturesque village on the North Shore of Wisconsin overlooking the Chequamegon Bay and The Apostle Islands, have CORE Community Resources, which is empowering seniors in the Bayfield area to remain independent and involved in their community.

Core's vision is to:

To create a community that becomes a national example of how neighbors can help seniors
live and thrive and benefit their community.

CORE is an example of a new movement where people are joining together to shape their future and "age in community." 

Will Health Care Costs Bankrupt Aging Boomers?

Rising health care costs pose a significant threat to boomers’ retirement security. Although
Medicare covers nearly all adults age 65 and older, premiums, deductibles, copays, and holes in
the benefit package leave many older Americans with substantial out-of-pocket expenses. Unless
health care practices or public policy change, seniors’ out-of-pocket spending will likely grow in
coming years as health care costs continue to increase.

This report from the Urban Institute, Washington, examines the likely financial burden of health care costs for baby boomers as
they age.

http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412026_health_care_costs.pdf

Caregiving Book Club

Check out these links for suggestions of books for caregivers, and the caregiver.com book club, where caregivers can meet online to discuss books:

http://www.caregiver.com/bookclub/index.htm

http://www.caregiving.com/caregiving-book-club/

Outdoor Spaces

Pioneer Network is proud to offer Creating Home – Access to Nature, a three-part webinar series that investigates outdoor environmental design and green spaces to benefit older adults. The webinars will take place on three Tuesdays in March -- the 2nd, 9th and 16th from 1:00pm to 2:00 p.m. EST.

Pioneer Network's Creating Home -- Access to Nature Webinar Series will demonstrate the importance of having people, policies, and programs that support outdoor usage. The series will also explore current research findings in gerontology, psychology and design, as well as comments from residents themselves, providing eldercare professionals with cost-effective guidelines for creating outdoor spaces seniors will use.

The webinar series will also help attendees to avoid pitfalls, such as "invisible" barriers, which prevent easy access to outdoor features. Led by Susan Rodiek, Ph.D., the Creating Home – Access to Nature Webinar Series will also examine outdoor access in terms of the revised interpretive guidelines for quality of life in nursing homes, and discuss F-Tags that relate to outdoor access and utilization.

http://www.pioneernetwork.net/Events/Webinars/AccessToNature/

What You Need to Know About Long-Term Care

From the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a new brochure on planning and paying for long-term care.

http://www.ltccc.org/documents/finalentireengishbrochure2-4-10.pdf

ThisCaringHome

ThisCaringHome.org, a project of Weill Cornell Medical College, was created to provide tips and tools to enhance home safety for persons with Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. The Home Safety-Virtual Home Section of the Web site allows visitors to explore research-based solutions to home safety and daily care issues by the simple click of a mouse. The Web site also provides social networking so caregivers can share information, ask questions, and find support from the online community.

This multimedia Web site features videos, animations, and photographs, as well as expert reviews of home furnishings, smart technologies, and home care products. Go to www.thiscaringhome.org.

Working Caregivers and Employer Health Care Costs

MetLife Mature Market Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving recently released their latest study, Working Caregivers and Employer Health Care Costs, focusing on how caregiving, employer health costs and employer-sponsored wellness benefits intersect.

The findings of the study indicate that health care costs for family caregivers is about 8% higher than that of non-caregiving employees, potentially costing US employers an extra US$13.4 billion per year.

Making the Case: Saving Your State's Caregiver Support Programs

Published in December 2009, this paper is intended to help advocates, program administrators,
service providers and caregivers fight for their state and local caregiver support programs.

It includes background information, statistics, talking points and a list of additional resources to help make the case for maintaining public funding for crucial caregiver support services.

You can download "Making the Case" at:

http://caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=2367

2009 Profile on Older Americans

The Administration on Aging has recently released its annual Profile of Older Americans with the latest key statistics on older Americans in key subject areas.

The profile includes both narrative and statistical charts.

The 2009 edition is only available online at:

http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Aging_Statistics/Profile/index.aspx

Preventing Serious Falls: Tips for Older Adults and Their Loved Ones

Falls are a leading cause of serious injuries in older adults. Every year, about a third of older Americans fall. Injuries from falls can lead to hospitalization, nursing home admission, and even death among older people.

Visit the American Geriatrics Society Foundation for Aging website for useful tips on fall prevention.


http://www.healthinaging.org/public_education/falls_tips.php

Great Places Toolkit

This site provides comprehensive information about senior housing options, medical equipment, and care choices.

Great Places includes:

• in-depth information on properties and care facilities, including price range, care information and other amenities
• video interviews with residents for personal stories about the community and available services
• latest news about medical innovations and senior living, plus tips for children of aging parents in our newsletter and blog
• resources to help you talk to your parents about housing options, insurance choices, and legal matters in our Toolkit.

http://www.greatplacesinc.com/toolkit/default.aspx

The Economic Crisis: How Fare Older Americans?

This article, which introduces the Generations issue titled "The Great Recession: Implications for an Aging America," summarizes the implications of the current economic downturn for older Americans and those who serve older Americans. It outlines the economic, psychosocial, and political shocks, and identifies the resulting opportunities for policy and program enhancements.

To view the table of contents for the entire issue, click here.

http://www.generationsjournal.org/generations/gen33-3/toc.cfm

Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: Aiding Elderly Drivers.

In the first installment of "Good Morning America's" series on tackling tough topics with aging parents called "Mom and Dad, We Need To Talk," "GMA" family and life contributor Lee Woodruff looks at the complicated issue of elder driving.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Aging/mom-dad-talk-elderly-driving-aiding-aging-parents/story?id=9668508

Connecting and Giving

Connecting and Giving: A Report on How Mid-life and Older Americans Spend Their Time, Make Connections and Build Communities was recently published by AARP Knowledge Management.

Key findings of the August 2009 telephone survey revealed that:
The nature of civic engagement is changing, becoming more personal and more secular.

• Mid-life and older Americans are less likely to join organizations.
• Although membership in religious organizations remains a relatively popular activity, involvement in these organizations has declined.
• While the rate of traditional volunteering (i.e., volunteering through or for an organization) has held steady, the amount of time volunteers spend in service has declined as volunteering becomes more episodic.

Read the full report for more information on volunteerism and older adults: http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/general/connecting_giving.pdf

HeartHub

HeartHub is the American Heart Association's online portal for information, tools and resources about cardiovascular disease and stroke.

The site contains a wealth of information on risks and treatment options. The site is divided into warning signs, information on sugar, healthy recipes, risk assessments, quizzes, and information in a variety of languages.

http://www.hearthub.org/

Internet Use Among Midlife and Older Adults

This document reports on an AARP telephone survey of midlife and older adults's internet use in the following areas: where they use the internet; how they use it; length of time; how they learn to use it; and levels of interest in learning how to use it. 

 

http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/general/bulletin_internet_09.pdf

Seeing Old Age as a Never-Ending Adventure

This article from the New York Times reports on people, who well into their senior years, have embarked on incredible adventures.

At the Grand Circle Corporation, for example, a Boston-based company that specializes in older travelers, adventure tours have gone from 16 percent of passenger volume in 2001 to 50 percent for advance bookings this year, even as the average traveler’s age has risen to 68 from 62.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/us/08aging.html

Caring for a Depressed Elderly Parent

Depression is a common among the elderly, and caring for a depressed elderly parent can be difficult for family members.

This 17 minute podcast from Families for Depression Awareness is designed to inform caregivers how depression affects families and how to ease the burden of caregiving.

The podcast can be downloaded on iTunes or at:
http://familyaware.org/podcasts/Families Podcast

Comfort Zone

Comfort Zone uses the Internet and a device to track the location of a person with Alzheimer's. The system allows users to set-up safety zones in a Web application and receive alerts

Comfort Zone includes a location-based mapping service, or LBS . This term refers to a wide range of services that provide information about a person's (or object's) location. If you've ever used a GPS device in your car for turn-by-turn driving directions or tracked a package online, you've used LBS.

Examples of how LBS works:

• A person with Alzheimer's wears or carries a locator device (such as a pager or wrist-worn device) or mounts one in his or her car.
• As the person travels around town or the country, the device receives signals from satellites or nearby cell towers. The device can then approximate the person's location by measuring the distance between the device and the cell towers or satellite signals.
• The device communicates with the Comfort Zone Web application.
• Family members access information about the person's location by using the Internet or calling the monitoring center.

Families can also decide on the level of monitoring needed, such as verifying location from a computer; receiving alerts when the person has traveled in or out of a zone; or just emergency assistance if there is a wandering incident.

http://www.alz.org/comfortzone/

New Books on Caregiving

No Act of Love Is Ever Wasted: The Spirituality of Caring for Persons with Dementia. Published in 2009 by Upper Room.  ISBN-10: 0835899950

This book addresses the spiritual needs created by the toll that Alzheimer s disease and other dementing illnesses take. The authors examine that the spiritual options of dealing with all those affected by dementia, as well as the perspective that caregiving is an extension of spiritual life.  Biblically grounded, the book offers practical suggestions, as well as personal stories of those affected by Alzheimer's and other dementias. their book will bring comfort and hope to all those caring for loved ones with dementia.

Stages of Senior Care: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making the Best Decisions. Published in 2009 by McGraw Hill. ISBN-10: 0071621091

Using their experience running a successful international company providing in-home, non-medical services for seniors, husband-and-wife founders of Home Instead Senior Care offer a helpful guide for families choosing among home care-giving and other assisted-living options for aging or ailing parents. The Hogans believe in helping seniors stay in their homes as long as possible, and knowledge is their most powerful tool in securing that goal; this well-researched volume is packed with information, advice and resources aimed at managing and ameliorating the sadness, confusion, guilt and anxiety of making quality-of-life decisions for a loved one.