One Caregiver v. One Stuffed Condo. - NYTimes.com

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By PAULA SPAN

I’m enjoying a blog called The Downsize Challenge, whose author posts weekly about her trials and triumphs as she culls through a lifetime’s possessions crammed into her grandfather’s two-bedroom Florida condo.

The Downsize Challenge has raised questions that plague all of us (what do all those keys unlock, anyway?) and fostered a lively competition to see which reader had the oldest expiration date on something in the medicine cabinet (a jar of Vaseline from 1974 took the prize).

It also carries a not-so-subtle message. “I was encouraging other members of my family not to wait 20 years to deal with this stuff, because I don’t want to have to do it again,” said the blog’s author, Julie Lanoie.
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Elder Abuse: Pearl Harbor Survivor Found Living in Filth, Caretaker Arrested for Elder Abuse - OrlandoSentinel.com

The caretaker of a 93-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor found disoriented and living in filth in his San Diego County home pleaded not guilty to elder abuse and other felonies Thursday.

Milagros Angeles, 62, is charged with false imprisonment of an elder, theft by a caretaker and altering checks to steal thousands of dollars from her employer.

She was ordered held on $1 million bail.

Deputy District Attorney Danielle Hickman told the judge that Angeles had been working for widower Arnold Bauer since 2009.

The war veteran's bank became concerned when employees noticed he hadn't been in since October and notified Adult Protective Services, Hickman said.
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Strains for Hispanic Caregivers - NYTimes.com

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By KAREN STABINER

Caregiving obligations are deeply felt in many Hispanic families; even those with few resources traditionally have not hesitated to assume responsibility for aging parents. But these days familialismo is running up against harsh modern realities. According to Jacqueline Angel, professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Texas, many Hispanic families are struggling with language barriers that make navigating the health care system difficult, and with poverty that limits care options and makes retirement planning an elusive, unaffordable dream.
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TIME GOES BY | Old People Driving - A Documentary

by Ronni Bennett

In a comment on a recent post here, Mage B who blogs at Postcards mentioned that her driver's license has been confiscated because she had lost consciousness.

It is one the greatest fears elders have – to give up driving, losing the freedom and convenience we have experienced all our lives and to become dependent on friends, relatives or public transportation (which isn't all that good in many places) for everything we need or want to do away from home.

A new documentary film titled, Old People Driving, sensitively explores the emotional and psychological aspects of giving up driving. The 35-year-old producer, Shaleece Haas, tells me that her goal is to dispel some of the myths about older drivers,

“but I didn't want to shy away from the fact that most people will outlive their ability to drive - usually by seven to 10 years - and that all of the alternatives to driving pale in comparison.”

According to Shaleece, there are three million drivers older than 85 in the U.S. and most people believe they are a menace on the road. However, Julio Lacayo, who is the older driver ombudsman for the California DMV, tells us in the film, it is a myth that old drivers are the worst drivers.

Although elder drivers have a 16 percent accident risk compared to other adult drivers, he explains in the film, those under age 25 have a 188 percent accident risk. And while teens most often kill others, old drivers are mostly a danger to themselves.

Shaleece's poignant film tells the stories of two elder drivers - Herbert Bauer, age 99 and her grandfather, Milton Cavalli, 96. Here are the three of them.



Milton has been a car buff all his life, starting with his first Model T when he was 14 years old. He still owns three of them and a Saxon too, which he drives with confidence. “Age has nothing to do with it,” says Milton, sounding like me on this blog when he explains how some people are old at 50 while others are still capable at 100.



Herbert, on the other hand, has been planning for what will be his last day behind the wheel of a car, intent on stopping driving “before someone invites me to change,” he says. When asked if he will miss his car, he says, “I plan to.”



Leading up to that final drive, Herbert visits a bicycle shop to try out an adult tricycle. He has broken his hip in the past and has trouble mounting the trike because the seat is too high for him. I was struck by the young sales girl who, standing nearby, is oblivious to Herbert's struggle.

But he doesn't give up and works out a deal with a friend who still drives to trade his car for her tricycle. Shaleece shows us that sometime later, it sits chained to the side of his house unused because, Herbert explains, his left leg has gotten worse.

On the fateful day of his last drive, Herb is careful not to break his perfect record of no accidents in 80 years of driving as he notes that his last left turn is coming up. It is a powerful moment when he removes the car key from his wallet to give to his friend who drives it away as Herb slowly walks into his house.

Nevertheless, Herbert says giving up driving is a triviality compared to giving up someone you've loved all your life, as he did when his wife died. Losing the freedom of a car is “nothing by comparison.”

Both of these men, the oldest of the old, accept the limitations of their age with astonishing equanimity and in Herbert's case, a humor that I hope I will develop should I live as long. “If you have to live by yourself,” says Herbert, “tell yourself you're in good company.”

Here is a short clip from the beginning of the 24-minute film:
You can find out more about Old People Driving here.

Shaleece Haas has made a remarkably beautiful film that everyone – old, young, caregivers - should see. It will premier on Sunday at the Mill Valley Film Festival, will be screened at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival on 16 and 19 October and will be shown too at the National Transportation Safety Board symposium on older drivers in Washington, D.C.

She hopes to it will be broadcast on television soon; DVD copies for personal use may be purchased online for $20.

Ask an Elder Attorney: New Power of Attorney - NYTimes.com

Image via CrunchBaseBy CRAIG REAVES

Q. What is done when a power of attorney is left to both siblings jointly but one decides to become uncommunicative and “checks out,” not participating in decision-making, handling estate matters or caring for a parent with dementia? Does the sibling left with shouldering the burden really have to go to court to get the other sibling’s name taken off the power of attorney? — Kcz

A. I think you may have to go to court, but there are two avenues you should pursue first. (click link below)

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Caregiving Thrives at an Intersection of Faiths

Image via CrunchBaseby Jane Gross

Amid the fiery national debate over the limits of religious tolerance — and a veteran myself of the never-ending frustration of family caregivers that aides are often too overwhelmed to do their jobs properly, assigned too many patients and sometimes just plain not cut out for the work — I was touched by their solicitude. Aides of all denominations — Baptist, Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist — tended lovingly to these elderly Jewish men and women, Holocaust survivors among them, although fewer with each passing year.

One would like to think that caring for the elderly universally brings out the best in people, and always transcends religious and cultural barriers. That has been my experience most of the time but, alas, not always. This holiday lifted my heart.

“God created people,’’ Rabbi Hirschhorn reminded me. “God did not create religion. People created religion.’’
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The Caregiver Next Door - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

By PAULA SPAN

We heard a tap at the door and then a voice: “Murray?”

My father rarely troubles to lock his apartment when he’s at home. His friends drift in and out, looking for a card game, checking to make sure he’s up and about, or bearing the latest gossip. Or, in the case of Jo Ann, who walked into the living room juggling several containers, bearing food.

Jo Ann (she’s asked me not to identify her further) lives two floors up from my dad in a N.O.R.C. — a naturally occurring retirement community — in Vineland, N.J. She and her husband Fred, who are both 68, moved in eight years ago. She was operating a deli at the time, and Fred was in construction, so at first they were too busy to pay much attention to the cluster of people in their 80s who gathered in the lobby every afternoon, awaiting the mail.

But then Jo Ann retired, and the folks in the lobby started asking her to sit and chat a bit. She listened as they compared utility bills, shared news of sales at the local ShopRite, bragged about their grandkids. She realized most were widows or widowers whose children lived far away: “I thought, ‘My God, they need help.’ ”

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Free Comfort Care Guide

The Alzheimer’s Association-Greater Illinois Chapter is pleased offer this free online resource, Encouraging Comfort Care: A Guide for Families of People with Dementia Living in Care Facilities. This 21-page booklet provides useful information to families and long-term care facilities personnel about Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, particularly care issues related to the late and final stages.

For families, this guide will enable them to make informed choices about a variety of medical decisions they may face on behalf of loved ones with dementia living in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other types of care facilities. It will also equip families to ask good questions aimed at obtaining the best care for their loved ones, including a handy checklist of comfort care measures to be discussed with staff members of care facilities.

For staff members of long-term care facilities, the guide will serve as an important tool for those who wish to educate families and assist them in care planning. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to disseminate this booklet in electronic and print formats.

Encouraging Comfort Care was made possible through a generous grant from the Retirement Research Foundation to the Alzheimer’s Association-Greater Illinois Chapter.
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A Graying Population, a Graying Work Force - NYTimes.com

By JOHN LELAND

One recent morning Antonia Antonaccio, a home care aide, got a call to help an elderly couple whose regular aide could not make it. The regular aide, who is 68 years old, had thrown out her back.

Ms. Antonaccio said she empathized. Sometimes her legs hurt from going up and down stairs. “But it’s nothing I pay attention to,” she said. “I don’t have the time.”

Ms. Antonaccio is 73.

In an aging population, the elderly are increasingly being taken care of by the elderly. Professional caregivers — almost all of them women — are one of the fastest-growing segments of the American work force, and also one of the grayest.

A recent study by PHI National, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of caregivers, found that in 2008, 28 percent of home care aides were over age 55, compared with 18 percent of women in the overall work force.
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MMI Quick Facts - March Issue

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QuickFACTS is a monthly fact sheet produced by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. Its focus is the emerging market of people 50+. It is a compilation of recent news and developments on multi-generational issues that impact business and customers.

The March issue contains articles on: The Growing Grandparent Population; Planning for Phased Retirement; Caregivers: Help Needed; International Ageing and the Multi-Generational Workforce; The Joy of Pumping Iron; Older Workers Staying Put; Changing Landscape of Retirement Destination States; and 100 Year Old Athlete Wins the Gold and Sets a Record!
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Patient Money - Finding the Right Care for the Elderly - NYTimes.com

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By LESLEY ALDERMAN

TWO years ago my father, then 83, became very ill. Until then, he had been living alone in a pleasant one-bedroom apartment on the Hudson River, an hour’s drive from my home in Brooklyn.

After a couple of months in the hospital it became clear that my dad, Harvey Alderman, could not return to solo living. He was fragile and forgetful, and there was no way he could keep track of the 14 or so pills he had to take each day.

But where would he go — and how would we pay for it? Could he stay in his apartment if he had regular visits from an aide? Or should he go to an assisted-living facility where there would be more services available for him?

So began my family’s crash course in caring for an aging parent in declining health.

If you’re in this predicament, you know already there is no simple answer. Older people each have unique medical and emotional needs. And finances often dictate how far you can go in creating the ideal situation for them.
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THE FIRST ANNUAL “EXCELLENCE IN ACTION” AWARDS

On Tuesday, February 23, 2010, the Administration on Aging held its first annual Excellence in Action Awards program to formally acknowledge exceptional work performed during the past year by Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), Community Living Programs (CLPs), and Veteran-Directed Home and Community-Based Services programs. The awards were presented at the Administration on Aging/Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) 2010 National Grantee Conference entitled “Changing Systems, Changing Lives.”

Eligible nominees were State Units on Aging (SUAs), Area Agencies on Aging (AAA), Centers for Independent Living (CILs), State Independent Living Councils (SILC), Aging Disability Resource Centers (ADRC), Community Living Programs (CLP) and their partners or networks of these programs. Winners demonstrated exceptional commitment, creativity, leadership and success in achieving goals related to the conference theme.” Awards were given in the following categories:
•Changing Systems Award
•Changing Lives Award
•Exemplary Partnership Award

The 2010 Excellence in Action awardees:

Changing Systems Award - Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut, New Haven, Connecticut

Changing Lives Award - Central Texas AAA/ADRC & Alamo Service Connection/Bexar Area Agency on Aging

Exemplary Partnership Award - Hawaii County Office on Aging, Hilo, Hawaii

Description of Each Award and Awardee

Longevity research, policy, and education: International Longevity Center USA - Caregiving

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The International Longevity Center and the Caregiving Project for Older Americans, with support from MetLife Foundation, invites proposals from community colleges and other 2-year institutions under the 2010 Community College Caregiver Training Initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to encourage the development of new and novel programs to train both family caregivers and in-home care workers, promote skill development, advance the quality of care, and provide opportunities for career development.

The caregiver training program awards under this initiative may either be to fund a new program or for building upon existing programs. Up to 13 grants of up to $15,000 will be awarded.
More Information/Full RFP

Informal Caregiving By And For Older Adults – Health Affairs Blog

by Donna Wagner and Emiko Takagi

The primary focus of this analysis is to examine trends and key findings for caregivers of persons 50+, with an emphasis on the older caregivers. We use the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and AARP’s national surveys of informal caregivers conducted in 2009 and make selected comparisons with the 1997 and 2004 NAC/AARP surveys. Although each survey consists of a unique sample, there are questions that are consistent across the three surveys and an operational definition of “caregiver” that is used in the screening to ensure that respondents are representative of the same caregiving population.
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The insurance doctor: Immigrant shunned medicine, but comforted by Medicare | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan

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by By Peter Trozan

At 65 she enrolled in Medicare but only saw a doctor once during the next 25 years. At age 91, Jenny fell and broke her clavicle and severely injured her lower back and hip.

When she left the hospital, Jenny moved into my house, and together with my wife’s help, we took care of her 24/7. You see, Jenny, is my mother.

Although she experienced excruciating pain and would scream out when being moved, she adamantly refused pain medications. After five months she healed sufficiently to return to her own home. Last week Jenny fell again, this time fracturing her hip. Once again, she moved in with us, again refusing all prescription meds.

Because she used natural remedies, her medical expenses have been virtually non-existent. Nonetheless, it has been a great help and comfort having Medicare for those unforeseen accidents. Without a doubt, my mother is a rare individual, but even she has benefited from the medical support provided by our community:

> A pendant worn around her neck to call for help in an emergency (our own expense).

> Ambulance and paramedics (Medicare pays 80 percent).

> Emergency room and CT scans (Medicare pays 80 percent).

> Homecare services provided by the staff at Columbine. Since home care is far cheaper than having someone institutionalized, Medicare pays 100 percent for home care rather than the usual 80 percent.

> Hospice care for about 6 months a few years ago. This is supposed to be for terminally ill patients and is covered by Medicare at 100 percent. Jenny beat the odds and confounded the experts as she “graduated” out of Hospice.

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How Can the Doctor Aid the Caregiver? - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

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By TOBY BILANOW

In today’s Doctor and Patient column, Dr. Pauline Chen explores the role of doctors in working with those who care for aging parents and other “family caregivers.”

Dr. Chen notes that professional medical groups like the American College of Physicians are exploring ways in which doctors may more effectively work with and support the more than 37 million caregivers in this country. For more, read the full column, “Offering Care to the Caregiver.”

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Home for Thanksgiving, and Managing Meds - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

By PAULA SPAN

If your parents’ kitchen counter or, worse, bathroom medicine chest is crammed with pill bottles — old, new, rarely used, barely remembered, emptied and never refilled — a new brochure from Consumers Union and the Eldercare Locator, a service of the United States Administration on Aging, might prove useful.

“Prescription Drug Options for Older Adults: Managing Your Medicines” offers suggestions for tracking and maintaining elders’ complicated drug regimens. The timing isn’t incidental; the idea is that family members home for holiday visits will talk to their parents about their multiple medications.
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End of Life Care for People with Dementia

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This study was conducted in Great Britain.

The time at which a medical or social crisis occurs for a person with advanced dementia and/or their carer(s) is a pivotal point when, if appropriate services were available, the person with dementia could remain in their familiar place of care until the time of their death.

With timely support in the community, it would be possible to prevent some crises occurring, or in the event of the crisis happening, provide an intervention that would reduce the need for a hospital admission. Our findings indicate that episodes of hospital care negatively affect the health and the quality of life for people with dementia, and that frequently the reason for admission could have been appropriately treated in the community. Evidence is emerging from other cities that where rapid response community teams have been introduced it has led to a substantial reduction in end of life hospital admissions – as these services offer a co-ordinated and proactive, rather than reactive, service model.

Whilst many of the findings reinforce those of the recent National Dementia Strategy and End of Life Care strategy, it also suggests that small changes to local health and social care services could significantly improve end of life care for people with advanced dementia who live in Haringey, as well as provide potential cost efficiencies, and greater value for money. This is particularly important in the context of public sector spending assumptions in the short to medium term.
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Free Webinar for Family Caregivers: How to Prevent Medication Mishaps

The National Family Caregivers Association Presents:

FREE Webinar for Family Caregivers
Bad reactions to medications result in 100,000 deaths a year. Don’t let your loved one become a statistic

If you are caring for a loved one who is:

* Elderly
* Taking multiple medications
* Seeing more than one doctor, orr
* Suffering from multiple illnesses

... your loved one may be at risk. What can a Family Caregiver do? Join us for FREE to find out.

Safe & Sound: How to Prevent Medication Mishaps
Thursday, November 12, 2009
2:00 - 3:00 PM Eastern Time

You can participate solely by telephone or through an on-line web site.
Get More Information/Register

‘Mom Always Liked You Best’ - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

By Paula Span

(excerpts)
The notion that parents cherish all their children equally — or at least say they do — is so entrenched in our culture that colleagues warned Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist at Cornell University embarking on the first of many studies of family favoritism, that his research would prove futile. No mother, they insisted, would admit to caring more for one son or daughter than another.

So much for that. His team’s interviewers, talking to mothers ages 65 to 75 in the Boston area about their adult offspring, found that most were perfectly willing to name favorites.
. . . . . .
One might file this under “Stuff I’d Just as Soon Not Know,” except that the care of the elderly falls mostly to their children and that one child usually shoulders the bulk of the responsibility. Mothers also express clear ideas about whom they want and expect to take on that role, it turns out, so their partiality has consequences.
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