Seniors World Chronicle

USA: Many adults now manage aging parents' care from afar

2012-01-28T12:21:00.000+05:30

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. / CTV News / Associated Press / January 27, 2012

Kristy Bryner worries her 80-year-old mother might slip and fall when she picks up the newspaper, or that she'll get in an accident when she drives to the grocery store. What if she has a medical emergency and no one's there to help? What if, like her father, her mother slips into a fog of dementia?

Those questions would be hard enough if Bryner's aging parent lived across town in Portland, Oregon, but she is halfway across the country in Ohio. The stress of caregiving seems magnified by each of the more than 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometres) that separate them.

"I feel like I'm being split in half between coasts," said Bryner, 54. "I wish I knew what to do, but I don't."

As lifespans lengthen and the number of seniors rapidly grows, more Americans find themselves in Bryner's position, struggling to care for an ailing loved one from hundreds or thousands of miles (kilometres) away.

The National Institute on Aging estimates around 7 million Americans are long-distance caregivers. Aside from economic factors that often drive people far from their hometowns, shifting demographics could exacerbate the issue: Over the next four decades, the share of people 65 and older is expected to rapidly expand while the number of people under 20 will roughly hold steady. That means there will be a far smaller share of people between 20 and 64, the age group that most often is faced with caregiving.

"You just want to be in two places at once," said Kay Branch, who lives in Alaska, but helps co-ordinate care for her parents in Lakeland, Fla., about 3,800 miles (6,115 kilometres) away.

There are no easy answers.

Bryner first became a long-distance caregiver when, more than a decade ago, her father began suffering from dementia, which consumed him until he died in 2010. She used to count on help from her brother, who lived close to their parents, but he died of cancer a few years ago. Her mother doesn't want to leave the house she's lived in for so long.

So Bryner talks daily with her mother via Skype, a video telephone service. She's lucky to have a job that's flexible enough that she's able to visit for a couple of weeks every few months. But she fears what may happen when her mother is not as healthy as she is now.

"Someone needs to check on her, someone needs to look out for her," she said. "And the only someone is me, and I don't live there."

Many long-distance caregivers say they insist on daily phone calls or video chats to hear or see how their loved one is doing. Oftentimes, they find another relative or a paid caregiver they can trust who is closer and able to help with some tasks.

Yet there always is the unexpected: Medical emergencies, problems with insurance coverage, urgent financial issues. Problems become far tougher to resolve when you need to hop on a plane or make a daylong drive.

"There are lots of things that you have to do that become these real exercises in futility," said Ed Rose, 49, who lives in Boston but, like his sister, travels frequently to Chicago to help care for his 106-year-old grandmother, Blanche Seelmann.

Rose has rushed to his grandmother's side for hospitalizations, and made unexpected trips to solve bureaucratic issues like retrieving a document from a safe-deposit box in order to open a bank account.

But he said he has also managed to get most of the logistics down to a routine.

He uses Skype to speak with his grandmother every day and tries to be there whenever she has a doctor's appointment. Aides handle many daily tasks and have access to a credit card for household expenses. They send him receipts so he can monitor spending. He has an apartment near his grandmother to make sure he's comfortable on his frequent visits.

Even for those who live near those they care for, travel for work can frequently make it a long-distance affair. Evelyn Castillo-Bach lives in the same Florida town as her 84-year-old mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. But she is on the road roughly half the year, sometimes for months at a time, both for work with her own Web company and accompanying her husband, a consultant for the United Nations.

Once, she was en route from Kosovo to Denmark when she received a call alerting her that her mother was having kidney failure and appeared as if she would die. She needed to communicate her mother's wishes from afar as her panicked sister tried to search their mother's home for her living will. Castillo-Bach didn't think she could make it in time to see her mother alive once more.

"I won't get to touch my mother again," she thought.

She was wrong. Her mother pulled through. But she says it illustrates what long-distance caregivers so frequently go through.

"This is one of the things that happens when you're thousands of miles away," Castillo-Bach said.

Lynn Feinberg, a caregiving expert at AARP, said the number of long-distance caregivers is likely to grow, particularly as a sagging economy has people taking whatever job they can get, wherever it is. Though caregiving is a major stress on anyone, distance can often magnify it, Feinberg said, and presents particular difficulty when it must be balanced with an inflexible job.

"It's a huge stress," she said. "It can have enormous implications not only for someone's quality of life, but also for someone's job."

It can also carry a huge financial burden. A November 2007 report by the National Alliance for Caregiving and Evercare, a division of United Health Group, found annual expenses incurred by long-distance caregivers averaged about $8,728, far more than caregivers who lived close to their loved one. Some also had to cut back on work hours, take on debt of their own and slash their personal spending.

Even with that in mind, many long-distance caregivers say they don't regret their decision. Rita Morrow, who works in accounting and lives in Kentucky, about a six-hour drive from her 90-year-old mother in Tennessee, does all the juggling too.

"We do what we have to do for our parents," she said. "My mother did all kinds of things for me."

© 2012CTV

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

ZAMBIA: Reshaping care for older people

2012-01-28T12:05:00.001+05:30

NDOLA, Zambia / Times of Zambia / Features / January 27, 2012

By Bertha Musawa

IN an African cultural set up, extended families are regarded as very important in maintaining relations and in bonding homes together.

People usually have a number of children so that when they grow old, the children can take care of them other and members of the extended families.Families are supposed to protect and take care of elderly people who normally require intensive care, love, and protection.

Unfortunately the advent of Western culture is slowly negatively affecting the rich culture of cooperation and support in the African extended family set up as elderly people are usually being neglected.

However, the Government and other stakeholders are addressing this problem of elderly people being neglected by setting up institutions to look into the needs of the aged people.

These institutions of old people, which are dotted in various parts of Zambia, offer shelter and other basic needs to vulnerable elderly people.One such institution is Maramba Old People’s Home in Livingstone District which is home to about 51 elderly people of which 34 are male while 16 are female.

The Home, which was initially established as a hostel before Zambia’s independence in 1964 was used as transit accommodation for immigrants’ who were looking for jobs in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe now).

Those who were coming from Southern Rhodesia used the hostel before being repatriated to their respective towns in the country.It was during the per-independence period that the hostel was intended into Maramba Old People’s Home and it was maintained after Zambia got its independence.

The Home, which was initially meant to accommodate a capacity of 37 people, is now home to about 51 elderly people.

The institution receives vulnerable elderly people from all parts of Zambia who are identified by the community and recommended to the district welfare officers for entry at the Home.

Maramba Old People’s Home officer in charge Humphrey Chileshe said the institution had people who were brought in from Lusaka, Kasama, Kabwe, Zambezi and other parts of the country.

According to Mr Chileshe, the home had seen an increase in the number of elderly people being admitted to the institution due to pure neglect by extended families which impact negatively on the norms and culture as Africans who believe in the spirit of extended family.

He said some of the people who were at the institution were chased from their villages or communities for allegedly practicing witchcraft and rejected by relatives hence their vulnerability.

"Most old people are perceived as witches and wizards simply because of their old age hence they are being harassed and victimised by members of the public which should not be case. We will all grow old one day and will need people to take care of us hence we should not tolerate such actions," Mr Chileshe said.

He said there was need to address the cause of neglect which was on the rise and sensitise people or families on the importance of extended families which is fading out.

"Once we conduct a lot of sensitisation on importance of extended families, people can appreciate and bond with extended relatives," Mr Chileshe

He said there was need to preach and promote unity and reconciliation in families as a way of addressing after care for the elderly people as Zambia was a Christian nation hence the need for citizens to live by Christianity values and norms.

Mr Chileshe said as Africans, there was need to promote and create an environment that suits the African culture of extended families and not adopting the western culture.

He said the institution offer shelter and other basic needs just like in a normal home and the Government was working towards offering the needs to improve the old people’s welfare and running such institutions in the country under the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health.

He said the institution offer psychosocial counselling to the neglected people and try to integrate them with their families as a way of reducing the number and encouraging family support and care.

"The institution has a capacity for only 37 people but at the moment we are accommodating 51 hence the need to try and integrate these people with their relatives who do not want to keep them," Mr Chileshe said.

He said due to lack of staffs the institution mainly depend on voluntaries to clean hostels, cooking and bath the old people some of which cannot bath on they own.

Meanwhile, Mr Chileshe commended the church and other stakeholders for complimenting Government’s efforts in the operations of the institution through the provision of services such as cleaning of the home and bathing of the elderly people.

He said the institution also run a poultry house and a garden with the help of Sun International Hotel and professional life assurance company.

And Southern Province social welfare officer Morris Moono said Government does not encourage institutionalisation of elderly people but would always come in to provide help to the vulnerable ones who had no relatives to look after them.

"Currently, the institution is faced with a lot of challenges due to the increased number of people who are neglected by families and there is need for the construction of modern hostels because the existing structures were meant to accommodate only 37 people," Mr Moono said.

He said existing structures at the institution were meant for able body people who were in search of employment in the past, hence making it difficult for the aged people to access the toilets which are far away from the hostels.

Mr Moono said the type of transport used at the institution was not suitable for such an institution which deals with old people with movement problems.He said the institution had no electric pots cookers, hence the use of charcoal in preparation of meals.

An elderly person at the Home, Sam Kabashi, said he came to the institution home in 2007 and has stayed under Government care since then.Mr Kabashi said he had two children in Kitwe the time he was married and does not know if there are still around.

‘‘I left my children some time back when there were still very youth, there are both girls and am sure there growers ups now,’’ he said.

Mr Kabashi commended the Government for the services being offered at institution because everything was being provided.

Another old woman Esther Tembo thanked the Government for taking care of the elderly people at Maramba old people’s home.Ms Tembo said she had been trying to get in touch with her children since 2007 but to no avail.

‘‘I do not know if there are still alive because when I left them in Lusaka in 1964 when I got married to a Zimbabwean after we divorced,’’ she said. Old people need to be taken care of because there are knowledgeable and we should utilise they wisdom and experience to uphold our values and norms.

Copyright (c) 2011 Times of Zambia.
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Stop the Suffering Among Older Patients

2012-01-25T11:24:00.001+05:30

PRINCETON, New Jersey / Human Capital / Blog / January 24, 2012

A recent article in the New York Times highlighted an important study by Tim Platts-Mills, MD, and his colleagues that examined pain treatment of older adults in emergency departments across the country. They found that people over age 75 are about 20 percent less likely to have their pain treated than are middle-aged patients. More importantly, the researchers found that in the over-75 group, only 53 percent of those who reported pain received an analgesic or a prescription for one. In patients with severe pain, only 65 percent received an analgesic.

By RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows alumna Keela Herr, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty, The University of Iowa College of Nursing, Co-Director, Iowa John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence

These findings indicate that we still have a lot of work to do to address the under-treatment of pain in older people. The findings contribute to data collected in other care settings (such as hospitals, nursing homes and hospices) that also show inadequate treatment of pain in older people.

Attention was first drawn to the problem in the early 1990s, and researchers and clinicians have since contributed knowledge to guide provider practices to improve pain care. Yet, here we are 20 years later, and the picture hasn’t improved much.

Many organizations and groups (such as the International Association for the Study of Pain, the American Pain Society, the American Society for Pain Management Nursing, the American Geriatric Society, and the American Pain Foundation) are committed to quality pain care for all people. These groups work to raise awareness, provide education and resources, develop clinical practice guidelines and advocate for research and policies that support good care.

The National Institute on Aging, the National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration held panel discussions in 2010 to identify strategies for promoting safe pharmacological management of pain in older people. These discussions led to a research agenda and strategies to support providers in clinical decision-making.

Another example of work to improve pain care in older persons is the development of GeriatricPain.org, an online resource that provides best practice resources and tools for addressing pain in nursing home residents. This work was done by a committed group of geriatric nursing pain experts and was funded by The Mayday Fund and completed under the auspices of my fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Executive Nurse Fellow.

We now have clinical guidelines and resources to guide practice, but we need more research to guide pain care for older people. To be sure, pain treatment in older adults must be provided with caution. But there are safe methods for managing pain in this population. To ensure adequate pain care for older people, providers must appropriately assess and evaluate patients; carefully select medications, dosing and titration levels; incorporate nondrug approaches; and regularly monitor patients to determine the effectiveness of treatments and watch for the development of adverse effects.

Our biggest challenge, however, is determining how to move evidence-based practice recommendations into consistent clinical use in all settings of care so our seniors don’t suffer from unnecessary pain and related conditions.

Read more about Keela Herr’s work.

© 2011 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Swimming lowers older adults' blood pressure

2012-01-25T05:02:00.001+05:30

NEW YORK, NY / Reuters Health / January 24, 2012

Credit: Reuters/Tim Wimborne

By Amy Norton

Many older adults like to take a dip a pool, and now a small study suggests it can be good for their blood pressure.

Researchers found that among 43 older men and women, those who started swimming a few times a week lowered their systolic blood pressure -- the "top" number in a blood pressure reading.

On average, the swimmers started the study with a systolic blood pressure of 131 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Three months later, it was 122 mm Hg.

Normal blood pressure is defined as an average reading no higher than 120/80 mm Hg. Readings of 140/90 or higher are considered high blood pressure, and anything in between is considered "pre-hypertension."

Swimming is often promoted as a good way for older people to exercise, since it's easy on the joints and it's not likely to cause overheating. And many follow that advice: after walking, swimming is the second-most popular form of exercise among the older set.

But there's been little research into the health benefits of swimming -- though a number of studies have suggested that it's as safe for older adults as walking and bicycling, said Hirofumi Tanaka, senior researcher on the new study.

Published in the American Journal of Cardiology, the research appears to be the first to demonstrate that swimming can improve older adults' blood vessel function and curb their blood pressure.

"Swimming is a very attractive form of exercise," Tanaka, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, told Reuters Health in an email.

"It's easily accessible and inexpensive," Tanaka noted. "And because it does not involve bearing of body weight, due to the buoyancy of water, it is friendly to knee and ankle joints."

The study included 43 adults, with an average age of 60, who had high blood pressure or pre-hypertension but were otherwise healthy.

The researchers randomly assigned them to either have supervised swimming sessions or learn relaxation exercises. Over 12 weeks, the swimmers got in the pool three or four times a week, gradually working their way up to 45 minutes of swimming at a time.

By the end of the study, the swimmers had shaved an average of nine points from their systolic blood pressure. In contrast, that number did not budge in the relaxation group.

The picture was similar when the researchers had the study participants wear portable monitors that tracked their blood pressure over 24 hours. On average, the swimming group had a 24-hour systolic blood pressure of 119 mm Hg -- down from 128 mm Hg at the study's start.

Tanaka's team also used ultrasound tests to measure how well participants' blood vessels were dilating in response to blood flow. Again, they found improvements in the swimming group, but not in the relaxation group.

The study was small, and it's not clear whether the blood pressure reduction lasts -- or whether it translates into a lower risk of heart attack or stroke down the line.

But the results line up with what experts already recommend for older adults' heart health: get regular moderate exercise, along with a healthy diet.

Tanaka said that as long as an older adult has gotten the OK to exercise moderately, swimming should be a safe activity. But if you're sedentary, check with your doctor before becoming newly active.

There was a time when swimming was considered potentially risky, Tanaka noted, because being in cold water "elicits cardiovascular changes."

But most studies have indicated that bobbing in the waters of your local pool would be as safe as a walk around the neighborhood.

SOURCE: bit.ly/xtT6VI American Journal of Cardiology, online January 16, 2012.

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Treating Insulin Overdose

2012-01-25T04:42:00.000+05:30

NEW YORK, NY / WebMD / Treating Diabetes / January 24, 2012

Diabetes, Insulin Overdose, and Other Complications

WebMD Medical Reference

By Matthew Hoffman, MD

Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD

Cold sweats, trembling hands, intense anxiety, a general sense of confusion -- no, it's not the night before final exams. These are the signs of low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. They can also be the signs of an insulin overdose, a potentially dangerous complication with diabetes.

Hypoglycemia happens to many people with diabetes. And it can sometimes be serious. Thankfully, most episodes related to insulin are avoidable if you stick with a few simple rules. WebMD takes a look at how to handle the problem of insulin overdose. Read on to learn about how to prevent it and how to treat it.

When Insulin Works too Well

Insulin stimulates the cells of the body to absorb sugar (glucose) out of the blood. It also inhibits the production of glucose by the liver. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not make insulin. In type 2 diabetes, the body is resistant to the insulin the body does make, and with time the pancreas may make less insulin.

All people with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin injections. Many people with type 2 diabetes -- those whose blood sugar can't be controlled with oral medication, diet, and exercise -- take insulin injections.

There are several ways you can get too much insulin in your system and have a drop in your blood sugar:

You inject too much insulin because you have difficulty reading the syringes or vials or are unfamiliar with a new product.
You inject the right amount of insulin but the wrong type. For instance, you normally take 30 units of long-acting and 10 units of short-acting insulin. Injecting 30 units of short acting insulin is an easy mistake to make.
You inject insulin, but then didn't eat. Insulin injections should be timed with meals. Blood sugar rises after meals, but without eating, insulin lowers blood sugar levels to a potentially dangerous level.
You inject the right amount of insulin but inject it into an arm or leg just before exercise. Physical activity affects insulin absorption: Don't inject in an area affected by the exercise.

Symptoms of an Insulin Overdose

It doesn't matter how it happens. An insulin overdose always has the same effect: low blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. Symptoms of hypoglycemia include:

Anxiety
Confusion
Extreme hunger
Fatigue
Irritability
Sweating or clammy skin
Trembling hands

If sugar levels continue to fall during an insulin overdose, serious complications -- seizures and unconsciousness -- can occur.

Low blood sugar is defined as less than 70 mg/dL. Hypoglycemia is defined as a low blood sugar that leads to symptoms. Some people with poorly controlled diabetes can experience the symptoms of "low" blood sugar at normal blood sugar levels (70 to 120 mg/dL).

On the other hand, some people with diabetes won't experience these symptoms even at low sugar levels. For unclear reasons, some people have few warning signs when their blood sugars drop. This unawareness of low sugar is more common in people with type 1 diabetes.

Being unaware of low sugar levels means you're at higher risk for insulin problems. You may not have a warning that you sugar is low until you become too confused to correct the situation or become unconscious. Family and friends need to know what to do if the situation becomes serious.

What to Do During an Insulin Overdose

The first thing is to not panic if you have an insulin overdose. In most cases, an insulin overdose can be treated at home. Follow these steps as long as you're conscious and able to do so:

Check your sugar.
Drink one-half cup of regular soda or sweetened fruit juice and eat a hard candy or glucose paste, tablets, or gel. If you skipped a meal, eat something now. Fifteen to twenty grams of carbohydrates should raise your blood glucose level.
Rest. Get off your feet and take a break.
Recheck your blood sugar after 15 or 20 minutes. If its still low, take another 15-20 grams of a quick-acting sugar and eat something if you can.
Observe. Pay attention to how you feel for the next few hours.
If you still have symptoms, check your sugar again an hour after eating. Keep snacking if sugar is low.
If your sugar level stays low after two hours, or if your symptoms aren't improving, seek medical help.

Don't worry about pushing your sugar too high if it's only for a short time. One high level won't hurt you, but a very low sugar can.

If you're unconscious or too confused or are having seizures, your loved ones will have to take control. They should know how to do the following:

If you lose consciousness, they should call 911 immediately.
They should inject you with glucagon, an insulin antidote. If you are prone to low blood sugar, ask your doctor if you should have glucagon on hand at home.
If you're alert enough to follow instructions, they should give you sweet juice to drink. If your symptoms don't steadily improve over the next hour, they should call 911.

How to Prevent an Insulin Overdose

You can avoid an insulin overdose if you do the following:

Eat something at every mealtime. Even if you're not hungry, have some bread, a glass of skim milk, or a small serving of fruit. Never skip meals!
Be prepared. Expect that you'll experience insulin complications at some point. Pack hard candies in your bag, and your spouse's. Keep some in the car, and in your travel bag, as well.
Make sure friends and family know your usual signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia. If low blood sugar levels make you too confused, those around you will need to take action.

Other Insulin Complications

Most other insulin complications are due to not taking enough insulin. Not enough insulin can result in extremely high blood sugars, causing one of two urgent medical conditions:

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Excessive urination in response to high sugar causes severe dehydration. At the same time, without enough insulin to allow sugar absorption, the body's cells act as if they are starving.
Hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic syndrome (HHNS). Blood sugars can reach greater than 1,000 in HHNS. Similar to DKA, HHNS causes profound dehydration and can be life-threatening.

Once they occur, these insulin complications require hospitalization for treatment.

WebMD Medical Reference

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD on September 12, 2011

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

CHINA: Facing Demographic Shift as Population Ages

2012-01-24T16:18:00.001+05:30

WASHINGTON / The Washington Post / Business / January 24, 2012

Bloomberg's Margaret Conley reports on China's aging population, its implications for the nation's economy, and the investment opportunities it may create. The latest government census shows 178 million Chinese were over 60 in 2009. That figure could reach 437 million, one third of the population, by 2050, the United Nations forecasts. While the elderly were looked after in the past by their children, urbanization and the nation's one-child policy have eroded the tradition of family care. (Source: Bloomberg)(Bloomberg)
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

SINGAPORE: "Hands For Homes" welfare services for elderly

2012-01-24T16:05:00.002+05:30

SINGAPORE / Channel News Asia / News / January 24, 2012

A new welfare programme, providing housekeeping services for the elderly living in the central district, will begin in April.

Called "Hands For Homes", it will replace mattresses to prevent bedbug infestations — a common problem among senior citizens living in rental flats.

Some 6,000 households stand to benefit over the next three years.

A rental flat of 72—year—old Yeo Hock Soon used to be infested with bedbugs.

But with his mattress replaced, Mr Yeo can now sleep comfortably at night.

"We threw away everything, but then the dog still managed to sniff out two bugs! If it didn’t, the bugs would have multiplied. We needed to get rid of everything," said Mr Yeo.

The issue had been a bugbear for many living in the block of flats at Chin Swee Road, with four in ten households facing this problem.

Mr Koh Chui Seng, programme coordinator at the Kreta Ayer Seniors Activity Centre, said: "A few of our members, because their house has a lot of these bedbugs, when they come down to our centre, it makes a few of our members feel very scared — they want to keep away from (them)."

Two—thirds of Singapore’s HDB rental flats are housed in the central district, with most of its residents being elderly with little or no income. They are the targets of this programme, which aims to provide housekeeping services and distribute elderly—friendly household items.

Besides mattresses, residents will receive induction cookers to enhance kitchen safety, and have energy—efficient light bulbs installed in their homes. They will also receive non—slip mats to prevent falls.

It will take an estimated S$200,000 a year to run the programme.

Spearheading it is the Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC, Dr Lily Neo, who admits that manpower will also be an issue.

Dr Neo says Hands for Homes will require six to 10 volunteers per flat.

She said: "There are days when I can’t find volunteers to help me with the eradication process, then I will tap on some of the residents — elderly or those who are capable — who are willing to volunteer their time. So I’m tapping on them by reimbursing them."

Hands for Homes will be piloted in Tanjong Pagar GRC from April 2012. The programme will then be expanded to other GRCs in the district, such as Ang Mo Kio, Bishan—Toa Payoh and Moulmein—Kallang.

— AFP/al

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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Growing old in the 21st century is not what is used to be

2012-01-23T23:48:00.002+05:30

CHESTNUT HILL, Massachusetts / Sloan Center on Aging & Work / January 23, 2012

Engaged As We Age

Meeting the Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Growing Old in America

Growing old in the 21st century is not what is used to be.

The purpose of this project is to develop an ongoing, national study of aging that asks the broad question: What is the impact of multiple engagements — in continued work, in volunteer activities, in education and other learning activities, in care-giving for family members and friends—on the mental and physical health of older people?

The Engaged as We Age project will bring to Boston College a group of thought leaders interested in the opportunities and dilemmas of aging in the 21^st century. Policy analysts/advocates, practitioners/employers, foundation representatives, and academics from several disciplines will participate in a facilitated conversation this fall to re-think the dominant paradigms of aging in America to be held this fall at Boston College.

Overcoming Negative Perceptions of Aging

Over the past couple of decades, gerontologists have wrestled with ways to overcome outdated and mostly negative perceptions of growing older. Added years of longevity and health are unprecedented and represent opportunities for a variety of approaches to contentment, satisfaction, and even continued growth in later life.

Now the question is, how can we move beyond the idea of old age as a “roleless role”? How can we provide the optimal structure for maximizing opportunities for well-being and vitality. What do practitioners, employers, and policy-makers need to know in order to re-write the future of old age in America?

One of the responses to the old disengagement paradigms has been to focus attention on strategies to help individuals “age successfully.” Successful and healthy aging has often been interpreted as steps taken to avoid disease and disability, maintain mental and physical function, and continue engagement with life.

Another concept—“productive aging”—refers to “activities that produce goods and services, whether paid or not,” and focuses attention on the contributions that older adults make at work, in volunteer capacities, and with care-giving (either to spouses, parents, families members with disabilities, or grandchildren).

Considerations of “successful aging” and “productive aging” have challenged many old assumptions and expectations for the roles that older adults should/will assume. Despite the promise of these new paradigms, critics suggest that value labels such as healthy and productive aging imply that there is a “best way, an only way” to age well, and that people who develop a debilitating disease are “unsuccessful.”

Some worry that efforts to get elder citizens to be more productive will undermine social programs like Social Security and Medicare, much needed supports especially for women and minorities.

Furthermore, to date, there has been limited attention focused on the social and structural changes needed to facilitate “success” or “productivity.”

“If we are to promote productive aging, there is a need for enlarged public- and private-sector responsibility…we need to explore perceptions of the public and how they define productive aging, productivity, and older adult’s contributions” (Estes & Mahakian, 2001, p. 209).

Insights on Activity in Later Life from the Life & Times in an Aging Society Study—

Engaged as We Age (January 2012)

By Jacquelyn B. James, Elyssa Besen, Christina Matz-Costa & Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes

© 2012 The Trustees of Boston College
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

Seniors World Chronicle Fascinating Face of Aging: 24/1/2012

2012-01-23T23:45:00.003+05:30

Peter Aalbæk Jensen (born 8 April 1956) is a Danish film producer.

Photo Courtesy: politiken.dk

USA: Reverse mortgages may not be for everyone

2012-01-23T15:48:00.005+05:30

SOUTHGATE, Michigan / The News-Herald / Nation / January 22, 2012

By Amy Bell

With fixed incomes and increased living expenses, many senior citizens are turning to reverse mortgages as a way to receive extra cash.

Depending on their situation, these mortgages may not be for everyone.

"For some people they (reverse mortgages) absolutely are the best choice, for others if they have other options, it's very wise to look at other choices," said Kate White, executive director of Elder Law of Michigan, a Lansing-based non-profit organization that provides legal advice for seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Reverse mortgages allow seniors to turn equity into cash while keeping ownership of their home.

According to the AARP, more than 600,000 reverse mortgages have been issued since the start of the program in the late 1980s, nearly three-quarters within the last five years.

Most recently, TV advertisements featuring celebrities such as Pat Boone began promoting the program to seniors.

Due, in part, to the state of the economy and housing market, more seniors are looking into the program.

"More and more (people) are having to look at reverse mortgage when previously they would have pursued the sale of the home," White said.

The "reverse" mortgage is just that: the property owner receives a payment either in a lump sum, line of credit, monthly or a combination from a lender instead of making a monthly mortgage payment.

As the loan increases, the amount of equity in the home decreases. Payment is due when the borrower dies, no longer lives in the home or it is sold. Throughout the course of the loan, the borrower must continue to pay property taxes, housing insurance and properly maintain the house.

To qualify, applicants must be at least 62 years old and the home used to secure the mortgage must be the primary residence.

Many who received reverse mortgages are now running into problems because of not understanding conditions of the program, such as maintaining homeowners insurance and paying property taxes and are now may lose their home as a result.

"A growing number are at risk of defaulting," she said.

Borrowers use the money to pay for a number of expenses.

According to the AARP, 50 percent use the funds for everyday expenses; 47 percent for home repair and 28 percent for health and disability expenses.

Applicants have their choice of three reverse mortgage types: Single Purpose, Proprietary and Home Equity Conversion, the latter being the most popular. HECM's are backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees those federally approved lenders will meet their obligations.

Different loans have different fees attached as well as terms.

As part of their closing costs, applicants are required to receive loan counseling, which is done on a case-by-case basis.

"The challenging thing about reverse mortgages is there are a lot of factors to take into consideration when advising a person such as what the home is worth, what their health looks like, whether the home is suitable for aging in place and if it's realistic to manage as expenses increase," White said.

In addition, advisers must look at the individual's short- and long-term goals and other financial situations that will impact the amount of money they need. They also address what the person will do once the money runs out and how they will continue to pay taxes, maintain the home and homeowners insurance.

After receiving advisement, many people decide to sell their home or transfer into a different living situation instead of receiving a reverse mortgage because they get a chance to look at the big picture, she said.

Applicants do have a number of rights, especially with tougher government regulations within the industry.

After signing, individuals have the right of rescission within three days of closing to cancel the mortgage without penalty.

In addition, the federal Truth in Lending Act requires lenders to disclose costs and terms of reverse mortgages, including the Annual Percentage Rate and payment terms.

Individuals who are over age 60 who need general legal advice regarding housing issues can call Elder Law of Michigan's free legal hotline at 1-800-347-5297 or the National Council on Aging at 1-800-510-0301.

© Copyright 2012 The News Herald

Photograph is for illustration purposes only
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USA: Myth - You Should Have a Bowel Movement Every Day

2012-01-22T17:53:00.000+05:30

NEW YORK, NY / WebMD / Health / Digestive Disorders / January 22, 2012

Myths and Facts About Constipation

What's "normal" varies from person to person. Some people go three times a day; others, three times a week. Although having a bowel movement once a day is common, it's fine to go a few days without one. Constipation means having fewer than three bowel movements per week. You're considered severely constipated if you have fewer than one movement a week. Seek medical help for sudden constipation or constipation that lasts more than two weeks. Click to see more of this slide show

© 2011 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
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SINGAPORE: Tossing Prosperity Salad in Hindu Temple To Fete Chinese New Year!

2012-01-22T09:00:00.000+05:30

SINGAPORE / The Straits Times / January 22, 2012

Seniors Usher in the New Year

Senior citizens tossing yusheng at a Chinese New Year lunch hosted by
Sri Mariamman Temple yesterday. The 105 guests were treated to an
eight-course vegetarian lunch as well as multiracial song performances
and a lion dance. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

A group of senior citizens gathered on Saturday afternoon to usher in the Chinese New Year with mandarin oranges, hongbao and vegetarian yusheng (prosperity salad).

But what made this celebration unusual was that it was held in an Indian temple. The Sri Mariamman Temple, located in the heart of Chinatown, had invited 105 less fortunate senior citizens to drop in for a reunion lunch celebration.

This is the 10th time that the temple has been hosting this yearly event. Those invited on Saturday included members of the Kreta Ayer Seniors Activity Centre and residents of the Meranti, Banyan and Tembusu welfare homes.

'This event is significant to our residents... Whenever we tell them about it, we can see from their expressions that they are interested,' said Banyan Home nursing aid worker Dave Deguzman, 33.

Copyright © 2012 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
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USA: Just why exercise is so good for people is, at last, being understood

2012-01-21T06:30:00.000+05:30

LONDON, England / The Economist / Science & Technology / January 21, 2012

Exercise and longevity
Worth all the sweat

ONE sure giveaway of quack medicine is the claim that a product can treat any ailment. There are, sadly, no panaceas. But some things come close, and exercise is one of them. As doctors never tire of reminding people, exercise protects against a host of illnesses, from heart attacks and dementia to diabetes and infection.

How it does so, however, remains surprisingly mysterious. But a paper just published in Nature by Beth Levine of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre and her colleagues sheds some light on the matter.

Dr Levine and her team were testing a theory that exercise works its magic, at least in part, by promoting autophagy. This process, whose name is derived from the Greek for “self-eating”, is a mechanism by which surplus, worn-out or malformed proteins and other cellular components are broken up for scrap and recycled.

To carry out the test, Dr Levine turned to those stalwarts of medical research, genetically modified mice. Her first batch of rodents were tweaked so that their autophagosomes—structures that form around components which have been marked for recycling—glowed green. After these mice had spent half an hour on a treadmill, she found that the number of autophagosomes in their muscles had increased, and it went on increasing until they had been running for 80 minutes.

To find out what, if anything, this exercise-boosted autophagy was doing for mice, the team engineered a second strain that was unable to respond this way. Exercise, in other words, failed to stimulate their recycling mechanism. When this second group of modified mice were tested alongside ordinary ones, they showed less endurance and had less ability to take up sugar from their bloodstreams.

There were longer-term effects, too. In mice, as in people, regular exercise helps prevent diabetes. But when the team fed their second group of modified mice a diet designed to induce diabetes, they found that exercise gave no protection at all.

Dr Levine and her team reckon their results suggest that manipulating autophagy may offer a new approach to treating diabetes. And their research is also suggestive in other ways. Autophagy is a hot topic in medicine, as biologists have come to realise that it helps protect the body from all kinds of ailments.

The virtues of recycling

Autophagy is an ancient mechanism, shared by all eukaryotic organisms (those which, unlike bacteria, keep their DNA in a membrane-bound nucleus within their cells). It probably arose as an adaptation to scarcity of nutrients. Critters that can recycle parts of themselves for fuel are better able to cope with lean times than those that cannot. But over the past couple of decades, autophagy has also been shown to be involved in things as diverse as fighting bacterial infections and slowing the onset of neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases.

Most intriguingly of all, it seems that it can slow the process of ageing. Biologists have known for decades that feeding animals near-starvation diets can boost their lifespans dramatically. Dr Levine was a member of the team which showed that an increased level of autophagy, brought on by the stress of living in a constant state of near-starvation, was the mechanism responsible for this life extension.

The theory is that what are being disposed of in particular are worn-out mitochondria. These structures are a cell’s power-packs. They are where glucose and oxygen react together to release energy. Such reactions, though, often create damaging oxygen-rich molecules called free radicals, which are thought to be one of the driving forces of ageing. Getting rid of wonky mitochondria would reduce free-radical production and might thus slow down ageing.

A few anti-ageing zealots already subsist on near-starvation diets, but Dr Levine’s results suggest a similar effect might be gained in a much more agreeable way, via vigorous exercise. The team’s next step is to test whether boosted autophagy can indeed explain the life-extending effects of exercise. That will take a while. Even in animals as short-lived as mice, she points out, studying ageing is a long-winded process. But she is sufficiently confident about the outcome that she has, in the meantime, bought herself a treadmill.

Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2012.
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USA: How The Flamingos Work Out!

2012-01-21T05:00:00.000+05:30

FORT WORTH, Texas / Star-Telegram / Health / January 20, 2012

Courtesy: The Flamingos

Name of group: The Flamingos

Type of workout: Stretching and balancing exercises based on the Faithfully Fit program.

Who's in the group: Senior citizens at University Christian Church in Fort Worth.

How often they meet: Monday, Wednesday and Friday; church members take turns leading the class.

Where the group meets: At the church.

What they do: The group uses elastic bands, weights and other tools when exercising to improve fitness and, most of all, balance. They call themselves the Flamingos because standing on one leg for a minute is part of their workout routine.

Why they do it: "We have lots of fun and laughter, and we are getting fit for life," said class regular Susan Smith of Fort Worth.

-- Jan Jarvis

Copyrighted by Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Seniors World Chronicle's Fascinating Face of Aging for January 21, 2012

2012-01-20T23:37:00.005+05:30

Swedish Poet Tomas Transtromer, 80, winner of 2011 Nobel for Literature, who
"gives us fresh access to reality through his condensed, translucent images."
Two of his works - The Half-Finished Heaven and New and Collected Poems -
were recommended by the Nobel Prize Committee. Reuters / The AtlanticWire
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USA: Dignity therapy allows terminally ill patients to recount lives

2012-01-20T23:22:00.000+05:30

SEATTLE, Washington / The Seattle Times / Health /January 19, 2012

Dignity therapy on upswing

By Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Peyton "Pete" Dralle wasted little time after he learned doctors could do no more to treat his throat cancer. He took spur-of-the-moment trips, got his affairs in order and, when he finally agreed to care at San Diego Hospice, he documented his life story.

Digital Vision

Using a technique called dignity therapy, psychologist Lori Montross interviewed Dralle five months before his death about meaningful life moments, lessons he'd learned and those he wished to pass on to loved ones. She transcribed their audio recordings, then read the transcript aloud to Dralle, who edited it to his liking.

The resulting 14-page "legacy document" was bundled into a leather binder for him to bequeath to whomever he pleased.

Dralle's longtime partner, Lisa Amparan, remembers the sense of importance Dralle felt in being able to contribute something in his ailing state, and the relief he felt when it was finished, as though he'd gotten something off his plate.

"He got to tell his own story in his own words, and no one had to tell it for him," said Amparan, 48, who this month marks the anniversary of Dralle's death. She keeps the binder, which she decorated with photos, on a bedroom bookshelf, and leafs through it when she misses him most.

Dignity therapy, an exercise that aims to give terminally ill patients a sense of meaning, closure and posterity in their final days, has experienced a surge of interest recently thanks to research showing it improves quality of life more effectively than other methods of end-of-life care.

A study published this summer in the journal Lancet Oncology found patients who underwent dignity therapy were significantly more likely to report enhanced sense of dignity, better spiritual well-being and feeling more helpful to their families than those who underwent standard palliative care or client-centered care, which is when clinicians work one-on-one with a patient on current issues.

Earlier studies have shown dignity therapy also provides comfort to grieving families.

Study author Dr. Harvey Chochinov, a Canadian psychiatrist who developed the technique a decade ago and holds annual training sessions in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said he added training sessions this year in San Diego and Australia to accommodate rising demand. In December he published "Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days," the first book to lay out a blueprint for his technique.

Although hospices for decades have engaged patients in reflective "life review," what distinguishes dignity therapy is that it provides training and a framework for helping patients produce a tangible legacy document, and there's empirical evidence that it's beneficial, said J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

"I think it's a very, very, very notable and useful technique, and I hope it does get adopted by many of the practitioners out there," Schumacher said.

Although published research on the effectiveness of dignity therapy has so far focused on patients with less than six months to live, a forthcoming study on the frail elderly shows similar outcomes, plus benefit to the health care workers who care for them, Chochinov said.

Chochinov, a psychiatry professor at the University of Manitoba, said he was inspired to learn more about the role of dignity in end-of-life care because Dutch studies had found "loss of dignity" to be the most frequently cited reason terminally ill patients pursued euthanasia to hasten death.

A host of factors can undermine dignity as people succumb to illness, including a loss of personhood, a loss of purpose and, prominently, perceiving themselves to not be appreciated by others, Chochinov said. Often there is fear that their lives won't have a ripple effect.

By asking probing questions — "When did you feel most alive" "Are there specific things you want your family to know about you?" — trained dignity therapists aim to capture what really makes a person tick. They also focus on generativity, a psychological term that describes the desire to guide the next generation.

"You can be in conversations with people where they may in essence be speaking to great-great-grandchildren they will never meet," said Montross, who trained with Chochinov and now is assistant director of the Palliative Care Psychiatry Research Program at the Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice.

Unlike a lot of psychotherapy, which pushes people to confront painful issues of their past, dignity therapy meets people where they are, so they can address the topics they consider most pertinent and write their own stories.

Sometimes the conversations are heartbreaking. Chochinov remembers an elderly patient who said it was too late to ask for forgiveness after drinking away his relationships, but he wanted his grandchildren to know who he had been so that they could choose better paths. Another dying man wanted his wife to know it was OK with him if she fell in love with someone new.

Sometimes reconciliation is more important than facts. Montross remembers a patient who said nasty things about his estranged sister during their interview, but upon hearing his words read back to him, he revised his comments to be kinder.

Strikingly, the most prominent topic that graces every conversation is love, Montross and colleagues found in a study on the logistics of implementing dignity therapy in hospice communities, published last year in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Another universal theme was lessons learned in life, the most common being to accept and acknowledge one's own imperfections, Montross said.

Dralle's parting thoughts may have left a greater ripple than he realized.

"To be honest," said Montross, who spent 10 hours interviewing Dralle, "he held more grace in his dying 90-pound frame than men twice his size or half his age."

Can family help?

While everyone should be encouraged to have meaningful conversations with loved ones, dignity therapy is a technique designed for trained professionals who can handle emotionally intense interviews and respond appropriately if a patient's sentiments are potentially hurtful to others, said its creator, Dr. Harvey Chochinov.

Not all patients should participate, Chochinov said. People who are so ill that it is affecting their cognition, or who are so severely depressed that it is warping their perceptions of themselves and their past, should not undergo dignity therapy because they could create distorted memories.

You may also be interested in reading:

For the Dying A Chance to Rewrite Life

Kate Frego pins the turban of her mother, Aida Essenburg. Before Essenburg
died in July of this year, she sat down with a dignity therapist to record
the history of her life in what became a 50-page document.
Courtesy of Kate Frego

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USA: It’s never too late to send a bad guy to prison.

2012-01-20T17:13:00.000+05:30

CHICAGO / Chicago Sun-Times / Editorial / January 19, 2012

Justice can’t let senior citizens off the hook

Joseph Jerry “The Monk” Scalise leaves court
in January 2011. He pleaded guilty this week
to planning to rob an armored car.
John H. White~Sun-Times

It’s never too late to send a bad guy to prison. The rehabilitation value goes out the window when we lock up an old geezer like Joseph Jerry “The Monk” Scalise. The Monk started lifting other people’s stuff when he was just a tyke. Now in his mid-70s, he’s not about to see the light of goodness.

It’s a good idea to lock him up anyway if it encourages the next graying career crook to consider the joys of retirement. Nobody should get points because he looks like Grandpa.

The Monk on Wednesday pleaded guilty to mob racketeering and such. He faces up to nine years in prison. He admitted to charges that he and two other elderly gents plotted to rob an armored car and the home of a dead mob boss. Their theory, not so crazy in these circles, was that the mob boss had hid money in the walls.

Scalise first gained fame in 1980 when he and a pal, Arthur “The Genius” Rachel — now 73 and one of those accused with The Monk of plotting the recent robberies — stole a famous gem, the Marlborough Diamond, from a London jewelry store.

Scalise got 13 years for that one, but never said what happened to the diamond.

Maybe if The Monk talks now, the judge can cut him a deal — no less prison time, but a subscription to AARP magazine, delivered to his cell.

© 2011 Sun-Times Media, LLC.
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BRAZIL: Women Take Power in Brazilian Government

2012-01-19T23:54:00.000+05:30

BERLIN, Germany / Der Spiegel International / January 19, 2012

Rousseff's Gender Revolution

By Jens Glüsing in Brasília

Dilma Rousseff, 63. Photo courtesy: L'Express.fr

Brazil's new president, Dilma Rousseff, has quickly stepped out of the shadow of her charismatic predecessor Lula. After one year in office, she is more popular than any former president was at this stage. She has surrounded herself with powerful women, who are now calling the shots in Brasília. The epicenter of Brazilian power can be found on the fourth floor of the Palacio do Planalto in Brasília, the nation's capital.....Rousseff is the first female head of state of Latin America's largest country.

To read the full report click here
Translated from the German by Jan Liebelt

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2012
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USA: Budget includes pitch for aging offender facility

2012-01-19T23:25:00.000+05:30

ATLANTA / Associated Press / January 18, 2012

Tucked into the $1 billion midyear budget proposal for the corrections department is a novel pitch to convert a shuttered state facility into a nursing home that would house some elderly sex offenders.

Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens said Wednesday that Gov. Nathan Deal's budget proposal calls for $6 million to transform the facility at Bostick State Prison in Milledgeville into a 150-bed nursing home for "medically fragile" inmates.

Owens said sex offenders are expensive as they grow older and nursing homes usually won't admit them.

He said Georgia's pardons board could grant a medical reprieve to some elderly sex offenders and then transfer them to this facility. Owens said the medical provider contracted to the facility would then use Medicaid funding rather than state corrections money to provide care.

AUSTRALIA: Delay the aging process

2012-01-19T19:43:00.001+05:30

WHYALLA, South Australia / Whyalla News / Senior Lifestyles / January 19, 2012

Delay the aging process

STRENGTH FOR LIFE: Nan Reid is one of many of the Strength For Life participants.

While many people are reluctant to accept the onset of "old age", there are ways to keep your body in tip top shape and help delay the aging process.

Whyalla Recreation and Leisure Centre offer Strength 4 Life, a group fitness program open to anyone aged over 50 to attend.

The program encourages over 50s to maintain their physical fitness and strength as well as teach them how they can continue to do so for years to come.

The government program cosponsored by the Council of the Aging, uses a formulation of weight training and aerobic work to help individuals maintain and build muscular strength to assist in everyday living tasks.

As people get older, it's important they maintain strength so they can continue to live an independent lifestyle.

Strength training can also improve bone density and balance as well as alleviate other health problems.

Program coordinator and personal trainer John Baker said anyone can join the class even if they are nervous about their fitness levels.

Beginners to the program are assessed for their work out limitations to help them follow a regime suitable to their individual needs.

"You can lose muscle strength but you can get it back again," Mr Baker said.

Currently the class has people of various ages over 50 and from different backgrounds, including some with knee and hip replacements and even osteoporosis.

Read the full report here

Copyright © 2012. Fairfax Media.
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IRAN: Aging and the Necessity of e-Learning in Tehran

2012-01-19T02:41:00.000+05:30

TORONTO, Canada / International Federation On Aging / e-News / January 19, 2012

By Dr. Mohammad Taghi Sheykhi

This paper explores the effects of e-learning on the condition of the elderly in Tehran. The aim of the study, based on interviews with 400 elderly people in different parts of Tehran, was to find out how modern electronic communications such as internet and mobile phones can affect the elderly in Iran.

While those born in mid 1940s are now entering their old age, very few had the chance to acquire computer skills. Therefore, they are currently lagging behind in the digital era. Significant numbers of the elderly across the world suffer from chronic loneliness. This is especially true in the urban areas. Social technology which contributes to enhancing contacts with grandchildren and children, adds to the e-care of the elderly, and their happiness.

Younger age-groups being more e-literate are much more comfortable with technologies such as mobile phones or computer. But, there is still a long way to go to see the elderly in Iran easily using e-instruments and e-Network. Young people must learn how to value the elderly in our society and similarly, the elderly could learn a lot from them through e-education, e-Learning, which would prevent them from social exclusion.

As the number and proportion of the elderly people increase due to high population growth rates of 1960s, the health-care system will be faced with unprecedented age-related issues such as shortage of e-education, social stigma and low status, employment issues, transport or medical treatment are highly problematic for the elderly people in Tehran and Iran in general.

To read the whole paper click Here

Source: International Federation on Ageing

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UK: No funding crisis in social care, says minister

2012-01-18T17:57:00.001+05:30

LONDON, England / The Guardian / Social Care / January 17, 2012

Government accused of burying its head in the sand after Paul Burstow says funding shortfall should have been closed

By David Brindle

Paul Burstow said there 'need not be a gap' in social care funding. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Charities and council leaders have reacted with disbelief after a government minister said there was no crisis of funding in the social caresystem and no identifiable gap between the needs of elderly and disabled people and what the state provides.

Paul Burstow, the care services minister, told the Commons health select committee that the government had taken sufficient steps to ensure that a funding shortfall inherited by the coalition had been closed.

"There is no gap in the current spending review period on the basis of the money that we are putting in plus efficiency gains through local authorities redesigning services," the minister said. If councils failed to pass on the money or to make efficiency gains, that was their choice, he said.

Burstow's comments appear to fly in the face of a widely held assumption that the social care system in England is underfunded and in urgent need of radical reform that would bring in more resources, both from state funding and private savings or insurance.

Cross-party talks on reform have reopened and the government is due to publish in the spring a progress report on its thinking, including a response to the Dilnot commission, which last year called for extra state spending of an initial £1.7bn to help underwrite a revamped system based on a cap of £35,000 on individual lifetime care costs.

Burstow, who arrived at the select committee fresh from the cross-party talks, seemed anxious to play down expectations. He maintained that Dilnot was "not about levering in more state resources" but about "enabling more private wealth to be levered into the system".

The minister agreed that the current system was a "broken model" and unfit for the future, but he denied it was in crisis. After identifying a funding gap, he said, ministers had committed an additional £7.2bn for councils over the next four years. In addition, councils were expected to make efficiency savings of up to 3%. Taken together, the two measures had closed the gap, he said.

Asked about unmet need for care and support, Burstow said there was no reliable or agreed way of calculating numbers of people who could benefit from services but were not getting them. It was "territory to be explored".

Pressed several times by members of the committee, the minister adjusted his position only slightly. He said initially that there "need not be a gap", and later that there "should not be a gap", adding: "But then there is a decision that all local authorities have to make."

Several recent reports have pointed to a continuing shortfall in funding of the social care system, under which most councils restrict services to people whose needs are judged to be "substantial" or "critical".

Independent research for the care services provider Bupa suggested there would be a £286m funding gap in 2012-13.

Oliver Thomas, the UK director of Bupa care homes, said: "We don't see any sign of additional government funding coming through – in fact, some local authorities are pushing to cut fees by as much as 20%."

Carers UK put the funding gap nearer £1bn. Emily Holzhausen, the charity's director of policy, said: "If we had sufficient money in the system we would not be seeing families struggling without basic services."

The Local Government Association, representing councils, accused the government of burying its head in the sand. David Rogers, chairman of its community wellbeing board, said: "It is deeply worrying that despite the best efforts of councils, leading charities and the government's own experts, the message that we are facing a financial crisis still doesn't seem to be getting through."

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USA: Obesity rates remain stubbornly high

2012-01-18T17:14:00.000+05:30

NEW YORK, NY / TIME Magazine / Healthland / January 17, 2012

Obesity rates in America haven't declined in recent years, but it's not all bad news.

By ALICE PARK

David Zaitz

Despite the recent push to improve our diet and get us exercising (thanks, Michelle Obama), national obesity rates haven’t budged much over the past few years, the latest government statistics show.

In 2010, about 35.7% of U.S. adults — nearly 78 million people — were obese. That’s up from 30.5% in 2000, but not much of a difference from 33.7% in 2008.

Does that mean our attempts at healthy living — giving up the French fries and sodas, and logging endless miles on the treadmill — have been for nothing? Not quite. Public health experts say that it may be too soon to see an actual decline in obesity rates, since the nation’s efforts to slim down began relatively recently. And while it would be encouraging to see obesity rates in the U.S. start to dip, experts say the current data are still inspiring — at least the U.S. isn’t getting fatter overall.

The latest report, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which surveys a representative sample of the U.S. population on a number of health measures, including height and weight. Body mass index (BMI), which is used to determine obesity (a BMI of over 30 is considered obese), is then calculated from these readings. The statistics are collected and released every two years.

The researchers, led by Katherine Flegal and Cynthia Ogden at the NCHS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that between 1960 and 1980, U.S. obesity rates remained relatively stable. Between the 1976-80 and 1988-94 surveys, obesity increased by 8%, then rose again between that time and 1999-2000. Between 1999 and 2008, the rates started to level off.

That plateau continued in the most recent survey, which included data from 2009-10. But the flattening of the curve hides some interesting trends that are worth noting and may help identify segments of the population that are struggling most with weight. In the 1999-2000 survey, more women than men were obese, but by 2009-10, the rate of obesity was almost identical among the sexes. In 2010, 35.5% of men were obese, up from 27.5% in 2000. About 35.7% of women were also obese in 2010, roughly the same rate as in 2000. “Men have caught up to women with respect to their prevalence of obesity,” says Ogden. “We continue to see an inching up of obesity among males.”

The same shift was true among teens: obesity in teen boys increased between 1999-2000 and 2009-10, while the rate among girls remained about the same. That trend largely fueled the overall increase in obesity in children and adolescents aged 2 to 19, from 13.9% in 2000 to 16.9%, or nearly 13 million, today. Overall, however, like in adults, the teen obesity rate has showed a leveling off over the past few years; the current rate has been holding steady since 2007-08.

The fact that the obesity rates aren’t declining doesn’t mean that public health programs promoting healthier diets and more physical activity aren’t working, or that our individual efforts to shed pounds are in vain. Dr. William Dietz, director of the division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity at the CDC, says the latest statistics do represent progress. He compares anti-obesity efforts to those designed to reduce smoking, which began in the 1950s with the first reports that smoking could cause cancer. Cigarette use remained flat for the first 10 to 15 years, before finally starting to decline in the 1980s, when policy-based initiatives, such as cigarette taxes and smoking bans in public areas, were put in place.

“I believe we’re not yet at the place with obesity where tobacco was when cigarette use started to drop,” says Dietz. “Nutrition programs and physical activity efforts have only just begun to kick in, and haven’t had much time to operate. It takes time before the effects of policy change begin to show benefit in terms of behavior changes.”

Dietz believes it’s too early to expect the obesity epidemic to start reversing itself, but is confident that continued efforts not only to educate, but also to make it easier for Americans to eat healthy and exercise more will ultimately lead to a downturn in the obesity curve. That’s especially true for subgroups of Americans, including men and teen boys as well as African-American and Mexican-American women, who showed increases in obesity over the past 12 years.

© 2012 Time Inc.
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

CZECH REPUBLIC: 22,000 attended third-age varsities in 2011

2012-01-18T17:03:00.000+05:30

PRAGUE, Czech Republic / Prague Daily Monitor / January 18, 2012

Some 22,000 people studied at Czech universities of the third age in the 10.5 million Czech Republic last year, Petr Vavrin, chairman of the Association of Universities of the Third Age (AU3V), told CTK on the sidelines of a conference on active aging held in the Senate yesterday.

He said the people attended 912 courses that some 20 public universities and faculties offered them.

Vavrin said elderly people's interest in education is rising, yet they only constitute 1 percent of 2.4 million old-age pensioners.

He said third-age universities registered a total of 33,712 students in the past academic year 2010/11, but the real number is lower because some of them attended two and more branches.

Vavrin pointed to the need to spread seniors' education from large towns to the countryside.

He said some universities have workplaces in regions where third-age university courses could also be organised.

Another opportunity is e-learning that has already started to be applied at the universities of the third age.

"Politicians should realise that the seniors sitting in university benches cost the state less money than those who are sitting at the doctor's," Martin Solc, from the AU3V, said.

Experts say investment in elderly people's education benefits the state because it keeps them fit and encourages their activities.

Besides, they are capable of using Internet banking, mobile telephones, digital photo cameras, and other modern equipment.

The first universities of the third age were opened in the Czech Republic in the academic year 1986/87.

IRELAND: Aengus Fanning, editor of Ireland's Sunday Independent, dies aged 69

2012-01-18T16:17:00.000+05:30

LONDON, England / The Guardian / Media / January 17, 2012

Journalist who headed Ireland's most successful newspaper
passes away in Dublin after long battle with cancer

By Henry McDonald

Aengus Fanning, the long-serving Sunday Independent editor, who has died aged 69.
Photograph: Sunday Independent/PA

The editor of Ireland's most successful weekend newspaper, the Sunday Independent, has died.

Aengus Fanning passed away on Tuesday in Dublin after a long battle with cancer. He was 69.

The Kerry-born journalist had steered the Sunday Independent to become the leading paper in the Irish Sunday market.

With its mixture of showbiz, politics and well-known opinion writers, the paper maintained a readership close to one million even during recession, making it the country's most successful paper over a generation.

Fanning had worked for Sir Tony O'Reilly's newspaper group,Independent News & Media, for more than 40 years. He edited the Sunday Independent for 28 of them, making him Ireland's longest-serving newspaper editor.

Among the journalists who worked for him was Veronica Guerin, the campaigning journalist shot dead by Dublin gangsters in 1996. Fanning became an adviser to the movie company that made a film about Guerin's life and death which starred Cate Blanchett.

Fanning had played for the Kerry Gaelic football minor team in his teens but was also a keen cricket fan and a regular at Lord's. He played the clarinet with a Dublin-based jazz band.

Under his editorship the Sunday Independent took an uncompromising stance against the IRA and Sinn Fein, and was unapologetically pro-business/free market in its outlook. Born in Tralee, his mother was a Presbyterian schoolteacher – an unusual background for someone from Kerry.

Fanning was on first name terms with successive Irish prime ministers such as John Bruton and Bertie Ahern, who often wrote for the newspaper.

USA: Aging and Life Quality: What Does the Future Hold?

2012-01-18T08:28:00.000+05:30

NEW YORK, NY / Scientific American / Blogs / January 17, 2012

GUEST BLOG
By Reut Rory Cohen

The first thing one would notice about Lulu is her smile. “Hello, dear, when is your party?” Lucille “Lulu” Weinstein beams at me. “I need to decide what to wear. What are you going to wear to the party? A blue dress or a pink one?”

Lucille "Lulu" Weinstein

Lulu’s effervescent and undeniably sweet personality easily charms. She’s the kind of lady who wants to have a nice time and look good doing it. The 87 year old who likes to put on lipstick and pull back her hair into a neat twist suffers from Alzheimer’s. It’s a chronic disease marked by bouts of confusion and a rather frightening sense of losing one’s identity.

Alzheimer’s leads Lulu to jump from asking about the weather to discussing a party she’s made up in her head. Lulu, a patient at Carmel Board and Care, California, is lucky. She’s cheerful and gentle, and has been placed by her loving family in a top nursing facility whose employees care for all of her basic needs as well as her emotional ones. She has a constant stream of visitors and is generally happy.

Many Americans, those who cannot afford first-rate private care, are not so lucky.

Americans 65 years or older were numbered at 39.6 million in 2009, making up 12.9 percent of the U.S. population or about one in every eight Americans. That number will increase, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is estimated that about 72.1 million older persons will make up the 65 plus age bracket by 2030. With a rising aging population comes a growing demand for special care facilities. Living longer means that diseases become long-term and chronic, and services are more expensive as people spend more time in facilities. Not everyone will be able to afford private care and will eventually come to rely on social welfare—but can governmental services, city and federal alike, cope with demands?

Unless one has had to navigate tricky geriatrics services for an elderly loved one, they don’t usually consider the ramifications of getting older. Los Angeles, after all, is often perceived as the land of perpetual youth, both by California residents and tourists. The Sunset Strip is filled with aspiring models and actors, some beyond their prime, perfectly coiffed, with sprayed on tans and a disconcerting, overabundance of face-lifts. There is an understandable sense of trepidation people feel about aging, so it’s hardly surprising so many of us try to delay it as long as possible. But there is no way to ignore, however, that the Baby Boomers have begun to collect benefits while taking advantage of already economically strained health and social services.

“There seems to be a sort of fear, if you will, of aging,” said Valentine Villa, a California State Los Angeles Social Work professor and the director of the Applied Gerontology Institute. “In aggregate we are doing better in terms of health, in terms of socioeconomic status. We’ve been living longer.”

The issues that surround aging are complicated. For example, there are shortcomings as certain demographics have a higher likelihood of age-related problems evident in Los Angeles.

“We see disparities, racial disparities, among African-American women in particular and among African-American and Latino children,” said Karen Lincoln, associate director of the USC Roybal Institute.

The ailments are both genetic and linked to culture or socioeconomic situations, such as food culture and the realities of poverty. They can lead to higher instances of problems ranging from diabetes to obesity—ailments that are more prevalent among ethnic communities in Los Angeles. As people live longer, many more are now becoming old enough to suffer from chronic illnesses like Alzheimer’s.

“Latinos, African Americans, some Asian and Native Americans don’t do as well as non-Hispanic whites,” said Villa.

Beyond demographic concerns exists challenges that health care providers will face as aging populations experience more long-term, debilitating illnesses that will require around-the-clock care. “A lot of those people who would have died of heart attacks are now [suffering from] Alzheimer’s that they would never have got because they would have died early,” said Kelvin Davies, professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and an expert in Alzheimer’s. “We used to have more coronary care units… that was the shining star of hospitals twenty years ago.”

Davies’ research looks at why people age, focusing on Alzheimer’s and other age-related ailments. His latest study published in August in the Journals of Gerontology found that Lon protease, an enzyme, or a substance that increases the rate of a reaction is mobilized less frequently as a cell ages. When Lon protease isn’t called on as frequently, cells are less protected from oxidative damage, such as peroxides and free radicals, which cause damage to a cell.

Davies and his research team exposed cells to various oxidative stresses, such as ozone, hydrogen peroxide, pesticides and herbicides and other toxins. In experiments, some of which used human lung cells, Lon production increased to fight oxidation. The process can be likened to rusting or food spoiling. “You find that if you give cells the right opportunity, cells adapt,” said Kelvin Davies, professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. “They adapt by changing their gene expression which means that they start making more of some proteins and less of others.”

Scientists believe Lon protease protects mitochondria, organelles that transform oxygen to energy. With the decrease of Lon production, mitochondria function starts to deteriorate. Older cells don’t have that same ability to adapt to environments that cause damage, however, so they ultimately die.

“What we think is going on is that this is part of a normal, adaptive response that all cells have,” explained Davies. Davies’ research shows that as people age they are less able to cope with stresses ranging from physical, such as chronic illness, to psychological, such as Alzheimer’s. In Alzheimer’s the process of Lon protease can be compared to soldiers in a war. Oxidants are warded off or endured because of the mobilized Lon. Older cells, however, take longer to produce Lon in experiments. The longer it takes cells to mobilize Lon, the more a cell has to cope with oxidation which eventually kills it.

“If you disable Lon protease, if you genetically modify [Lon protease] or if you decrease the rate of a cells’ production of Lon protease, the cells are particularly sensitive to oxidation stress and typically die,” said Davies.

Davies’ findings can help scientists to better understand the aging process and in the future could direct medicine to new diets and drugs that improve the quality of life. Researchers could potentially find treatments that would increase the productivity and function of Lon protease. No current treatment, including much-advertised, over-the-counter supplements that contain enzymes, is capable of increasing Lon productivity, according to Davies. He is also cautious about exaggerating the research.

“We understand very little about the aging process,” said Davies. Scientists first need to understand better what changes in aging and what contributes to the aging process, and understand that current research is not going to provide an immediate remedy for chronic, age-related diseases. Davies says current treatments aren’t promising and notes that the future for Alzheimer’s patients looks bleak. “Unless somebody comes up with something for Alzheimer’s then we’re going to need an awful lot of care facilities because people are just not able to cope in their own homes all the way through the disease,” said Davies.

Health care dollars will go to these new facilities for chronic care where a patient may sometimes spend years. And, for those who rely on programs like Medicaid, care and equipment winds up being an expensive taxpayer burden.

“It’s not their fault, but we need to do something about coping with that,” argued Davies.

Organizations like the Department of Aging are concerned about rising numbers of chronic illnesses, especially in light of the U.S. Census Bureau’s newly released numbers which show a record 46.2 million Americans—1 out of every 6 people—are living in poverty today. “The only word for it is grim,” said Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a September report.

Los Angeles’ Department of Aging is particularly focused on “low income, socially isolated” senior citizens who require more assistance, according to Laura Trejo, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Aging.

“We are keeping a watchful eye so people are not falling through the cracks,” said Trejo. The organization provides support to senior citizens and disabled individuals that include transportation, especially for disabled citizens, and a daily nutritious meal for senior citizens who are disadvantaged.

As more people find themselves out of work and facing poverty, the City of Los Angeles could see an increase in residents who seek public services of which plenty have been cut due to budget woes. Los Angeles’ Department of Recreation and Parks which provides senior citizens with centers has lost two sites, said Carolyn James, principal recreation supervisor. Park services for the elderly keep individuals, especially more independent seniors, engaged. They give seniors a place to gather and hold events—to socialize. In Los Angeles and throughout the state, budget cuts have threatened public programs such as these.

The Department of Aging has fared better, but they, too, “have been impacted in loss of city resources,” according to Trejo. The organization’s budget is made up of federal and state grant funding from the Older Americans Act, the Older Californians Act, and the Medi-Cal program.

For the first time since WWII, nearly 1 in 5 young adults are at risk for living in poverty. This number is the highest jobless rate for young adults since WWII.

It could also have larger implications as people move back in with their parents or grandparents suddenly find themselves contributing to their children and grandchildren’s households. According to experts these seniors often contribute their social security and pensions to their children and grandchildren.

With city services already stretched to the limit, the private sector sometimes offers a better alternative in terms of quality. “The private sector has managed to help,” said Phoebe Liebig, associate professor of Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Liebig notes private services, financed and run by businesses or religious groups, which include care facilities and programs for senior citizens.

MCL Medical, a company that supplies several for-profit facilities with adult diapers and nutrition formulas for elderly patients, has had to navigate governmental bureaucracy that pervades the Medi-Cal program. “Not only does Medi-Cal not pay providers but they do not provide patients with adequate services,” said Ofer Elkayam, president of MCL Medical. “They use subpar adult diapers, for example, which often lead to bed sores when they aren’t changed frequently enough.” Elkayam has worked with senior citizens in some capacity for more than two decades. “You cannot ever forget that you are dealing with people,” he said. “It could be our parents, it could be us there.”

At Carmel Board and Care Elkayam’s wife, Edva, oversees eight privately run health facilities in the San Fernando Valley, each house boasting three full-time caregivers for every six patients. “Families of our patients want peace of mind and we give it to them,” said Edva Elkayam. “Always you let your patients feel that you understand them.” The nursing facilities under the Carmel umbrella offer a private trainer specialized for the elderly, gourmet-style meals and regular activities designed to keep patients engaged. Unlike most facilities, Carmel doesn’t keep to a visiting hours schedule but instead implements an open-door policy so family members can visit loved ones at any reasonable hour.

Patients like Lulu are happy here and are loved by the staff. “Did you meet my Lulu?” Florence Ormilla, a house manager for one of Carmel’s homes in Woodland Hills, asked me. Ormilla is responsible for everything from administering medication to making sure patients, who she likens to her grandparents, aren’t bored.

“I left the Philippines…but found my inner peace and contentment that I’m doing my part,” said Ormilla. “I am their granddaughter now, I take care of them.”

Health care facilities are filled with many well-intentioned individuals, but many lack these same resources. Whereas Lulu has constant engagement, those individuals living in poorer quality facilities—including some public nursing centers—face poorer care and less one-on-one interaction. Although it is impossible to know how bad it is, several reports document that at least one in ten patients have reportedly been abused in nursing institutions. Most crimes go undetected, according to the national Center on Elder Abuse. Mistreatment of elders can range from physical and sexual abuse to psychological harm and abandonment.

In 2008 a five star rating system was adopted by President George W. Bush to help evaluate cost of treatment as well as to bring scrutiny to failing facilities. But not everyone has saved for retirement or is able to afford best treatment. And many who have paid into individual retirement arrangements have also lost funds with the recent market downturn.

Some experts say current programs, like Social Security and MediCare, will have to play a big part in the solution even though they may need some reform. “Yes, there will be shortfalls,” said Villa, “but we can do things to change this.” Others are less optimistic about the future of social security. When social security was introduced by FDR there were 163 people working for every one person receiving it. By 1950 there were about 15.3 people working for every recipient. Within the next 15 years there will be two people working for every recipient. In 1940, when the average life expectancy was 60 years of age, the retirement age was set at 65. Today the average life expectancy is about 82 and the retirement age is still 65. The current system is not sustainable (But see).

“There’s a larger population that is going to have to rely on social security with fewer people paying into that system,” said Lincoln. “You’re going to have this huge population of people who are receiving the benefits and fewer people paying into it,” said Lincoln. “That’s just a recipe for disaster. I’m not sure how we can sustain this system.” It isn’t just the poor who rely on social security because people from all segments of society collect their benefits—but with a limited pool the funds are not indefinite. “I’m not sure what we can do for those who are retiring now, but certainly we need to begin to think about how to prepare people for retirement,” explained Lincoln.

One method could combine social security with other types of funds, while at the same time educating people about retirement. Experts agree social security just won’t be enough, especially with more people taking advantage of the program.

Given a choice most people—understandably—prefer to age in their own homes. Eventually, however, the best intentioned of families may need to place a mother, father or grandparent in care. It isn’t an easy decision either emotionally or financially. The care, after all, is costly—in excess of $3,500 a month at the best of facilities. Insurance typically only covers a portion of that. It’s unclear how our society will cope with changing aging demographics, especially in light of current economic turmoil the nation faces. What is clear is that conversations about aging need to take place so that people are aware of the limitations of social security and city services. Reports indicate that Americans save less and spend more—ultimately it will be this that will create a perfect storm as people live even longer and find that they need to rely on flawed, untenable programs.

Images by author

Reut R. Cohen is a journalist with a special interest in gerontology and public health. Her work has been published with several publications and organizations, including Annenberg Digital News, CAMERA, KCET, the Middle East Forum, and Pajamas Media. Her broadcasts have appeared on PJTV.com. Reut graduated from the University of California, Irvine with distinguished honors, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English. Presently she is pursuing a Master's degree at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in the field of Broadcast Journalism. Her Twitter handle is @ReutRCohen. You can also visit her website at www.reutrcohen.com. Follow on Twitter @ReutRCohen.

© 2012 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Twitter - The Hashtag Revolution

2012-01-18T07:53:00.000+05:30

LONDON, England / Reuters Magazine / Egypt / January 17, 2012

Twitter is Google and Facebook's tabloid cousin: loud and freewheeling, light on rules, heavy on sensational hard news

By Jonathan Weber

In just five years , Twitter has evolved from a 140-character punch line into a universal, all-purpose newswire, free and open to almost anyone, throbbing with the pulse of the planet in real time. It's where Newt Gingrich announced his presidential run, Prince William announced his engagement, and where the killing of Osama bin Laden was old news by the time President Obama announced it on television. If you're watching or taking part in a political protest - be it in Tahrir Square or downtown Manhattan - Twitter is where you have to be: faster than CNN, more credible than Fox News, and uniquely able to invite you to both follow the news and report it too.

Twitter is, of course, much more than a headline news wire. For many of its 100 million users around the world, it is primarily a source of diversion and occasional amusement. Nor is it alone as the creator of a new kind of global electronic conversation: Google and Facebook, Tumblr and Wordpress, and much of the rest of the global communications industry are among those reinventing the way the world communicates about its daily intrigues, be they prosaic or horrific.

But if the basic purpose (or "use case," as techies like to say) for Facebook is sharing a picture of your kid or "friending" the cute girl in your chemistry class, the use case for Twitter is to get the word out: I have a new job! The police are pepper-spraying us! The big rally is happening downtown at 10:00! Beyonce is pregnant! Steve Jobs is dead!

And you don't even need a computer; just about any cell phone will do.

Like many Internet media companies, Twitter positions itself as a platform - a utility-like entity that provides a set of tools for people to use as they see fit.

Unlike Time Warner or The New York Times or Reuters, Twitter is not a "content creator," to use the vernacular. Rather it is a proud democratizer of content creation, neutral as to the substance of digital bits of information but open to anyone who has something to say. Twitter doesn't report the news; rather, people report or retransmit the news on it.

As the reach of Twitter and the other Internet media companies extends across the globe, though, it's becoming apparent that they are not just enablers of communication, they are publishers, wrestling with classic publishing problems. They make decisions about what types of words and pictures are suitable, they determine how to respond to would-be government censors, they struggle with how to organize information in a useful fashion, and they even worry about how to handle advertising in a way that doesn't alienate customers.

While Google seems a bit New York Times-ian (smart, thorough, reliable, and a little arrogant) and Facebook tends toward People magazine or USA Today (something for everyone, clean and generic, more concerned with the softer side of life), Twitter is their tabloid cousin: loud and freewheeling, light on rules, heavy on sensational hard news, encouraging risk and experimentation.

In spite of that - or perhaps because of it - Twitter has become one of the most important news purveyors of the 21st century.

Continue reading here

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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Researchers Identify Risk Factors for Older Adults Who Develop Long-Term Disability

2012-01-18T07:27:00.000+05:30

LOS ANGELES, California / Physical Therapy Products / January 17, 2012

Why Older Persons lose the ability to walk independently

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut / Yale

Relatively little is known about why older persons develop long-term disability in community mobility. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn, set out to identify the risk factors for long-term disability in walking a quarter of a mile and in driving a car. Their study was published in the January 2012 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Losing the ability to walk independently not only leads to a poorer overall quality of life, but prolonged disability leads to higher rates of illness, death, depression, and social isolation,” says Thomas Gill, MD, the Humana Foundation professor of geriatric medicine and professor of medicine, epidemiology, and public health at the Yale School of Medicine.

Gill led the research team in a prospective cohort study from March 1998 to December 2009. Of the 641 participants aged 70 years and older, all were reportedly active drivers or non-disabled in walking a quarter mile. Those who were physically frail were over-sampled.

For the study, candidate risk factors were assessed every 18 months, and disability in community mobility and exposure to potential precipitants, including illnesses or injuries leading to hospitalization or restricted activity, were assessed every month. Risk factors evaluated in the study included having a chronic condition or cognitive impairment, low physical activity, slower gross motor coordination, having poor lower-extremity function, and being hospitalized. Long-term disability was considered to be any disability that lasted 6 or more consecutive months.

According to the results, 318 and 269 participants developed long-term disability in walking and driving, respectively. While seven risk factors were independently associated with walking disability, eight were associated with driving disability, with the strongest associations for each outcome found for older age and lower score on the Short Physical Performance Battery. The researchers determined that the largest differences in absolute risk were generally observed in participants with a specific risk factor who were subsequently hospitalized.

The researchers conclude that long-term disability in community mobility is common among older adults. They add that multiple risk factors increase the likelihood of long-term mobility disability.

“We’ve learned that targeted strategies are needed to prevent disability among older people living independently in the community,” Gill says.

Source: Annals of Medicine; Yale University
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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: The Truth About Your Grandkids' Parents

2012-01-17T22:17:00.001+05:30

NEW YORK, NY / Grandparents.com / Family / January 17, 2012

There are all kinds, and they all bring challenges

by Georgia Witkin, Ph.D.

The Modern Grandparent's Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to the New Rules of Grandparenting,
written by Senior Editor, Dr. Georgia Witkin,
has been published by New American Library.

Here's an excerpt from Georgia's chapter, "The Truth About the Parents," a field guide to modern moms and dads:

The Panicky Parent

Today's parents are smart. They may even betoosmart — too keenly attuned to every possible danger that their children face. It's no wonder they're always on alert; 24-hour news channels fill the screen with constant updates about every abduction, accident, illness outbreak, schoolyard danger, and bus disaster. There are specials on children's learning problems, emotional problems, drug problems, allergies, and eating disorders. Talk shows discuss kids sexting, drinking, cyberbullying, and getting pregnant. The information is so abundant and immediate that our adult children are aware of everything that could ever happen to any child — and many are fearful it could happen to theirs. These fears can turn them into hovering "helicopter dads" and overprotective "smother mothers," ready to swoop in and rescue their children from every scraped knee or hurt feeling.

As grandparents, we can give our grandchildren's parents some perspective. We've been through it. When they were young, they survived riding bikes and climbing trees, viruses and infections, bullying and dead fish.Tell them!Remind parents that safety products like helmets and car seats work, that toys are much safer now, and that medicines have childproof caps. Help your children become more realistic about their children's lives by remembering their own childhood. Only you can do that. You were there then, and you're here now. Sometimes being a grandparent means parenting your grandchildren's parent all over again.

The Child-Centered Parent

Many parents today put their children at the center of the family. This doesn'tsoundlike a bad thing. Putting the kids ahead of their own needs, even ahead of their marriage, may seem child-friendly, but when it becomes extreme, it can lead to complications.

When a child is the absolute center of the family, she can grow up without boundaries. This can lead to a demanding, entitled kid and, eventually, a demanding, entitled adult. Some acting out might be accepted from a child, but future bosses and spouses will not be so tolerant.

Furthermore, being the center of the family is too much pressure for a child. Kids cannot fulfill all their parents' emotional needs and it's not fair to expect them to. Children in this position often feel they need to parent their parents — and that's not their job. It's yours. Be there for your children when they become parents. Remind them to take time for themselves and their spouses or partners. Offer to babysit. They can have a date night or weekend getaway, and you can spend extra time with your grandkids.

The Distracted Parent

Every grandparent can see it: When parents are stressed, children are stressed. It's like a virus that spreads from grown-ups to children. Children learn by watching, so when they don't get to see their parents relax, they're not learning stress management. They are learning to do what their parents do —distractthemselves instead of relax themselves. When parents spend time at the computer, playing with apps, watching TV, so do their children. Here's how to help your distracted child and your grandchild at the same time:

1. More Face Time.When the family is at your house, ban TV, texting, or answering e-mail at dinner or during "family time." Tell your child that you don't want to miss out on precious moments, and that you don't want your grandchild to think that they can distract themselves from the family, either. You're giving them an island of peace, and giving them ideas about family time that they can take back to their own home. And when your grandchildren are with you alone, give them as much face-to-face time as you can. Researchers find that face-to-face time from grandparents correlates with less anxiety in young children and less delinquency in teens.

2. Less Junk.Sometimes our children are so busy that they say yes to junk food without even realizing it, or pass it out as a pacifier or reward. (Actually, sometimes we grandparents do this, too.) But the Centers for Disease Control warns that child and adolescent obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years, and that our grandchildren are chugging down three times as much soda as our children did.

Help your child and grandchild by fighting the urge to say yes to junk. I know that as grandparents we want every visit to be "the best," and so we treat our grandchildren to their favorites, including fast-food lunch. Think twice. Go just once in a while. At least you'll save your child from hearing your grandchildren say, "But Grandma lets us have candy!"

3. More Manners.Teaching children manners takes time, so manners are becoming scarcer as parents become more distracted. We may understand and sympathize, but we're also upset about watching some children run wild in supermarkets and talk back to their parents.

Politeness, kindness, respect for others, generosity, and empathy will all help children in life, so we want our grandchildren to develop these virtues sooner rather than later. Helping children learn manners is one area where grandparents rarely get flak. Most parents are thrilled if their child comes home from grandma's neater or more polite.

Parenting our children doesn't stop when they become parents. In fact, when they are stressed and distracted, they need us more than ever. We know what worries them and how to reassure and comfort them. We know what they are going through, because we've been there and done that. We know what we needed when we were harried parents, and what our parents might have done to helpus. Now we can pass it on. After all, when we are parenting our adult children, we are grandparenting at our best too!

Copyright © 2007-11 Grandparents.com LLC
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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

MALAYSIA: Children and senior citizens study under one roof

2012-01-17T15:10:00.000+05:30

PETLANG JAYA, Selangor / MySinChew Daily / January 17, 2012

MyKampung
Children and senior citizens study under one roof

A group of people have been perseveringly learning English in Kg Perting, Bentong. Aged from 10 to 76, the group learns the language in a public library once a week.

Chen Ti An is the English teacher of the class. As a vegetarian, he believes that human should practice a healthy diet and share knowledge with others. He symbolically charges his students only RM10 a month and the money is actually meant to spend on treating the students dinner.

Chen said that English is an international language used in all places and occasions.

He said that most of his students are senior citizens and undeniably, they understand and learn slower compared to young people. Moreover, some of them are too shy to speak in English or ask questions. These affect their learning. However, they still worked very hard to learn. Such a spirit should be learned by the younger generations.

Chen said that it is not a problem to learn slowly as what he wants is actually to train them make sentences in English, so that that can later communicate in English. Vocabulary, grammar, as well as the ability to read and listen are important in learning English.

He said that there is also another way to learn the language, namely listening to English songs. Therefore, he teachers his students an English song every time before the class ends.

He believes that singing is a good way to remember English words.

Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE
Sin Chew Daily

Copyright © 2012 MCIL Multimedia Sdn Bhd
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

EUROPE: One in two feels his country is 'age-friendly'

2012-01-17T14:53:00.000+05:30

RIGA CITY, Latvia / The Baltic Course / January 16, 2012

Active aging in the EU: problems, priorities and solutions

By Eugene Eteris, BC,
Copenhagen

The European Commission published an extensive survey on active ageing to understand citizens' views and attitudes towards older people. The survey also covers the contribution of older people to economy and society at large. It shows the optimal ways to promote the active role of older people for the benefit of all. The survey could be a good guiding point for the Baltic States’ health policies.

2012 has been chosen by the Commission as the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. Our magazine has already informed the readers about it. However, The EU established a whole program for this enormously important and vital problem devoting about € 5 mln for implementation.

The EU’s aging program is aimed at the following tasks:

- Active ageing in employment. Encouraging older workers to stay in employment requires notably the improvement of working conditions and their adaptation to the health status and needs of older workers, updating their skills by providing better access to lifelong learning and the review of tax and benefit systems to ensure that there are effective incentives for working longer.

- Participation in society. Improving the opportunities and conditions for older people to contribute to society as volunteers or family carers and to participate in society, thus avoiding social isolation and many of the associated problems and risks.

- Independent living. Health promotion and preventive health care through measures that maximise healthy life years and prevent dependency as well as making the environment (public buildings, infrastructure, transport, buildings) more age-friendly allowing older people to stay as independent as possible.

The European Year 2012 covers all the three dimensions of active ageing.

“Important aging”

Life expectancy in the EU since 1960 has climbed by eight years and demographic projections foresee a further five-year increase over the next four or five decades. People are living longer and, together with low birth rates, Europe's population is ageing fast; the same picture is all over the world, except in the poorest countries.

Population ageing presents a number of challenges for welfare systems and public finances. The EU’s member states spend, on average, more than a quarter of their GDP on social protection. Most of this goes on older people in the form of pensions, health and long-term care. The current economic crisis has left member states with large public deficits and public debt burden just at a time when the post-war baby-boomers are entering their sixties and starting to retire.

The key issue for most EU states presently is how to secure good social protection in an increasingly challenging economic and demographic context.

Active ageing is not just about the participation of older workers in the labour market, it is also about older workers actively contributing to society through voluntary work. The issue is also a central part of the EU-2020 strategy with its efforts to reach the 75% employment target and to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 20 million by 2020.

Active ageing statistics

The EU Eurostat accounting body – Eurobarometer – prepared a special Eurobarometer Survey-378 on “Active Ageing” (See: Report and Factsheets).

The majority of Europeans (71%) are aware that the population is getting older, but this is a concern for only 42 %. Definitions of 'old' and 'young' differ across countries. On average, Europeans believe that people start being considered as old just before 64 years and are no longer considered young from the age of 41,8 years.

Most Europeans consider that older people play a major role in society and especially within their families (82%), in politics (71%), in the local community (70%), or in the economy (67%).

Only one in three Europeans believes that the official retirement age will have to increase by 2030.

61% of Europeans support the idea that people should be allowed to continue working once they have reached the official retirement age, and 53% reject the idea of a compulsory retirement age.

According to Eurostat, the average exit age from the labour market is 61,5 years. However, 42% of Europeans believe that they would be capable of carrying out their current work till the age of 65 or beyond, whilst an additional 28% think they are able to continue their current work until the age of 60-64. One third of Europeans state that they would like to continue working after they reach the age when they are entitled to a pension. Part-time work combined with a partial pension would be more appealing than full retirement, to two thirds of Europeans.

27% of Europeans aged 55 and over engage in activities and voluntary work in a variety of organisations and devote on average 14 hours per month to such activities.

36% of Europeans aged 55 and over have, over the past 12 months, provided support informally to other people outside their household. 15% are currently taking care of an older family member, and another 42% have done so in the past.

The majority of Europeans believe that their country and local area are 'age-friendly'.

In tackling the challenges of ageing populations, most respondents believe older people's organisations and other NGOs, as well as religious organisations and churches, play the most important role.

“Limits” of aging

The survey shows that 63,9 is the average age at which one starts being regarded as old, but there is a difference of more than 10 years between countries – 70,4 years in the Netherlands and 57,7 years in Slovakia. Perceptions of old age also vary according to the age of the respondents.

As the age of an individual increases, so does his/her views about when old age begins; 15-24 year olds believe that old age begins at the age of 59,1, while over 55s consider that old age begins at the age of 67,1. Women feel old age begins slightly later than men (65 years versus 62,7 years). Across the EU, citizens believe that a person is no longer regarded as being 'young' at the age of 41,8 years.

Citizens’ concern

According to the survey, 71% of Europeans believe that, over the next 20 years, the proportion of people aged 65 and over in their country will increase. Over 80% of citizens in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, France and Finland expect that the population is ageing (eight out of ten respondents) whereas, citizens in Romania and Bulgaria only think that the proportion of those ageing is 30% and 38% respectively.

Worryingly, only 42% are concerned by this trend. Citizens in Portugal, Greece and Bulgaria seem to feel more concerned than other Europeans, whereas people in the Netherlands and Sweden seem to be least concerned, with only 28% and 19% feeling concerned. 40% of Europeans in the old member states (EU-15) seem to be concerned in contrast to 49% in the new member states (EU-12).

Increase in retirement age

Overall, six out of ten Europeans reject the idea that the retirement age needs to increase by 2030. This is higher among men, the 55s and over and the well-educated.

The vast majority of respondents in Romania (87%), Latvia (86%), Slovakia (83%) and Croatia (81%) disagree that the retirement age will need to increase in the future.

By contrast, respondents in Denmark (58%), the Netherlands (55%), Ireland (53%), the UK (51%) and Austria (49%) recognise the need for the official retirement age to rise.

Working beyond retirement age

Almost two thirds of Europeans believe they should be allowed to continue working beyond the official retirement age. There are variations across Member States. At one extreme, nine out of ten respondents in Denmark and the Netherlands believe that they should be able to do so, while only three out of ten respondents believe so in Greece, Romania, Italy and Slovenia.

One third of Europeans currently in work say that they would like to continue working after they become entitled to a pension. This proportion ranges from over half of the respondents in Denmark, the UK, Estonia and Latvia to just over 20% in Spain and Italy and 16% in Slovenia. Moreover, the older they get, the more people are likely to want continue working longer: 41% of people aged 55 and over tend to be keener on working beyond the age at which they are entitled to a pension, in contrast to younger respondents (ranging between 30% to 33%).

Encouragement to work after retirement

Working arrangements seem to encourage people to work longer, e.g. combining part time work and a partial pension is more appealing than full retirement to almost two thirds of Europeans. Many Europeans consider that the lack of gradual retirement options hinders longer careers. More Europeans (69%) in the 15 member states which joined the EU first (EU-15) find the idea of a combined part-time work and partial pension more appealing than full retirement – compared with 52% of those that joined the EU later (EU-12).

Governments’ policy towards elderly

Many Europeans believe that governments can do more to support carers, notably by helping them financially (44%), by offering the possibility of working flexible hours (38%), through carer's leave (35%) and by offering pension credits for care time (33%).

Remuneration of carers was most frequently mentioned in Slovakia (65%) and Sweden (61%). Flexible working hours was cited by over half of the respondents in Iceland (57%), Denmark (56%), Cyprus (53%) and the Netherlands (52%). Most people in Denmark feel that being able to leave one’s job temporarily would be useful (55%).

Society’s attitude

More than half of Europeans (57%) feel that their country is 'age-friendly' and almost two thirds (65%) believe so as far as their local area is concerned.

Younger people tend to feel more positively about the 'age-friendliness' of their countries than older people (60% of those aged 15-24 compared to 55% of those aged 55 and over). Those who live in rural areas describe their local area as 'age-friendly' more often than those who live in large towns.

Improvements most frequently mentioned are facilities for older people to stay fit and healthy (42%), better public transport (40%) and roads and road safety (31%). Public areas such as parks (25%), commercial premises (17%) and public buildings (15%) seem to be regarded as less problematic.

Modern technology for older people

The use of information technologies by public services and businesses to interact with the public is a major obstacle for older people according to 53% of Europeans. People aged 40-54 and 55 and over believe this more than others (56%).

Nine out of ten of citizens in Sweden, in the Netherlands, in Denmark and in the Czech Republic perceive technology as an obstacle, whilst only five out of ten feel the same in Romania.

© 1996 — 2010 The Baltic Course.
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Betty White feted by stars on 90th birthday bash

2012-01-17T14:34:00.000+05:30

VANCOUVER, B C / The Vancouver Sun / Entertainment / January 16, 2012

By Kimberly Potts, The Wrap.com

LOS ANGELES -- Singing, dancing, a plethora of age jokes and a lineup of celebrity guests pepper NBC’s televised birthday bash for “Golden Girls” and “Hot in Cleveland” star Betty White Monday.

"Golden Girls" and "Hot in Cleveland"
Star Betty White

But the Emmy winner also gets a surprise marriage proposal -- and responds with a surprise smooch -- from “Chuck” star Zachary Levi.

“Betty White’s 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America’s Golden Girl” (8 p.m.) includes appearances and White tributes from Mary Tyler Moore, Tina Fey, Carol Burnett, Amy Poehler, Ellen DeGeneres, Carl Reiner, Joel McHale, Hugh Jackman and Ray Romano, among others, and will be followed by a preview episode of her upcoming hidden-camera prank series “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers.”

White’s actual 90th birthday is on Tuesday.

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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

DENMARK: Spang Olsen, Denmark’s legendary artist and author has died

2012-01-16T23:41:00.000+05:30

COPENHAGEN, Denmark / Politiken .dk / January 16, 2012

IB Spang Olsen. Archive. - Foto: PER FOLKVER (arkiv)

SPANG OLSEN, one of Denmark’s legendary artists and authors, Ib Spang Olsen, has died at the age of 90 after a short illness, according to his family.

Spang Olsen was best known for his illustrations and not least for his work with Halfdan Rasmussen’s books of children’s rhymes. He was also an author of children’s books in his own right.

He received the H.C. Andersen medal for his illustrations in 1972 and has also received several prizes for children’s books from the Culture Ministry. In 2008 he was awarded the Gyldendal Prize for Children’s Books.

His funeral service will take place at the Marienborg Chapel on January 23.

Edited by Julian Isherwood

© JP/POLITIKENS HUS
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

AUSTRALIA: Medicine use by the elderly has skyrocketed

2012-01-16T18:03:00.000+05:30

MELBOURNE, Victoria / The Age / National / January 16, 2012

By Julie Robotham

One-third of women aged over 75 take 10 or more different types of medicine a day -
a level at which side effects dramatically escalate.

MEDICINE use by middle-aged and older people has skyrocketed, raising the risk of dangerous side effects from interactions between prescription drugs, and inflating out-of-pocket costs for unsubsidised supplements recommended by doctors.

Nearly half of people aged 50 or older take at least five drugs or supplements on a typical day, the first comprehensive survey of the issue in more than a decade has found.

Cholesterol-lowering treatment use has increased six-fold since 1995, according to the federal government-funded survey, while the proportion of people taking an antidepressant has nearly trebled - to one in 10 of the 1600 participants. And therapies such as fish oil for heart disease prevention and glucosamine, derived from shellfish and used to treat arthritis, are just as widely used as the most popular prescription drugs, the research reveals.

''People are using them as mainstream medicines. That really did surprise me,'' said Lynn Weekes, chief executive of the National Prescribing Service, which oversaw the study, published today in The Medical Journal of Australia.

Women were bigger medicine users than men, with one-third of those aged over 75 taking 10 or more different types a day - a level at which side effects dramatically escalate.

Dr Weekes, who cautioned that people who took more medicines might have been more inclined than others to join the study, said all an individual patient's medications should be reviewed every time a doctor considered adding a new one. ''We really need medical practitioners to see if the benefits are greater than the risks, and if the benefit is one the consumer cares about,'' she said.

Compared with other developed countries, Australia had a relatively high use of some medicine classes, including the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, Dr Weekes said. But most of the use was likely to be appropriate. ''We're in the era now of the baby boomers and that means people will be taking medicines to keep well and prevent illness,'' she said. Doctors frequently recommended some natural supplements but these had to be purchased at full price as they were not available on a subsidised prescription.

David Le Couteur, president of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, said much of the increased medicine use was warranted as it preserved the health of an ageing population.

But when frail elderly people were taking many medicines, he said, ''they may be and probably are causing substantial harm, in excess of the benefits''.

''Pretty much everyone over 65 is on at least one medicine. Being middle-aged or old is becoming a medical diagnosis,'' Professor Le Couteur said. He said policymakers should consider the impact of increased prescribing on the federal government's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which costs more than $8 billion a year, and on state-run public hospitals that spend a similar amount on medicines.

The health of Australians might be better served if the money were spent on things other than pharmaceuticals, Professor Le Couteur said, such as improved home care for people with chronic diseases or preventive health programs.

Copyright © 2012 Fairfax Media
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

INDIA: Not Too Old To Insure

2012-01-16T16:29:00.001+05:30

MUMBAI / The Financial Express / Editorial / January 16, 2012

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s reported move to do away with the age limit for purchasing health insurance policy is a welcome step and will help senior citizens who need health insurance the most.

While a standalone health insurer (Apollo Munich) has already filed a product where anybody at any age can take a health insurance policy, the current mandated entry age for public and private insurers for existing health insurance plans is capped at 65 years.

Renewal beyond the age of 70 is difficult, despite a 2008 notification from the regulator that no insurer should refuse to renew the policy of an older person or load her with extra premium without giving a valid reason for doing so.

The pricing of age-fee policies will be a major challenge as the average claim paid in the 70+ age group is the second-highest apart from the age group of under-1.

Data from Life Insurance Council shows that in 2009-10, the average claim paid in the 70+ age group was R34,601 and there were 1,34,458 claims. In contrast, for the 41-60 age group, where the number of claims were the highest, the average claim paid was R23,338.

Under the current Irda norms, the premium of a health insurance policy should not be more than 15% of the cover, but given the fact that people in the 70+ age group suffer from various major ailments, the regulator will have to come out with a different pricing structure or else insurance companies will find it difficult to underwrite such products as it will be unprofitable to cater to this segment.

The proposal will face the same fate as unit-linked pension plans where insurers did not find it viable to launch new products when the regulator mandated a 4.5% guarantee. Ultimately, the regulator had to withdraw the guarantee clause.

With the rise in medical expenses, especially in metros, health insurance is one of the most rapidly growing segments for the Indian insurance industry. Total health insurance premium for 2010-11 was R11,480 crore, a growth of 38.22% over the premium written in this segment in 2009-10.

However, the claims ratio in health still stands at 100% for 2010-11, though a significant improvement from the previous year as public sector insurers formed their own preferred provider network to cut down on inflated hospital bills—claims ratio in the private sector are a healthier 85% as compared to 106% for the public sector.

© 2011: The Indian Express Limited.
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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

MALAYSIA: Foodstuffs, hampers gifted to 16,000 seniors

2012-01-16T16:22:00.001+05:30

KUALA LUMPUR / New Straits Times / January 16, 2012

By Masriwanie Muhamading

Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd is giving ang pow and mini hampers to about 16,000 needy senior citizens throughout the country.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Heng Seai Kie
and Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong
distributing ang pow and mini hampers to senior citizens.

There are 10 types of foodstuffs and essential items in the hampers, including mandarin oranges.

Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd executive director Vincent S.P. Seow said the Chinese New Year Ang Pow Donation Campaign would cost at least RM750,000.

"As in the previous years senior citizens, aged 60 years and above, of all races, will be the beneficiaries of the charity campaign."

The campaign is in its 24th year. It was launched by Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Heng Seai Kie at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall recently.

Also present was Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong.

Copyright © 2011 The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Meryl Streep thanks the English

2012-01-16T13:58:00.000+05:30

LONDON, England / The Telegraph / Culture / Films / January 16, 2012

Golden Globes 2012: Meryl Streep thanked England for letting her “trample all over history” with her Golden Globe-winning performance in The Iron Lady.

Meryl Streep with her Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actress in The Iron Lady Photo: EPA/PAUL BUCK

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor

In a widely predicted win, Meryl Streep picked up the best actress in a drama award for her role as Baroness Thatcher. But she faced accusations of ungracious behaviour when she failed to mention the former Prime Minister in her lengthy acceptance speech at the Los Angeles ceremony. The 62-year-old actress thanked many others including her fellow nominees, the cast and crew of the film, and Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul who distributed The Iron Lady and to whom she jokingly referred as “God”.

Continue reading

The Iron Lady and Margaret Thatcher's dementia:

Why this despicable film makes voyeurs of us all

Society’s insensitive attitude towards dementia sufferers

By Max Pemberton in London

The film ended and I sat motionless while the credits rolled. Slowly I got up and walked out into the cold January air, sickened by what I’d been party to, so acutely aware that the scenes presented as entertainment and edification – scenes I’d paid to see – were, at that very moment, possibly taking place in a grand house somewhere in central London. I had partaken of cruel, thoughtless voyeurism, the subject of which was powerless to protest at her exploitation.

There was never any doubt that The Iron Lady would be a controversial film. The mere mention of Margaret Thatcher, despite her leaving office over two decades ago, still divides the nation as it did when she was Prime Minister. Since its release last Friday, the movie has played to packed audiences, taking £2.2 million in its opening weekend and reaching number 1 at the UK box office.

Yet it has also attracted protests and pickets, as well as accusations from those who remain hostile to her premiership that it portrays Lady Thatcher in a forgiving light.

My anger at the film has nothing to do with politics. I don’t object to the artistic licence exercised over certain events or the way Lady Thatcher’s political life is portrayed. My issue is with the portrayal of how she is now. And I suspect that those who have seen the film will feel the same.

While Meryl Streep’s performance is mesmerising, it is impossible not to be disturbed by her depiction of Lady Thatcher’s decline into dementia. Columnists and commentators such as Charles Moore, Norman Tebbit and Douglas Hurd have opined in this newspaper and elsewhere about this distasteful approach. And David Cameron has similarly questioned the morality of making the film while she is still alive. I did not expect to agree with them. But now I am even more vehement in my condemnation, because, as a doctor, I have direct experience of the reality of dementia for the sufferer and their family.

The film is based in the present day and features flashbacks to Lady Thatcher’s early life, her rise to power and the defining events of her premiership and downfall. But from the opening scene, where a confused and befuddled Lady Thatcher wanders into a corner shop to buy a pint of milk, I began to feel uncomfortable. As I watched scene after scene showing this once all-powerful woman as old, bewildered and scared, my discomfort turned to rage.

Outstanding: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady Photo: FILM STILLS

In one vignette, she is hosting a dinner party at her Belgravia home, clearly confused as to who is present, muddled in her thinking and humiliated as she struggles with names and battles to keep up with the conversation. There is a flash of the old Mrs Thatcher and her mastery of argument – then it is gone. In another poignant scene, she scuttles around her flat, turning on electrical appliances in an attempt to drown out the sound of the “voice” of her long-dead husband Denis, which torments her constantly. She peers furtively around doors to overhear people discussing her deterioration.

In my work in caring for the elderly, I have treated many older people with dementia. The way Streep captures this is outstandingly accurate. Anyone who has cared for someone with Alzheimer’s, for example, will recognise the waxing and waning confusion; the way in which sufferers appear to slip into another world, their loss of a sense of time, the way they look at you utterly perplexed in stark contrast to rare moments of startling clarity and insight – all the things that make this disease so cruel and tragic. The film is faultless in its depiction of dementia.

But to show someone in the throes of an illness while they are actually experiencing it and in terminal decline is chillingly insensitive. Can you imagine an unauthorised film being made about the life of a public figure who was dying of cancer, for example – Christopher Hitchens, say – before his death? Can you imagine watching scenes that his family opposed – showing him writhing in agony, weak and vulnerable? Of course not. There would be a furious outcry. It would rightly be considered a terrible violation of that person’s privacy, and in appalling poor taste.

So how are the scenes that show Lady Thatcher battling with dementia any different? Whether the portrayal of her as an old lady is sympathetic and kindly or not is irrelevant. It dramatises highly personal and deeply tragic aspects of someone’s life while they are still experiencing it.

I never imagined I would ever leap to the defence of Margaret Thatcher. I am a child of the Thatcher era but no Thatcherite. In the Eighties, my father lost his job as a milkman and joined the ranks of the unemployed. Times were hard and I remember vividly the loathing my parents felt towards her and her government. They actively supported the miners’ strikes and I have fond memories of visiting Barnsley and sitting on a miner’s knee while my parents were taken on an informal tour of the pits.

I remember the graffiti daubed on walls near our home after the poll tax riots. I remember going on marches and protests with my mother and chanting the old soubriquet “Thatcher, Thatcher milk-snatcher”. I also remember the day in 1990 when Lady Thatcher left office and a music teacher burst into our classroom, unable to conceal her delight.

Margaret Thatcher was a pantomime-ish villain of my childhood. Since then, I have developed a more circumspect view of her time in power, and a grudging respect.

I still loathe the insidious selfishness that crept into the collective consciousness under her premiership and that is so pervasive now. But I also think it’s all too easy to vilify a powerful, determined, forthright and ambitious woman as an ogre, blaming her for society’s ills in a way that would never happen to a man in public office. She was dedicated to public service, with a strong sense of social responsibility and duty. While I might not agree with her solutions to the serious problems this country faced in the early Eighties, at least she believed passionately that what she was doing was for the greater good. Surely her astonishing political journey from grocer’s daughter to Downing Street is worthy enough of the Hollywood treatment, without focusing on her descent into dementia?

Whatever one’s feelings about Lady Thatcher’s legacy, The Iron Lady is a disgraceful film. You do not have to support her politics to defend her right to privacy in old age. She deserves to be treated with as much dignity as anyone else. This is precisely what the film, in depicting her in the grip of dementia while she is still alive, fails to do.

I do not know how impaired Lady Thatcher is, if she really hallucinates and sees her dead husband or has ever slipped past her minders to wander aimlessly to the shops, confused and alone. But I do hope she never sees this film or reads the reviews. No wonder her children, Mark and Carol, refused to attend private screenings.

Watch this film without knowledge of the background and you’d assume Margaret Thatcher had already died. This is what angered me most about The Iron Lady. It is representative of how society largely views elderly people, particularly those with dementia. They are ignored. They are considered to be dead long before they actually are. Those with dementia experience a loss, not just of their memory and cognition, but of respect and dignity.

Sociologists talk of “social death” and “biological death”. Ideally, the two coincide, but in dementia, there is discordance. As people with dementia decline, they are no longer deemed worthy of attention or thought. As far as society is concerned, they are already history. This film gets away with treating Lady Thatcher as though she were already dead, because that’s precisely how society behaves towards the old and infirm. This is lamentable, vile and shameful – and it should anger every one of us.

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2012

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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Facing Hurdles to Keep Medical Insurance Coverage

2012-01-15T23:50:00.002+05:30

LAKELAND, Florida / The Ledger / Life / January 15, 2012

Jean and Al Warner have struggled to keep up medical insurance
payments since losing their jobs and recent health issues.
Pierre Ducharme / The Ledger

By Elvia Malagon, THE LEDGER

AUBURNDALE | Jean and Al Warner thought they would settle into an easier life before retiring. But 2011 proved to be one of the couple's most turbulent years. As they were paying off medical bills from a heart attack Al Warner suffered, both lost their jobs, and Jean Warner was diagnosed with lung cancer.

"It's like starting all over, like 20 years ago," he said.

The Warners are originally from New Hampshire and have lived in Polk County for 27 years. They raised three children and thought their life was going to slow down as they approached retirement.

But in September 2010, Al Warner had a heart attack. He was able to recover and go back to work, but they were left with medical bills. In January 2011, he found himself without a job when Cutrale, where he had worked for 25 years, eliminated his department.

Despite the loss of income, the couple knew they could get through the hurdles.

Al Warner, 52, looked for a job, and Jean Warner, 56, continued working at Tri-County Human Services. The couple cut back on expenses, including an insurance plan that would cover medical bills if one of them was diagnosed with cancer.

It's one expense she wished she never cut out of the family's budget. Jean Warner has 10 siblings, five of whom have been diagnosed with different types of cancer. Still, she was hopeful she would remain cancer-free.

"I made the wrong decision," she said.

Late last summer, her face started to swell. A doctor gave her medicine thinking it could be an allergic reaction. It wasn't.

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Copyright © 2012 TheLedger.com ____________________________________________________________
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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

INDIA: The Secret To Living Longer

2012-01-15T06:30:00.005+05:30

MUMBAI, Maharashtra / The Hindustan Times / Think / January 15, 2012

By Khushwant Singh

Coming on to 98 and still earning more than I did in my younger days, people ask me how I manage to do it. They regard me as an expert on longevity. I have written on the subject before; I will repeat it with suitable amendments based on my experience in the past two years.

Earlier I had written that longevity is in one's genes: children of long-living parents are likely to live longer than those born to short-lived parents. This did not happen in my own family. My parents who died at 90 and 94, had five children - four sons and a daughter. The first to go was the youngest of the siblings. Next went my sister, who was the fourth. My elder brother who was three years older than I went a couple of years ago. Two of us remain - I, who will soon be 98, and my younger brother, a retired brigadier three years younger than I and in much better health. He looks after our ancestral property. Nevertheless, I still believe genes are the most important factor in determining one's lifespan.

More important than analysing longevity is coping with old age and coming to terms with it. As we grow older, we are less able to exercise our limbs. We have to devise ways to keep them active. Right into my mid-eighties, I played tennis every morning, did the rounds of Lodhi gardens in winter and spent one hour in the swimming pool in summer. I am unable to do this now. The best way to overcome this handicap is regular massages. I have tried different kinds of massages and was disappointed with the oil drip and smearing of oil on the body. A good massage needs powerful hands going all over one's body, from skull to toes. I have this done at least once a day, at times twice a day. I am convinced this has kept me going for so long.

Equally important is the need to cut down drastically on one's intake of food and drink. I start my mornings with a glass of guava juice. It is tastier and more health-giving than orange or any other fruit juice. My breakfast is one scrambled egg on toast. My lunch is usually patli khichdi with dahi or a vegetable. I skip afternoon tea. In the evening, I take a peg of single malt whisky. It gives me a false appetite! Before I eat supper, I say to myself "Do not eat too much".

I also believe that a meal should have just one kind of vegetable or meat, followed by a pinch of chooran. It is best to eat alone and in silence. Talking while eating does not do justice to the food and you swallow a lot of it. Also for me, no more Punjabi or Moghlai food. I find South India idli. sambhar and grated coconut easier to digest, and healthier.

Never allow yourself to be constipated. The stomach is a storehouse of all kinds of ailments. Our sedantary life tends to make us constipated. Keep your bowels clean by whatever means you can - laxative, enemas, glycerin suppositories, whatever. Bapu Gandhi fully understood the need to keep the bowels clean. Besides taking an enema everyday, he gave enemas to his women admirers.

Impose a strict discipline on your daily routine. If necessary, use a stop watch. I have breakfast at exactly 6.30 am, lunch at noon, a drink at 7 pm, supper at 8.

Try to develop peace of mind. For this, you must have a healthy bank account. A shortage of money can be very demoralising. It does not have to be in (crores) tens of millions but enough for your future needs and the possibility of falling ill. Never lose your temper; it takes a heavy toll and jangles one's nerves.

Never tell a lie. Always keep your national motto in mind: Satyamev Jayate - only truth truimphs. Give generously. Remember, you cannot take it with you. You may give it to your children, your servants or in charity. You will feel better. There is joy in giving.

Drive out envy of those who have done better than you in life. A Punjabi verse sums this up:

Rookhi sookhi khai kay
Thanda Paani Pee
Na Veykh paraayee chonparian
Na Tarsssain Jee.

[Eat dry bread and drink cold water
Pay no heed or envy those who smear
Their chapattis with ghee]

Do not conform to the tradition of old people spending time in prayer and long hours in places of worship. That amounts to conceding defeat. Instead, take up a hobby, like gardening, growing bonsais, helping children from your neighbourhood with their homework.

A practice that I have found very effective is to fix my gaze on the flame of candle, empty mind of everything, and in my mind repeat Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti. It does work. I am at peace with the world.

We can't all be Fawja Singh, who at 100 ran a marathon, but we can equal him in longevity and creativity.

I wish all my readers long, healthy lives full of happiness.

Khushwant Singh's column With Malice Towards One And All appears every Sunday.

Copyright HT Media Ltd
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Elderly and homeless get help during cold weather

2012-01-14T23:30:00.000+05:30

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama / ABC3340.com / January 14, 2012

By Sarah Snyder

This cold snap has city and county resources stepping in to help families who can't afford the costly heating bill, particularly elderly and even homeless. But some of those organizations are out of resources to help.

"Seniors are calling saying they are cold in the house, they need blankets and comforters and things like that and many are without electric and gas," Barbara Shores, Director, Jefferson County Senior Services.

Jefferson county seniors services says this cold snap got their phones ringing. But this year, they're finding more calls for help than donations to hand out.

"We have not received any donations," Shores said. "They've been down so far. It could be the economy. I'm thinking that's probably what it is."

They say, pricey power bills aren't leaving any extra cash for coats. But ABC 33/40 viewers are already helping out - about 4,000 coats were donated during our coat drive with More Than Conquerors Church and some of those donations will go to help elderly men and women unable to pay for heat this winter.

"Many of them stay in because they don't have warm coats so they bundle up quite a bit, but it will help them to socialize with other people and get out more than they normally would do," Shores said.

Tonight the Boutwell Auditorium became a hub for some of those seniors and anyone needing to escape the frigid temperatures.

"They feed you, clothe you, shelter you, and take care of you," Leon Davis, who's staying at the Boutwell said. "They'll do anything to help you."

There are about 150 at the Boutwell Friday night. Volunteers have rolled out cots and put out blankets - even offering hats and coats for guests. Several local organizations are serving hot meals throughout the weekend.

"We get reports from all over the country where someone has frozen on the street," Don Lupo, Director, Mayor's Office of Citizen's Assistance said. "We just can't have that. We'll continue to be open, we'll continue to serve."

© Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and WBMA
____________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Latin America's Favorite US Export? Senior Citizens

2012-01-13T08:06:00.001+05:30

OGDEN, Utah / BusinessNewsDaily / News & Trends / January 12, 2012

By Chad Brooks, BusinessNewsDaily Contributor

Photo Credit: Dreamstime

Never mind your tired and your poor: Many Latin American countries want your retired instead.

Researchers at International Living magazine have found that Ecuador, Panama and other Latin American countries are going all out to encourage American senior citizens to retire within their borders.

The countries have introduced a string of incentives, such as a program in Ecuador that offers seniors 50 percent discounts on a multitude of expenses and items: public and private transportation within the country, tickets for all cultural and sporting events, movies, and even utility bills.

In Mexico, benefits include national health care coverage with a top rate of less than $300, and discounts on property taxes, airline and bus tickets, and entrance fees to concerts, museums and archaeological sites.

"An ever-increasing number of Americans are worried about how they are going to fund their retirement," said International Living editor Eoin Bassett. "What many don't realize is that in many countries it's possible to avail of attractive benefits, live much more affordably and have access to cheaper high-quality health care."

The Panamanian government is doing all it can in its bid to entice U.S. retirees by offering discounts on everything from travel and entertainment to prescription medicines and energy bills. Those who retire to Panama are also entitled to a one-time exemption of taxes on the importation of household goods and an exemption every two years of taxes for the importation of a car.

The magazine put together a ranking of the best international retirement destinations, based on factors including the price of bread, the average humidity, utility costs and the friendliness of locals. Six of the top 10 are in Latin America.

The top 10 are:
1. Ecuador
2. Panama
3. Mexico
4. Malaysia
5. Colombia
6. New Zealand
7. Nicaragua
8. Spain
9. Thailand
10. Honduras

The full rankings of the Retirement Index 2012 can be found online at Internationalliving.com.

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