Martin Bayne, ChangingAging Contributor

Martin Bayne is a journalist, Buddhist monk, MIT graduate, and well-known advocate for the aging. In the nineties, at the peak of his professional career and personal eldercare advocacy, Bayne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. For the past ten years he has lived in an assisted living facility.

Martin Bayne
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A Soulful, Heart-Based Reinvention of Assisted Living

Imagine you are 70, your spouse has just died and your children have decided it’s no longer safe or prudent for you to live alone. It’s your worst nightmare—complete with memories of the insecurities and trepidation felt in the first days of school, but this time it’s an assisted living facility, and, like you, the other “kids” are in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

THOUGHTS DURING FREE FALL

This morning, at approximately 6:00 a.m., I fell while attempting to make my way to the bathroom. The position I landed in – because of my Congestive Heart Failure – made it almost impossible to breathe. After activating the emergency pendant I wore around my neck, I knew my top priority was to get my [...]

The post THOUGHTS DURING FREE FALL appeared first on The Voice of Aging Boomers.

Classy to the Very End

Last night a dear friend of mine dropped his 97-year-old body on the floor and ran off to join the group of friends who have been watching over him for the last century. I can only imagine it was a rowdy homecoming with lots of music, dancing, and celebration. My friend and fellow assisted living [...]

The Great Bridge

  We call the bridge between birth and death “aging.” In it’s ascendancy, we are “young” even though our 10 trillion youthful cells have already started losing DNA telomere base pairs each time they divide. If we survive youth, our aging cells become senescent and start to die. We call this “growing old”. We are [...]

Incremental Victories

The first time I saw William, two years ago, he was sitting alone in the dining room. Tall, gaunt and haunting, he reminded me of pictures I’d seen of men at Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Dachau. His eyes, sunken and non-expressive, looked straight ahead and he stooped slightly when he walked – something one would expect after [...]

The Voice of Aging Boomers 2012-11-09 00:06:41

  Cognitive Narration Nelson Mandela, in his 1994 Inaugural Speech, said:  “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous ? Actually, who are you not to be [...]

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WHAT – The New Algorithm

There is a new and simple algorithm that describes the challenges of upgrading our current institutional aging facilities – WHAT.
W-Wages

H-Human Potential

A-Advocacy

T-Technology

SUB-STANDARD WAGES ARE THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE
The women of color that are the backbone of this country’s network of institutional aging facilities – many of them single parents – are denied a living wage. This creates a “revolving door” phenomenon that cripples moral and destroys any sense of continuity for the residents. This cannot stand.

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Elder Wii Bowlers Face Charges in Doping Scandal

A group of Wii bowlers from six assisted living facilities in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, were indicted yesterday by a Federal Grand Jury on charges of Physiological Doping for the Purpose of Racketeering – a Class B felony. ”They almost pulled it off,” said Sgt. Richard Morgan of Center Valley, Pennsylvania’s Geriatric Crime Unit.

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Nine Out of Ten Assisted Living Residents Give Their Community a “Thumbs Up”

Nine Out of Ten Assisted Living Residents Give Their Community a “Thumbs Up” Alyssa Gerace | October 11, 2012 | Comments (0) Responsive and caring management and staff at assisted living communities are top drivers for high satisfaction rates among residents and their families toward the communities they reside in, according to the 2011-2012 National Surveys of Customer and Employee Satisfaction in Assisted Living Communities.