Comment On This Week’s ChangingAging Roundup Online

The ChangingAging Weekly Blogstream Roundup is now posted online. Please join us here to read, comment and share this week’s top stories on the culture, politics and news of aging.

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One of the most interesting things about fiction is that, for the most part, it is really just life- artfully arranged. Almost all of the scenes, incidents and characters we read about in novels can also be found in real life, in fact most of them are based on living people and actual situations. It is the same for “Tribes of Eden.” When I was writing the book I drew heavily from my own life experiences.

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As a longtime proponent of LGBT equal rights, I have to agree that yesterday’s announcement by President Barak Obama affirming the rights of all Americans to marry the person they love is a watershed moment in gay rights history. But I’m deeply disappointed he didn’t speak out before North Carolina voters approved a harsh constitutional ban against same-sex marriage that will also ban domestic partnerships, which will especially harm older adults, both gay and straight.

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Last month, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius announced the merging of the offices for Aging, Disability, and Developmental Disabilites, to form one new agency. This “Administration for Community Living” is designed, in the Secretary’s words, “to help ensure that the supports people with disabilities and seniors need to live in the community are accessible.” Much of the description is encouraging, and the efforts of organziations like the Eden Alternative to change the culture of aging, both in nursing homes and the community, seem well-aligned.

At the same time, I have some misgivings.

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Why would House Republicans slash programs that make it possible for the frail elderly and adults with disabilities to live at home? Especially since the alternative would often be more costly nursing home care.

GOP lawmakers say they support Medicaid’s Home and Community Based programs that provide long-term services and supports in the community rather than in nursing homes. Many GOP governors are leading efforts to shift Medicaid spending to home care. Yet, the new House GOP budget would slash the very federal programs that provide the infrastructure this vulnerable poulation needs to stay at home.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched a national action plan aimed at reducing the use of antipsychotics by raising public awareness, increasing public reporting, regulatory oversight and research and assistance. The Eden Alternative has responded by launching two new groundbreaking programs to help reduce the off-label use of antipsychotic drugs: Reframing Dementia and Dementia Beyond Drugs.

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In the Legacy Project, we’ve spent the past seven years collecting the practical advice for living from the oldest Americans (in their 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond). They shared their wisdom on a wide range of topics, from marriage, to child-rearing, to career, to how to avoid regrets.

Some of their most useful advice had to do with the question: “What’s the best way to stay happy throughout your life?” And more often than I had expected, the idea of maintaining a lifelong sense of play came up. For example, Maurice gave this recommendation as his advice for marriage: “Think back to the playground when you were a kid. Your spouse should be that kid you would have most liked to play with!”

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What’s All This Talk of ‘Assets’ About?

By Alex Fox, Shared Lives Plus on May 10, 2012

Your Social Security Statement – Now Online

By Glenn Ruffenach, SmartMoney Blogs ENCORE on May 7, 2012

ITEM: The public transportation agency in Portland, Oregon, TriMet, avoids using the word “old” with a hokey euphemism Crabby Old Lady had not heard before moving here. As they explain on their website:

“‘Honored Citizen’ is how TriMet identifies seniors age 65 or older, people on Medicare and people with mental or physical disabilities. Honored Citizens receive reduced fares and priority seating on buses and trains.”

What a crock. Empty phrases like “honored citizen” are what give political correctness (and in this case, elders), a bad name.

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The internet buzzes quietly with new information about a rodent study that may have implications – way down the road – for people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. As is most often the case, findings are preliminary, and based only on studies with mice.
Published on May 6, 2012 in the online journal Nature, the study describes a new and apparently successful protein therapy for mice with prion disease. Prions are transmissible pathogens that cause neuro-degenerative diseases in animals… and humans.

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The other night we went to see the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and boy, did we enjoy ourselves.

A group of British retirees, most seeking lower costs and a bit of adventure, ends up as the guests in a seedy, formerly grand hotel in Jaipur, India. In fact, the hotel is terrible. As the movie zooms in on the characters’ personal stories we found ourselves gazing through familiar late-in-life prisms. Did I mention some of the fairly obnoxious adult children?

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