Announcing NAIPC Annual Meeting
Save the Date for NAIPC’s Annual Meeting, Creating a System for Aging in Place in America, December 2 and 3, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia.
On December 2 and 3, care and in-home service providers along with thought-leaders in aging, from across the country, will gather in Atlanta for the Annual Meeting of the only organization in America exclusively focused on defining and improving the aging in place process.
The two days of cutting edge discussion will include a presentation of the pilot program scheduled in Atlanta from January through December 2016 to create a model for an American aging in place system.
Conference sessions begin at 1 PM on December 2 and end at 5 PM on December 3.
Hotel, agenda, and registration information will be released soon.
Benefits Checkup
As part of Aging in Place week celebrations, NAIPC is encouraging each Chapter to offer local seniors a Benefits Checkup. Benefits Checkup is a free service from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) asking a series of questions to ascertain which money saving benefits are available to the individual. Upon completion of the checkup a customized report is sent to the senior with a list of the programs they can apply for including; medications, food, utilities, legal, health care, housing, in-home services, taxes, and transportation.
NAIPC requests that chapters arrange a location and invite local seniors to conduct a Benefits Checkup during Aging in Place week and other chapter events. Each senior should be guided through Benefits Checkup by a chapter member.
To prepare members, NAIPC will provide a guide to Benefits Checkup and conduct a webinar, with Brandy Bauer of NCOA, on September 29 from 4-5pm EST. To participate in the webinar you can Register Here.
The Missing Antidote
By Marty Bell
The conversations didn’t happen across the kitchen table, but across numerous dining room tables at a CCRC on the east coast of Florida. The people I got to share time and thoughts with were all over 85 and impressive. A Harvard Law School graduate, a respected former history professor at George Washington U., people who ran their own businesses or served as top executives at corporations, the man who stole planes from elsewhere to create Israel’s air force in 1947.
I was at the CCRC to help my 91 year old parents who had both fallen at the same time. Fortunately, neither broke anything, but there were aches and bruises and we needed to restore some stability in my mother’s legs. The accident caused me to be insistent that my father could no longer be the full-time caregiver for my mother. He needed relief and she needed help. Finding an agency to provide caregivers we could trust was not an issue. But working through Medicare requirements and their long term care policy to access the benefits they qualified for was labyrinthian. Piles of paper, frequent re-readings, confusing questions, many phone calls. And I had to wonder, if this is so difficult for me, who spends each day dealing with piles of paper, frequent re-readings and many, many phone calls, how is someone in their late 80s or 90s with mobility and cognitive issues ever going to be able to do this?
That was the topic of these conversations over meals. And despite the high level of intelligence and accomplishment of those I spoke with, the reactions were fairly consistent—lack of patience and disgust. “Who needs it?” “I wouldn’t even bother.” “Life’s too short.” And finally, and most honestly, “I can’t do that anymore.”
“I can’t do that anymore.” There it was. The crux of the issue. People who had achieved great things in their earlier life were resistant to dive into a process that could provide them benefits. And I realized what these people all once had and now lacked was confidence. Aging, sadly, is a steady stream of loss. You lose your hair, you lose your sight, you lose your teeth, you lose your mobility, you lose your career, you lose your friends, and you lose your confidence. When you watch a ballgame, you can always spot the team that is lacking in confidence and tentative in their reactions. Lack of confidence delays or even rejects decision making.
The drift in American culture and business towards the senior market becomes more obvious each day. Just this month, Lily Tomlin stars in a film called “Grandma” and Robert Redford plays an old man in “A Walk in The Woods.” (That’s right, Robert Redford as an old man!) Google announces part ownership of a company working on longevity. Aging 2.0 gathers young entrepreneurs and venture capitalists together around the country in hopes of finding the next technical breakthrough. And it seems there are more commercials for pharmaceuticals directed at aging adults than for cars or Papa John’s on television each night.
But, the antidote that seems to be missing is confidence. We can do all the right things-- create new service programs, new drugs, new technologies, add government benefits, find solutions across the spectrum of aging--but not really be effective until we learn how to communicate with people who are suffering from a lack of confidence.
More Than Just a Home
By Mark Olshaker
If we had to pick a single word that best characterizes the approach to senior living exemplified by Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly of Boston, Massachusetts, we would find that word right in the name: Community. While the term “Aging in Place” is bandied about to represent numerous concepts and situations, “Aging in Community” has a very specific meaning as applied to JCHE’s 1,200 apartment units spread over eight buildings. Altogether, they house about 1,500 senior residents.
“Community really is the defining feature of our work,” declares Jessica Boatright, the Associate Director of Real Estate Development. “We start from the premise that housing is not the end goal, but a building block upon which community is built. We have a strategic plan to rally around aging in community. We offer an antidote to isolation and a place of engagement.”
Read full article
The Golden Girls Network
For a growing cadre of baby boomers the “Golden Girls” lifestyle is becoming a national trend. Many boomers and graying divorcees are looking into shared housing options as a remedy for high housing costs and loneliness. One such divorcee, Bonnie Moore, of Bowie, MD took in four roommates in 2008 as her marriage and the housing market were collapsing. With the demand for shared housing continuing to rise, Moore created the Golden Girls Network, a match-making type service that pairs prospective roommates, ages 40-plus.
The Golden Girls Network has around 1,000 members, male and female, from all across the country, and a team of 5 employees. Moore has, also, written a guidebook based on her own experiences, How to Start a Golden Girls Home. Moore’s book offers guidance on handling pets, boyfriends, and other tricky situations, provides interview questions, includes hundreds of tips, and, because of her law and accounting background, Moore has sample applications and leases.
Read Market Watch article
Read Huffington Post article
Medicaid Eligibility and Aging in Place
In an enticing piece entitled, Medicaid Eligibility and Aging in Place, Senior Planning Services’, Benny Lamm discusses the dilemma over fair pay and benefits for private in-home caregivers which in turn leads to increased rates for seniors in desperate need of in-home care. Luckily, Medicaid has devised a program to help with this quandary. Could Medicaid HCBS services be the answer?
Lamm says that unlike the Medicare model, the Medicaid HCBS services are intended to help maintain quality of life for those aging in place. Eligibility requirements will vary from state to state, and in-home care is not always the best option, but for those that are eligible Medicaid’s services will allow them easier access to the care they so desperately need.
Read full article
Cyber-Seniors
Following in the intergenerational footsteps of many programs a national volunteer-based program called Cyber-Seniors, created in 2012, is pairing the elderly with digitally-native teenagers that can teach seniors how to use newest technologies; computers, the internet, and social media.
The program has helped bridge a generational gap, facilitated seniors in staying “current,” and illustrated that being able to navigate the web and use social media tools is a way for seniors to stay connected and avoid isolation.
Cyber-Seniors is wide spread across North America, has aided thousands of seniors, and has over 800 organizations, such as schools, youth groups, and senior centers, involved in the campaign. Establishing a community program is as simple as requesting a screening of the documentary as a kick-off event.
Read full article
Chapter Updates:
NAIPC is happy to report that we have new chapters forming in St. Louis, MO and Raleigh-Durham, NC. Terry Donovan will be heading up the St. Louis chapter and Ken Updegrave will be chair of the Raleigh-Durham chapter.
The New Hampshire chapter of NAIPC has officially been created and will be chaired by Darlene Pearl.
Welcome to our newest chapter and to all of our new members!
Upcoming Events:
9/16/15 Greater Charleston Quarterly meeting
9/29/15 NAIPC Council of Chapters Conference call
10/7/15 Tri County of Greater Los Angeles Chapter Meeting
10/13-19/15 National Aging in Place week
10/20/15 Greater Charleston Celebration of National Aging in Place Week
10/27/15 NAIPC Council of Chapters Conference Call
12/2-3/15 NAIPC Annual Meeting |
