Among the featured topics included in this series is “Caring For Aging Parents Who Cared For You”. This conversation focuses on the challenge of caring for a loved one as they age, a role many will unexpectedly be forced to play. The guests on this topic are author Jane Gross who wrote “A Bittersweet Season- Caring for our Aging Parents and Ourselves” (a novel about caring for her ailing mother), Beatriz Terrazas (author of “My Mother’s Brain”- a blog on a Latino Family’s story about Alzheimer’s), and John Farley who edits and co-writes the Speakeasy column in The Wall Street Journal.

Another great topic covered by the series is on the realities of retirement, titled “Advice For the Golden Years: ‘Don’t Ever Retire Mentally’. A memorable quote that stood out to us was from 83 year old, Krishna Roy, who said “Don’t ever retire mentally. Keep your mind alive.” This is sound advice since a recent poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Yale School of Public health shows that 39% of retirees say their health is worse after retirement compared with 13% of non-retirees expectations for life after work. It is clear that this series is not only going to talk about death but also an active and engaged retirement among several related topics.

Here is an interesting website also put together through NPR; End of Life explores death in America and provides several useful links. The site provides transcripts on various topics surrounding death, resources for people with life-threatening diseases and their families and caregivers, as well as links to selected mediums on death and dying, hospice, death and caregiving, retirement, and much more. Enjoy!

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, social networking among people 65 and older increased by 100 percent between April 2009 and May 2010. The center found that the internet is a way in which physically isolated seniors can connect with friends and family even if they are aging in place and physically isolated.

Stanford Professor Laura Carstensen, the director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity, says that “social networking is providing more and more to be an entrance into technology for older adults.” As independence among seniors starts to decline, more are experiencing social isolation, loneliness and depression especially those living away from family and in assisted living homes. Several studies have found that internet use among older adults was associated with a 30% decrease in depressive symptoms among those who use the internet regularly.

While Facebook can help a senior stay socially connected it does not facilitate meaningful face-to-face interactions. It is not a substitute for face-to-face companionship for seniors. That’s why Engage As You Age is here to facilitate meaningful activity-focused companionship for seniors. We’ve found that companions for seniors make a difference that Facebook can’t compete with.

A few other things to consider about Facebook and seniors. Do the grandchildren of seniors want their grandparents to see their pictures and comments online? Perhaps Facebook would connect seniors to aspects of their grandchildren and children’s lives that they wouldn’t want to see. What do you think about Facebook and seniors? Is it the cure for loneliness and seniors?

Along the same lines as the two aforementioned studies, a 2011 study published in the Journal of Psychology and Aging found that being a musician may contribute to better hearing in old age by delaying some of the age-related changes in central auditory processing especially if elderly musicians are using their auditory systems on a regular basis. In other words “use it or lose it.”

Engage As You Age often works with older adults and socially isolated seniors by bringing music and music lessons to their homes;  allowing them to age in place. While we’re certainly not as helpful as a hearing aid, we’ve found that when paired with one we bring a lot of joy to isolated seniors.  So even if you haven’t been a musician your whole life, there are several benefits for older adults who engage in activities that stimulate the senses at any age. According to a study by a USC professor some benefits of seniors engaging include the prevention of health decline that comes with old age such as memory loss, hearing loss, and physical inability.

Beer is determined to combat the pernicious effects of social isolation and has $348,000 (courtesy of the Australian Research Council) to investigate what programs work, don’t work and why. He plans on studying 900 Australian seniors evaluate social programs for seniors and figure out what models should be embraced and what should be eliminated.

“Up to 20 percent of the Australian aged population is socially isolated and we have a rapidly aging population. If you are socially isolated, it will have a huge impact on your health and place a huge burden on society as a whole and the individual” said Beer.

Beer’s assertion that 20% of seniors in Australia are socially isolated rings true to our ears at Engage As You Age. Our rough estimate is that 20-25% of seniors in the San Francisco Bay Area are socially isolated. Whether they live in a San Francisco assisted living facility or nursing home or choose to age in place, many seniors in San Francisco (and throughout the Bay Area) are isolated because of physical, cognitive and/or emotional reasons. It’s the seniors who are stuck in their rooms (in assisted living facilities or their own homes) or who have dementia or parkinson’s and have a hard time connecting with other seniors. That’s why we’re here–to provide companionship for seniors that are socially isolated.

Participants of this 6-week class will all receive a free copy the book Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions. A relaxation cd will also be given to participants to keep and it is called Time for Healing.

The class will take place each Monday beginning on July 11th and will be from 1:30 till 4 pm for each of the 6 sessions. The workshops will be at:

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Stanford Healthy Library, South Palo Alto Branch

Oshman Family Jewish Community Center

3921 Fabian Way, Room G106, Palo Alto, CA 94303

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You can sign up for the class by calling 650-498-7826. It will be facilitated by Peggy Simon who works for Stanford University Hospital, Avenidas and also provides coaching services for family caregivers who are taking care of an aging parent as a primary caregiver or who are using caregiving services.

Navigating the maze of senior care can be overwhelming and confusing. But there are solutions – and a May 19 community discussion will offer up dozens.

Engage As You Age, a company that provides social visits for isolated seniors, has organized Senior Care 101: A panel discussion with a range of experts at the Burlingame Recreation Social Hall.

Seniors and their loved ones (spouses, children and caregivers) are invited and encouraged to attend the free event. Participants include a geriatric psychologist, a fiduciary and financial planner, a social worker, ombudsman, therapist and concierge.

Engage As You Age’s founder, Ben Lewis, has led more than a dozen of these panels in Marin and San Francisco. The interactive sessions can be tremendous learning opportunities, he said.

“Whether people chime in during the town-hall style meeting or come up afterward and ask panelists in private for help—everyone gets their questions answered one way or the other,” Lewis said.

The panel will offer those in the audience advice and connect them with community resources, including those that are free. The goal is to provide community people with actionable information to help them address their immediate eldercare, life-planning issues and also learn how to proactively tackle common challenges that people face as they age. Homecare, caregiving and many other topics will be addressed.

DETAILS—

What: Senior Care 101

When: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday, May 19

Where: Burlingame Recreation Social Hall, 850 Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame.

Beyond the lack of socializing what also caught our attention was that the homecare workers and caregivers on the show also mentioned that there was a lack of communication so that they sometimes had to ask the seniors and elders what was expected of them!

At Engage As You Age we ALWAYS prepare our team members on how best to engage seniors in conversation and activities and ensure that we offer our employees a wide-range of materials and topics to present to someone.

This was the first time we had seen a homecare company featured on a major network television program. Are you aware of any other programs that capture homecare and caregiving on tv? Please get in touch with us if you do know of any other examples.

Photograph courtesy of Houston Chronicle News Services and Pascal Parrot

When Jeanne Calment turned 90 she decided to have a reverse mortgage so that she could receive income for the rest of her life in exchange for her property. Any actuary would tell you that the odds were in the favor of the bank coming out ahead in this financial transaction. Jeanne Calment beat the odds and certainly got the better end of her reverse mortgage. Many seniors and their families don’t come out as well when they sign on the dotted line of a reverse mortgage.

Jeanne Calment is known by most people not for her reverse mortgage but for being the oldest person to have ever lived (with accepted documentation). She lived until she was 122!

Beyond being the oldest person to have ever lived, Calment was well known for being the last person alive to have met Vincent Van Gogh and still be alive. In describing her chance encounter with him when she was 12 or 13 years old, Calment that Van Gogh was “very ugly, ungracious, impolite, sick–I forgive him, they called him loco.”

Calment was an active woman and active senior. She is a great example of someone that engages as they age. She continued to ride a bicycle until she was 100 and didn’t need to move into a nursing home until she was 110!

On a daily basis Engage As You Age provides meaningful social interactions for seniors in San Francisco (as well as Marin County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Alameda County and Contra Costa County) that have Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. We’d love to see more press about examples of how those that have Alzheimer’s disease can have some laughs, learn how to even use a computer and most importantly have social stimulation.

The respite that we provide San Francisco family caregivers not only benefits the seniors and elders with dementia that we work with but it also enhances the quality of life that families struggling with dementia of a loved one can have.

The stats that jump out at you are that Americans spend roughly $7300 annually on medicine while Canadians spend $2700 per head and Britons come in at $2000. Bortz, a physician for over 50 years (and a prime example of someone engaging as they age!), argues that the financial interests of drug and biotech companies have “distorted the healthcare system” and put us in this predicament.

In Next Medicine, Bortz calls for a new medical system based upon rigorous science and not corporate interests. He argues that the corporate interests that are distorting our healthcare system have created an medical environment in which treatment is financially rewarded instead of prevention. Dollars go into fixing problems instead of trying to prevent them (causing us to spend such large and ineffectual sums of money on healthcare).

At Engage As You Age we regularly see firsthand the benefits of proactive approaches to preventing health issues and also sadly see the significant costs associated with reactive treatments. If you know someone that is lonely, isolated and/or depressed it is imperative that you proactively find ways to socially connect and engage them. There are numerous studies that point towards the health benefits associated with being socially engaged.

Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about the benefits of social engagement. Come to Avenidas this Tuesday if you’d like to hear Dr. Bortz discuss his most recent book highlighting the benefits of prevention (compared to simply reacting and treating).

Dr. Bortz’s talk will take place at 2 pm at 450 Bryant Street in Palo Alto, CA.