ELF News Archives

December 2006

- Elder-Care Costs Deplete Savings of a Generation -

To care for her ailing 97-year-old father over the past three years, Elizabeth Rodriguez, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, has borrowed against her 401(k) retirement plan, sold her house on Staten Island and depleted nearly 20 years of savings. The money has gone to lawyers’ fees ($50,000) to win a contested guardianship. It has gone for home-care equipment like the mattress for his hospital bed (about $3,000 in all) and for a food service to deliver meals ($400 a month).

NY Times 12/30

- Spotlighting elder abuse -

During his 13 years as a Goffstown police officer, Tracy Culberson often encountered older adults in situations that didn't seem quite right. Perhaps a caregiver was too quick to answer questions, or the fridge was a little too empty, or a savings account was missing a few hundred dollars.

Concord Monitor 12/30

- China extends social security coverage to landless farmers -

More than 6 million Chinese farmers who became landless in land requisitions have been covered by the basic living or old-age security programs, said a senior Chinese legislator.

People's Daily 12/30

- Dining With Scrooge -

Little did Charles Dickens suspect in 1843, when he sat down to write "A Christmas Carol" in the hope of earning enough royalty income to pay off a debt, that his story would become the most popular piece of fiction in the English language.

Lew Rockwell 12/24

- Creative Housing Ideas For An Aging Population -

An independent living complex with 38 apartments, Harbor House was created by combining five historic properties in the city's Point section, including a former convent, a chapel with stained glass windows built in 1914 and a house built in 1840 that was once part of the Auchincloss estate.Harbor House opened in 2002 after nearly $5.8 million in renovation and reconstruction. Rents are based on the income level of tenants, with 31 units reserved for those with incomes below $30,840 a year.

The Day 12/22

- Elder Care Impact on Labor Supply -

This study found that women ages 55 to 67 who, during a two-year period, helped elderly parents with personal activities, errands or chores reduced their work hours by 367 hours a year, or 41 percent, on average. The authors conclude that "providing informal care to elderly parents may be incompatible with full-time paid employment" for middle-aged women, and may hinder efforts that encourage women to delay retirement. The analysis used recent data from the Health and Retirement Study, conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Aging.

PR News 12/22

- Study finds many unaware, unprepared -

Morrie and Edith Magnuson of Sioux Falls say it was difficult to sit down with their children to talk about what should happen "when we get to the point when things kind of fall apart for us."

Argus Leader 12/22

- Be open about elders' plans for care -

"I never knew what 'sandwich generation' meant until this," she said, referring to the term coined for people squished between the needs of their aging parents and their own young children.

Myrtle Beach Online 12/22

- Baby boomers seek help for elder care -

As one of 6,000 geriatric care managers in the country, Meyer is a vital link between adult children and their aging parents.

MSNBC 12/21

- Former Elder Affairs secretary discusses aging -

Ask 50 people the secret to a long life and you're likely to get varying responses... To her, affordable housing and transportation are the biggest issues facing seniors in the Southwest Florida area. In addition, more needs to be done to ...

Marco Island Sun 12/21

- Proposals would expand access to funds to help pay for caregiving -

Lawmakers hope to help more senior citizens live independently Proposals would expand access to funds to help pay for caregiving

Twin Cities 12/21

- 'Check nursing homes for mental care' -

Nursing homes should be assessed to find out whether they can meet the needs of elderly people with severe mental illness, according to a new Irish research study.

Irish Health 12/19

- Alternatives to nursing homes: A place to call home -

Boarding house concept puts focus on care of elderly...Cary Steinkraus says the home serves a carefully planned menu of appetizing food so that the residents keep up their weight -- a challenge for ill seniors who feel the odd effects of medication. The staff also insists that the residents drink "a measured amount of fluids" for good health,...

South Bend Tribune 12/18

- Nursing Home Or Hospital: State Policy Has Big Impact On Elderly -

For the first time on a national scale, a team led by Brown University researchers has traced the connections between state nursing home policies and a critical decision in the care of nursing home residents - whether to send these frail elderly to the hospital.

Medical News Today 12/18

- Trying to ease suffering -

Hospice of Anchorage is a nonprofit organization that offers end-of-life care to about 85 people and their families every year. Nurses, social workers and staff focus on grieving, while volunteers help the family as a loved one is dying and afterward,

Anchorage Daily 12/18

- Seniors: Beware of deals promising high return -

Seniors: Beware of deals promising high return

Herald Tribune 12/18

- Is there another way? -

ALTERNATIVES TO NURSING HOMES

South Bend Tribune 12/18

- Feels like home -

The idea of a nursing home can conjure up thoughts of an impersonal environment where old people wait out their last days. For senior citizens in the Valley, there are other options...Hutson has transformed what looks like an average home into a senior nursing facility.

Big Bear Grizzly 12/15

- Freddie Mac Offers Back-Up Elder Care for Employees -

Starting this month, Freddie Mac employees will have access to a national network of home health care professionals and elder care specialists for back- up care to assist with the needs of elderly family members when their primary caregiver is not available. The company is also expanding the current back-up child care network available to employees.

Yahoo Finance 12/14

- Firms see wisdom in elder-care plans -

Workers with ailing parents find an array of stress-reducing services.

LA Times 12/13

- Claims of abuse in care homes goes up by a third -

The allegations related to incidents in care homes, hospitals, supported housing and the victims' own homes. That figure of 496 has risen from 373 in 2004/05 and just 158 the year before, according to the annual report of the Cardiff Area Adult Protection Committee.

IC Wales 12/13

- Grant would help seniors leave nursing homes -

South Carolina is seeking part of a $1.75 billion federal grant to get more seniors out of nursing homes and back into their own homes or other community settings.

The State 12/13

- Elderly care cost plan puts family homes at risk -

THOUSANDS of families could be forced to sell or remortgage their parents’ homes after they die, in order to pay the Government for their care in the final years of their lives.

Irish Examiner 12/12

- China must shore up pension for ageing society -

China will face a crisis in caring for its elderly unless it can shore up its inadequate and mismanaged social security funds before an explosion in its rapidly ageing population, the government said on Tuesday...China is already home to more than half of the old people in Asia, and by 2050 its elderly will exceed 400 million, accounting for more than 30 percent of the population.

China Daily 12/12

- Growing Younger -

How profitable services and a savvy marketing campaign are fueling AARP's torrid growth....Everybody loves Grandma, right? But what if she's going to bankrupt the country? Every seven seconds an American turns 50, and the oldest baby boomers will reach 65 in four years. That generation accounts for 78 million Americans. They consume 40% of the federal budget through such programs as Social Security and Medicare. And policy experts fear that the coming wave of seniors could swamp those programs--leaving a gift of higher taxes and reduced benefits for their kids. "The crisis is coming--we know that," says Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP. That's why, Novelli says, AARP will leverage its increasingly powerful brand to offer prescriptions for America's most pressing fiscal problems--and drive its own revenues to more than $1 billion in the process.

Time 12/12

- Elder care clinician program provides support for elderly -

A nationwide study recently reported that only 2.5 percent of persons age 65 and over, reported getting outpatient mental health treatment, as opposed to 7 percent of younger persons. This is despite the fact that an estimated 20 percent of the elder age group experience mental and emotional problems, like depression and anxiety, that are not part of normal aging.

Reformer 12/11

- Low-income rooms with a view -

After a decade of false starts, one of the most unusual senior housing developments in the region is rising above the marshes in the Squantum section of Quincy, in the shadow of the luxury Marina Bay community on Boston Harbor.

Boston.Com 12/11

- Private nursing homes want cash to go with proposed changes -

...the province allocates $5.56 per day for food and beverage for each nursing home resident. That is less than the $6.11 per person per day the province spends on food and beverage for inmates at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre. The average at provincially run correctional facilities is $7.09 per person.

Hamilton Mountain News 12/11

- Medicaid Funded Elder Care Program To Pay Massachusetts Family Caregivers Up To $18,000 Per Year To Care For Their Elders At Home -

Caregiver Homes announces participation in a new Enhanced Adult Foster Care Program begun in Massachusetts on Dec 1, 2006. The new program - enacted by the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs and the Office of Medicaid - aims to ease the financial burden on care giving families by paying a family (or non-family) caregiver to care for an elderly or disabled adult at home. The program provides the elder client with community choice and has demonstrated a 40-50% cost savings compared to nursing home placement.

PRWeb 12/08

- Elder Law: Do you have a hardship? -

The $200,000 that Bob retained will be enough to pay for about 21 months of nursing home care at which time he will have less than $2,000 remaining. This will be the time that the penalty will commence for having paid $50,000 for his granddaughter’s tuition. This penalty will be about seven months. The only way to eliminate the penalty is to return the gift and that can’t happen in this case. So, what is Bob to do?

WestBorough News 12/08

- Nursing homes favor recommendations -

“This is changing resources to adequately meet needs of the people most people. Most people who are now living at home, want to stay at home as long as possible, and if they can't stay home they want to go to some kind of facility where they will have the maximum amount of freedom and the least restriction,

WNYT 12/08

- Keeping an eye out for elder abuse -

And it would be foolish to think that elder abuse in the form of neglect, bullying, intimidation, and inadequate care, is confined to nursing homes and other long term residential care. Elder abuse in one or other of its very ugly facets, also takes place in homes around the country.

Irish Medical News 12/07

- Concern Grows that Low-Income Senior May Have Problems with Medicare Drugs -

About 600,000 low-income Medicare beneficiaries who automatically received a subsidy to help cover their prescription drug costs this year will have to apply on their own to qualify for the funds for the 2007 plan year, which begins Jan. 1, 2007

Senior Journal 12/07

- Witnessing Abuse -- What Would You Do? -

Reports of elder abuse in the United States are growing significantly, up almost 20 percent between 2000 and 2004, according to the National Center for Elder Abuse. The same organization estimates that anywhere between 1 million and 2 million Americans older than the age of 65 "have been injured, exploited or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care."

ABC News 12/05

- Social Security Reform Is Not Just About Solvency -

Now that the elections are over, Democrats are suggesting a new willingness to address the need for Social Security reform. Max Baucus, D-Mont., incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced plans to hold hearings on proposals to fix the program's looming financial crisis.

Cato 12/05

- Now What About Fiscal Sustainability? -

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt last year proposed a "Generation Pact" to ensure the long-term sustainability of pensions among his aging citizenry. Far from embracing this important reform, trade unions twice brought the country to a standstill through general strikes because they deemed the prime minister's demand to raise the early retirement age from 58 to 60 as "unsocial."...Indeed, demographers forecast a pension time-bomb in Germany, with as many citizens over the age of 80 as under the age of 20 by the middle of this century. And experts are already warning today that the negative return on pension payments faced by today's contributors may be a violation of the constitution.

Kero 23 12/05

- Market shifting away from traditional nursing homes -

Almost no one wants to admit to needing long-term care or that it might be needed someday. It's a taboo topic, and that can cause families heartache in the long run,

Billings Gazette 12/04

- Baby boomers not needing senior housing yet -

Much has been made this year of the first wave of baby boomers turning 60, and it's become popular to blame boomers for all manner of cultural shifts and trends.

Billings Gazette 12/04

- Nursing homes welcome mergers -

Breslin has proposed merging the homes into a new 150-bed building. He also wants to create more community programs, like home visits and day care, that will help people stay out of nursing homes, "which is someplace they don't want to be and it's much much more expensive."

Times Union 12/04

- New ideas on elder housing get attention -

Today's concept of livable and senior-friendly communities can be pretty basic: A small-town pharmacy installs a call button outside so older people who can't get out of their cars can buzz employees for help.

Scripps News 12/01

- Elder care insurance incentives don't work -

A University of Hawaii study concludes that more than a dozen states have wasted money subsidizing long-term health care insurance.

Pacific Business News 12/01

Return to News