July 17, 2003

Senior Citizen Updates

• Depression and Anxiety
  The local Baltimore media is spotlighting a regional and national problem that is of epic proportions and threatens to get worse. Senior Citizens, whether at home or in the services of special care, are pervasively feeling abandoned, lonely, useless and ready to die. They have lost their ability to thrive. Everyday, millions of America's senior citizens contemplate dying and suicide. Arguably, the issue of pervasive unhappiness of America's seniors is the most important social challenge of our times.
  
  Through the combined intelligence and resources of Elder LifeCare Foundation the solution is at hand. Over thirty years of focused, concentrated research and development has tested and packaged a solution that can be quickly and efficiently scaled to meet the national need. The ELF solution is not only unique but provides immediate relief on a broad scale. Implementing the process that will ease elder pain is currently waiting on funding.
  
  
• Prescription Drug Debate
  As senior citizens are wooed with promises of yet another entitlement, their quality of life is unknowingly being placed at even higher risk. Along with many responsible advocates for aging, Elder LifeCare Foundation stands in firm opposition to the new entitlement. AFCM's (American's for Free Choice in Medicine) executive director, Richard E. Ralston says, "...Instead of making their own decisions about the best medications, (senior citizen) patients and their doctors will be reduced to seeking permission to use what the government decides to provide..."
  
  20th century experience with entitlements has created a vast victim group joined by mutual anxiety of uncertainty. Dependency on government has produced catastrophic consequences, dramatic loss of quality of life, widespread depression, declining self-esteem and indifference. By depriving people of their natural inclinations to strive, dependency literally sucks the value out of life. More entitlements is guaranteed to hasten this decline. ELF believes the effective solution lies in retraining the culture, beginning with strategies to restore the value of the American Family.

Recognition

• A Word of Thanks
  Thanks to the great humanitarian sacrifices and valiant efforts of Mr. Ralph Day and his staff, Global American Foundation in Prince Frederick Maryland is making progress toward securing a financial position to make the programs of Elder LifeCare Foundation possible.
  
  The staff of Elder LifeCare Foundation, who have voluntarily and selflessly contributed countless months and even years of valuable time preparing to launch this great initiative, would like to personally express their highest and sincerest gratitude to the members of the Global American Foundation.
  
  

• Legislative Recognition
  In recognition of the of the solutions readied to ease the pain of America's senior citizens, Governor Erhlich has proclaimed July as "Elder LifeCare Month" in the State of Maryland. The ELF Quality of Life Solutions are witnessing widespread acceptance in many states whose legislators are currently poised to facilitate the launch of program initiatives in their local communities.
  
  

Program Updates

• Suicide Screening Initiative- Ready to Launch
  Depression is rampant among senior citizens; also the incidence of suicide is higher among elderly than other subgroups with exception of adolescents.
  
  One aspect of the ELF program is that it will enable and offer free suicide prediction screening in any geographical area where we have a presence.
  
  

Feedback

• Los Angeles Watts
  As a result of a recent discussion with Leslie Ryan of Global American Foundation members of the ELF staff visited the Watts area of Los Angeles and made the following observations.
  • There is considerable stress related to merely existing in the Watts area.
  • Evidence of this stress is the guardedness and defensiveness apparent in Watts. This includes the stores, parking lots, buildings, shopping centers, hospital areas cordoned off with chain link fences.
  • There is a disproportionately large amount of psychiatric health dysfunction. A major part of the large community hospital in the Watts area is the mental health unit.
  • The amount of violence and the threats of violence have not abated in the Watts area (in spite of the decreased incidence of reported violence).
  • Gang warfare and gang violence expressed against citizens, bystanders, and residents is rampant on the streets of Watts.

  Many of the impressions we developed and information we received reinforce our perceptions that in Watts there are problems with:

  • Lack of education and under-education
  • Neurodevelopmental dysfunctions
    • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
    • Attention Deficit Disorder
    • Learning Difficulties (reading problems, processing dysfunctions, perceptual dysfunctions, arithmetical conceptual difficulties, and others)
    • Minimal Brain Dysfunctions
  • Significantly heightened incidence of Anxiety, Depression, and Substance Use Disorders
  
  
  ELF believes there is great need for a comprehensive treatment center in conjunction with a local Watts hospital, in which we can support the implementation of several critical program objectives: (1) provide educational remedial treatment; (2) teach alternative learning strategies to those persons experiencing cognitive processing problems; (3) provide mental health treatment to children, pre-adolescents, adolescents, adults, and older American residents of Watts to deal with the increased incidence of depression, anxiety, and aggression.