Wisconsin in the mid 1990s was the first to set up what it called Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), well-advertised storefronts that provide information and advice on home care services, such as bathing and dressing, meal preparation, nursing, housekeeping and specialized transportation.
Now, 42 other states, with the help of federal grants, are following Wisconsin’s lead.
This from an article published earlier this month in Stateline.org.
Stateline.org has been a daily online public information service of The Pew Charitable Trusts since 1999. Professional journalists provide news to “help nourish public debate of important state-level issues such as healthcare, tax and budget policy, the environment, welfare reform and other issues that in recent years have not gotten the media attention they deserve.”
In-home services are important not only because they're what most people want, but because they save a lot of money. Home care costs about half of what nursing home care costs.
The article devotes much space to Wisconsin’s success and quotes Donna McDowell, director of the state Bureau of Aging and Disability Resources.
Wisconsin is now in the second tier of percentage of Medicare dollars spent on homecare services, devoting 42% to those services. Fourteen states now do better. The top five: Oregon, 70%; New Mexico, 67%; Alaska, 63%; Vermont, 60%, and Minnesota, 59%. So we have a way to go to get back to the front of the parade.
More from the article:
Since 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given states more than $42 million in grants to create Wisconsin-style centers, which now serve about 22 percent of the population. Last month, 11 states – Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin – received additional money to make centers available statewide.
You thoughts? Comments? Stories? Please share them with us.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Communications robots gather dust in Japanese nursing homes
When it comes to technology, genius inventors probably need to talk to seniors before trotting out high-concept, high-tech products for them. Or so the Japanese are finding out, according to a Reuters news release.
A pale green robot that talks, sings, and plays trivia to help seniors stay mentally agile is less popular than stuffed animals that do none of the above but offer some creature comfort.
It shouldn’t be a surprise. Harry Harlow, famed Wisconsin researcher, found out years ago that like people, Rhesus monkeys preferred to be “nurtured” by padded surrogates than wire ones.
What most seniors predictably want technology for is making their lives easier. That means big buttons, better audio, and physical adaptability: simpler phones and tools, adjustable countertops.
Two high-tech innovations that show promise are an electric tea kettle with a radio transmitter and a spoon with a built in stabilizer. The tea kettle sends e-mail to the family, letting them know whether Mom has made tea that day. The spoon compensates for shaking hands.
High tech is great, but it won’t ever replace the need for high touch--the voice and hands of real-life caregivers.
What technology do you know that improves the lives of seniors? What would you like to see?
A pale green robot that talks, sings, and plays trivia to help seniors stay mentally agile is less popular than stuffed animals that do none of the above but offer some creature comfort.
It shouldn’t be a surprise. Harry Harlow, famed Wisconsin researcher, found out years ago that like people, Rhesus monkeys preferred to be “nurtured” by padded surrogates than wire ones.
What most seniors predictably want technology for is making their lives easier. That means big buttons, better audio, and physical adaptability: simpler phones and tools, adjustable countertops.
Two high-tech innovations that show promise are an electric tea kettle with a radio transmitter and a spoon with a built in stabilizer. The tea kettle sends e-mail to the family, letting them know whether Mom has made tea that day. The spoon compensates for shaking hands.
High tech is great, but it won’t ever replace the need for high touch--the voice and hands of real-life caregivers.
What technology do you know that improves the lives of seniors? What would you like to see?
Thursday, September 20, 2007
A shortened life for caregivers?
According to the September 20 ScienceDaily, there’s new “concrete evidence that the effects of chronic stress can be seen both at the genetic and molecular level in chronic caregivers' bodies.” (Accelerated Telomere Erosion Is Associated with a Declining Immune Function of Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients. J Immunol 2007 179: 4249-4254.)
What that means for caregivers--spouses and children who care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease in this case—may be a shorter life expectancy by four to eight years.
The study, published in the Journal of Immunology, was done by a group from Ohio State University's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research including director Ronald Glaser, professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics; Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychology and psychiatry; and Nan-ping Weng and other researchers from the National Institute of Aging.
The group has been looking at the effects of psychological stress on immune status in many different groups. In an earlier study, they showed chromosomal damage and premature aging in mothers of chronically ill children.
Interestingly, the Institute is also investigating whether yoga can reduce levels of stress hormones. While many people believe that to be true, there’s no scientific evidence—yet.
So there’s another good reason to help caregivers. This fall, watch for all the opportunities around Milwaukee. A few follow:
• On October 4, we’re sponsoring a caregiver training event in Milwaukee that talks about one source of stress--lack of health insurance--and one intervention that might help caregivers and the people they care for stay healthier—better nutrition.
• October 29-31 in Port Washington, the Wisconsin Alliance for Family Caregiving is offering a train-the-trainer session for people interested in using the curriculum Taking Care of You: Powerful Tools for Caregiving.
• And Saturday, November 3, there’s a free all day event for caregivers at Mount Mary College, Caring for the Caregiver: an Event for the Mind, Body, and Spirit. This event is sponsored by the Milwaukee Aging Consortium, Interfaith-Family Caregiver Support Network, Milwaukee Center for Independence, IndependenceFirst, Golden Living, New Health Service, Stowell Associates SelectStaff, and Interfaith Older Adult Programs, Inc. To register or for more information, call 414-220-8600.
What that means for caregivers--spouses and children who care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease in this case—may be a shorter life expectancy by four to eight years.
The study, published in the Journal of Immunology, was done by a group from Ohio State University's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research including director Ronald Glaser, professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics; Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychology and psychiatry; and Nan-ping Weng and other researchers from the National Institute of Aging.
The group has been looking at the effects of psychological stress on immune status in many different groups. In an earlier study, they showed chromosomal damage and premature aging in mothers of chronically ill children.
Interestingly, the Institute is also investigating whether yoga can reduce levels of stress hormones. While many people believe that to be true, there’s no scientific evidence—yet.
So there’s another good reason to help caregivers. This fall, watch for all the opportunities around Milwaukee. A few follow:
• On October 4, we’re sponsoring a caregiver training event in Milwaukee that talks about one source of stress--lack of health insurance--and one intervention that might help caregivers and the people they care for stay healthier—better nutrition.
• October 29-31 in Port Washington, the Wisconsin Alliance for Family Caregiving is offering a train-the-trainer session for people interested in using the curriculum Taking Care of You: Powerful Tools for Caregiving.
• And Saturday, November 3, there’s a free all day event for caregivers at Mount Mary College, Caring for the Caregiver: an Event for the Mind, Body, and Spirit. This event is sponsored by the Milwaukee Aging Consortium, Interfaith-Family Caregiver Support Network, Milwaukee Center for Independence, IndependenceFirst, Golden Living, New Health Service, Stowell Associates SelectStaff, and Interfaith Older Adult Programs, Inc. To register or for more information, call 414-220-8600.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Uninsured caregivers would benefit from Badgercare Plus
One of the points that has the Wisconsin State Legislature stuck in budget morass is the governor’s plan for universal health insurance, Healthy Wisconsin.(Note: link changed 9-17-7.) The Republicans won’t budge on this radical innovation that would change the entire climate of health care reimbursement in the state.
But there’s one thing many of us, including the Wisconsin Long Term Care Workforce Alliance and the Wisconsin Direct Caregiver Alliance, can get behind, and that’s BadgerCare Plus. Healthy Wisconsin or no Healthy Wisconsin, this program is a must for many caregivers, whose average monthly income in Wisconsin is $1,700.
Many caregivers tell us that they must choose between having a car, increasingly a requirement for employment, and health insurance. It’s hard to imagine affording either on that income.
BadgerCare Plus is an expansion of the state’s existing healthcare program for families with children who are unable to afford health insurance. The expansion would include individuals and families with no children in the home who meet income requirements.
To help support direct care workers by seeing that they can have health insurance, contact your legislators. If you’re personally affected, tell you story.
There's a link on our website to a factsheet that should help you make your case about BadgerCare Plus and direct your message to the right person.
And please share your stories with us as well!
But there’s one thing many of us, including the Wisconsin Long Term Care Workforce Alliance and the Wisconsin Direct Caregiver Alliance, can get behind, and that’s BadgerCare Plus. Healthy Wisconsin or no Healthy Wisconsin, this program is a must for many caregivers, whose average monthly income in Wisconsin is $1,700.
Many caregivers tell us that they must choose between having a car, increasingly a requirement for employment, and health insurance. It’s hard to imagine affording either on that income.
BadgerCare Plus is an expansion of the state’s existing healthcare program for families with children who are unable to afford health insurance. The expansion would include individuals and families with no children in the home who meet income requirements.
To help support direct care workers by seeing that they can have health insurance, contact your legislators. If you’re personally affected, tell you story.
There's a link on our website to a factsheet that should help you make your case about BadgerCare Plus and direct your message to the right person.
And please share your stories with us as well!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
A tale of two agings. . .and another warning about the budget
Two aging-related articles telling very different stories of the lives of aging people appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel September 12.
Front page (though below the fold) was Retiring an old notion. It’s about people staying employed into their 60s and 70s. And it confesses to an “idealized glimpse of the American way of working into the golden years. . .” The article featured Pat Benway, who works for Consortium member Stowell Associates SelectStaff, and who is at the top of her game at an age when many are retired.
It’s a story we all love to hear. People who are vital doing vital work as long as they feel like it, and shaping the job to suit their own changing desires.
Then there’s the other article, buried a little on page 3 of the Metro section: Study finds disparities in area nursing homes. Milwaukee holds the dubious claim to the largest gap in quality care between blacks and whites in nursing homes, according to a study in the journal Health Affairs.
According to the study, which was based on data from the year 2000, race, poverty, and segregation are intermingled in this sorry state of affairs. It's not that individuals of different races receive different care in the same nursing home.
Nursing homes in Milwaukee are largely segregated--by race and income. Mainly white nursing homes—not in the central city; mainly black nursing homes with high percentages of residents receiving Medicaid—in the central city.
The disparities include more significant inspection difficulties, staffing shortages, and financial problems in the inner city nursing homes.
In fact, the environment has changed greatly since 2000, if only because many nursing homes in the central city that served predominantly African-American clients have been closed down.
As Stephanie Sue Stein, director of the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, pointed out, in the few that still exist, “It is very difficult for a nursing home with 100% Medicaid recipients to provide a quality of care that we would expect to provide to older people.”
* * *
Another article appearing a day earlier suggested that the state may have to cut Medicaid payments to hospitals and doctors by 35% starting in January—if the legislators haven’t passed a budget.
Cuts for nursing homes and other home and community based waiver services would be at the rate of 15%, according to Secretary Kevin Hayden of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. That's because these long-term care providers "provide vital supports to highly vulnerable frail elders and individuals with disabilities.
Of course, if the legislature adopts a state budget, the whole thing becomes moot.
Maybe some of those Elder Boomers we talked about the other day and other vital working adults—including our elected officials--can put their heads together to improve an unacceptable situation.
Thoughts? Ideas? Stories?
Front page (though below the fold) was Retiring an old notion. It’s about people staying employed into their 60s and 70s. And it confesses to an “idealized glimpse of the American way of working into the golden years. . .” The article featured Pat Benway, who works for Consortium member Stowell Associates SelectStaff, and who is at the top of her game at an age when many are retired.
It’s a story we all love to hear. People who are vital doing vital work as long as they feel like it, and shaping the job to suit their own changing desires.
Then there’s the other article, buried a little on page 3 of the Metro section: Study finds disparities in area nursing homes. Milwaukee holds the dubious claim to the largest gap in quality care between blacks and whites in nursing homes, according to a study in the journal Health Affairs.
According to the study, which was based on data from the year 2000, race, poverty, and segregation are intermingled in this sorry state of affairs. It's not that individuals of different races receive different care in the same nursing home.
Nursing homes in Milwaukee are largely segregated--by race and income. Mainly white nursing homes—not in the central city; mainly black nursing homes with high percentages of residents receiving Medicaid—in the central city.
The disparities include more significant inspection difficulties, staffing shortages, and financial problems in the inner city nursing homes.
In fact, the environment has changed greatly since 2000, if only because many nursing homes in the central city that served predominantly African-American clients have been closed down.
As Stephanie Sue Stein, director of the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, pointed out, in the few that still exist, “It is very difficult for a nursing home with 100% Medicaid recipients to provide a quality of care that we would expect to provide to older people.”
* * *
Another article appearing a day earlier suggested that the state may have to cut Medicaid payments to hospitals and doctors by 35% starting in January—if the legislators haven’t passed a budget.
Cuts for nursing homes and other home and community based waiver services would be at the rate of 15%, according to Secretary Kevin Hayden of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. That's because these long-term care providers "provide vital supports to highly vulnerable frail elders and individuals with disabilities.
Of course, if the legislature adopts a state budget, the whole thing becomes moot.
Maybe some of those Elder Boomers we talked about the other day and other vital working adults—including our elected officials--can put their heads together to improve an unacceptable situation.
Thoughts? Ideas? Stories?
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Baby Boomers, grow up!
And when you do, says Elders Guild founder Barry Barakan, you get to stop being babies and start being elders. And that’s a very good thing. But it’s full of responsibility, too.
Elders are the people with the experience, knowledge, and wisdom to rebalance a world gone far out of kilter.
Each of us needs to decide when to engage our aging with the intention to consciously prepare for the marathon of productive longevity. For each of us that moment is different, but as soon as we know that the second half of life is upon us, it is time to begin the process of reconceptualizing our reality. The process requires no less a level of dedication, effort, preparation, and continued learning than the work of establishing and growing a career and family.
Barkan has been a leader in elder-centered community action for thirty years. You can read more about his ideas at Tikkun. He was one of the founders of the Pioneer Network, in which the Milwaukee-based ActionPact change consulting group plays a large part.
The idea of the Elder Guild:
. . . to launch a new initiative that creates the organizational structure for a health-creating society for all. It will provide the antidote to the disconnection, impotence, and lack of meaning that contribute to our social malaise.
We need to learn to be effective, as we stand not just for ourselves, but also for the future generations to whom we have an ever-increasing debt. We call this initiative the Elders Guild.
The Elders Guild is truly radical, innovative, and based on proven experience. It is a new paradigm for regenerating community. And that is not just the community of the elders, but the whole multi-generational continuum.
It’s a tall order. But someone’s got to do it. What are your thoughts? Can elders, and especially Elder Boomers, lead the way? Does Elder Guild activity interest you? Share your ideas with us!
Elders are the people with the experience, knowledge, and wisdom to rebalance a world gone far out of kilter.
Each of us needs to decide when to engage our aging with the intention to consciously prepare for the marathon of productive longevity. For each of us that moment is different, but as soon as we know that the second half of life is upon us, it is time to begin the process of reconceptualizing our reality. The process requires no less a level of dedication, effort, preparation, and continued learning than the work of establishing and growing a career and family.
Barkan has been a leader in elder-centered community action for thirty years. You can read more about his ideas at Tikkun. He was one of the founders of the Pioneer Network, in which the Milwaukee-based ActionPact change consulting group plays a large part.
The idea of the Elder Guild:
. . . to launch a new initiative that creates the organizational structure for a health-creating society for all. It will provide the antidote to the disconnection, impotence, and lack of meaning that contribute to our social malaise.
We need to learn to be effective, as we stand not just for ourselves, but also for the future generations to whom we have an ever-increasing debt. We call this initiative the Elders Guild.
The Elders Guild is truly radical, innovative, and based on proven experience. It is a new paradigm for regenerating community. And that is not just the community of the elders, but the whole multi-generational continuum.
It’s a tall order. But someone’s got to do it. What are your thoughts? Can elders, and especially Elder Boomers, lead the way? Does Elder Guild activity interest you? Share your ideas with us!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Who can’t afford what here?
Here’s a personal story we just received from someone responding to Congress and caregivers: no overtime pay that appeared here June 15. The blog reported the Supreme Court decision that caregivers were not entitled to overtime pay under federal law.
The comment is edited a bit for typos and such. Other than that, I’ll let it stand on its own.
I personally work for one of these senior care companies. Unfortunately it is true, they do not pay overtime. I currently work on average 44 to 52 hours a week. I have four children to support. The excuse of the company was the elderly just cannot afford the care. Well, I believe not.
I work for not one person that is not living in a mansion compared to my shack. These people pay for home care because they want to stay in there home. A residential facility costs about $3000.00 a month. That is a fraction of what I pay to live. I make $1500.00 a month on average working over 40 hours a week. I have to support 4 children on this pitiful wage.
Who can’t afford what here?
Anyone have any answers or fixes for this very real–and very uncomfortable—problem?
The comment is edited a bit for typos and such. Other than that, I’ll let it stand on its own.
I personally work for one of these senior care companies. Unfortunately it is true, they do not pay overtime. I currently work on average 44 to 52 hours a week. I have four children to support. The excuse of the company was the elderly just cannot afford the care. Well, I believe not.
I work for not one person that is not living in a mansion compared to my shack. These people pay for home care because they want to stay in there home. A residential facility costs about $3000.00 a month. That is a fraction of what I pay to live. I make $1500.00 a month on average working over 40 hours a week. I have to support 4 children on this pitiful wage.
Who can’t afford what here?
Anyone have any answers or fixes for this very real–and very uncomfortable—problem?
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
“Expand this program.” Family Care expansion not in the budget yet
Last year, the Legislature overwhelmingly voted to support Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to expand the program statewide. On the heels of that strong bipartisan support, Doyle put $20 million in his budget in February to expand the program over the next two years. The Senate kept the money in its budget, and the bipartisan Joint Finance Committee voted to include the money in a 15-1 vote. Journal Sentinel, September 2, 2007.
Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Legislature hasn’t allocated funds for the program, and the Conference Committee hasn’t put funding into the budget as they continue to dither about it.
The editorial writers concluded:
Time's running out. If the legislators don't act soon, they're going to be bumping up against federal deadlines and state and local timelines that could delay or even jeopardize the expansion, Doyle spokesman Matt Canter says.
Kudos to Aging Consortium and Make It Work Milwaukee Coalition members Tom Hlavacek, Altzheimer’s Association, and Barbara Beckert, Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, for persisting in getting the story in front of the public.
And kudos to Consortium member Gwen Jackson, who wrote that it’s time to set politics aside. Scroll down in the article a bit to read her letter to the editor:
Nearly 2,500 people with disabilities in Milwaukee County are waiting; many are adult children whose aging parents are desperate to have community supports in place for their children. Many have no choice but to leave their own homes and enter nursing homes, which are far more costly than community services.
There are all sorts of good reasons to favor expanding Family Care, one of Wisconsin’s successful pilot programs for keeping low-income seniors out of nursing homes, to people with disabilities. Chief among them are the 11,000 people waiting for help the program can provide. Nearly as important is the $60 million in federal funds Wisconsin’s $20 million investment will draw.
Please write your legislators now!
Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Legislature hasn’t allocated funds for the program, and the Conference Committee hasn’t put funding into the budget as they continue to dither about it.
The editorial writers concluded:
Time's running out. If the legislators don't act soon, they're going to be bumping up against federal deadlines and state and local timelines that could delay or even jeopardize the expansion, Doyle spokesman Matt Canter says.
Kudos to Aging Consortium and Make It Work Milwaukee Coalition members Tom Hlavacek, Altzheimer’s Association, and Barbara Beckert, Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, for persisting in getting the story in front of the public.
And kudos to Consortium member Gwen Jackson, who wrote that it’s time to set politics aside. Scroll down in the article a bit to read her letter to the editor:
Nearly 2,500 people with disabilities in Milwaukee County are waiting; many are adult children whose aging parents are desperate to have community supports in place for their children. Many have no choice but to leave their own homes and enter nursing homes, which are far more costly than community services.
There are all sorts of good reasons to favor expanding Family Care, one of Wisconsin’s successful pilot programs for keeping low-income seniors out of nursing homes, to people with disabilities. Chief among them are the 11,000 people waiting for help the program can provide. Nearly as important is the $60 million in federal funds Wisconsin’s $20 million investment will draw.
Please write your legislators now!
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