Aging in Place

Consumer Demand for Remodeling Projects Is on the Rise

mherndon — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Consumer Demand for Remodeling Projects Is on the Rise mherndon Fri, 03/22/2024 - 08:00

A Good Time to Dive Into Home Access

mherndon — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 17:46:57 +0000

A Good Time to Dive Into Home Access mherndon Fri, 03/08/2024 - 11:46

Ageless Innovation to Continue "Reach Out and Play" Program

mherndon — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 21:55:10 +0000

Ageless Innovation to Continue "Reach Out and Play" Program

PAWTUCKET, Rhode Island—Ageless Innovation, a company that aims to reimagine how people positively live and age together through the power of play, will continue its ongoing mission to bring people of all ages together through its powerful “Reach Out and Play” campaign following the immense success of its inaugural year. The campaign, which launched in September 2023, was designed to tackle the harmful effects of the ongoing loneliness epidemic by organizing hundreds of game night events for older adults and their families year-round. AARP, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older, will sign on as the campaign's title sponsor for the second year in a row.

According to a 2023 survey conducted by AARP, over six-in-ten (65%) of adults 50-plus say that playing board games is a great way for them to connect with others. This insight, along with several others that show rising feelings of loneliness and the need for more social interactions among older adults, is the driving force behind the continuation of the Reach Out and Play campaign.

“In 2023, we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from program participants across the nation, most notably from older adults, but also from their family members and caregivers that were noticing significant positive changes in their loved ones as the result of attending an event,” said Ted Fischer, CEO and co-founder of Ageless Innovation. “Seeing that palpable joy across so many faces, and hearing hundreds of testimonials expressing feelings of hope and happiness, is what’s fueling this campaign and propelling us into an exciting year two.”

With dozens of events already on the docket for 2024, the teams at Ageless Innovation and AARP will continue to work alongside state leaders and organizations across the aging industry to organize meaningful play experiences that rally older adults and their loved ones to come together nationwide. Reach Out and Play events will occur on an ongoing cadence throughout the year with a large concentration taking place in the fall/ winter, in line with Grandparents Day in September and throughout the holiday season.

“The New York State Office for the Aging and our local partners hosted more than 100 events in 2023 throughout New York State, and we plan to continue the momentum and expand upon that number in 2024,” said Greg Olsen, acting director of the New York State Office for the Aging. “I had the pleasure of attending many of 2023’s events, and to see the true happiness and connections attendees are making across generations is really incredible.”

“Meaningful partnerships with thought leaders and trailblazers at organizations such as AARP, New York State Office for the Aging, and many more have allowed us to engage and positively impact an unprecedented number of older adults,” said Jim Murphy Senior vice president of healthcare at Ageless Innovation. “In year two, we look forward to onboarding even more impactful partners to ensure older adults across the country have access to playful events in their local communities as often as possible.”

“We applaud Ageless Innovation for their commitment to delivering joy and fun to an often underserved community, and together, we look forward to yet another year of bringing people of all ages together through the universal language of play,” said Heather Nawrocki, VP of Fun and Fulfillment at AARP.

Many of the Reach Out and Play board game events will highlight three board games from the Joy for All portfolio, including Scrabble Bingo, Trivial Pursuit Generations and Game of Life Generations. The games, which launched in 2023 in partnership with Hasbro, have been reimagined to better suit the needs of the older adult community; features include larger fonts and intergenerational gameplay and storylines. In 2024, Ageless Innovation anticipates adding more game titles to its portfolio, expanding its licensed partnership with Hasbro to continue launching innovative, reimagined games for their audience.

Interested in hosting an event? From senior centers to faith-based settings to libraries to family living rooms and kitchen tables, anyone can host a Reach Out and Play Game Night. To learn more about Ageless Innovation’s Reach Out and Play campaign, and how you can create and register your own event, email ReachOutAndPlay@AgelessInnovation.com.

For additional information on the power of play visit AgelessInnovation.com; and learn more about the Joy for All Board Games and other solutions for older adults via https://joyforall.com, or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

mherndon Thu, 02/29/2024 - 15:55

AARP signs on as title sponsor for programs sophomore year

Aging in Place

Ageless Innovation

reach out and play

learning games

How a New Generation Approaches Aging in Place

mherndon — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 20:51:58 +0000

How a New Generation Approaches Aging in Place mherndon Thu, 02/29/2024 - 14:51

Do We Simply Not Care About Old People?

Hannah Wolfson — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 20:16:51 +0000

Do We Simply Not Care About Old People?

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The COVID-19 pandemic would be a wake-up call for America, advocates for the elderly predicted: incontrovertible proof that the nation wasn’t doing enough to care for vulnerable older adults.

The death toll was shocking, as were reports of chaos in nursing homes and seniors suffering from isolation, depression, untreated illness, and neglect. Around 900,000 older adults have died of COVID-19 to date, accounting for three of every four Americans who have perished in the pandemic.

But decisive actions that advocates had hoped for haven’t materialized. Today, most people—and government officials—appear to accept COVID as a part of ordinary life. Many seniors at high risk aren’t getting antiviral therapies for COVID, and most older adults in nursing homes aren’t getting updated vaccines. Efforts to strengthen care quality in nursing homes and assisted living centers have stalled amid debate over costs and the availability of staff. And only a small percentage of people are masking or taking other precautions in public despite a new wave of COVID, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections hospitalizing and killing seniors.

In the last week of 2023 and the first two weeks of 2024 alone, 4,810 people 65 and older lost their lives to COVID—a group that would fill more than 10 large airliners—according to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control. But the alarm that would attend plane crashes is notably absent. (During the same period, the flu killed an additional 1,201 seniors, and RSV killed 126.)

“It boggles my mind that there isn’t more outrage,” said Alice Bonner, 66, senior adviser for aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “I’m at the point where I want to say, ‘What the heck? Why aren’t people responding and doing more for older adults?’”

It’s a good question. Do we simply not care?

Judith Graham, author of the "Navigating Aging" column for KFF Health News, put this big-picture question, which rarely gets asked amid debates over budgets and policies, to health care professionals, researchers, and policymakers who are older themselves and have spent many years working in the aging field. Here are some of their responses.

The pandemic made things worse. Prejudice against older adults is nothing new, but “it feels more intense, more hostile” now than previously, said Karl Pillemer, 69, a professor of psychology and gerontology at Cornell University.

“I think the pandemic helped reinforce images of older people as sick, frail, and isolated—as people who aren’t like the rest of us,” he said. “And human nature being what it is, we tend to like people who are similar to us and be less well disposed to ‘the others.’”

“A lot of us felt isolated and threatened during the pandemic. It made us sit there and think, ‘What I really care about is protecting myself, my wife, my brother, my kids, and screw everybody else,’” said W. Andrew Achenbaum, 76, the author of nine books on aging and a professor emeritus at Texas Medical Center in Houston.

In an environment of “us against them,” where everybody wants to blame somebody, Achenbaum continued, “who’s expendable? Older people who aren’t seen as productive, who consume resources believed to be in short supply. It’s really hard to give old people their due when you’re terrified about your own existence.”

Although COVID continues to circulate, disproportionately affecting older adults, “people now think the crisis is over, and we have a deep desire to return to normal,” said Edwin Walker, 67, who leads the Administration on Aging at the Department of Health and Human Services. He spoke as an individual, not a government representative.

The upshot is “we didn’t learn the lessons we should have,” and the ageism that surfaced during the pandemic hasn’t abated, he observed.

Ageism is pervasive. “Everyone loves their own parents. But as a society, we don’t value older adults or the people who care for them,” said Robert Kramer, 74, co-founder and strategic adviser at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.

Kramer thinks boomers are reaping what they have sown. “We have chased youth and glorified youth. When you spend billions of dollars trying to stay young, look young, act young, you build in an automatic fear and prejudice of the opposite.”

Combine the fear of diminishment, decline, and death that can accompany growing older with the trauma and fear that arose during the pandemic, and “I think COVID has pushed us back in whatever progress we were making in addressing the needs of our rapidly aging society. It has further stigmatized aging,” said John Rowe, 79, professor of health policy and aging at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

“The message to older adults is: ‘Your time has passed, give up your seat at the table, stop consuming resources, fall in line,’” said Anne Montgomery, 65, a health policy expert at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. She believes, however, that baby boomers can “rewrite and flip that script if we want to and if we work to change systems that embody the values of a deeply ageist society.”

Integration, not separation, is needed. The best way to overcome stigma is “to get to know the people you are stigmatizing,” said G. Allen Power, 70, a geriatrician and the chair in aging and dementia innovation at the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging in Canada. “But we separate ourselves from older people so we don’t have to think about our own aging and our own mortality.”

The solution: “We have to find ways to better integrate older adults in the community as opposed to moving them to campuses where they are apart from the rest of us,” Power said. “We need to stop seeing older people only through the lens of what services they might need and think instead of all they have to offer society.”

That point is a core precept of the National Academy of Medicine’s 2022 report Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity. Older people are a “natural resource” who “make substantial contributions to their families and communities,” the report’s authors write in introducing their findings.

Those contributions include financial support to families, caregiving assistance, volunteering, and ongoing participation in the workforce, among other things.

“When older people thrive, all people thrive,” the report concludes.

Future generations will get their turn. That’s a message Kramer conveys in classes he teaches at the University of Southern California, Cornell, and other institutions. “You have far more at stake in changing the way we approach aging than I do,” he tells his students. “You are far more likely, statistically, to live past 100 than I am. If you don’t change society’s attitudes about aging, you will be condemned to lead the last third of your life in social, economic, and cultural irrelevance.”

As for himself and the baby boom generation, Kramer thinks it’s “too late” to effect the meaningful changes he hopes the future will bring.

“I suspect things for people in my generation could get a lot worse in the years ahead,” Pillemer said. “People are greatly underestimating what the cost of caring for the older population is going to be over the next 10 to 20 years, and I think that’s going to cause increased conflict.”

This article was republished by HomeCare from KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Hannah Wolfson Thu, 02/15/2024 - 14:16

The pandemic wasn't the wake-up call elder advocates expected, and today, seniors remain at risk and abandoned.

Aging in Place

aging

eldercare

COVID-19

Bronx Program Brings Robo-Cheer to NYC Seniors on Valentine's Day

mherndon — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 13:43:43 +0000

Bronx Program Brings Robo-Cheer to NYC Seniors on Valentine's Day

NEW YORK—A mechanical pet program designed to help seniors stave off feelings of loneliness and isolation has provided a timely Valentine’s Day companion for one local woman.

Ruth Mensch, 90, was gifted the lifelike pooch by her nurse care manager after she noticed she could use a pick-me-up. The golden pup responds similarly to a real canine, barking, stretching and changing positions in response to being stroked.

“She’s lots of fun,” Mensch said. “She barks when you don’t expect and does more than we expected when we first got it. We never know when this will happen.”

Mensch, who lives on the Upper West Side, dubbed the golden pup “Georgina” after one of her beloved Westies. Georgina arrived courtesy of the Bronx-based RiverSpring Health Plans, which provides managed long-term care services to more than 18,000 members in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County.

Ellen Mensch, Ruth’s daughter, surprised her mother with Georgina several weeks ago.

“I had my mom close her eyes and I put Georgina on her chest,” Ellen Mensch said. “She opened her eyes and was beside herself. It’s so realistic looking.”

RiverSpring’s robopet program is designed to help members cope with loneliness and isolation without the challenge of caring for living pets.

"Since introducing our robopet program, we’ve distributed more than 40 pets,” said Patty Hron vice president of member services at RiverSpring. “It’s a great way to bring joy to our members and really demonstrates the dedication and attention to detail that is provided by our nurse care managers.”

Hron said RiverSpring has seen an uptick in social isolation since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging studies have revealed the connection between loneliness and a person’s overall health.

“We’ve found that since introducing our robopet program, our calls for assistance are down, complaints of loneliness have decreased and members are delighted,” Hron said. “Robopets like Georgina have a therapeutic effect that can be nurturing and healing. We’re so happy to have brightened Ruth’s Valentine’s Day.”

From distributing robopets to forming men’s clubs to help older male patients stave off loneliness and isolation, to providing air conditioners to plan members struggling with devastating heat, RiverSpring has been an innovative source of care and support for years.

For Mensch, taking on Georgina was a natural fit: She’s been a lifelong dog lover and also has a pet parrot, who has taken to imitating Georgina’s random barks.

“They start talking to each other,” Ellen said. “We need a couple more animals in the room and we’ll have a kennel here.”

Ruth can’t wait until spring when she can bring Georgina outside to join her neighbors’ daily dog meetup.

“She’s a very good dog,” Ruth said. “She’s like a good piece of candy or soda—I get a good feeling in my stomach.”

mherndon Tue, 02/13/2024 - 07:43

Program by Bronx-based RiverSpring Health Plans alleviates loneliness, provides companionship for New Yorkers

Aging in Place

aging at home

robot pets

assistive robot

age tech

AI Could Change Everything in the Delivery of Homecare

mherndon — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:47:36 +0000

AI Could Change Everything in the Delivery of Homecare mherndon Fri, 02/09/2024 - 11:47

Always Home Connected Fosters Brain Stimulation While Making Memories

mherndon — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 18:46:38 +0000

Always Home Connected Fosters Brain Stimulation While Making Memories mherndon Wed, 10/04/2023 - 13:46

Revolutionizing Respiratory Care at Home

mherndon — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:49:52 +0000

Revolutionizing Respiratory Care at Home mherndon Fri, 09/08/2023 - 10:49

The Outlook for the Home Modification Market Looks Strong

mherndon — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 16:21:37 +0000

The Outlook for the Home Modification Market Looks Strong mherndon Thu, 09/07/2023 - 11:21