Assistive Technology or, Telecare, is a flexible range of sensors that minimise
the risks associated with independent living. Care Directions has long felt that
potential users of Telecare technology and their carers have not been adequately
informed of the uses and advantages. We are delighted that the 'All About
Telecare' section of our website has been so well received as essential
guidance.

Focusing on the user

Telecare solutions can be
tailored to match the needs of an individual - to provide a personalised level
of care that is unique to them. Solutions can range from a few sensors to
monitor environmental risks, to more complete packages that help users manage
long-term health conditions.

Telecare began with a simple alarm and
pendant worn by the user which allows them to raise an alert with a carer,
family member or monitoring centre. The technology has now evolved to address a
wide range of issues such as risks from falls, fire, flooding, health concerns
and gas leaks.

This morning, the Disabled Politico team attended a Health Roundtable
focusing on Health, Wellness, and Prevention, as part of the Rocky
Mountain Roundtable series in connection with the Democratic National
Convention. Participants included Bruce
Bodaken, Dr. Denis Cortese, Michael Critelli, Sen. Tom Daschle, Trace
Devanney, Dr. Patty Gabow, Jeff Kindler, Dr. Jeanne Lambrew, Thomas
Menino, Gavin Newsom, Dr. Samuel Nussbaum, Barbara O'Brien, Dr. Stephen
Oesterle, Linda Pryor, Kenneth Shachmut, Kevin Sharer, Hilda Solis,
and Dr. Reed Tuckson. Sounds like a great place to hear innovative
ideas about the future of disability policy, right?

Wrong. Though the
panel participants mentioned diabetes, cancer, and other chronic
conditions repeatedly, not a single panelist mentioned community-based
care, the cost of medical goods like prosthetics, or even stem cell
research. The panel discussed at length the cost of care for chronic
conditions, yet the savings possible by de-institutionalizing adults
with disabilities and providing home-based services were not noted.
Even the cost of pharmaceuticals was mentioned only in passing, with no
attention paid to the rapidly rising costs of drugs such as the
injectables that can slow progression of chronic conditions like
Multiple Sclerosis. With one in six Americans living with disability,
the lack of attention to disability issues left a gaping hole in the
panelists' proposals.

The panel focused
primarily on prevention of chronic disease through proactive wellness
programs, including education of families and the provision of
healthful foods in school lunchrooms and employee cafeterias. Boston
Mayor Thomas Menino suggested that the new President should use
Massachusetts as a model for designing a universal health care plan for
the nation, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newson discussed his city's
groundbreaking health care program that provides coverage to children
ages zero to twenty-five, and the adult health care program that has
provided care to 40% of San Francisco's uninsured.

Colorado Lieutenant
Governor Barbara O'Brien discussed the design of communities and
neighborhoods to make healthy choices easier, including making streets
safer for children bicycling to school and expanding cycling and
pedestrian paths. Here again was a smart idea that could also expand
access and community participation for those with disabilities, and
again the speaker failed to take a moment to mention that pedestrian
paths would also help persons with disabilities access the community,
in turn reducing costs by improving health as Dr. Patty Gabow defines
it-- "The mental, physical, and spiritual state that allows an
individual to reach their full potential and engage fully in the
community."

A roundtable of top
thinkers and innovators in the health care industry produced many
bright ideas. However, without the merest mention of the disability
community's significance or the unrealized potential of individuals
currently disabled more by the lack of community-based services than by
their underlying conditions, many in the audience were surely left
skeptical about the panelists' committment to truly universal health
care.

Read the full article-

Today, I’m happy to write that the Republican Party is following suit. The party’s Platform Committee released a draft of their recommended platform to the Delegates to the Republican Convention. And thanks to the hard work of our staff and AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solutionambassadors, it also includes a call for our country to make it affordable to care for older Americans and disabled individuals:

Modernize Long-Term Care Options for All

The financial burdens and emotional challenges of ensuring
adequate care for elderly family members affect every American,
especially with today’s aging population. We must develop new ways to
support individuals, not just institutions, so that older Americans can
have a real choice whether to stay in their homes. This is true not
only with regard to Medicaid, where we spend $100 billion annually on
long-term care, but also for those who do not qualify for that
assistance.

What is most significant about this language is that since 1996, the
Republican Party has consistently called for more long-term care
insurance in their platform statements. Their statement does not
mention it all. This is a real change!

Tuesday night at the Democratic Convention in Denver, I saw a
special speaker take the floor around 6:15. Her name is Pauline Beck,
and she is a home care worker in Oakland, California.

Ayear ago, Barack Obama spent a day on the job with Pauline,
as part of the SEIU’s Walk a Day in My Shoes initiative. Pauline, who
referred to the candidate as “my friend,” spoke passionately about her
belief in his ability to change America and help people like herself.
“I’ll never forget the day I spent working with Senator Obama, and I
know he won’t either,” she said.

“My job is to help people, and I love my job, but being a home care
worker is hard,” Pauline told the delegates. “The wages are low, the
hours can be long, and the work can be physically challenging…. Workers
need a president who stands up for us.”

As the energy and anticipation spread through the crowd, it was
thrilling to see a direct-care worker take on such a prominent role.
The fact that this workforce was highlighted is a very promising sign:
We could be in for some significant, much-needed changes in long-term
care policy over the next few years.

This is the second in a series of PHI Expert Interviews, which bring
you insights from four senior PHI staff. They’re an impressive group -
among the nation’s leading experts on long-term care’s direct-care
workforce - and collectively they’ve spent decades studying the
challenges facing the workforce and how to address them. We think
you’ll be interested in what they’ve learned.

Peggy Powell is one of the founders of Cooperative Home Care Associates,
the worker-owned home health agency that started PHI, where she served
as director of education. Since joining PHI in 1991, she has worked
with CHCA and other employers to develop strategies for recruiting,
training, supervising, and supporting direct-care staff.

One of those strategies, peer mentoring, is gaining in popularity
– and no wonder. Done right, a peer mentor program helps new
direct-care workers get oriented to the job and the organization,
bolstering their skills and their confidence. It also creates a career
ladder for experienced workers.

And that’s not all, as Peggy has learned.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - WASHINGTON, DC: America Health Insurance
Plans (AHIP) today launched a new national education campaign to better
inform consumers about their risks of needing long-term care and the
valuable financial protection long-term care insurance provides.

揟oo many Americans are not adequately protected against the risks of
needing long-term care,?said Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP.
揥e are providing consumers with accurate and timely information so they
can better prepare for the unpredictability and soaring expense of long
term care.?br/>
The centerpiece of this campaign is a new
consumer-friendly website, www.MyLifeMyFamily.com, to provide consumers
with basic information about long-term care insurance. The website
provides videos that feature real-life stories from current
policyholders, an interactive online quiz, and additional resources on
long-term care insurance.

AHIP commissioned a series of surveys and focus groups to assess
consumers?perceptions of long-term care insurance. Many Americans
underestimate their risk, underestimate the cost of long-term care, and
many erroneously believe they have long-term care coverage. Moreover,
most are not focused on planning for long-term care and are not taking
appropriate steps to protect their retirement savings should they need
long-term care services.

IN the 1960s, baby boomers, like most young people, could not wait to leave home.

Today, those boomers are trying to figure out how to stay at home,
even if they are past the age when their parents made the passage to
senior living. Companies that have long profited from the
transformation of the counterculture into the over-the-counter culture
are creating products that they hope will help them do that.

Here
is what you have to look forward to as you enter your 60s and 70s:
deciphering conversations at cocktail parties becomes difficult; you
cannot remember where you put your keys; and your grandchildren think
you are a computer klutz.

Fortunately, technologies are
appearing that can remedy some of these shortcomings, helping those in
their 60s maintain their youthful self-images.

“The new market is old age,” said Joseph F. Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at M.I.T.
“Baby boomers provide a perpetually youthful market.” They are, says
Mr. Coughlin, himself a spry 47, “looking for technology to stay
independent, engaged, well and vital.”

Original Article-

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released a
tool for states that want to integrate and coordinate Medicare and
Medicaid services for dual-eligible beneficiaries.

The "State Plan Preprint for Integrate Care Programs" allows states to
demonstrate and explain their arrangements with Medicare Advantage
Special Needs Plans (SNPs) that also are providing Medicaid services.
The document also gives states "the opportunity to confirm that their
integrated care model complies with both federal Medicaid statutory and
regulatory requirements," according to a letter from Herb B. Kuhn,
acting director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations. Many
nursing home residents are dual eligibles, or those who are eligible
for Medicare and Medicaid.

Kuhn notes that the preprint does not replace the need for states to
operate under the appropriate Medicaid statutory authorities. States
also will need to follow the usual process for submitting Medicaid
waiver applications and contracts. They can use the preprint on a
voluntary basis, Kuhn wrote.

See the full article

Three regulatory warnings of serious adverse events slowed the growth
of use of atypical antipsychotic drugs among elderly patients with
dementia, but they did not reduce the overall prescription rate of
these drugs, found a research analysis of prescription drug claims data
in Ontario. The rate of use of these drugs actually increased 20% from
the month prior to the first warning in September 2002 to the end of
the study period in February 2007.

About 70% of people receiving antipsychotic drugs lived in nursing homes, and approximately 40% were aged 85 or older.

See the full article

Election officials, said Karlawish, have paid limited attention to two
key issues: assuring that residents of long-term care facilities have
access to the ballot, and preventing unscrupulous persons from
exploiting their vote. Twenty-nine states do not have voting guidelines
to accommodate residents of long-term care facilities. An increasingly
larger number of Americans with cognitive impairments ranging from mild
to severe live in long-term care settings such as assisted living
facilities and nursing homes.

"Elderly voters especially elderly
voters who live in long-term care settings are at the mercy of others
when it comes to exercising their right to vote," said Karlawish. Due
to geographical distances, the lack of transportation to polling sites,
and the lack of assistance to absentee ballot applications, it is other
people who decide whether or not older Americans with issues of
mobility can vote.

Karlawish is developing guidelines for mobile
polling model, similar to programs used in Australia and Canada, to
improve access to voting for older Americans. In this model, election
officials or equivalent groups would visit long-term facilities in
their district to help interested people register, directly distribute
ballots to long-term facility residents, assist with voting, collect
ballots and ensure the ballots are returned safely to a polling site.

Dr.
Karlawish is available to discuss recent research and guidelines to
help reduce voting barriers for older Americans in long-term care
facilities.