'Ten More Good Years' probes LGBT aging issues

Miss Major doesn't seem like the kind of woman to be trifled with. But the longtime activist in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community who was on the front lines of the 1960s gay rights movement in New York has relocated to Oakland partly for a humbling reason: At age 64, she can't get proper health care in New York.

"I can go in to see a doctor, and him not having any idea what transgender people are ... now have a patient of that ilk here, what are you going to do about it? 'Well, I am going to refer you to another doctor,' and that doesn't really help me," says Miss Major in Michael Jacoby's documentary "Ten More Good Years," which plays Sunday as part of the 32nd San Francisco International LGBT Festival.

The documentary is about the special challenges elderly LGBT people confront, from getting survivor's benefits to sensitive issues of long-term care.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Explaining the Care Gap

f you need someone to understand the urgency of the growing care gap in long-term care, you might want to pass on a copy of Occupational Projections for Direct-Care Workers 2006-2016.

“Our analysis suggests that demand for direct-care workers over the next decade, particularly in home- and community based settings, will continue to outpace supply dramatically-unless policymakers and employers work together to make these jobs competitively attractive compared to other occupations,” says the six-page fact sheet by PHI Director of Policy Research Dorie Seavey.

Short text blocks and charts like the ones reproduced here interpret U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data in often striking ways. For instance, did you know the U.S. is expected to need a million additional direct-care workers, for a total of 4 million, by 2016? Or that direct-care workers will outnumber teachers from kindergarten through high school combined (3.8 million), fast food & counter workers (3.5 million), and cashiers (3.4 million)?

That additional million workers represents an increase of 34 percent in just one decade, the fact sheet points out, and we can’t count on finding all those people in the usual pool of workers - women aged 25 to 54 - since that pool is expected to increase by less than 1 percent between 2006 and 2016.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

AMA Adopts New Policies On Disabled Patient Care

AMA supports reforms for disabled patients: The AMA passed new policy supporting Medicaid reforms that would provide disabled patients with equal access to home and community-based services so that they can live as independently as possible. The AMA supports passage of congressional legislation, the Community Choice Act of 2007, that would achieve these goals. This policy was recommended to the AMA by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine.

"People with disabilities who rely on Medicaid should not have to choose between the important care they need and the ability to live independently," said AMA Board Member Rebecca J. Patchin, MD. "We support Medicaid reforms so that disabled patients, together with their physicians, can decide where the best place is to receive medical care and support based on patients' individual needs."