40 Percent of Seniors Report Having a Disability

Duh! of the week.....

http://goo.gl/UG0VGa

Nearly 40 percent of Americans over the age of 65 -- about 16 million people -- live with at least one disability, a new federal government report shows.

The findings are cause for concern because more than 13 percent of Americans (almost 41 million people) are older than 65, according to the National Institute on Aging report.

"With the first Baby Boomers having entered the 65-and-older ranks in 2011, the United States may experience a rapid expansion in the number of older people with a disability in the next two decades," the report authors wrote.

"The future of disability among older Americans will be affected by how this country prepares for and manages a complex array of demographic, fiscal, medical, technological and other developments that will unfold in the next several decades," they added.

MCS: A Life Altering Condition (Video)

http://goo.gl/wdpXuJhttp://

Note from Alison Johnson:

“Since 1998, I have made three long documentaries and three short ones. During this fifteen-year period, I have gained a much deeper understanding of multiple chemical sensitivity and its great impact upon so many lives. This new composite film contains the best and most effective sections of my six earlier films. I have chosen carefully which experts and patients to use from my earlier films so that this new film will be an effective way of helping people to understand multiple chemical sensitivity. The film contains footage of interviews with four members of Congress as well as with many important physicians.”


Winter Prepping for Wheelchair Users

http://goo.gl/FvsOu7

Skin care for winter is a different routine. Wind chapped skin hurts. Make sure you are using a daily moisturizing lotion to fight against the weather. Extreme bitter cold causes frostbite injuries. This damage may not be noticed if you suffer from paralysis. Numbness and tingling are the initial signs from your body saying get me the heck out of here. Numbness and tingling are also two symptoms people with nervous system damage live with daily! That is not going to help us! If you notice your skin is turning red get indoors and warm up. Make sure you are wearing the correct layers of clothing when you’re heading outside. Skin on a paralysis patient is thinner and more easily vulnerable to damage from the elements.

Ice and snow removal preparation is not something to put off until the last minute. Do you have rock salt available for sidewalks? Do you have someone lined up to shovel and plow your driveways if you’re unable to do it yourself? We have neighborhood children who love to earn a few extra bucks on snow days. Line up help now so it will be available when you need it.

Wheelchair maintenance is critically important during the winter months. 


Adult anxiety and serotonin transmission affected by early exposure to antidepressants

http://goo.gl/4GNEEw

Now, a UCLA team has studied early developmental exposure to two different antidepressants, Prozac and Lexapro, in a mouse model that mimics human third trimester medication exposure. They found that, although these serotonin-selective reuptake inhibiting antidepressants (SSRIs) were thought to work the same way, they did not produce the same long-term changes in anxiety behavior in the adult mice.

The mice exposed to Lexapro had permanent changes in serotonin neurotransmission and were less anxious as adults than the mice exposed to Prozac, said study senior author Anne M. Andrews, professor of psychiatry and chemistry and biochemistry and the Richard Metzner Endowed Chair in Clinical Neuropharmacology at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and California NanoSystems Institute.

"It might be possible that when mothers are treated for depression or anxiety during pregnancy that certain SSRIs may promote resilience to developing these disorders in children later in life," Andrews said. "However, it will take much more research for us to understand whether this is true and whether certain SSRIs may be better at promoting these effects."

Older relatives at risk of malnutrition - how to spot the signs as families gather this Christmas

http://goo.gl/dNzZi2

Supported by the Patients Association, Abbott today launches the I-CARE Checklist providing families with an easy checklist of signs to be vigilant about.

It may be that you don't see relatives very often - 38 percent of those with an older relative (aged 65+) see them every three months or less[1], but Christmas is often a time when families do come together and therefore a time when you may notice some of the signs covered in The I-CARE Checklist:

I will check Clothing, Appetite, Rings, Energy levels.

CLOTHING - weight loss can be a sign of malnutrition, so look at clothing. Is it loose, ill-fitting? This could be a sign your relative is not eating enough.

APPETITE- again loss of appetite is key. There will be bundles of food on the Christmas table, but are they eating? Has their appetite shrunk? With weight loss, dentures can become loose and ill-fitting making it harder to eat, so watch out for this too.

RINGS - jewellery can often become ill-fitting with weight loss, so keep an eye on items such as wedding rings that people may have worn for years suddenly becoming loose.

ENERGY - with lack of food, reduced appetite and weight loss can also come a lack of energy. Does your relative seem more lethargic or struggle to keep up in a way they never used to?


From the E.R. to the Courtroom: How Nonprofit Hospitals Are Seizing Patients’ Wages

http://goo.gl/8KShVn

Two miles away, at the rear of a low-slung building is a key piece of Mosaic—Heartland's very own for-profit debt collection agency.

When patients receive care at Heartland and don't or can't pay, their bills often end up here at Northwest Financial Services. And if those patients don't meet Northwest's demands, their debts can make another, final stop: the Buchanan County Courthouse.

From 2009 through 2013, Northwest filed more than 11,000 lawsuits.  When it secured a judgment, as it typically did, Northwest was entitled to seize a hefty portion of a debtor's paycheck. During those years, the company garnished the pay of about 6,000 people and seized at least $12 million—an average of about $2,000 each, according to a ProPublica analysis of state court data.


Balance in older adults may improve with hearing aids

Interesting......

http://goo.gl/o1W9Dc

In The Laryngoscope journal, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, describe how they found older patients with hearing loss appeared better able to balance when their poor hearing was enhanced with hearing aids.

For the study, the researchers enrolled 14 people age 65-91 and used standard balance tests to measure the participants' postural balance when their hearing aids in both ears were switched on and also when the aids were switched off.

Senior author Timothy E. Hullar, professor of otolaryngology at the School of Medicine, says they do not think the improvement in balance was just due to hearing aids helping the patients be more alert.

"The participants appeared to be using the sound information coming through their hearing aids as auditory reference points or landmarks to help maintain balance, " he explains.

Prof. Hullar compares it to when we use our eyes to tell us where we are in space. If we turn the lights off, we tend to sway a bit - more than we do when we can see.

The marketing of home care shifts into high gear

Buyer Beware!!

http://goo.gl/xDSjYx

Like untold numbers of frail and elderly Americans, Hatcher wants to live out her final years in the place she feels most at peace: her own home. It is here, in a living room crammed with memories, that Hatcher rocked each of her seven children to sleep. Family photographs and teddy bears bearing the logo of her beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers crowd the room.

Yet when she tried to find home caregivers to make that possible, Hatcher and her family found themselves thrust into an ordeal they never expected — a world of erratic care, dubious sales tactics and bewildering marketing claims. Overwhelmed, they are now shouldering the burden of home care on their own.

The once-amicable and highly local business of home caregiving has become a multibillion-dollar industry marked by for-profit franchising and cutthroat competition.At the center of this transformation is a new category of caregiver: the national home care chain. Like the fast-food franchises they emulate, many of these chains rely on a low-wage army of caregivers who often feel little loyalty to their clients or to the corporations that employ them. The chains, with names like Comfort Keepers and Home Instead, now operate more than 5,600 outlets — filling a vast need for help but leaving many frail adults with substandard or inconsistent care, say elder care advocates.

Thanks to light regulation and low barriers to entry — almost anyone with $40,000 and a bank credit line can start a home care franchise — thousands of people with no medical experience are getting into the caregiving business. They buy artificial “territories” from the franchise companies, and then sell or shut them down if the concept fails.

“It’s the ‘McDonaldization’ of home care,” said Dr. Robert Kane, chairman of long-term care and aging at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. “What you have here … is the flavor of the month, and everyone is rushing into it.”

The Antidote to Fragmented Health Care

From Harvard Business Review.....

http://goo.gl/uBDZcS

All too often, having a complex condition still requires the patient, the family, or both to become de facto project managers — a job for which they have no formal training — at a time of incredible emotional and financial stress. Ask almost any cancer survivor who coordinated his or her care — navigating between the primary care physician, surgeon, oncologist, radiation oncologist, nutritionist, and physical therapist, all while organizing rides, meals, and time off from work. The vast majority will answer that they — or their husband, daughter, or best friend — did the job.

There is a better way: integrated care. The pioneers in this realm have proven that it can be achieved:

  • Integrated multi-specialty care models have been used for the better part of a decade for conditions such as headache, lower-back pain, joint pain, shortness of breath, and chest pain. These models can reduce waiting times, increase delivery of evidence-based practice, improve patients’ experience of care, and reduce costs (mainly by reducing visits and decreasing the use of expensive diagnostic tests). Virginia Mason Health System has regularly deployed these integrated models in conjunction with major employers in Seattle,and has helped these organizations reduce absenteeism due to health problems by up to 50%.