Health and Disability

The labour force in the health services is shrinking, there are more and more old people, and a very high proportion of them are plagued by deteriorating short- and long-term memory. All this has created a need for computer-based solutions that will enable elderly people to live safely in their own homes, but at the same time, the technology needed to take special care of them is expensive. On top of this, different standards for home sensors create problems…..

Reminder board
What is being tested out in Norway today is a simple communication system based on a computer screen, aimed at elderly people who live at home but whose memory is failing. No keyboard is needed, only a touch on the screen, which displays the sun and the moon to indicate whether it is day or night, while a large clock-face shows the time…..

Computer System For Dementia Patients

…….The seven women all have Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, and are part of the Hebrew Home’s ElderServe at Night, a dusk-to-dawn drop-off program intended to strengthen their decaying minds while sating their thirst to be active after dark.

Alzheimer’s is an irreversible brain disease that destroys memory, and it is one form of dementia, a disorder marked by the loss of mental functions. Nighttime can be treacherous for people with dementia, who are often struck by sleeplessness or night terrors and prone to wandering about. This agitation and disorientation, called “sundowning,” is especially vexing for relatives trying to care for them at home, and often hastens their placement in nursing homes.

While there are countless day care programs for the nation’s estimated 5.3 million Alzheimer’s patients, some experts believe that ElderServe at Night, which began a decade ago, is the only one of its kind in the country…….

Technorati Tags: LTC,dementia,sundowning

Dusk-to-Dawn Therapy for Dementia’s Restless Minds - NYTimes.com

Americans would be able to buy long-term care insurance from the government for $65 a month under a provision tucked into sweeping health care legislation that senators will begin considering next week.

The 651-page bill, released Tuesday by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., would revamp the way health insurance works. Insurance companies would face a slew of new government rules, dealing with everything from guaranteed coverage for people with health problems to possible limitations on profits. Taxpayers, employers and individuals would share in the cost of expanding coverage to nearly 50 million uninsured Americans….

Technorati Tags: LTC,health care reform,Kennedy

The Associated Press: Kennedy health plan includes long-term care

June 22, 2009 marks the10th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling for disability civil rights. Some people have made an analogy between the Olmstead decision and the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 . Let's compare them.

Nearly ten years after the black civil rights movement's victory in Brown, incremental, albeit not overwhelming, progress had occurred. Nonetheless, some people thought the black civil rights struggle had stalled. Nearly ten years after the disability civil rights movement's victory in the Olmstead decision, incremental progress has occurred as well. But still, more than 313,000 people with disabilities in nursing homes (23= % of the total) want to live in the community, and yet are denied their civil right to integration, primarily because of Medicaid's historical bias in favor of segregation. Many of them are on "waiting lists" for their civil rights. Can you imagine a "waiting list" for black civil rights?……

Technorati Tags: Olmstead,LTC,CCA

Steve Gold's Treasured Bits of Information - Archives

Last Saturday, June 6, the Final Exit Network held its annual meeting at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Schiller Park, IL, near Chicago's O'Hare Airport.
Nine disability activists gave up their Saturday, sitting and standing in the chilly drizzle that day. Our numbers were down for 3 major reasons:

1. There wasn't much advance warning for the protest, due to fairly short notice regarding the meeting itself;
2. Many disability activists were at the conference of NCIL - National Council on Independent Living, in Washington, D.C.;
3. Paratransit rides are difficult to get on weekends and the location was a little out of the way.

The numbers were more than enough to do what we set out to do - give a "reality check" to the "assisted suicide ring" aka Final Exit Network (FEN)..

Technorati Tags: Not Dead yet,LTC

…..

Not Dead Yet News & Commentary: Chicago NDY Visits Final Exit Network's Annual Meeting

Published by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care in April 2009, this report details what the Healthcare Regulation Care Commission found out about palliative and end of life care from their inspections; and what they learned from complaints about palliative and end of life care in care homes.

http://www.carecommission.com/images/stories/documents/publications/reviewsofqualitycare/better_care_every_step_of_the_way_-_april_2009.pdf

Info Long-Term Care: Better Care Every Step of the Way: Report on the Quality of Palliative and End of Life Care

Sentencing Statements by 38 ADAPT defendants, in front of Judge Keary, DC Superior Court, Washington, DC on May 20, 2009, in the case of United States of America v. Pamela Aver, et. al., Docket #2009-CDC-10565, et. al., following a guilty plea to unlawful assembly, and failure to obey a lawful order, for a protest at the United States Capitol on April 28, 2009:

Lantonya Reeves says: My physical disability is cerebral palsy & legal blindness. I had to move from Tennessee to Colorado because I needed attendant services & support. I had to leave my family & friends so I didn’t end up in a nursing home. I was at the Action at the Capitol because I was advocating for the COMMUNITY CHOICE ACT. This legislation will cover all the states so that disabled people will not have to be institutionalized in nursing homes. …Over a hundred ADAPT members [were] arrested. This is because we, ADAPT strongly believe that people in nursing homes should have the right to choose where they live. –

Technorati Tags: ADAPT,Community Choice Act

PhilosopherCrip

WASHINGTON – Expanding federal assistance for people with disabilities is a matter of civil rights, a Democratic senator said Monday – one that must be addressed through the overhaul of the nation's health care system currently underway in Congress.
"The way I see it, [this] is a civil rights issue," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. "As far as I'm concerned, there is no health reform without the Community Choice Act."…..

Technorati Tags: LTC,Community Choice Act

Democrats Look To Expand Disability Services | Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Nearly one in every four nursing home residents has been colonized by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to a recently published report from Queen's University Belfast.
After taking samples from 1,111 residents and 553 staff members at 45 nursing homes in Ireland, researchers discovered that roughly 24% of residents and 7% of staff carry the tough-to-treat disease. According to report authors, 24% is the median rate of colonization, with individual nursing home results running the gamut: three nursing homes were entirely free of MRSA, while at least one had a 73% rate of resident colonization. Similarly, staff members at only 28 of the nursing homes that were tested were found to carry the disease; the highest rate of colonization was 28%…..

Technorati Tags: LTC,nursing homes,MRSA

MRSA thriving on one-quarter of nursing home residents, study results show - McKnight's Long Term Care News

Teresa Denk is 59 years old and lives with her father, a former mechanic who is 92 and requires constant care. Ms. Denk has not held a full-time job since 2000, when her mother developed cancer and required her daughter’s full-time care.

Asked how she meets her monthly expenses, she said, “I do a lot of praying.”

The economic crisis has spread its pain widel

dely, but it has placed special stresses on the estimated 44 million Americans who provide care for an elderly or disabled relative or spouse, many of whom have already made themselves financially vulnerable trying to balance work and family. Many like Ms. Denk, who stepped away from the work force, are now facing ever-bleaker prospects

Downturn Puts a Chokehold on Those Caring for Family Members - NYTimes.com