A Simple Skill With A Lot Of Potential
Technology and aging, a subject I'm passionate about, is all over the e-waves. Yet, as hard as it may be to believe, there are many older adults who not only don't have access to a computer, they don't know how to use one or how it might be of a benefit to them.
For the past 2 years, I've been working with a group of older adults as a volunteer tutor in an ESL (English as a Second Language) program in downtown Minneapolis. These English language learners are refugees from Somalia and are a part of the Twin Cities' thriving Somali community, about 30,000 strong. The students attend the SALT (Somali Adult Literacy Training) school free of charge, where they learn practical English to help with daily tasks such as making doctor appointments and understanding bus schedules. Unique challenges to their literacy learning, in addition to being victims of war, is the fact that prior to 1972, there was no written form of the Somali language. As a result, the Somali elders of today are missing basic literacy logic and struggle with Western concepts of learning. As a result, their literacy learning progression is considerably slower than that of most immigrant groups.
This past year, I conducted a 4 1/2 month study as part of my gerontology grad school work. Using SALT's computer lab, 23 Somalis (average age 60) learned how to type using Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software. None of the students had used a computer keyboard before. By the end of the study, most of the students were able to achieve 85% typing accuracy. Using standardize literacy exams, we found a positve trend of improved reading and writing among those of the lowest literacy level. Most importantly, many students were excited to have their own email accounts, using them to communicate with far-away friends and family, and to use the Internet to seek out news from their homeland.
It was exciting to be a part of introducing a simple technology - learning how to type - to a grateful and deserving group of elders. Endeavors like these are important because having competency of language can knock down community barriers and help our newest neighbors become confident, independent citizens.
Can We Keep America's Elderly Out of Hospitals?
Evelyn Kubat-Beers, a customer at Ecumen CountrySide in Owatonna, Minn., began experiencing chest pains in her apartment. Unable to stand, she couldn't reach a phone to call for help. However, QuietCare sensors alerted us to her predicament. Our colleagues in Owatonna got to her just before she collapsed. An ambulance rushed her to the hospital. Shortly thereafter, she was back in her own home. The technology helped alert us early. Without it, there’s a 
very good chance that Evelyn would not be alive today or would be in a hospital for an extended, very expensive stay.
This is one example of how senior services is increasingly playing a role in preventive health and keeping people out of hospitals. We're just nicking the surface of what we think can occur in improving quality of life and lowering expenses bymore smartly integrating health care and senior services.
For example, many senior services providers provide rehab services. Hospitals send the patient to us. We work with them on rehabilitation and the vast majority go home, not back to the hospital. So why couldn't senior care providers expand that to other areas of chronic care, diabetes, heart disease, etc.? It would continue to change the role of the nursing home and make it a vital part of integrative care, rather than increasing the extremely expensive, painstaking game of catch that occurs when a person bounces back and forth between a nursing home and a hospital emergency room.
Howard Gleckman, who blogs at Caring for Our Parents, addresses this topic further and shares several examples working to keep seniors out of hospitals.
The Future of Long-Term Care: What is its Place in the Health Reform Debate?
You can download Gleckman's paper here. One idea he raises is totally eliminating Medicaid in long-term care and replacing it with universal or near-universal long-term care insurance. He also smartly points to the need to integrate long-term care and medical care. If the Feds don't make long-term care a significant part of health care reform this time around, it's going to have to be states that forge the innovative solutions, because their budget expenditures are only growing on a parallel track with consumers who want something different.
Gleckman concludes:
The broader health reform debate now taking place in Washington creates a rare opportunity for policymakers to rethink the relationship between medical treatment and the long-term care needs of the chronically ill and those with disabilities. It is, for instance, an ideal environment to better coordinate long-term care with medical treatment (ECUMEN COULDN'T AGREE MORE). Broad health reform also presents an opportunity to review the bifurcated structure of Medicare and Medicaid that often works to the detriment of those eligible for both programs. It allows policymakers the chance to alter the balance between institutional and home- and community-based care. And, as policymakers attempt to redesign health coverage, so should they be considering improved payment mechanisms for long-term care. It is difficult to imagine a well-designed health reform that fails to address these issues.
AMEN!
Hey, Oprah, Stop Pushing Mare's Urine and Get Pro-Aging
Hi Oprah, drinking mare's urine won't help any of us live longer. Nor will having guests like Suzanne Somers on your show to talk about it's ability to slow aging.
Being the media magnate you are, you have to know that doing things like that only dents your image and broader appeal, and it will only generate more unflattering cover stories like the Newsweek one to the left, especially as we all age.
You had Somers, the former Three's Company roomie, share a stage with you and discuss how she smears progesterone and estrogen cream on her skin; how she daily uses a syringe to inject estrogen into her vagina and a whole host of other zaniness. None of that is going to restore Suzanne's hormone levels to her 30s or help her live to 110.
And then you said, "She might just be a pioneer." A pioneer of wackiness, maybe.
Oprah, you pride yourselves on your authenticity . . .Aging is real. We all do it. And there's a lot of good that comes with it. Embrace it. Please . . . get Pro-Age.
Changing Aging invites you to take a couple of seconds and watch gerontologist and friend of Ecumen Dr. Bill Thomas' Pro-Age plea to you here. Get him on your show. If you need others to help you get into the 21st Century on aging, call us. We'll help you out. Because the crazy talk you're promoting when it comes to aging isn't helping anyone.
Welcome to Ecumen's New Web Site
We've launched a new website that will continually evolve to better engage people, serve people, and connect our mission, vision and values with a world that is aging. If you get a second, we'd love your thoughts on the site.
If you go to our "contact us" page, you can now also follow Ecumen on Twitter and on the Ecumen YouTube channel.
Thanks to our web partner Azul 7 for their great work with us.
Empowering Technology At Ecumen
Ecumen sees technology as essential to enhancing the aging experience wherever people choose to call home.
Ecumen was one of the country’s first senior services providers to broadly introduce QuietCare in its housing communities. QuietCare by GE Healthcare is a proactive and unobtrusive motion sensor technology that can help identify small health problems before they grow larger. Other technologies Ecumen incorporates include [m]Power cognitive fitness technology; Nintendo’s Wii technology for rehabilitation and just plain fun; CareTracker e-charting; and Ivivi Sof-Pulse for wound care.
Let’s zoom in on a weekday afternoon to a computer lab at Ecumen’s Lakeview Commons community in Maplewood, Minnesota, where a resident is logging on to a touchâ€screen computer to exercise her brain – and have fun.
“It rates us in various categories,” explains Honor Hacker as she challenges her brain with a computer program that tests abilities in math, geography, music, vocabulary, spatial relationships, instant recall and more. Honor has spoken before members of Congress on the benefits of technology in empowering America’s seniors.
The program by Dakim called (m)Power, is as entertaining as it is good for brain, she says. Fillâ€inâ€theâ€word games, realâ€life math challenges and other puzzlers mix with colorful visuals and rapidly shifting tasks to keep her eyes riveted on the screen. “I use it every day,” says Hacker, a retired highâ€school social studies teacher. “It’s fun.”
Ecumen is “on the forefront,” says George Mason University instructor Andrew Carle, nationally known for coining the term “nana technology” to identify innovations that improve seniors’ quality of life.
Technology is an integral part of people’s lifestyle and that will only increase. Technology supports the themes that are important to all of us: independence, choice, mobility, ease, and quality of life.
Changing Aging Going on Break While Ecumen Readies New Web Site Launch
We’re going to have a whole new web site for you to enjoy later this month. While we make the transition to that site, the writers at Ecumen have gone fishing. We’ll be back right around June 17th. In the meantime, enjoy our past posts and recent videos we’ve just put up. Thanks for your readership and for supporting Ecumen in changing aging. See you back here soon.
Vital Aging Network: Communities for a Lifetime Forum, June 9
Ecumen’s Lisa Fowler and our partners at the Minneapolis "virtual village" Mill City Commons will be among the panelists at the June 9th Vital Aging Network forum. The event will be held
June 9, 2009
10:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Rondo Community Outreach Library
461 N. Dale St.
St. Paul, MN 55103
More information is here. Also featured will be River Bluffs Village, which like Mill City Commons is a "virtual village" model the Mendota Heights area of the Twin Cities. Mike Weber, CEO of Volunteers of America/Minnesota, will discuss Communities for a Lifetime legislation that passed in Minnesota this legislative session. And Bob Roepke, former mayor of Chaska, Minn., will discuss vision and leadership needed to create communities for a lifetime.
U.S. Senate Call-In Day: June 4 - Make Long-Term Care and Services Part of Health Care Reform
It’s time for us to call our U.S. Senators again on Thursday, June 4th. It takes just a few minutes … We anticipate that in the next week or so we will start seeing actual legislative proposals for health care reform.
Beginning at 8 a.m. Central on Thursday, June 4th, please call toll-free to (866) 281-7219. The system will ask you to say your state name and then transfer you to one of your Senators. When you get through, tell your Senator that inclusion of long-term services and supports in health reform is a must for both you and the people you serve.
[Please note that these designated phone lines are open only on June 4 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time. As calls made outside of those hours will not be connected to an office, we ask that you please do not call other than during the designated hours.]
A sample phone script follows, but there is more information on our national association’s website if you need it. Simply go to: www.aahsa.org/callcongress.aspx.
Sample Phone Script
"Hello. I’m calling to ask the senator to help make sure long-term services and supports are part of health care reform. Including long-term services and supports in health care reform will achieve greater efficiency, promote personal responsibility and sustain our safety net programs like Medicaid. We must help individuals and families and we must help state governments, all of whom are struggling with increasing needs and costs. I thank the senator in advance for demonstrating leadership on this issue. We must make it affordable to care. Thank you."
After you have made your calls, or if you can’t get through, follow up with an email to your Senators.
Ecumen’s Meadows of Worthington Figures Out How Many People Can Fit in a Stretch Limousine
How many people can you fit in a stretch limo for a road trip?
We found you can fit 20. I recently organized a road trip from Worthington to Sioux Falls, S.D. for 19 residents of Ecumen’s Meadows of Worthington.
Our destination was a restaurant called "Michaels", which had once had been a Worthington-area hot spot that relocated to Sioux Falls. The owner, who is the original owner’s son, knew everyone and spent considerable time with each visitor. Hardy Rickbeil, leaning forward above, also knew everyone and worked the room. Hardy turns 101 in a few weeks. We had an absolute blast!