As Americans live longer than ever, some will find it difficult to stay in their beloved homes: Steep stairs or a slippery shower can pose dangers, and standard houses are not wheelchair accessible. One solution? With 78 million baby boomers about to hit retirement age, some say the time is ripe to overhaul the way homes are designed. A NPR radio emission by Jennifer Ludden
Co-Sponsored by: UCB School of Public Health; the UCB Retirement Center; the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services, School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley; UCB Resource Center on Aging; UCB Osher Lifelong Learning Institute; Kazamashobo Publishing, Co. Ltd.
The Symposium on Healthy Aging will address three issues. The first is to clarify predictors of longevity among older adults in the United States, Sweden, and Japan. The second is to examine healthy aging among immigrants in the United States, Sweden, and Japan. Lastly, we will propose recommendations for health care policies for diverse older adults, making use of the perspectives from these three countries.
Please note: seating is limited, so please respond as soon as possible. RSVP with your name and email address to Kazumi Hoshino, Ph.D., planning committee member, at hoshino@berkeley.edu by September 9, 2010.
Make a note: 2011 Bay Area/CA State Senior Games!
The games will be March 26-30, 2011, held mostly at Stanford University
Here’s a representative video from the 2010 Games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAk7Q3nNvPI&feature=channel
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As of August 2010, the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales and in December 2009 broke the record for best-selling console in a single month in the United States.
Nintendo hoped to target a wider demographic with its console. The productions are Nintendo’s first broad-based advertising strategy and include a two-minute video clip showing a varied assortment of people enjoying the Wii system, such as urban apartment-dwellers, country ranchers, grandparents, and parents with their children.The marketing campaign has proved to be successful: pensioners, as old as 103 have been reported to be playing the Wii in the United Kingdom.. A report by the British newspaper The People also stated that Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has played using the Wii console!
Now, we have data that the Wii games have brought back feelings of being young again as the participants flex their mental muscles and improve their physical fitness. The Wii is improving the quality of life of many aging seniors.
Diane Carbo, in an article written for Senior Advice, states that “…Healthy aging and a brain fitness program along with the Wii promotes the development of new skills, and helps aging seniors learn from their mistakes. The best part of using the Wii as part of a healthy aging program is the laughter and excitement you see in the faces of the participants. The environment is electric as the aging seniors enjoy familiar interests in a new format. For many seniors it feels like old times again…”
Watch these videos to get step-by-step instruction on caring for your elderly loved one. Learn about topics including, how to make your bathroom safer, moving your parents into your home and ensuring your parent’s end-of-life wishes.
In a recent article appeared on The Hartford Courant of Connecticut , the fact of Alzheimer’s disease being uncurable and sriking 1 in 8 of us alarmed many. Nonetheless, the article explains that doing your part by eating the right kind of diet and keeping your body and brain engaged can help to prevent dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The article explains recent data connected to the benefits of exercising regularly, keeping a diet rich in Omega 3, olive oil, and wine…yes, wine… staying cognitively engaged, and avoiding depression is ultimately the most reasonable approach not only to prevent dementia but also “… to treat conditions like hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and diabetes…”
89% of Americans do not want to leave their homes when they age. Most of these people will be live alone and receive support from a variety of health and community-based providers, family caregivers. How will the long-term care system provide care to a growing number of seniors living in increasingly scattered locations? And more importantly, how can that system continue to provide quality care in the face of workforce shortages, rising care costs and decreasing resources? Technology has the potential to play a critical role in launching a new model of geriatric care that allows older people to live independently for as long as possible, supports family caregivers in the important work they do and gives health care providers the tools they need to deliver high-quality care at a reasonable cost. The just released article Technologies Help Adult Children Monitor Aging Parents on The New York Times, states that these technologies “…are godsends for families. But, as with any parent-child relationship, all loving intentions can be tempered by issues of control, role-reversal, guilt and a little deception — enough loaded stuff to fill a psychology syllabus. For just as the current population of adults in their 30s and 40s have built a reputation for being a generation of hyper-involved, hovering parents to their own children, they now have the tools to micro-manage their aging mothers and fathers as well…”
We, at Living Well Assisted Living at Home, believe the provide a safety net for the elders, an option to stay at home while providing peace of mind to the adult children and family members.
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