Get Moving With All of AARP’s Roadmaps | a six-part series features workbooks about housing, transportation, health services, community engagement and more.
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Book 1: Roadmap to Livability
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Book 2: Community Listening Session Workbook
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Book 3: Housing Workbook
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Book 4: Transportation Workbook
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Book 5: Health Services/Community Supports Workbook
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Book 6: Economic Development Workbook
“The Future of Retirement” – AgeWave
Age Wave conducted nine recent study reports in collaboration with Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the future of retirement. These reports were created by reviewing thousands of papers and datasets, conducting over 140 expert interviews and 43 focus groups, and surveying 50,000+ respondents. The nine reports cover a variety of topics regarding retirement, including family, health, leisure, and finances. All nine reports are followed by sample media coverage.
Click here to read this insightful and intriguing report.
“Real Seniors lack essential technology – who will make it happen in 2019?” – Aging in Place Technology Watch
by Laurie Orlov, Laurie Orlov’s Blog
When Pew stops tracking senior adoption, does that imply a market saturated? Rant on. Note this Fact Tank aggregation of technology adoption statistics (tech overall among seniors, last reported in 2016) – and the most recent data cited on Internet use, seniors were quoted in a 2016 survey, 44% of responders did not use the internet users. Of those that do, older adults aged 65+ said they had little to no confidence in their ability to use electronic devices to perform online tasks. Let’s think about their non-confidence (not broken down into the 65-74) and the 75+ who are the Real Seniors.
Does that fear imply lack of training? Or too much media reporting about scams, breaches, and identity theft – most of which it is difficult to detect and nearly impossible to prevent? Who knows, since Pew appears to be largely done – after all, they note, 89% of Americans are online and they do not survey all questions each time. AARP published a survey last year that included responders in their 70s — we stay tuned for the next update.
Are those who should care about this not doing enough? Here are questions to ponder moving into 2019 for those whose job, business, or non-profit organization is explicitly to help seniors go online (you know who you are):
- For seniors, why is there a problem with non-use? Note the research from Michigan State cited in an AARP article: “Greater technology use was associated with better self-rated health, fewer chronic conditions, higher subjective well-being and lower depression.” The study also found that technology use reduced feelings of loneliness. And let’s not forget how many services can be discovered and accessed online, including scheduled food delivery, transportation requests, buying tickets and signing up for local events. And have we mentioned online banking, accessing Social Security information, buying savings bonds – oh, and then there’s healthcare access, including finding a doctor or benefiting from telehealth services?
- Are there still senior centers or organizations that do not have high speed internet? You know where they are – maybe they haven’t figured out the right source of grants, like, for example, Grantmakers in Aging? Senior centers are partially funded by the Older Americans Act – which also provides Meals on Wheels. But there is nothing in the Act (beyond partial funding of senior centers) that specifies professionally delivered training of seniors on technology use or supporting seniors in their usage. This is a policy change and it’s high time that the policy was changed.
- Why isn’t technology training of seniors required to be delivered by professionals? Is it because it is viewed as non-essential because it is ‘free’? The Geek Squad isn’t free, so why is there no magnanimous donor group focused on helping seniors who could fund a regular visit of several Geek hours to a library, senior center or other community center who could help individual older adults during designated hours with their devices? AARP pays for training it offers in its regional workshops, which is free to participants. Presumably organizations like OATS, expanding outside of NYC (but still reaching a small percentage of seniors), must use grants to pay trainers to do the offered training, which is free to attendees. This should be the standard of caring about seniors — offer professional trainers combined with free training.
- But you ask, so why isn’t ‘volunteer’ training good enough? Because at today’s pace of technology change, it can’t be. Read the list of Geek Squad services again. Or look at another nationwide competitor, HelloTech (ads bash Geek Squad) or Bask or many paid services in various geographies. You hopefully get what you pay for. Free training may be well-intentioned – and it is appropriate in stores of carriers who provide the connectivity. But it is very expensive to stay current with the myriad of always-shipping new devices and OS variations and upgrades, required to keep a device secure. Add the difficulty (and costs) of getting an operational router, high speed internet printing from multiple devices, streaming from devices.
- Smart phones for seniors: why can’t every Real Senior have one? And no, it’s not to read dumb text messages heads down and fall into a manhole – nor is it about the social media company that cannot be named. Smartphones are useful in so many ways that without one, day-to-day life and flexibility are circumscribed. GPS turn-by-turn directions, research about what’s nearby when traveling, renting a car, checking reviews before eating in a restaurant or checking into a hotel, for starters. And that doesn’t count emergency advice from WebMD or Mayo Clinic. So that brings me to:
- Why isn’t there a senior discount to get a smartphone? No, I am not talking about the cell phone plans. Senior discounts are offered in at least 180 categories. But what about 50% discount an iPhone or Galaxy S9 – to get them into the 21st century of their grandchildren, assuming that other infrastructure is available to help them (in-store training, upgrade assistance, and on and on.)
- When will everyone have a voice-activated TV remote? Voice-activation and control will surely be standard for smart TVs, but sites that cater to seniors aren’t sources for finding them. Nor is there any apparent interest in re-engineering older remotes to support voice input. Why not?
Baby boomers cross 73 in 2019, becoming Real Seniors in 2 years. They will likely live, on average another 10-15 years or more. For the next 18 years, the growth in the number of Real Seniors will continue. Shortages of in-home care workers are worsening, new, hopefully tech-enhanced services are already forming. Senior living firms, meanwhile, are over-expanding to accommodate them, hopefully in communities with high speed internet and WiFi access everywhere. For all of the Real Seniors to be, now’s the time to tech-enable their future, don’t you think? Let’s not keep having this conversation for the next 18 years. Happy New Year. Rant off.
“The Burgeoning Trend Of Age-Friendly States” – Forbes
contributor: Richard Eisenberg, next avenue
“You’ve probably heard about age-friendly communities; maybe you even live in one of the 305 cities and towns with the AARP ‘Age-Friendly Community’ designation. But what you might not know — and what I learned attending the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) conference in Boston last week as a Journalist in Aging Fellow — is that a few states are now designated as age-friendly, too.
“So far, New York, Massachusetts and Colorado have been granted the age-friendly state designation by AARP, joining AARP’s new Network of Age-Friendly States. On November 14, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order to ‘improve health and well-being of New Yorkers across the lifespan.’ Other states, such as New Hampshire, Rhode Island (which has the highest proportion of residents over 85), New Jersey, Tennessee, North Carolina and Oregon may follow.
Click here to find out “What It Takes to Be an Age-Friendly State” as you read the this article at Forbes in its entirety.
Read these related articles, too:
- “Lehigh, Northampton accepted into AARP Age Friendly Communities Nework”
- “Pennsylvania officials discuss shaping ‘age-friendly communities’ at hearing”
- “Healthy Communities in PA: Growing Older … | Growing Older — and Designing Smarter”
Here are Pennsylvania’s Age Friendly Communities:
- Allegheny County (September 2015) | Survey | Action Plan
- Lehigh County (June 2018)
- Northampton County (June 2018)
- Philadelphia (April 2012*) Survey | Article
- Pittsburgh (September 2015) Interview | Survey | Action Plan
- Swarthmore (September 2017)
- West Chester (May 2016*) Action Plan
For more information, contact: AARP Pennsylvania, 866-389-5654, aarpa@aarp.org
“This Type of Illiteracy Could Hurt You”- The New York Times
“More than half of older Americans lack the skills to gather and understand medical information. Providers must simplify, researchers say.”
by Paula Span
“Every time her parents pick up a new prescription at a Walgreens in Houston, they follow Duyen Pham-Madden’s standing instructions: Use the iPad she bought for them, log onto FaceTime, hold up the pill bottles for her examination.
“Her mother, 79, and father, 77, need numerous medications, but have trouble grasping when and how to take them.
“The label may say to take one pill three times a day, but ‘my dad might take one a day,’ said Ms. Pham-Madden, 56, an insurance purchasing agent in Blue Springs, Mo. ‘Or take three at a time.’
“So she interprets the directions for them, also reminding her mother to take the prescribed megadose of vitamin D, for osteoporosis, only weekly, not daily.”
Continue reading this important article at The New York Times, click here.
“100 and counting: Lancaster County centenarians continue to live meaningful lives” – LNP – Always Lancaster
Centenarians are more visible than ever before. This article has several portraits of the active 100 + year-olds living in the county. “They are not only living longer but are living better, thanks to relative prosperity, better nutrition and medical advancements.”
“Violet Ickes, 108 – ‘I never thought of getting old. I was just busy living.’”
“Jim Sheffer, 100 – ‘I’ve loved my life. It’s my strong desire to live and live’”
“Aldine Stewart, 106 – ‘The good Lord has sustained me … I know he has the plan’”
“Roberta Frank, 103 – ‘You live one day at a time. That’s my motto.’”
“Marguerite Walters, 100 – ‘I don’t know why I’m here, but I’m having a good time’”
“Anna Weaver, 102 – ‘I’d like to see what he thinks now that I’m 102.’
Do you remember reading this LNP – Always Lancaster article from earlier this year?
“Tiny houses multiply amid big issues as communities tackle homelessness” – The Washington Post
“A project for former service members could become a model for other cities in the United States.”
“In a community of tiny houses in Kansas City, Mo., Air Force veteran Leo Morris now calls #3 his own. (Christopher Smith/For The Washington Post)”
“KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The 13 tiny houses sit in neat rows on the small plot of land in south Kansas City. There’s a comforting uniformity to the group, each structure a simple A-frame or slant roof, painted a rich hue: deep blue or dark maroon, slate gray or mustard yellow. An American flag flies outside most of the homes.
The lives inside also match. The men and women here have all served their country in uniform. And every one of them was homeless before arriving this year and being given their own address and key.
“’We build communities — communities that are the beginning of a journey for those who said yes to this country and need someone to say yes back to them,’ said Brandonn Mixon, an entrepreneur who helped to found the Veterans Community Project out of frustration with the usual efforts to get veterans off the streets.”
Continue reading this Washington Post article here.
“Could this curious roommate pairing be the solution to the housing crisis?” – The Boston Globe
Here’s an intriguing concept that can be one small solution to a housing crunch. Tight housing markets present real quandaries for many. Yet this “curious roommate pairing” — or shared housing concept — may be worth looking at … for lots of reasons.
“Dean Kaplan and Sarah Heintz chatted in the apartment they share in Cambridge.” – JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF
“After living with more than a dozen different roommates in his young life, most of them strangers, Dean Kaplan is well-versed in the particulars of those first meetings — the short introductions, the perfunctory pleasantries, and then the quick getting on with life.
“‘After you move enough times,’ said the 25-year-old Baltimore native, there is ‘definitely a high degree of nonchalance.’
“In late August, though, as he stood on the front porch of a sizable multistory house in Cambridge ready to meet his newest roommate, he found himself uncharacteristically nervous and eager to make a good first impression.”
“Of all the roommates he’d had in the previous few years, Sarah Heintz would be the first septuagenarian.”
Read this Boston Globe article in its entirety here.
Can there be complications? Sure, but …
As the National Shared Housing Resource Center points out:
“Home Sharing is a simple idea: a homeowner offers accommodation to a homesharer in exchange for an agreed level of support in the form of financial exchange, assistance with household tasks, or both.
“The community is also a beneficiary of Home Sharing. Shared living makes efficient use of existing housing stock, helps preserve the fabric of the neighborhood and, in certain cases, helps to lessen the need for costly chore/care services and long term institutional care.
“A home sharer might be a senior citizen, a person with disabilities, a working professional, someone at-risk of homelessness, a single parent, or simply a person wishing to share his or her life and home with others. For these people, shared housing offers companionship, affordable housing, security, mutual support and much more.
“Home Sharing programs can offer a more secure alternative to other roommate options. Many programs have staff who are trained to carefully screen each program applicant through interviewing, background checking, and personal references.”
Earlier this month a Pennsylvania Link to Aging and Disability Resources WEBINAR introduced a pilot program that’s operating in northeast Pennsylvania.
You can see the slides from the PowerPoint about this program — in Pike, Wayne, and Monroe Counties — here.
Berks County Link partners’ network collaborates in 1st Annual Scams Against Seniors Symposium
Pennsylvania’s senior population grew by 13.5 percent from 2010 to 2016, according to a recent research report from the Pennsylvania State Data Center, which analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s total population rose just 0.6 percent over that span.
Reports about scammers and con artists targeting persons age 6o and over are increasing. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “senior citizens especially should be aware of fraud schemes for the following reasons:
- Senior citizens are most likely to have a “nest egg,” to own their home, and/or to have excellent credit—all of which make them attractive to con artists.
- People who grew up in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were generally raised to be polite and trusting. Con artists exploit these traits, knowing that it is difficult or impossible for these individuals to say “no” or just hang up the telephone.
- Older Americans are less likely to report a fraud because they don’t know who to report it to, are too ashamed at having been scammed, or don’t know they have been scammed. Elderly victims may not report crimes, for example, because they are concerned that relatives may think the victims no longer have the mental capacity to take care of their own financial affairs.
- When an elderly victim does report the crime, they often make poor witnesses. Con artists know the effects of age on memory, and they are counting on elderly victims not being able to supply enough detailed information to investigators. In addition, the victims’ realization that they have been swindled may take weeks—or more likely, months—after contact with the fraudster. This extended time frame makes it even more difficult to remember details from the events.
- Senior citizens are more interested in and susceptible to products promising increased cognitive function, virility, physical conditioning, anti-cancer properties, and so on. In a country where new cures and vaccinations for old diseases have given every American hope for a long and fruitful life, it is not so unbelievable that the con artists’ products can do what they claim.”
Today over 100 persons attended the Scams Against Seniors Symposium — A Michael Meitzler Award Event at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 430 S 7th Ave, Reading, PA 19611. Today’s event featured information tables with local and state resources, speakers, including Rev. Dr. Ronald W. Costen, PhD. & Attorney at Law-Elder Justice Specialist and Mary Bach from AARP’s Consumer Task Force and workshops on frauds, scams and identity theft from the PA Office of Attorney General & The PA Crime Prevention Officers’ Association.
Click on the graphic above to download the program as a .pdf file.
Other resources include:
The Pennsylvania Crime Prevention Officers’ Association
Berks County Area Agency on Aging
Pennsylvania Link to Aging and Disability Resource
More about Michael Meitzler
“Berks man’s legacy helps keep senior citizens safe from scams” – Reading Eagle
“Berks Co. man’s remains found in home nearly 3 years after death” – WFMZ-TV69
Seniors are in denial about their vulnerability | “It’s estimated that one in five Americans over the age of 65 are victims of financial abuse—and the average loss is a staggering $120,300. Financial abuse can the the form of a scam, or it can also be perpetrated by family or friends who syphon off money from older loved ones. Nearly half of older Americans surveyed recently by Wells Fargo reported they know someone who had been a victim of a scam.” – Money Magazine
“Identifying the Unique Challenges of Solo Agers | The Elder Orphan Facebook group finds that many without families lack support” – next avenue
Credit: Adobe Stock
by Carol Marak
“Over 30 years ago, researchers and geriatricians identified an ‘elder orphan’ (sometimes called a ‘solo ager’) as a person aging alone with little support. But when my Elder Orphan Facebook group targeting this population launched over 2 1/2 years ago, little was known about them. Even then, few realized that the hardships faced by older people with no nearby family members could be any different from those of others aging at home.
“Health care professionals and companies tend to lump the older population into four segments: ages 55 to 64, 65 to 74, 75 to 84, and 85 and older. It’s assumed that people in these age brackets deal with, or eventually could deal with, similar concerns relating to health, housing, transportation, caregiving and safety. But those concerns are further magnified for those who do not have a support system, and that number may be higher than you imagine. For example, in Dallas, where I live, 30 percent of people 65 and older live alone.
“Thankfully, through the dedicated service of social workers, gerontologists and geriatricians, the unique challenges of the solo ager have been identified.”
Click here to read this article in its entirety.
“Welcome to the Elder Orphan Facebook Group”
