(off their rocker)
In Thailand they have an annual ceremony to honor elders. Steve, an Alaskan currently working in Thailand, shares this ceremony with readers.
See related post on other days of celebrating older people, Grandparents’ Days or Respect for the Aged Day
Site Search Tags: elders, ceremony, youth, annual, holiday, Thailand, water, grandparents, Respect+for+the+Aged, Youth+and+Elders
from ELDERCARE@LISTSERV.IHS.GOV– 2008-04-25 mentioned earlier, I see. So this becomes a reminder 
http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=486
Information below about the New Mexico Geriatric Summer Institute – a favorite course of many over the years, with no registration fees for Indian Health professionals.
Bruce Finke, MD
IHS / Nashville Area Elder Health Consultant
Chronic Care Initiative
(413) 584-0790
[deadline] June 19-21, 2008 Summer 2008 Geriatric Institute The New Mexico Geriatric Education Center (NMGEC) is pleased to announce the Summer 2008 Geriatric Institute to be held on June 19-21, 2008, at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center, 2500 Carlisle Blvd. NE, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with CME/CEUs offered. The title this year is Better Outcomes, Healthier Elders: Collaboration in Management of Chronic Disease. The last half day of the Institute will be on Health Literacy which can be applied toward a Certificate in Health Literacy of 25 credit hours. Additional sessions for the certificate will be announced soon.
Tuition waivers will be available to Tribal and Indian Health Service health care professionals to attend the Summer Geriatric Institute.
Please visit the NMGEC website at http://hsc.unm.edu/som/fcm/gec for more information on upcoming events. If you should require additional assistance, you can reach
Cly Clytemnestra Davison, Program Coordinator cdavison AT saludDOTunmDOTedu New Mexico Geriatric Education Center UNM Health Sciences Center, Dept. FCM MSC09 5040
1001 Medical Arts Ave NE, Room 244 Albuquerque, NM 87102-2708
505-272-4934 phone
505-272-4962 fax
Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program
Supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and administered by Columbia University, this national program seeks to provide professionals in health and aging with the experience and skills necessary to make a positive contribution to the development and implementation of health policies that affect older Americans. Deadline extended: May 27, 2008. For more information, see http://www.healthandagingpolicy.org/apply/index.html
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Family and Informal Caregiver Support Program
The Weinberg Foundation will help community partnerships develop innovative ways to support these devoted caregivers. Available Funding: Up to $9 million over three years, the Family and Informal Caregiver Support Program will support from 12 to 20 community-based Projects with grants ranging from $100,000 to $300,000 per year. Deadline: Letters of Inquiry: Thursday, June 12, 2008 http://www.epa.gov/aging/grants/grant-list/2008_0612_grant_ofo_1.htm
Elder Care Initiative Long-Term Care Grant Program
The Indian Health Service announces the availability of grants to support planning and implementation of sustainable long-term care services for American Indians and Alaska Native elders. Deadline: June 20, 2008.
http://www.ihs.gov/NonMedicalPrograms/gogp/index.cfm?module=HHS-2008-IHS-LTC-0001
2nd Annual Rachel Carson Intergenerational Poetry, Essay and Photo Contest
The EPA Aging Initiative, in partnership with Generations United and the Rachel Carson Council, Inc., is inviting submissions for its Second Annual Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder Intergenerational Poetry, Essay and Photography Contest. The contest’s intergenerational approach reflects Carson’s desire to have adults and children share a sense of wonder about nature to discover nature’s gifts. Entries must be an intergenerational project. The deadline for entries is Monday, June 16, 2008. For more information see http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/thesenseofwonder/index.htm
revised 2008-04-19
[from BHIC. See sidebar. Because so many older people are now raising their grandchildren, this program may be of interest.]
Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Caregiver’s Choice Program
Caregiver’s Choice makes it possible for many more kids across the country to have mentors, and for many more families to enjoy all the benefits of mentoring. This program is unique because it gives the child’s caregiver the power to choose—to look at the possibilities and decide on the best mentoring program to meet their needs and the needs of the child. Through Caregiver’s Choice, you can: – Access funding to serve more children; – Tap into federal funds; – Manage your participation level; – Leverage national efforts to recruit children of prisoners; and – Benefit from cutting-edge training and tools. For more information visit, http://www.mentoring.org/find_resources/caregiverschoice/
Site Search Tags: grants, funding, awards, fellowships, aging, children, environment, caregivers, respite, CBR, EPA, IHS, aging_initiativ, prison, grandchildren, revised
Turner Publishing (http://www.turnerpublishing.com) asked if I would consider reviewing a new book. I’m glad I agreed. Historic Photos of Alaska has just been published, a large format book of black and white photographs from the period 1867 to 1979. Dermot Cole, long-time columnist for the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer, provides the text and captions.
As a journalist, Dermot also has an interest in history (apart from his twin brother, Terrance, history professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks). Dermot Cole is the author of Amazing Pipeline Stories published by Epicenter Press in 1997, about the people and Fairbanks during the Alaska oil pipeline construction.
The perspective of Historic Photos of Alaska, is for those readers outside Alaska. That is, this is a pictorial history of Alaska as part of “America”. [Through no fault of this book, many in the US will still consider Alaska as a foreign body, along with New Mexico.]
The photos are arranged by time periods, from purchase to statehood– 1867-1905, 1906-1919, 1920-1940, and 1941-1979. These periods represent significant periods of US and Alaska relations. The orientation is a deliberate effort to stand apart from the usual Alaskana picture books. Another significant difference in this book is the choice of rarely seen photos and not the ubiquitous ones. The photos are reproduced with sufficient quality to review again and again and see something new each time.
Readers can follow themes such as regional changes (southeast Alaska also known as the Northwest Coast compared to Nome in northwest Alaska) and transportation. However, other themes can be chosen by readers according to personal interest.
Electric trees
Even on the frozen tundra of Nome (page 111) and sprouting ever more branches over time in populated areas such as Cordova page 120 and Fairbanks page 151.
Military
One way to trace the influence of the military in Alaska is through men’s hats in the photos. Since Territorial days, the military has been a significant economic and development force in Alaska. Much of the early geological studies and geodetic surveys were military. World War II and then the Cold War continued the inflow of money and people. Photos from pages 168 to 180 show differing aspects of building the Al-Can or Alaska Highway and the later battles of Attu and the Aleutians. (see related posts here on the Al-Can and the Aleutians, http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/special-projects/photo-index-cking-wwii/)
Miscellany
Everywhere. The curiosity of Edwardian women’s fashion in open-air fish camp (useful against mosquitoes I suppose); the plank streets (for cars and horses) 400 miles from the nearest highway; even a Piggly-Wiggly store outside of the South.
Dermot Cole avoided the shop worn stash of Alaska photos. However, the next to last photo, page 197, is of the oil pipeline’s zigzagged engineering (to avoid temperature stresses) up the North Slope and over the Brooks Mountain Range. It’s a clever homage to the iconic Klondike gold rush photo of the future miners traipsing up the Chilkoot Pass.
I do have some quibbles with the book. There is an amazing variety of horses depicted but no photos of cows at Creamer’s Dairy in Fairbanks (I like the image of the wood stove chimney peeking out the milk truck to keep contents from freezing at 40 below).
More importantly, an outline map of Alaska is needed, with the places of photos identified.
The southwest of Alaska is mostly excluded. Considering that most folks in or outside Alaska believe everyone lives in an Eskimo igloo, it would also be helpful to include a map of languages/cultural regions in the state. Most readers will not be aware of the significance of the temporary, river going, hide boat depicted on page 44 built by the Athabascan Indian trapper to bring his skins to market. Compare with the more permanent skin boat built by Iñupiat Eskimo marine hunters on page 103. I already noted the Saami family.
The period of the first half of 1919 is missing although extremely important in the demography and history of non-urban Alaska. Upwards of 80% to 100% of people in some communities died during the pandemic of the “Spanish Flu”. The Jesse Lee Home (I ran across this recently published history) was one of several that cared for orphans left behind (those that survived long enough for help to reach them).
A suggested reading list would be nice, including Steven Langdon’s 1993. The Native People of Alaska. Anchorage, AK : Greatland Graphics. ISBN: 0936425172 9780936425177 OCLC: 27405205
A great companion volume would be John S. Whitehead’s 2004. Completing the Union: Alaska, Hawaii, and the Battle for Statehood. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press. ISBN: 0826336361 9780826336361 082633637X 9780826336378, OCLC: 55665367
This book is not supposed to be a comprehensive pictorial history. Cole did an amazing job just to make a selection from all the possibilities and put together such an enjoyable book.
Site Search Tags: history, Alaska, Fairbanks, Nome, Anchorage, gold+rush, territory, photos, Eskimo, Athabascan, trappers, Sitka, coffee-table, books, heritage, archives, 49th, statehood, USA, Valdez
Maya’s Granny (see sidebar) unfortunately had a heart attack recently and is struggling back. While she isn’t blogging as regularly as before, she does explain why. In addition, her children have also helped everyone keep up with news. This is an excellent although unplanned use of a web log.
Today she posted a list of items from the expert’s perspective (recipient) that we all too often forget or wished we knew when a friend or family is in care.
Amenities:
If you know anyone staying for a while in a hospital or extended care facility, among the things that will make life good for them, are: [...]
I would add a flannel shirt or some other easy to use coverup. Add your suggestions to Maya’s Granny or below.
Site Search Tags: long-term+care, assisted+living, nursing+home, mayagranny.blogspot, in+patient, comfy
BHIC Bringing Health Info to the Community Nonagenarian news
click image to read more about Songkran – Elder Ceremony in Thailand. Here the elders are offered scented water to ritually wash themselves and bless the younger ones. 
Updates, comments