Sarah Palin, the elderly, the disabled, older Americans and rural Alaska

[revised]

naomidagenbloom 2008 September 2

Vuee, Vuee, We need to hear MORE from you now about the way Alaska has come into our consciousness via your governor–the believer in “stakeholders.”

Readers can’t get off that easy, Little Red Hen– what questions do folks have?

The reason I have been rather quiet, blogwise, is because the news from rural Alaska about living there isn’t good. There has been next to nothing improved since earlier posts, this includes the past 18 months of the personable Gov. Sarah Palin. I’ll give examples below, but they sound depressing. So readers, what do enquiring minds want to know? If nothing else, I can at least point you to some good sources of facts or commentary from Alaska perspective.

An older friend of mine (from Tucson) sends this musing upon the early photo of Sarah Palin and her caribou ( http://newsminer.com/photos/galleries/2008/sep/01/sarah-palin-growing-alaskan/1156/. It is the photo of the red-nosed caribou NOT a reindeer.)

>My deep reflections, caribou inspired::
1. Macho women don’t need to wear pantsuits to assert themselves.
2. Most currently popular female names go from my daughter Michelle to my mother Sarah.
3. Sarah definitely shoots better than Dick. How about Joe’s expertise with firearms?
4. Candidates should not be judged only on basis of age, gender, and looks.
5. Candidate’s children are given on-stage prominence. It should be unfair to have the youngest ones debate politics, but what about having a food fight?

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• there’s the older gentleman who is resigning himself to move 400 miles away from home to be near his grandkids because his grown children had to move to Anchorage to find work to meet the utilities payments
• there’s all the older people who need an assisted living arrangement or nursing home (a 400 mile trip, if one can afford to get into Bethel from the village to get on the jet)
• there’s fuel oil at $6-15 a gallon
• there’s the Bush-Cheney stimulus payments which only went to those who have taxable income. They don’t go to those who cashed in IRAs early to pay electricity or who struggle to make sense of their returns.
• there’s electricity at 40 cents or more per kilowatt hour (with a subsidy for residences) in rural Alaska (Wasilla pays considerably less, without subsidy)
• there’s gasoline, needed to go out and “grocery shop” on the tundra or out in the river, at $6 to $18 gallon.
• there’s gaining grandmother status at 34
• there’s raising grandchildren at 70
• there’s having your one-time $1200 “energy check” from the state stolen by your children for smokes and booze

2008-09-04 Look guys, what someone else found
gov-sarah-palin-call-in-kyuk/

2008-09-04 Fact Check of Governor Palin’s Speech http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/09/saradise-lost-chapter-twenty-five-obama.html

PALIN: “Senator McCain also promises to use the power of veto in defense of the public interest – and as a chief executive, I can assure you it works.”
REALITY: PALIN OPPOSED CRUCIAL EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE AND SENIORS FUNDING [...]

Andrew Halcro does a fine job at http://www.andrewhalcro.com/grading_palins_speech_a

Also: tech support has a listing of reasonable sources at Sarah Palin content

2008-10-27 Palin’s gaffe about her policy on “special needs” while her record shows she has none
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlueOasis/~3/431498178/showDiary.do

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Liz Taylor takes comments

One of the best reads ever on aging deliberately is Liz Taylor–

Her series has been mentioned previously -

• A say in one’s or other’s life?
• Dad deserves a say about his life, even if he’s wrong
• Elder neighbor in crisis?
• Prisons Not Geared to the Needs of the Elderly, Study Finds
• How to fall-proof your body and your home
• nesting in place
• Think ahead to stay safe at home
• Growing Older – Liz Taylor (major series under old title)

I just discovered that the columns published at Kitsap Sun Stories: Liz Taylor: Aging Deliberately allow comments (registration required) and have an RSS feed . This is so much more convenient and useful than the Seattle Times venue. I’m not sure which is the primary home for Liz’s work, however, and Kitsap may not carry all her columns. At the Seattle Times I have to subscribe by E-mail to their health series (once a week e-mail, all health stories which are interesting) to get notice of her columns. Otherwise I have a Google News Alert for Liz Taylor+ aging, which sometimes brings in notice of National Velvet. [the colors behind some items below mean nothing except straightening out the code remains to be done.]

Liz Taylor began her career as a federal consumer-fraud investigator and was appointed by Elizabeth Dole in 1976 to direct a nationwide investigation of the nursing-home industry. She’s worked in the aging field ever since.

In the 1980s, Liz became one of the first geriatric care managers in the Pacific Northwest, working with thousands of families and older adults to find high-quality services. In 2000, she founded Aging Deliberately, a business that teaches people how to prepare for their aging so they’ll have more control over what happens to them. In 2005, she served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging. She’s won the American Geriatrics Society’s 2007 Aging Awareness Media Award and the Washington Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s Excellence in Media Award. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/growingolder/

Liz Taylor Aging Deliberately New Kind of Retirement Ahead, Part Two 3/9/2008 12:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Finding Out About Low Income Options

It’s relatively easy to age successfully if you’re wealthy. Money can’t buy happiness, but it certainly allows you to buy the things that make life more comfortable at any age. 1/26/2008 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: When the Wrong Person Is in Charge of Someone With Dementia

In my last column, I wrote about a growing problem: what to do when an older person who has dementia hasn’t named anyone she trusts to make decisions for her. This week I’ll tackle a tougher issue: what to do when the person she names does a poor job. 11/17/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: When Someone With Dementia Resists Help

My e-mail has had a repeated theme recently: An older person with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, isn’t paying bills, preparing meals, bathing, and other important tasks — but refuses to allow anyone to help.

11/3/2007 09:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: Patient Numbers Grow as Geriatric Practices Decline

There’s a certain uniformity to finding a physician under Medicare these days. Rich or poor, if you’re 65 or older, you’re likely to have similar slim pickings (more so if you’re poor and on Medicare and Medicaid). 10/20/2007 11:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: Becoming Eldercare Savvy

Most of us want to live a long time, but nobody wants to grow old. The irony is, most of us will — live a long time and grow old. It’s easy to do — all it takes is letting the days roll by. As long as you’re healthy, getting old is a piece of cake.

10/6/2007 11:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: Where to Go When It’s Time to Move

It’s easy as pie to age well when you’re healthy. The friction comes when you become frail. Sometimes it’s self-inflicted, the product of isolation, poor eating habits, lack of physical activity and falls — all common problems for people who age in their homes but don’t plan it correctly. 9/22/2007 11:00 PM |

Aging Deliberately: How to Know When It’s Time to Move

A woman in her late 70s, a good friend, is pondering her options. Her home is two stories (or three, including the basement), with many stairs to her bedroom, bathroom and the washing machine. 9/8/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: Reader Shares a Parental Care Success Story

Dad is 87, fun and funny, with moderate dementia. He lived “on the edge” in his own home for years while we kids worried sick. 7/28/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: Living With Chronic Illness

When I was growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, cars were sort of round and later sort of square. My dad wore a hat to work and took the bus.

7/14/2007 11:00 PM

Aging Deliberately: Life’s Gifts Are Within Everyday Actions

I’m 75 and have lived in an assisted-living facility for a year.

7/8/2007 02:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Good News on the Doctor Front

Older people are not simply younger people with wrinkles our bodies change dramatically as we age, both inside and out; some parts wear out before others, sometimes several at once.

6/17/2007 02:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Safety Circles Good Way to Build Safety Net as We Age

Whether you live at home, in a retirement community, or in a yurt on top of a mountain, as you age, you want to do it consciously.

6/3/2007 02:00 AM

Aging Deliberately: Caring for Stubborn Parents, Part IV

5/20/2007 02:00 AM

Advance Directives Ensure Dignity

One of the best parts about writing this column is learning about breakthroughs that help readers — and me — grow older more successfully. Today is about one of those discoveries. 1/18/2007 11:00 PM |

Here’s the Seattle Times list of articles,

long-term care insurance

Part I: Long-term insurance a must
Part II: Government doesn’t pay
Part III: Shopping for insurance

Why rates are rising

Part IV: 3 more insurance essentials
Part V: Five factors driving costs
Part VI: Long-term care Q&A Lessons from the past

 2008

Monday, March 10  Hey, brother, can you spare some time to help Mom?

Monday, March 3 When parental care falls to one child’s shoulders

Thursday, February 28 Charting an eldercare path requires family teamwork

Monday, February 18 Even with trusts, Medicaid and eldercare, money is the bottom line

Monday, February 11 When the wrong person is in charge of an aging parent

Monday, February 4 Caring for a parent who has never been easy to deal with

Monday, January 28 Diversions help ease “addiction” to mail solicitations

Monday, January 21 Forever young – well, at least to ourselves

Monday, January 14 Funeral planning is a touchy topic, but it’s a must-have talk

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Vibrators and exercise for strength among the frail

There has been additional research into vibrating platforms as a means to improve bone and muscle health. An earlier post is here,

Vibrating beds as osteoporosis exercise

These platforms may be similar to one manufactured by Soloflex and one about to come out by Nintendo Wii. The Wii will have a game console attached for using video games as an exercise on a balance board. The news reports don’t mention how the human tests are done.

Other Wii games mentioned earlier–

Ideas to exercise in small cold places

The SoloFlex would be easy to set-up as a study in a senior center. See the news story (Boston Globe) Vibrating machines are studied for health benefits. A home machine called Soloflex Whole Body Vibration Platform is smaller and less powerful, generating more of a massage sensation at the lowest setting. More and stronger vibration doesn’t mean faster results and could be dangerous as the article points out. There would have to be modifications for those with balance problems. However, measures of muscle strength, balance, and coordination are easy enough to set up.

Here’s a cautious review from epinions.com– It is considered a class 1 Medical Device by the FDA. Those who shouldn’t use this are recovering from surgery, have heart disease, neurological conditions, pre-existing deep vein thrombosis, joint implants or are pregnant.

No one has yet tested vibrating motel beds (don’t forget your condom amulets http://www.alittleredhen.com/a_little_red_hen/2007/09/safe-sex-alerts.html or http://www.alittleredhen.com/a_little_red_hen/2007/10/jenna-bush-wear.html

Vibrations Shown to Build Bone, Reduce Fat (National Public Radio)

Morning Edition, October 29, 2007 · Standing on a gently vibrating platform for 15 minutes a day can build bone mass and reduce fat in mice, according to a new study. The changes are due to a stem cell in bone marrow that can become muscle, bone or fat. Testing has begun in humans…. Scientists are about to launch a similar study in humans. Douglas Kiel works at the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston, where subjects will soon get 10 minutes of jiggling a day.

How to calculate hazardous materials exposure for older adults

EPA Releases Report on Development of an Exposure Factors Handbook for Aging

Older adults may be more susceptible to the adverse effects of environmental contaminants due to differential exposures arising from physiological and behavioral changes with age, as well as the body’s decreased capacity to defend against toxic stressors. To address these issues and discuss practical considerations of the utility of an Exposure Factors Handbook for the Aging in conducting exposure assessments, a panel of experts in the fields of exposure assessment, risk assessment, physiology, and behavioral science were convened at a national workshop in February of 2007. This report summarizes the discussions held during the workshop, highlights several sources of existing data, and provides recommendations for additional research. Panelists included national and international experts in the fields of gerontology, physiology, exposure assessment, and behavioral science.
The workshop panelists discussed practical issues related to evaluating and protecting against environmental health risks posed to older adults. A summary report of the workshop is now available online [...]

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/CFM/recordisplay.cfm?deid=171923

from Aging Initiative” Listserver! The “Aging_Initiativ” Listserver [sic] is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to raise awareness about the susceptibility of older persons to environmental hazards and to share information on strategies to reduce or prevent exposure. We use the listserver to send email to you, to let you know about important news and updated information.

see earlier, Aging and Toxic Response (EPA review)

Lead and Older Adults

Long-term lead exposure linked to cognitive decline in older adults

The Association between Blood Lead Levels and Osteoporosis among Adults – Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) Campbell JR, Auinger P. 2007. Environ Health Perspect: doi:10.1289/ehp.9716.

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How to fall-proof your body and your home

Liz Taylor has a review of two complementary books

Geared to older people and their families, rather than professionals in the health-care field, both books are highly readable with large print and no medical jargon, amply illustrated and easy to understand.

Read more here–

• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2003522577_liztaylor15.html