Rosemarie Alexander, KTOO ­ Juneau Memorial services for the Reverend Doctor Walter Soboleff will be carried live on statewide television Saturday. Beginning at 2 p.m., Doctor Soboleff will be remembered at a Grand Camp Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood service followed by a community memorial. The public affairs channel 360 North will televise the entire event.  Sealaska Corporation and Sealaska Heritage Foundation are sponsoring the special broadcast. 360 North can be seen on GCI cable channel 15 throughout Alaska, and over-the air on KTOO, KAKM and KUAC public television in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks.  360 North is also available on Dish Network and DirecTV, and is streamed on the Internet at www.360north.org. The Doctor Walter Soboleff Memorial Page is available on Facebook for people wishing to post remembrances.   A memorial account has been set up at Wells Fargo bank. The beloved Tlingit elder and Presbyterian minister passed away on Sunday at the age of 102. Download Audio (MP3)

Enclosure: http://media.aprn.org/2011/ann-20110527-04.MP3

Site Search Tags: Betty+White, humor, ageism, TV

Bethel the Kodiak brown bear, celebrating birthday in Australia

Not grizzly at all… Bethel the kodiak bear lounges in her enclosure at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. (ABC news)

Australia’s oldest bear has celebrated its 32nd birthday.

Bethel the kodiak [sic] bear also has the distinction of being one of the oldest of its species in the world.

It’s become a birthday ritual that never fails to delight the grand old dame of Taronga Zoo.

“She was bashing at the door as soon as she could smell that salmon coming in,” said zookeeper Deb Olsen.

“She knows that it’s a special day when she sees the big salmon there.”

I noticed while reading up on Bethel’s birthday bash that the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) has a tag or category for news feeds called aged-care. Click on the ink below to add it to your news reader.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local January 11, 2009 Oldest on Earth
1. Gertrude Baines, 114, Los Angeles; born April 6, 1894
2. Beatrice Farve, 113, Georgia; April 30, 1895
3. Kama Chinen, 113, Japan; May 10, 1895
4. Mary Josephine Ray, 113, New Hampshire; May 17, 1895
5. Olivia Patricia Thomas, 113, New York; June 29, 1895
6. Neva Morris, 113, Iowa; Aug. 3, 1895
7. Chiyo Shiraishi, 113, Japan; Aug. 6, 1895
8. Tomoji Tanabe, 113, Japan; Sept. 18, 1895 9. Maggie Renfro, 113, Louisiana; Nov. 14, 1895 10. Yoshino Ide, 113, Japan; Jan. 1, 1896
Source: Inglewood-based Gerontology Research Group

Site Search Tags: centenarians, age+grade, demography

• Nonagenarian American Indian linguist

  http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/2006/09/18/american-indian-linguist/

Esther Martinez: ‘A way to honor her spirit’ Historical roadside marker celebrates Tewa linguist and renowned storyteller
11/8/2008 – 11/9/08
OHKAY OWINGEH — New Mexico honored Ohkay Owingeh storyteller and Tewa linguist Esther Martinez Blue Water (P’oe Tsáwä) on Saturday by unveiling a new roadside marker at the pueblo north of Española.

…

“It is an honor to have a marker that recognizes her contributions to her pueblo and to others,” said Martinez, speaking to the large crowd gathered at the site along N.M. 68. “She was a person steadfast to the end.”

The wooden marker is the second of 55 that will be installed around the state in recognition of influential New Mexico women. .. The marker program was conceived by three women — Pat French, Beverly Duran and Alexis Girard. They created the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative and lobbied the Legislature to fund the project.

“As we drove around the state, we realized all the historic markers up and down the road were all for men,” French said Saturday as she waited for the cutting of a silver ribbon around Martinez’s marker. “This is to create a better balance.”

…

Martinez, born in 1912, was known as an exceptional storyteller. Her family said she could use almost anything as the source of a good yarn, even everyday events. “My mother’s stories had such life and character,” daughter Josephine Binford said with a chuckle. “You could see what she described. When she spoke, it was like she cast a spell.”

… Martinez received many national honors for her work in preserving the language and stories of her people. She taught Tewa in the Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo) schools for years and created a Tewa dictionary. She traveled widely to share stories with non-Pueblo people. She received the Teacher of the Year award from the National Council of American Indians in 1997 and a year later was given the Governor’s Award for Excellence.

In 2006, Martinez was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Site Search Tags: Tewa, Martinez, Ohkay+Owingeh, nonagenarian, Espanola, New+Mexico, grandchildren, linguist, San+Juan+Pueblo

Yup’ik ties give Palins unique Alaska connection
NATIVE: Grandmother on Todd’s side calls the governor a ‘special gal.’ By TOM KIZZIA

Lena Andree, Todd Palin's grandmother, Sarah Palin's in-law

Published: October 19th, 2008 11:20 PM
Last Modified: October 19th, 2008 10:04 AM

HOMER — Like many Alaska Natives of her generation, Lena Andree, Todd Palin’s 87-year-old Yup’ik grandmother, grew up living between two worlds. [read more]
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/561419.html

For more on Todd Palin, Sarah Palin, and rural Alaska, Todd Palin, Sarah Palin’s husband, and rural Alaska living

Site Search Tags: Sarah+Palin, Yup’ik, Alaska, octogenarian

If you know of someone else that can give a feel or better yet, actual numbers or examples, please ask them. Post your results in comments below or e-mail me.

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

Site Search Tags: Palin, refugee, migration, community+disruption, can+you+help

from WHAT’S UP – October 15, 2008
Compiled Weekly by Peg Tileston On behalf of the Alaska Women’s Environmental Network (AWEN), Alaska Center for the Environment (ACE), and Alaska Conservation Alliance (ACA)

*November 21
Deadline for proposal submission for THE EPA BUILD HEALTHY COMMUNITIES FOR ACTIVE AGING GRANTS. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to award in early 2009, two grants for $100,000 each to train older adults to be environmental leaders and demonstrate how greenways and sustainable streets can improve the environment, human health and the quality of life for persons of all ages. Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Training and Demonstration Projects must include a strategy that either 1) trains older adults to be environmental leaders on local planning decisions that affect their community’s built environment; or 2) demonstrates how greenways and sustainable streets can improve the quality of life for persons of all ages while improving environmental quality. For purposes of this RFP Greenways and Sustainable Streets are defined as follows: Greenways are linear corridors of open space. They include natural corridors (e.g., along a stream, river, or ridge), canals, rail road rights of way converted to recreational use, and trails. They link places together, inviting city and community residents to experience a connection with the natural environment. Greenways connect neighborhoods, downtowns, schools, community centers, and other important public places. They can include waterfront walkways, stream corridors and other natural ecological reserves, as well as off-street biking and walking paths. Sustainable Streets are a multimodal rights-of-way designed and operated to create benefits to mobility, community and ecology. They are streets that use sustainable design principles that promote safe, least-polluting ways to connect people and incorporate natural, landscape-based methods that infiltrate, reuse, or evaportranspirate (allow water to evaporate back into the air) stormwater runoff, and mitigate the “urban heat island effect” (the additional heating in the air over a city as the result of replacement of vegetated surfaces with those composed of heat-retaining, man-made materials such as asphalt and dark colored roofing). Eligible entities include States, or state agencies, the District of Columbia, territories, American Indian Tribes (federally recognized), and possessions of the U.S. It is also available to public and private universities and colleges, hospitals, laboratories, other public or private nonprofit institutions, and 501(c)(3) organizations. For more information, go to http://www.epa.gov/aging/grants/index.htm#2008_1121_grant_1.

Site Search Tags: EPA, grants, funding, sustainable, training, environment

10-15-08
by Jodi Friend, student Kuskokwim Campus

My paternal grandfather Otto Friend has lived in the native village of Kwigillingok, a costal village located on the Southwestern Region of Alaska, nearly all his life.

When my grandfather was a young boy, most of the Yup’ik people in the village lived on the left side of the Kwigillingok River, while only a few lived on the right side.

…what are my grandfather’s personality, favorite foods, and hobbies?
My grandfather is mean, grumpy, strict, selfish, and forgetful at times, but he is also humorous, caring, and loving. His nickname is “Apiin” (similar to grandfather) and “Dad.”

Otto loves to eat blackberry “akutaq” (Eskimo ice cream), beluga whale blubber, dried salmon, white fish, bird soup, and loves drinking Red Rose tea with his elder friends.

His hobbies include watching Kung Fu movies, taking naps, snow machine riding, checking the Kwigillingok River, playing with his grandchildren, working on seal skin, carving wood, and taking steam baths.

… After serving in the Alaskan Territorial Guard (ATG), his sight has not been the same. My paternal aunts and uncles told me that Otto, little by little, stopped going subsistence hunting because of his affected vision. Although he has this problem, it does not keep him from being in charge of how the gathered and hunted food is prepared or stored for the winter.

Right now, he’s 90-years-old and he still walks and takes a steam bath in the “maqivik” (steam house or sauna) just about every night…. In conclusion, Otto is a lot of fun to be around. I admire and respect him because he has been through so much in his life and because he has a lot of experience when it comes to subsistence living. He is also a very good grandfather, not just to me, but to my other relatives as well. [...]

• http://deltadiscovery.com/speakyourmind/speakyourmind.html

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, Yup’ik, grandfather, grandchildren

“Several of my friends and I hit the streets to interview people about the election. We were lucky enough to have these two young women happen along. Being from Alaska, they had a great inside view on Sarah Palin’s governing. “

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-113360#

aucella // 21 hours ago
Let me clear some things up. The video was shot the day of the 1st debate in LA, hence the tank tops. Though born and raised in AK, I now live in LA where my friend was visiting me. On our tour of tinsel town we stumbled across a student film crew and gave them our opinion on what I like to refer to as “The Palin Problem”. It wasn’t meant to be objective, thats kind of the point of an opinion. And how can Alaskans be outraged that we don’t think highly of our own politicians? Stevens is being indicted, Young is under investigation, Palin is guilty of abuse of power, and there are countless others at the state congressional level who’ve been tried for corruption in the last 4 years. I’m not proud of that representation, but I’m being honest.

Site Search Tags: Sarah+Palin

Gladys had been active on the Senior Advisory Board to the Eddie Hoffman Senior Center in Bethel. Her Archive for the ‘nonagenarian’ Category biography and poster is posted earlier here–

• Gladys Jung nonagenarian

revised 2008-10-26
2008 Alaska Federation of Natives Elder of the Year, Gladys Hall Jung, Bethel http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/568008.html

[revised 2008-11-10] The Tundra Drums has two good stories about Ms Jung–
Gladys Jung named Elder of the Year, By Alex DeMarban, October 30, 2008 http://thetundradrums.com/news/show/3679

Sunny side of Jung http://thetundradrums.com/news/show/3802

Here at Slate, we take the subject of growing old more seriously. Heck, it’s going to happen to all of us someday—if we’re lucky. And so we have commissioned a series of articles on aging and the aged. We wanted to see the world through the eyes of our elders, to explore the ways in which old folks influence our economy, politics, and culture. To walk a mile in their Rockports.

Wednesday

“Pimp My Buick: Will new technologies make old people safer on the road?” by Farhad Manjoo. Posted Sept. 10, 2008.

“What’s the Best Adult Diaper? That depends,” by Justin Peters. Posted Sept. 10, 2008.

“The Senior-Citizen Cookbook: How your food needs will change as you get older,” by Sarah Dickerman. Posted Sept. 10, 2008

“Diary of a 100-Year-Old Man: Dreams of My Mother, and a Visit From My Grandson,” by Leon Despres. Posted Sept. 10, 2008

Recycled: “Naughty Nursing Homes: Is it time to let the elderly have more sex?” by Daniel Engber. Posted Sept. 10, 2008

Tuesday

“Is Grandpa Bad for the Environment? Climate change and the aging population,” by Jacob Leibenluft. Posted Sept. 9, 2008.

Best Friends Forever: Grumpy Old Men, The Bucket List, and the undying appeal of the old-buddy movie,” by Jessica Winter. Posted Sept. 9, 2008.

“A Visit to My Future: What happens when I try to live like a senior citizen,” by Emily Yoffe. Posted Sept. 9, 2008.

“The Oldest Profession: Why don’t architects ever retire?” by Witold Rybczynski. Posted Sept. 9, 2008.

Alaska and Tucson forever associated… Perhaps she can give you a free ride:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/256059.php
This article asks whether she will put on eBay her new plane.

OOPS, she ordered Al Gore to stop flying his plane. Presumably it was a reference to climate change. The only one during her speech. Now she got a plane with a big carbon footprint. She can transport some moose or hundred reporters.

Her Al Gore joke contrasted with a week full of estimates of the magnitude of the expected magnitude of the sea level rise, news about the Canadian ice shelf loss and of polar bears in peril. Neither the media nor the pundits tearing apart her speech thought of asking whether she has any plan (or plane) to relocate the affected Native populations.

No one thinks about relocation nor have they much. There are several hundred towns which must be relocated some or great distances, including houses, schools, electrical plants, sewage, garbage, telephones, churches, graveyards, water treatment, etc etc.

By the way, the Republican Murkowski jet, which was unable to visit most places in Alaska (no runways large enough), did NOT sell on e-Bay. It finally had to be given away, relatively speaking.

Site Search Tags: Palin, jet, eBay, climate+change, Alaska+Native, erosion, Republican

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?

————————————-

• 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

Site Search Tags: Sarah+Palin, caribou, elderly, Alaska, aging, Little+Red+Hen, diasability, long-term+care

[deadline]

Long Term Care Community Forum for Stakeholders of State Long Term Health Care Services and Supports [sic]

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) has hired HCBS Strategies Inc. to develop recommendations for improving the long term care services it provides to older adults and individuals with disabilities of all ages. As part of developing these recommendations we have obtained feedback from stakeholders such as consumers and their families, providers and direct care workers. We are holding Community Forums to gain reactions from stakeholders on our draft set of recommendations before they are finalized. All those interested may attend.

Individuals are welcome to participate in person or through a web-enabled conference call. Individuals must pre-register for webinars in advance! For those that have limited computer or internet access they may participate by phone only by using the conference call numbers listed below.

Dates/Locations:
Tuesday, August 26th from1:00 – 4:00pm: Downtown Anchorage Marriott- Anchorage/ Via Phone: (702) 824-9512 Access code: 224-977-617 Audio Pin: #

Wednesday, August 27th 5:00 – 8:00 pm: Centennial Hall Convention Center- Juneau /Via Phone: (702) 824-9512 Access code: 126-987-378 Audio Pin: #

Friday, August 29th 1:00 – 4:00pm: Westmark Fairbanks Hotel- Fairbanks Via Phone: (702) 824-9512 Access code: 177-724-278 Audio Pin: #

To for more information or to register for the Forum webinars please go to www.AKLTC.com
If you have questions please contact Kristy Michael with HCBS Strategies by e-mail Kristy AT hcbs DOT info or by phone: 410-858-0807

Site Search Tags: deadline, longterm+care, assisted+living, Alaska, DHSS, comment, public+involvement

The company homepage is almost no help.

“CDPC performs fiscal intermediary functions for the Consumer, including processing time sheets, billing Medicaid, and caregiver payroll. CDPC provides training for the Consumer and resources for caregiver training and also assists the Consumer in maintaining program compliance.”

The Arizona program description is a bit more helpful–

“What is Consumer-Directed Personal Care?
Consumer-Directed Care is available to individuals who need attendant care services in their home. Self-Directed care puts you in control, allowing you to arrange and direct your own services. You select, train and manage your caregiver who may be a trusted friend, neighbor or relative. Individuals must be capable of directing their own services or arranging for a representative to act on their behalf.”

Contact info for the Alaska program is http://www.consumerdirectonline.net/alaska/ Anyone have any experience with this group?

Invited by the state in 2001 to help develop the Consumer Directed Personal Care Services Program, we are proud to be part of communities across the state of Alaska by supporting and promoting self-directed personal care services. The program is specifically intended to allow individuals with health care needs to remain in their homes and communities avoiding placement in an institution. This program is designed for individuals who are capable of directing their own personal care services or appointing a Personal Representative to act on their behalf.

Alaska program requirements include:
* Eligibility for Alaska Medicaid
* The need for assistance with activities of daily
living such as:
– medication reminders - transfers
– bathing & hygiene - dressing & grooming
– ambulation - eating
– toileting, bowel & bladder care
* Authorization by a health care professional that assistance is necessary
* Completion of an assessment for placement in the program
* There is no age requirement in the state of Alaska

Contact a program coordinator at:
Anchorage
The Emerald Building
615 East 82nd Ave, Suite 101
Anchorage, AK 99518
Phone: (907) 222-2652
Toll free: 1- 888 – 966-8777
Fax: (907) 677-8777
infoAK AT ConsumerDirectOnline DOT net

Wasilla
Kenai
Kodiak

Site Search Tags: in-home, in-situ, aging+in+place, home+care, PCA, family, caregiver

The International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing, http://www.iahsa.net IAHSA is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
2519 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008-1520
iahsa/AT/aahsa/DOT/org
Phone (202) 508-9468
Fax (202) 220-0041

IAHSA is an affiliate of AAHSA American Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing

Site Search Tags: elderblogs, aging, ageing, resources, international, housing, eldercare

When the Wind Was a River: Aleut Evacuation in World War II or http://tinyurl.com/l49ay

Book review of Dean Kohlhoff’s When the Wind Was a River: Aleut Evacuation in World War II. Lydia T. Black, Ph.D. / Reprinted from: Pacific Historical Review v65, n4 (Nov 1996)

This book about the experience of a small group of indigenous Native American inhabitants of the Aleutian Archipelago during and after World War II. One of the villages was Atka — where the Chapel of St. Nicholas was damaged. [...]

Site Search Tags: WWII, Aleutians, Aleut, history, Alaska, Atka, Bataan, New+Mexico, Charlie+King, Lydia+Black

click to view original

In her class, Maile Loloa was almost 30 years older than her fellow students. But the grandmother of 11 didn’t let the age gap – or her lack of confidence in speaking publicly and writing in English – put her off.

She will graduate next month at age 67 from Manukau Institute of Technology with a bachelor of education, specialising in early childhood….

Mrs Loloa said the requirement for all teachers at most early childhood centres to have a degree or diploma by 2012 was one factor in her decision to go back to school. Manukau, where Mrs Loloa works, has low rates of participation in preschool and a shortage of trained teachers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10506570&ref=rss

Site Search Tags: Tolstoy’s+bicyclists, pre-school, teaching, Polynesia, New+Zealand, Tonga, university, grandchild, grandparent

• Al-Can Highway and the Aleutians War, Alaska in WWII
• John Huston movie from the Aleutians
• More on the Aleutians war (WWII)
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/hlthenvt/sets/72157594189819428/

According to Charlie King (see photos), the dead were so numerous that the bulldozers used for the Al-Can were used to push the bodies into mass graves, disturbing to everyone.

revised The story from APRN.org focusses on the search for purposes of cremation and immediate re-burial in situ rather than identification of individuals. Search for Japanese remains on Attu resumes

U.S. and Japan search for WW II Japanese MIAs in Alaska. A team of three Japanese and 11 Americans departed Kodiak this morning aboard a C-130 bound for the U.S. Coast Guard Station on Attu. There, they’ll search burial sites for the bodies of soldiers still missing from a 1943 World War II battle there, according to the Department of Defense.

In June 1942, a unit of the Japanese Army occupied Attu, capturing and imprisoning many of its inhabitants. In May 1943, American forces began to recapture the island in fierce hand-to-hand battles. Casualties were estimated at 540 Americans and 2,300 Japanese.

The Japanese government assisted an American group’s 2007 visit to Iwo Jima in a similar search for missing American MIAs.

***”
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/newsreader/story/404583.html

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.

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

2008-04-25 mentioned earlier, I see. So this becomes a reminder

https://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

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

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.

Dogs
Most of the dogs are Alaska huskies (freight variety), such as ones on pages 44 and 55 and in harness, page 58. However, the team on page 67 is actually part of a Saami family (reindeer herders originally from Scandinavia. Note the hats and boot toes.) The harness setup is very different from that of the Eskimo family team on page 128. There are also sporting dogs (early 20th century conformation) such as the one on page 92 belonging to Jim Haly. Look carefully. The dog has just spotted another dog out of view, and kicked up a cloud of dust with his hind legs.

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

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: [...]

• Maya’s Granny http://mayagranny.blogspot.com/2008/04/errata.html

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

Weinberg Foundation Announces Grant Program to Support Family Caregivers

Deadline: June 12, 2008

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
( http://www.hjweinbergfoundation.org/ ) has announced an innovative new program to provide $9 million in grants to assist caregivers across the United States.

The Family and Informal Caregiver Funding Program was developed by the Weinberg Foundation to provide the critical resources necessary to support caregivers in innovative ways and facilitate partnerships among agencies and organizations. The primary goal of the program is to increase support for family and informal caregivers who assist older adults living in the community.

Eligible grant recipients include nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations; faith- and other community-based organizations; tribal organizations; and units of local government nationwide.

The grant program will support from twelve to twenty community- based projects with grants ranging from $100,000 to $300,000 each (for a total of $300,000 to $900,000 for each grant recipient from March 2009 through February 2012).

Complete application details and additional information are available at the foundation’s Web site or by contacting the foundation’s offices.

Contact Information:
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Tel: (410) 654-8500
Email: CaregivingRFP at theweinbergfoundation dot org

RFP Link:
http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/15012257/weinberg

For additional RFPs in Aging, visit:
http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_aging.jhtml

Site Search Tags: grants, caregiver, foundationcenter.org, friends

Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times, click to view original

By Tina Daunt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, April 4, 2008

AS F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously said, there are no second acts in American life. But Kirk Douglas, at age 91, has not only found a second act but now is writing a third in, of all places, cyberspace.
…

“Someone once told me, ‘Be ashamed to die before doing something for humanity,’ ” said Douglas, relaxing on one of the plush couches in his Beverly Hills home, with its gardens and courtyards, colorful paintings by Marc Chagall — a personal friend — and two beloved large dogs wandering in and out. “As you get older, you must think more of other people. You must strive to help other people. Who needs the most help but the young?

“What kind of world are we leaving them?”

It’s a question to which Douglas returns over and over on his website and in his new book, “Let’s Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning,” which was recently released as an audio book read by “Seinfeld’s” Jason Alexander.
[...]

MySpace page is
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=171170276

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, elderblogger, MySpace, audiobook, Tolstoy’s+Bicyclist, accessibility

The Letter of Intent does not obligate you to apply, but we cannot accept applications unless there has been a letter of intent to apply. So if you think you might apply, send in a letter of intent!

June 20 application deadline
A pdf of the Federal Register Announcement can be found at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-6409.pdf

The application has not yet been posted but will be on www.Grants.gov using Funding Announcement Number: HHS–2008–IHS–EHC–0001 or CDFA number:93.933.

Bruce Finke, MD
IHS / Nashville Area Elder Health Consultant
Chronic Care Initiative
(413) 584-0790
(615) 417-4915 cell
http://www.ihs.gov/MedicalPrograms/ElderCare/index.asp

The AI/AN elder population is growing rapidly and the Al/AN population as a whole is aging. The prevalence of chronic disease in this population continues to increase, contributing to a frail elder population with increasing long-term care (LTC) needs.

LTC is best understood as an array of social and health care services that support an individual who has needs for assistance in activities of daily living over a prolonged period. LTC supports elders and their families with medical, personal, and social services delivered in a variety of settings to support quality of life, maximum function, and dignity.

While families continue to be the backbone of LTC for Al/AN elders, there is well documented need to support this care with formal services. The way these services and systems of care are developed and implemented can have a profound impact on the cultural and spiritual health of the community.

Home and community-based services have the potential for meeting the needs of the vast majority of elders requiring LTC services, supporting the key roles of the family in the care of the elder and the elder in the care of the family and community.

Katherine Fink of Green Bay. Click picture to read more

A retired regional supervisor for AAA, Katie never backed away from a challenge. Learning to downhill ski at age 58 and looking rather like a Mountie in her orange jacket, she quickly gave up the bunny slope for the ‘big ones’. After retiring, she took computer classes so she would be able to be of help in the office at Trinity Lutheran Church. A gifted seamstress and tailor she also became an accomplished and prize-winning porcelain doll maker after retiring.

http://victoriasjourneys.blogspot.com/2008/03/katherine-fink.html from Kasigluk

This program is designed to prepare basic tax returns for most low and middle income taxpayers, with an emphasis on senior citizens and disabled taxpayers. Sites are staffed by volunteers trained by the IRS to prepare basic tax returns. E-file means it’s fast, accurate AND it’s absolutely FREE. Volunteers receive training on the Earned Income Credit and other personal tax credits. If your income is below $39,783 you MAY qualify for an Earned Income Credit, up to $4,716.

*** You must file a 2007 tax return to receive the Economic Stimulus Payments. To be eligible for this payment, you must have a tax liability, or at least $3000 of earned income, Social Security benefits, or certain VA benefits. If you had at $3,000 of qualifying income, you should file a tax return even if you are not required.

AARP TaxAide sites may offer priority service to taxpayers age 60 and older.

As all locations are staffed by volunteers using donated space, these dates and times may change. To get the most current information, please call the Alaska 211 referral line by dialing 2-1-1, or 1-800- 478-2221. [try this and see if it works. There were problems last week or so-- the software couldn't figure out rural Alaska zip codes.]

NO COST ELECTRONIC FILING AVAILABLE

WHAT TO BRING
Social security cards or current record of SSN’s for you, spouse and all dependents.
Form W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement) from each employer.
All income information (such as Forms 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, SSA-1099 or RRB-1099 and 1099R).
Record of VA benefits received
Property tax and mortgage interest statements.
List of your medical, interest, contributions, and miscellaneous expenses (to itemize your deductions).
Copies of last year’s tax return (helps volunteer prepare this year’s return).
Child care payment information and name, address and SSN/EIN of your child care provider.

The rest of the document is written in a way to make it difficult to re-post so I’ll only list the names of places. Contact them for hours and dates.

• Anchorage Senior Center Tax-Aide
• Northeast Anchorage Tax-Aide
• First Free Methodist, Anchorage
• Spenard Rec Center
• Crosspoint Church Tax-Aide, Anchorage
• University of Alaska Anchorage
• Palmer Senior Center
• Mid-Valley Senior Center
• Wasilla Senior Center
• Upper Susitna Senior Housing
• Glacier View Bible Church
• Willow Senior Housing
• Fairbanks Senior Center Tax-Aide
• North Pole Library Tax-Aide
• University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Noel Wien Library Tax-Aide
• North Pole Senior Center Tax-Aide
• Nikiski Senior Citizens, Inc.
• Homer Senior Center
• Seward Senior Center
• AVTEC Library (Seward)
• Soldotna Tax-Aide Site
• University of Alaska, SE
• Swan Lake Senior Center
• United Methodist Church, Sitka
• Tongass Credit Union
• Rendesvous Senior Center
• Ketchikan Parks & Rec Center
• Metlakatla Tongass Credit Union
• Craig City Youth Center
• Juneau Mendenhall Library
• Wrangell Senior Center
• Kodiak College
• Valdez Tax-Aide
• Kodiak Senior Citizen Fair

Seven winning communities and government agencies from around the country are the recipients of the first-ever Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging awards. The award program recognizes outstanding community planning and strategies that support active aging and smart growth, thereby improving the quality of life of older adults.

By adopting smart growth principles, communities can design places that increase mobility and improve quality of life for older adults. Pedestrian-friendly, level walkways also increase access to these amenities and encourage older residents to walk to the doctor’s office or local stores. By providing a range of housing opportunities, communities can enable residents to move within their neighborhood as their housing needs change. Such life-long residents help to establish a strong sense of place within a community. The benefits of building healthy communities for active aging are being realized in communities across the country.

There are two award categories: the Commitment Award recognizes communities that have developed and begun to initiate a specific plan to implement smart growth principles and active aging concepts; the Achievement Award recognizes overall excellence in building healthy communities for active aging.

The 2007 Achievement Award winners are the Atlanta Regional Commission and the City of Kirkland, Washington. The 2007 Commitment Award winners included: City of Rogers Adult Wellness Center, Arkansas; Carver County Public Health, Carver County, Minnesota; Town of Scarborough, Maine; Queen Anne’s County Housing and Community Development, Maryland; Brazos Valley Council of Governments, Texas. For information about the winners see awards booklet at: http://www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/awards/2007/index.html

from February 2008 U.S. EPA Aging Initiative List Serve, http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/

Powered by Zoundry

deadline June 19 – 21, 2008

The New Mexico Geriatric Education Center was re-funded this past year and will resume their highly popular Geriatric Summer Institute as well as an interdisciplinary geriatric certificate program. These programs are targeted to Indian Country. See below for details.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico Geriatric Education Center (NMGEC) is happy to announce a grant award from HRSA Bureau of Health Professions through 2010. NMGEC has been funded for the past 17 years by a HRSA grant in five-year cycles (latest cycle 2001-2006). Thanks to everyone for the letters and support during the period of Congressional budget cuts.

Under the grant goals, the NMGEC provides geriatric continuing education and training to health care professionals with an emphasis on providers in Tribal and Indian Health Service clinics. NMGEC education and training programs concentrate on fostering an appreciation of the richness of Indian culture and traditions, and an awareness of the use of traditional healing practices. In the past five years, the NMGEC has trained over 3,800 interdisciplinary health care professionals and paraprofessionals on elder care in culturally appropriate geriatric educational workshops, trainings and collaborations.

The NMGEC is please to announce the return of training and educational offerings. The Summer Geriatric Institute will be taking place in Albuquerque on June 19 – 21, 2008, 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 call NMGEC at 505-272-4934 for waiver request application. A reduced fee of $100 is available for CHRs wishing to attend.

The Interdisciplinary Geriatric Certificate Program (40 credit hours) will resume this year with four Saturday sessions. The first session will start March 29, 2008 with following sessions on July 12, September 27 and November 15. The Interdisciplinary Geriatric Certificate Program is for all health care professions with an interest in Geriatrics. The certificate requires 20 hours of core courses in geriatrics and 20 hours of elective courses/workshops to complete the program. Four sessions of core courses (20 hrs) will be offered in Spring and Fall 2008 and will repeat each year with CME and CEUs available.

• http://hsc.unm.edu/som/fcm/gec

Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the 20th Century Tells Her Story by Ruth Gruber

With her perfect memory (and plenty of zip), 95-year-old Ruth Gruber – adventurer, international correspondent, photographer, maker of (and witness to) history, responsible for rescuing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees during the Second War II and after – tells her story in her own words and photographs.

Gruber’s life has been extraordinary and extraordinarily heroic. She received a B.A. from New York University in three years, a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin a year later, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne (magna cum laude) one year after that, becoming at age 20 the youngest Ph.D. in the world (it made headlines in The New York Times; the subject of her thesis: the then little-known Virginia Woolf).

At 24, Gruber became an international correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and travelled across the Soviet Arctic, scooping the world and witnessing, firsthand, the building of cities in the Siberian gulag by the pioneers and prisoners Stalin didn’t execute … and when she was 33, Ickes assigned another secret mission to her – one that transformed her life: Gruber escorted 1,000 Holocaust survivors from Italy to America, the only Jews given refuge in this country during the war. [...]

• http://www.trurodaily.com/index.cfm?sid=106855&sc=73

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill 192pp, Granta Books, £12.99

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2239306,00.html
It’s a relief to find an amusing look at getting old, says Katharine Whitehorn
Saturday January 12, 2008, The Guardian

Diana Athill is 90 and has almost no regrets, despite having lived a life which most women of her class and era might have thought regrettable in the extreme.
…
And she still thinks so; that’s the joy of it. Although she sees with grim clarity the drawbacks and horrors of old age, illness, death, what comes across most is her acceptance and interested curiosity about the condition. She knows she has to be a carer for Barry, who has become diabetic and has other health problems and won’t control his diet. She dislikes being a carer very much and grumpily asks herself: “If a life so severely diminished is shortened by eating doughnuts what will it matter?” But she accepts it.

From The Times, January 11, 2008
Reflections on the gravity of growing older, Jane Shilling
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jane_shilling/article3166519.ece
I’ve just been reading Somewhere Towards the End, Diana Athill’s memoir of old age

From The Times, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3168331.ece

January 11, 2008
Sleepwalking into a crabbit old age– What are we doing introducing more health screening to allow us to live even longer? Valerie Grove

As Jane Shilling wrote, reviewing Somewhere Towards the End, by 90-year-old Diana Athill, Athill is cheered that women in her family “make old bones and good deaths”. But there is a chilly coda to this. Athill looked after her own dying mother.

…Athill has observed that good deaths tend to require the presence not merely of the principal actor, who is too busy dying to take charge of the manner of his or her demise, but also a producer and director, in the person of a daughter.

“But I have no daughter… And I haven’t got the money to pay for care of any kind. If I don’t have the luck to fall down dead while still able-bodied, it will be the geriatric ward for me.”

Even her redoubtable mind shrinks from this. “Fortunately, if a prospect is bleak enough, the mind jibs at dwelling on it,” she stoically adds.

We all jib at it: but for most the geriatric ward is the reality,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/01/11/boath106.xml

Response to Elder Abuse Varies Widely Across U.S.
Dec 17, 2007 — Providence Journal, (RI), article tells how the nation’s safety net for seniors is not nearly as good as it is for children, and even though most states have mandatory reporting laws for elder abuse, fewer than half of them have statewide, 24-hour-a-day hot lines to record complaints and offer immediate response.

from RAC
This e-mail and the RAC Health listserv are a service of the Rural Assistance Center. The RAC is not responsible for the availability or content of these web sites. For additional services and information, see the RAC web site at http://www.raconline.org

Call early as I’m sure there will be a number of people trying to get in.

local numbers for Bethel 543-KYUK (543-5985) and state-wide 1-800-478-5985 (double-check this)

Questions to ask–

• why did elders not get their flu shots until the week before Thanksgiving? Older people are on the priority list. The state had vaccine available from mid-September.
• why was all that huge state block grant money spent on reducing the size of the workshop at the senior center, a partial rain shelter for the bus, siding, but no accessible toilets and no way for anyone with a walker or wheelchair to get from the parking lot to the door?
• why is the nearest nursing home or assisted living home 500 miles away? why must we continue to have elders die unattended (for hours sometimes) at these places?
• why is there only one intake screener for the elder abuse “hot” line?
• why don’t state grants for senior services require an active, effective, local senior advisory board at the recipent?
• why aren’t elders involved in emergency, pandemic, and disaster preparedness, including emergency shelters? (that’s because there is no emergency shelter in Bethel)
• what are the state’s plans for community relocation (environmental change) and how are elders involved?
• why are there no housing standards so elders don’t have to spend their limited income on extra heating fuel?
• why are there public water supplies with water so discolored and distasteful that elders spend their limted income on bottled water?

What’s your question to ask?

Site Search Tags: Sarah Palin, governor, KYUK, preparedness, flu, Katrina, deadline

World’s Oldest Milblogger Tells All, William Henry Bonser (“Harry”) Lamin
from Kris Alexander at Danger Room from Wired.com http://blog.wired.com/defense/

Military blogs have changed the way we follow and understand war. One British soldier’s “blog” is gaining a large readership on the internet as he details the daily routine of being a soldier…in WWI.
…
Bill Lamin, Harry’s grandson, has done an excellent job of researching the historical background and weaving an interesting narrative of both the battlefield and the homefront. Worth a look.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/worlds-oldest-m.html

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin’s letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. To find out Harry’s fate, follow the blog! http://www.wwar1.blogspot.com/

Site Search Tags: WWI, nonagenarian, supercentenarian, milblog, military, grandchild, Wired.com

Source: Reuters TOKYO, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Faced with a prison population ageing as rapidly as the rest of the country, Japan is to build new jails with disabled access, including elevators, slopes for wheelchairs and grab-bars in toilets and baths.

The three new penal facilities will offer healthy meals and may also have specialists in nursing and rehabilitation on staff [...]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T173848.htm

Site Search Tags: prison, Japan, accessible, barrier free

Photographer Mark Story took photos of people who were born in the 19th century and are still alive in the 21th Century…. The photographs for this portrait series were taken in various locations around the world between 1987 and 2005…. The idea to photograph people who have lived in three centuries evolved over the course of the project. First, I was simply interested in taking portraits of people who appear worn beyond their years by living extraordinarily hard lives. Those experiences drew me to centenarians, and on to supercentenarians and their stories.

Link to the thumbnails http://www.markstoryphotography.com/tns.php

This review on the site gives a bit more background on how the photos were made and something of the people.
http://www.markstoryphotography.com/review-missindependent.php

Site Search Tags: centenarian, super centenarian, BoingBoing, nonagenarian

Salvation Army center lauded for dementia care program

The Salvation Army Serendipity Adult Day Center in Anchorage has received the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America award as an “Excellence in Care Dementia Program of Distinction.” The Salvation Army center is the first adult day care to receive the national honor. The center offers meaningful activities daily to about 30 adults with special needs, the foundation said. The award “validates what I feel is the culmination of years of hard work constantly trying to be on the cutting edge of new and innovative ideas in working with individuals who live with dementia and their families,” said Jesalyn Stanton, the center’s executive director. [...]
Published: January 1st, 2008 http://www.adn.com/money/story/251697.html

• http://tinyurl.com/2zohlb Serendipity Day Center website

Press release

NEW YORK, NY – The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) recently awarded its “Excellence in Care Dementia Program of Distinction” status to the nation’s first adult day center and three more assisted living facilities that have achieved AFA’s nationwide standard of excellence for facilities that provide care to individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or related illnesses. The Salvation Army Serendipity Adult Day Center, Anchorage, AK, is the first adult day center to receive the distinction. Also awarded Excellence in Care status are the memory care units within these facilities: Warwick Forest, Newport News, VA; The Catholic Care Center, Bel Aire, KS; and The Birches, Clarendon Hills, IL. [...]

For more information about Excellence in Care, visit www.excellenceincare.org or call 866-AFA-8484.

In Bethel, we’ve made some progress. Those in the day program are no longer segregated to the loft upstairs. It also seems that older people are no longer forced to enroll in the program (in order to bring in more Medicaid money). The same old puzzles and BINGO are available for everyone.

The assisted living home is still promised by the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp. — to open in 2005 next to the assisted living home built in 1997 by AVCP Housing and never used as such (then promised to start construction in 2006 for 2008 opening http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/2007/01/21/bethels-assisted-living-home-construction-2006/) and now promised for 2nnn

In the meantime, the City of Bethel raised the sales tax by 20% starting next week– not to fund senior programs or public transportation or disaster preparedness or public infrastructure or to keep the utility rates from going up, but for annual maintenance of a not-yet built swimming pool. As one local elite stated, the poor and elders won’t feel the regressive tax because they get food stamps.

The tax increase won’t go towards any improvement in “community policing” either. Bethel relies heavily on the police to do the things neighbors, family, and friends would rather not. There are now 3 police officers, instead of 12. The elder abuse hot line [1-800-478-9996] was forewarned last August when this became obvious. Unfortunately, the State of Alaska elder abuse hotline is just one person, although assisted by one or two field investigators.

Site Search Tags: YKHC, day center, Salvation Army, Alzheimer’s, Chrissie Shantz Adult Day Center

“All my life, that’s what I’ve wanted to do – hit that ball,” said Hashim Khan, one of the sport’s all-time greats.

Khan recently took a tumble on the court, fracturing a hip and straining a rotator cuff. Doctors have said no more squash.

He refuses to listen.

Even at 93, Khan can’t bring himself to lay down his racket – he simply loves the game too much.

And squash – a game similar to racquetball – has given him so much in return. He’s travelled the world, found fame by winning seven British Open titles and become a national hero in Pakistan, his homeland…. He also started a stretch during which he or a member of his family won 13 straight British Open championships, considered the most prestigious squash tournament. [...] http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/OtherSports/2007/12/28/4743861-ap.html

See also the resources at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashim_Khan

I know next to nothing about squash but I do know his name.

FCA RELEASES PROCEEDINGS FROM NATIONAL CONFERENCE:
“FAMILY CAREGIVING: STATE OF THE ART, FUTURE TRENDS”

The National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance has released Proceedings from its March 2007 national conference, “Family Caregiving: State of the Art, Future Trends.” The conference was convened in Chicago by FCA in partnership with the American Society on Aging.

The complete Conference Proceedings are now available on the FCA website at http://caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=2043 (copy and paste this link into your browser), or at: Conference Proceedings. There is no charge to access the Proceedings, which detail the wide-ranging presentations and summarize trends, policy issues and progress in the field.

At the conference, experts from research, policy and practice considered critical questions in long-term caregiving: What is different now than in the past? How can we address the key challenges for family care in the decades ahead?

The Proceedings, which cover both plenary sessions and workshop panel presentations, conclude with a summary of recommendations put forth in the various sessions.

The Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, The U.S. Administration on Aging, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and The Caregivers Initiative, Johnson & Johnson, provided essential support.

Now celebrating its 30th Anniversary, Family Caregiver Alliance unites research, policy and practice to support and sustain the important work of families and friends caring for loved ones with chronic, disabling health conditions. The National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance was established in 2001 to advance the development of high-quality, cost effective programs and policies for caregivers in every state in the country. Visit www.caregiver.org</a> for more information.

Frank Greve of McClatchy Newspapers says, “The remarkable thing about National Public Radio senior news analyst Daniel Schorr, 91, who only recently gave up tennis, and Landrum Bolling, 94, the globe-trotting director at large for the relief agency Mercy Corps, is the same: They aren’t as remarkable as you’d think they are.

A surprising decline in disability rates among older Americans since the 1980s is enabling millions more to lead longer, richer, spryer lives. … older Americans typically are disability-free for the roughly 10 months of life expectancy that were added from 1992 to 2003.

…According to Dr. Eileen Crimmins, a professor of gerontology and sociology at the University of Southern California, 25 percent of Hispanic and black Americans older than 65 need help with basic tasks. For whites, the rate is 17 percent. Differences in disability rates linked to income and education also persist, Crimmins and others have found, and while women live longer than men, they endure more disabilities. [...]

Growing Older May Be Getting Easier, Tuesday 11 December 2007

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121107HB.shtml

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, gerontology, lifespan, exercise

There are several interesting things about the non-profit compared to Bethel’s–

• the senior center is run by the organization which is composed of those over 55 years of age

In Bethel, older people were not allowed to participate in the senior center transfer from City to tribe (both groups said elders are unable to run their own center).

• their operating budget is about half of Bethel’s

Their By Laws and Policies are on-line as are the extensive membership benefits, staff list, events, dance bands (including KOLIGANEK RIVER BAND), etc. They even have a nonagenarian club.

Anchor-Age Center is a non-profit corporation. Anchor-Age Center was incorporated effective August 31, 1981 with the State of Alaska.

Mission Statement

Anchor-Age Center is a non-profit organization that operates the Anchorage Senior Center. The Anchorage Senior Center enhances the quality of life for people 55 years old and older in the Anchorage Bowl and serves as a resource:

1. To encourage independence through socialization and the promotion of healthy lifestyles;
2. To assure that all seniors in the Community are aware of the various services for seniors at the Center and in the community; and
3. To provide a central meeting place for senior organizations and others.

Operations

Anchor-Age’s purpose is to improve living conditions for elderly. To advance that purpose Anchor-Age Center operates the Municipality of Anchorage’s Senior Center by providing seniors with access to services and information key to senior living, health and housing. Anchor-Age members enjoy other benefits such as instruction in crafts, arts, computers, and fitness. Members can also take advantage of recreational pursuits such as billiards, cards, dancing, monthly birthday party, and other social events.

A voting member of Anchor-Age must be 55 years old or more. Associate members can be any age. Dues are paid annually.

Anchor-Age Center must engage in fund raising activities to cover the approximately $350,000 annual operating obligation. Anchor-Age operates a restaurant, a gift shop, catering services, individual room and facility rental as funding raising tools. Anchor-Age also sponsors fund raising with annual community events such as the fall bazaar, spring plant sale, book sales, raffles, and monthly events such as dances.

http://anchorageseniorcenter.org/aacpage.htm

Safe sex for older people is a major concern of A Little Red Hen http://alittleredhen.typepad.com/a_little_red_hen/ who has been reminding people with her condom amulets.

2007-11-30 [revised] Stop the ‘tubes! A Little Red Hen has a new blogzine announced here–
Knit A Condom Amulet, the Blogzine

and click image to see the new site–

Fortunately, there has been recent news coverage about the need for HIV and STD testing, and practicing safe sex, by those over 50.

Experts and older patients are teaching a belated lesson to battle a risky HIV generation gap that has left many unprotected and infected.
By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 26, 2007

…although the number of HIV and AIDS patients in the over-50 crowd nationwide had grown in recent years, some of the increase was attributed to people who are living longer with the virus or disease, thanks to improvements in therapy treatments.

But without widespread testing, “we don’t really know what the true prevalence [of STD infection] is in this group,” Lieb said. “There’s reason to think, at least anecdotally, this is a combustible situation that is being overlooked.”

That’s why some social service and public health officials have turned to HIV-positive patients like Fowler to speak out and try to get their peers’ attention…. Fowler recently met up with a graying group to commiserate about sexually transmitted diseases, and recounted her cautionary tale. How a divorce in her 50s led her back into the dating pool, and how she enjoyed a New Year’s Eve fling with a former co-worker. Fowler said she never considered using condoms, given that she had already gone through menopause.

“I had lived what I considered a conventional, traditional life. I had been a virgin on my wedding night in 1959,” said Fowler, a founder of the National Assn. on HIV Over Fifty, who now coordinates the speakers bureau at a local AIDS organization. She has spoken before hundreds of groups over the years, including medical researchers and HIV/AIDS advocates to senior centers.

“I remained monogamous for 23 years of marriage. . . . After the divorce, I didn’t consider myself promiscuous. I didn’t frequent the singles bars. I went out with men my age who, like me, had been married and were divorced.”

Her own physician, she said, dismissed her questions about getting tested for HIV as unnecessary for someone her age. Her early symptoms were dismissed as routine ailments of aging.

Read the rest at

• http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-safesex26nov26,0,6247855,full.story?coll=la-tot-topstories

• http://www.hivoverfifty.org/

The National Association on HIV Over Fifty (NAHOF) was founded at the National Conference on AIDS and Aging in October of 1995 in New York City. Our mission is to promote the availability of a full range of educational, prevention, service and health care programs for persons over age fifty affected by HIV.

People over age fifty are affected by HIV in numerous ways. People in their mid or later years may be infected with HIV, the virus associated with AIDS. Ten percent of all AIDS cases are persons age fifty and up, a quarter of these are over age 60. Older women appear to have higher incidence rates than older men, and persons of color are especially at risk.

AIDS and HIV affect families, both traditional and families of choice. Increasingly older adults care for relatives and friends infected with HIV. Many adults with HIV turn to older parents for help and care. Increasingly grandparents are substitute parents for their grandchildren whose own parents are unable to care for their children due to HIV-related needs. Many of these are “AIDS orphans” and grandparents have stepped in to be full or part time caregivers for the children; middle-age and older adults with adult children may need emotional support….

Older people with HIV/AIDS face a double stigma: ageism and infection with a sexually-or-IV-drug transmitted disease.
http://www.hivoverfifty.org/tip.html

Safe sex is needed especially in what seems to be a new tourism–

By Jeremy Clarke, Sun Nov 25, 2007
Older white women join Kenya’s sex tourists

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) – Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64….

Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.

Allie and Bethan — who both declined to give their full names — said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya’s palm-fringed beaches. They would do well to avoid the country’s tourism officials.

“It’s not evil,” said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men.

“But it’s certainly something we frown upon.”

Also, the health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham
University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms — finding them too “businesslike” for their exotic fantasies.
[...]

• http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1434216920071126

Site Search Tags: sex, safe sex, HIV, AIDS, STDs, condom, condom+amulet, ALittleRedHen, EHSC, Bethel, tourism, travel

This program is designed to encourage and promote the creation or expansion of services for grandparents and other relatives who have taken on the responsibility of surrogate parenting due to the absence of the parents. The program awards seed grants of $10,000 over a two-year period in two categories: local agencies and state public agencies. Deadlines Local proposals are due January 10, 2008 and State proposals are due by February 8, 2008. For more information see http://www.epa.gov/aging/index.htm#2007_0110_grant_1

National Center on Senior Transportation: Requests for Proposals for Demonstration Grants Deadline December 17, 2007

The National Center on Senior Transportation is soliciting proposals from aging/human service agencies, tribal organizations, faith-based organizations, units of state and local government, public and private transportation providers and other entities interested in developing and implementing innovative approaches to increasing senior transportation options and improving older adult mobility. Successful projects will be collaborative, replicable, and consistent with senior transportation-related goals of the national United We Ride initiative of the Federal Transit Administration. The goals are to: 1.Increase transportation options for older adults; 2. Simplify older adults’ access to transportation services; and 3. Increase the quality of transportation services for older adults. Successful applicants will receive grant awards ranging from $50,000 – $90,000. For more information see http://www.seniortransportation.net

Proposals are due Deadline Monday, Dec. 17, 2007, and should be submitted electronically via email to twilson AT n4a DOT org or using the online form which can be reached through the center’s Web site ( http://www.seniortransportation.net). Electronic or online submission is preferred but hard copies will be accepted. Hard copies of the proposal must be received on or before Dec. 17, 2007. The mailing address is Tabitha Wilson, Assistant Director, NCST, 1730 Rhode Island Ave., NW, Suite 1200, Washington, D.C. 20036

Site Search Tags: grants, deadline, proposals, Brookdale, transportation, grandparents, EPA+Aging+Initiative

• http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/special-projects/photo-index-cking-wwii/

However, because comments and pages have separate notifications on the Internet, I thought I would also post a separate notice, especially for those who read this web log with an RSS feed reader.

The latest published film was televised last week on the US Public Broadcasting System, Independent Lens. The film focuses on intimate interviews with Bill and Andy, the film explores what it means to be a soldier then and now. And for Bill, that means continuing the battle—even at the cost of his own peace of mind. and not on the battle details, per se. However, there is fascinating blended footage from the present day terrain morphing into the WWII terrain (actual footage or photos of the battle).

It is also a good presentation of the mixed emotions (and some rather unmixed) of veterans of the Pacific war. I had an uncle in Attu (Claude I. Green) who never spoke much of the Aleutian horror– part of the horror was the transfer from the tropical Marshall Islands to Attu without a change in uniforms (he was in the Navy). The monument is dedicated to all in the campaign (the necessity of which is also controversial still, as is the forced removal and internment of Alaskans by the USA.)

Aleutian Island documentary RED WHITE BLACK and BLUE is going to have a special one-hour broadcast on PBS November 6, and it’s going to be released on home video on November 7. We’re also finishing up some community screenings around the country, mostly in Florida, Michigan, and Indiana.

You can click the link below to read more about the film, get a list of upcoming local screenings, and broadcast information for your area, as well as information about how to purchase the film.

Thanks so much, and if you do get a chance to see the film we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Take care,
Tom Putnam

Here’s their website, http://www.alaskainvasion.com/

The Independent Lens website has a summary, several references to additional information, and a viewer feedback. Read more about the making of RED WHITE BLACK & BLUE »

See also previous
John Huston movie from the Aleutians
Al-Can Highway and the Aleutians War, Alaska in WWII

Site Search Tags: WWII, Attu, Aleutians, Unalaska, Dutch+Harbor, Japan, Aleut, Unangan, Charlie+King, PBS, Independent+Lens, video, documentary, oral+history, archives, DVD

By Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 10, 2007

Forty years ago, Harold Hay came up with a way to heat and cool homes using water and the sun….

Now 98, Hay is making what he knows will be his final push.

The retired chemist promotes his cause by funding research. He vents his frustration in letters, e-mails, phone messages to anyone who will listen, and on his own website,

• www.2and50needles.com

“The main point that he’s trying to make now is that all of our hopes are pinned on all of these complicated technologies, and it’s not that complicated. We could solve a lot of the problems by building our buildings correctly.”

Hay calls his invention the Skytherm system, and it was a wonder in the 1960s because it used the sun to heat and cool a home. The earliest version operated without any electricity, making it a purely passive solar technology.

Skytherm was the first of what’s known today as a roof-pond system….

Hay says he spearheaded the creation of the St. Louis Progressive Party, which helped get him labeled a communist. He came up with a chemical to purify drinking water, and he found a way to chemically toughen fiberboard to broaden its use. During World War II, the self-proclaimed pacifist worked on the development of synthetic rubber to avoid military service and jail. Along the way, almost as a hobby, Hays did groundbreaking research in the origins of medicine. [...]

Read the very interesting article here
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-haroldhay10nov10,0,3607880.story

His website is
This series of Needles is written by Harold R. Hay, Trustee, H.R. & E.J. Hay Charitable Trust, Los Angeles, CA. at the age of 97. Fifty years of dedicated research in solar energy, plus prior successes in government, industry and academia permit a broad evaluation of reasons why solar energy (not renewable energy – a culprit) is not more uniformly accepted. The fault is with all involved – including me.

Site Search Tags: science, solar, energy, environmental+change, nonagenarian, elderblogger

Reuters | Friday, 2 November 2007
Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the US bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan on Aug 6, 1945, died on Thursday at age 92, a newspaper reported.

Tibbets, who died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, had suffered strokes and was ill from heart failure, the Columbus Dispatch said in its online edition.

An experienced pilot who had flown some of the first bombing missions over Germany during World War 2, Tibbets was a 30-year-old colonel commanding the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber named for his mother <http://www.stuff.co.nz/4259151a12.html

Pilot Who Dropped A-Bomb on Hiroshima Dead at Age 92 – Cleveland Leader

and others,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,,2203557,00.html

General Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, dies at 92International Herald Tribune
Hiroshima bomb pilot dies aged 92BBC News
Hiroshima bomber dies at 92 TV3 News
Bloomberg

all 292 news articles

Tibbets was just the pilot, but certainly a more approachable person than the massive Manhattan Project. Unfortunately, the Hiroshima airdrop has to be put into the historical context of the Tokyo air raids and the Dresden air raids, as well as the Bataan campaign, Nankin, the Aleutians, etc. No wonder the 20th century experienced the worst mass disasters, maybe even given the smaller world population of earlier times, such as the Black Death. Maybe excepting whatever the Africa bottleneck was that supposedly reduced all humankind to just a handful of mothers.

Site Search Tags: WWII, nonagenarian, pilot, war

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–

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.

Ethel Lund said she was a bit taken back about being called a “Wisdom Bearer.” “I feel that with gray hair, wisdom doesn’t come automatically, so I’m still in the stage of learning myself. My grandmother said you’re always learning until the day you leave and I find that to be true,” she said.

Words of Wisdom
By Robinson Duffy, Published October 25, 2007

Since 1968, the University of Alaska has awarded honorary doctorates to 43 Alaska Natives. At a meeting Wednesday morning, dubbed the Gathering of Alaska Native Wisdom Bearers, many of the surviving holders of honorary doctorates spoke in the Davis Concert Hall to an audience of high school students, visiting Alaska Natives in town for the Alaska Federation of Natives annual conference, and other community members.

The nearly four-hour meeting was recording on audio and video and will be archived by the university… More than a dozen elders spoke during the meeting. What follows are brief gems of wisdom gleaned from some of those speeches.

…The Rev. Walter Soboleff, the first Alaska Native to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Alaska… was born in 1908 in Killisnoo.

At least two are nonagenarians. Unfortunately, Rev. David Salmon did not live long enough to give his address.

Site Search Tags: Alaska+Native, AFN, UAF, nonagenarian, wisdom, youth, elders, Fairbanks

Flags are at half-staff across Alaska today, following the death of an Athabascan elder and leader. The Reverend David Salmon died yesterday. He was the first traditional chief for the Tanana Chief’s region, and the first Athabascan ordained to the Episcopal ministry.
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
http://aprn.org/2007/10/12/alaska-remembers-tanana-elder-david-salmon/

Last Modified: October 12, 2007 at 02:43 PM
Athabascan traditional chief Salmon dies at 95

FAIRBANKS — The first traditional chief for the Athabascan people of the Interior died Thursday at his home in Chalkyitsik. The Rev. David Salmon was 95. “He was sitting in his favorite chair when he passed,” Salmon’s granddaughter, Patricia Salmon”

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/9374481p-9287881c.html

Father Salmon’s biography is here, from the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments,

and another one is here, Tanana Chiefs Conference–

He received an honorary degree from the University of Alaska.

“Athabascan elder Rev. David Salmon, traditional chief of Chalkyitsik and second chief of Interior Alaska villages with the Tanana Chiefs Conference, just celebrated his 90th birthday, was the first Gwich’in to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church where he served for more than 42 years.

Salmon has had a life-long interest in education and sharing his cultural knowledge with others through programs such as UAF’s Elder in Residence program and the Academy of Elders, an intense immersion program for certified teachers intent on developing K-12 curriculum and teacher training programs. Salmon has collaborated extensively with UAF’s anthropology department and has been a Geist lecturer at the University of Alaska Museum for the past five summers. Salmon is considered a master toolmaker and his tools, fish traps and canoes are on display at the museum and in other university buildings. Salmon is a founding member of Denakkanaaga nonprofit elders’ organization. In January, the David Salmon Tribal Hall was opened in Fairbanks and dedicated by TCC in recognition of a lifetime of service. Salmon will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws.”
http://www.uaf.edu/commencement/2002/hdr.html

Chief David Salmon Traditional Athabascan Tool Collection, a new art acquisition purchased jointly by Doyon, Limited and the Doyon Foundation.

“I knew that if I didn’t make the tools, that they would just stay back there to be forgotten… How can the young people learn without seeing the tool? The Athabascan way is to teach by showing you; then when you see, you will learn. That is why when I speak about a tool, it must be in my hand. That is how it always was; that is how it should be.” — Chief David Salmon

… in the summer of 1994, Chief David Salmon began to craft a collection of tools, illustrating the pre- and early post-contact technology of theAthabascans of Alaska’s Interior. Most of these tools were used in the Athabascans’ subsistence lifestyle into the 1920s.

http://www.doyon.com/pdfs/news_august04.pdf

Both Chief Salmon and Chief Peter John spoke widely about their religious faith.
“The history of this country is not known,” Salmon explains his reasons for doing that book, plus another on the oral history of his people. “Young people do not know it. Old people die with it. Well, I don’t want to die with it. I want the young people to have it.”O’Brien, Thomas A. 1997. Athabaskan implements from the skin house days as related by Reverend David Salmon. Thesis (M.A.)–University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1997. OCLC: 42066842

The Gospel according to Peter John
# Publisher: Alaska Native Knowledge Network (1996)
# Language: English
# ASIN: B000BSFGQY

Site Search Tags: Episcopal, Athabascan, Interior+Alaska, nonagenarian, Tolstoy’s+Bicyclist, oral+history

Yakutia is an important province for Russian America and Alaska. The Evenks are an important EurAsian-American cultural influence. See for example, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1220/p14s02-bogn.html “It’s no accident, Vitebsky explains, that we associate reindeer with flying.”

[Seems to me that there ought to be a separate term for those in their second decade of centenarianism. Any suggestions? My Latin isn't good.]

Friday, October 5 2007, 04 PM
Woman from Yakutia Is Believed to Be the Oldest Person of Earth
Varvara SEMENNIKOVA, who is 117 years old, received a letter from the upper House of the Russian Parliament

VLADIVOSTOK, October 4, vladivostoktimes.com On Wednesday the 117-year old native of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Ms. Varvara SEMENNIKOVA, who is thought to be the oldest person on the Earth, received a certificate of honour from the Federation Council of Russia, the Yakutia Republic Committee for family and children reports.

Ms. SEMENNIKOVA (nee DYAKONOVA) is an Evenk. Her age has been verified by the National archive of Yakutia.

Employees of the National archive found a record in a church book of the Bulun Spassk Church (on the shore of the Laptev Sea) on Varvara’s birth on May 10, 1890 to “a native of the second Haltyn Nasleg of the Zhigan Ulus of the Vilyuisk District Konstantin Stefanov DYAKONOVA, lawful wife Maria Konstantinovna, both of Orthodox confession.”

http://www.vladivostoktimes.ru/show.php?id=15337&p=

Site Search Tags: supercentenarian, Russian America, Evenk, Yakutia, Siberia, Orthodox, reindeer, Santa Claus

• http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/09/vocal-joystick-for-a.html

Opera browser uses voice commands. Now I’ll have to actually test it to see how well it works. The Vocal Joystick would work on all software that uses a mouse device. I thought something like Dragon Naturally Speaking can command more than the voice recognition software? Somewhere in the back of my mind is a little piece of software I’ve seen that also does voice commands not a mouse substitute but nevertheless slick and free (for Firefox) (originally noted at Paul Hamilton’s FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

• http://clcworld.net/

University of Washington researchers are developing a new “Vocal Joystick” interface to make software more accessible for people who don’t have use of their hands or arms. The software converts simple vowel sounds and other intonations into cursor movement. The louder the sound, the faster the cursor moves. Saying “K-Ch” represents a mouse click and release….

“A lot of people ask: ‘Why don’t you just use speech recognition?’” (electrical engineering professor Jeffrey) Bilmes said. “It would be very slow to move a cursor using discrete commands like ‘move right’ or ‘go faster.’ The voice, however, is able to do continuous commands quickly and easily.” Early tests suggest that an experienced user of Vocal Joystick would have as much control as someone using a handheld device…

“The tool’s latest developments will be presented this month in Tempe, Ariz. at the Assets Conference on Computers and Accessibility.

Vocal Joystick detects sounds 100 times a second and instantaneously turns that sound into movement on the screen….

Versions of Vocal Joystick exist for browsing the Web, drawing on a screen, controlling a cursor and playing a video game. A version also exists for operating a robotic arm, and Bilmes believes the technology could be used to control an electronic wheelchair.” [...] http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=37134

Video demonstrations and publications are available on the group’s Web site,

• http://ssli.ee.washington.edu/vj/

Site Search Tags: BoingBoing.com, voice, mouse, accessibility, Internet, personal computer, video, wheelchair

click photo to view Voice of America article

the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the Space Age.

And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket, according to Boris Chertok, one of the founders of the Soviet space program.
…
Chertok couldn’t whisper a word about the project through much of his lifetime. His name, and that of Sergei Korolyov, the chief scientist, were a state secret. Today, at age 95 and talking to a small group of reporters in Moscow, Chertok can finally speak about his pivotal role in the history of space exploration.

“Each of these first rockets was like a beloved woman for us,” he said. “We were in love with every rocket; we desperately wanted it to blast off successfully. We would give our hearts and souls to see it flying.” …

The satellite, weighing just 184 pounds, was built in less than three months. Soviet designers built a pressurized sphere of polished aluminum alloy with two radio transmitters and four antennas. An earlier satellite project envisaged a cone shape, but Korolyov preferred the sphere.

“The Earth is a sphere, and its first satellite also must have a spherical shape,” Chertok, a longtime deputy of Korolyov, recalled him saying. [...]

• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003920999_sputside03.html

I hope the story stays up on the news site. It is an interesting read.

Site Search Tags: Sputnik, nonagenarian, science, Russia, Soviet, oppression, resistance, non-person, Argentina, Cold War, movies, Laika, science education

The province has proclaimed October as Seniors and Elders Month in Manitoba and today, on the International Day of Older Persons, Health Minister Theresa Oswald celebrated the accomplishments and contributions of seniors at the MTS Centre during a Seniors’ and Elders’ Day Community Committee of Winnipeg event with the theme Older Manitobans: Pioneers of our Times.

Seniors and Elders Month is an opportunity for all of us to recognize and celebrate the past, present and ongoing contributions of older Manitobans throughout the province, said Oswald. Manitoba is committed to assisting older Manitobans in improving their quality of life and remaining a part of the communities they have built.

• http://www.nationtalk.ca/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3595

see last year’s post,

• http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/2006/09/07/respect-aged-day/

Site Search Tags: deadline, aging

There are more centenarians then ever, according to new estimates. But those who turn 100 must first make it into their 90s – a landmark age that was all but unimaginable when they were born.

Ninety is the new 80, it seems, and the increasing number of people reaching that milestone has contributed to a record number of 100-year-olds.

There were an estimated 9,000 centenarians in England and Wales last year, an increase of 7.5% on the previous year.

The major factors, says an Office of National Statistics report, are increased survival rates between 80 and 100 due to improvements in hygiene and sanitation, improved food, housing and living standards and medical treatment.

Reaching 90 in the post-war period was a rare event but now many lead fit and active lives. Here some of them talk about life at 90.

The newsfeed on the sidebar (at the bottom for those of you using MS Internet Explorer) is a crude way to track the increasing number of people who celebrate their 90-something birthdays. It’s not just the numbers and not just the “stories”. As a kid, I was in awe of meeting anyone 90+; it was a unique experience. There’s something about the way the human species and society has changed that is reflected in even having a blog category of “nonagenarian”. But if you track the newsfeed (and read the article) you’ll also find lives that reflect that we have such a long way to go to maximize everyone’s contributions.

[The newsfeed, when it functions, is http://tinyurl.com/2sgdbr or the longish version, which you can copy and paste into your own news reader but remove all the spaces. I had to add spaces so it would wrap correctly for you to view.
http://news.google.com/news?svnum=10&tab=wn&client=firefox-a& ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8& rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial& as_drrb=q&as_qdr=w&as_mind=16&as_minm=6& as_maxd=23&as_maxm=6& q=age+90+OR+91+OR+92+OR+93+OR+94+OR+95+OR+96+OR+97+OR+98& auth=DQAAAH0AAADF16CVTK-dZNTSMnBN1gsn_2JOePX8bvD8agNWJum7cGlPN1H61zNpQxat8mHmcJH3JSldEGPc_ sklPqXf77zlyhCc_bjAr1qTCbIXvqTC-gwSITa8KqbCutFPEY2ITk7KhquWkf8Fb9BDmXBkBaWjXqKdorP9j5EevRmPsbq5pQ& output=atom

Better yet, if the RSS button on the sidebar is working, try clicking on the title or left-click this Nonagenarian news. Depending on how your browser is set up, you will then be able to subscribe in your own news aggregator or RSS feed reader]

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, BBC

Four Inuit elders from the Nunavik region in northern Quebec will speak for the first time Monday at that province’s seniors’ parliament, in the hopes of raising issues specific to seniors in their area. Politicians in Nunavik have long lobbied to have the elders address the special assembly, which runs Monday and Tuesday in Quebec’s national assembly. They will speak in their own language and demonstrate the challenges they face as Inuit elders, including the lack of Inuit language in government documents. Currently, such documents are only offered in English and French.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is dignity at home too much to ask for our elderly?
Jo Revill, Denis Campbell and Amelia Hill, Sunday June 17, 2007

Hundreds of thousands of Britain’s elderly rely on home care visits to live a dignified life in their own house. But as local authorities reduce funding, an increasing number of our most vulnerable citizens are being neglected and are suffering as a result. Now, with our elderly population set to rise dramatically, we launch our campaign for the right to stay at home….

The Observer launches its Dignity at Home Campaign, to fight for the right of such people as Miss Tugwell to receive the care she needs in order to maintain a decent life in her own home. We have discovered that an insidious kind of rationing is happening in England and Wales, more covert – and in some senses more cruel – than the kind we read about when an expensive cancer drug is not prescribed by the NHS. It is a rationing that involves not giving baths to frail elderly people who are unable to clean themselves, cutting back on the daily visits from care staff, closing day centres, not visiting homes to ensure they have the right medication. No dramatic headlines perhaps, but home care is a lifeline for thousands of old people.’… More and more of us are seeing this indignity and disgrace inflicted on our elderly relatives,’ said Mervyn Kohler, director of Help the Aged [see sidebar]. ‘It is shameful that as people in such a wealthy society, we can treat our elderly in this way. The care services have been eroded to a point where they are no longer meeting the needs of people who really deserve more than this.’

read more Growing old

11m Number of pensioners living in Britain
20,000 Number of pensioners believed to be abused in their own homes and nursing homes every day, according to a report by Age Action
£2bn Amount of unclaimed benefit each year. Almost half of older people entitled to Pension Credit are not receiving it.
£21.50 Average amount spent each week by pensioners on food and drink
13 Percentage of elderly people who do not get out of their homes more than once a week
Tell us your stories, Write to Dignity at Home, The Observer, 3-7 Herbal Hill, London EC1R 5EJ or email news@observer.co.uk, placing ‘Dignity at Home’ in the subject field.
On the web
www.helptheaged.org.uk/
www.ageconcern.org.uk/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now the elderly will get equal rights Radical initiatives will benefit all older people Ivan Lewis Sunday June 24, 2007

As The Observer is rightly highlighting, there are few more important challenges than the way society treats older people. The realities of demographic change, the expectations of the ‘baby boomers’ and the values of a progressive centre-left government are all reasons why this issue must move from the margins to the mainstream of the government and public policy debate.

Equally, demographic pressures and a largely unreformed social care system are leaving too many older people with inadequate support. The quality of provision is patchy from service to service and area to area. People who pay for their own care are frequently left alone to make difficult choices and eligibility criteria take little account of loneliness and isolation. The current system was built in a postwar era when Alzheimer’s disease, elderly carers, scattered families and elder abuse were unknown forces. Today, 70 is the new 50. Older people view post-retirement as the next stage in their life; many grandparents are surrogate parents to their grandchildren; medical advances and greater affluence will continue to extend life.

This week, I will be launching a new national framework for the funding of continuing care, the intensive, long-term nursing care for the elderly outside hospitals, mainly in nursing homes. This will seek to end the current postcode lottery that has seen some older people wrongly denied NHS funding for the nursing element of their care…. [continue reading Ivan Lewis is the Care Services Minister]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday, 2 September 2007, 23:03 GMT

• Call for more action on ageism Older people face discrimination in goods and services, the charity says Almost two-thirds of elderly people believe not enough is being done by the government to combat ageism, according to a survey by charity Help the Aged.

• ‘Why we are banning ageism’
• A government minister explains the new laws
• Quick guide: Age discrimination Q&A: Age discrimination law
• Would more work be healthy?
• Age laws across the globe
• How UK rejected older workers
• Will many people work longer?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How To Steal an Estate

…Identify Elderly Affluent People Who Are Alone – Target people who do not have strong family relationships, who are either estranged from their families and children or whose families live and work out of state…. Aversion to Extended Care – Targets often exhibit a horror of nursing homes and extended care facilities and have a strong desire and determination to continue living in their home until they die. If they move, your years of hard work may be wasted…. Alcohol Helps – Alcohol lowers people’s resistance, raises their susceptibility to suggestion, makes them relax, feel good and festive. It’s easy to manipulate alcoholics and make them angry and emotional… People Are Especially Susceptible To Suggestion When Sleepy – During those hazy, lazy moments when they are just drifting off to sleep or waking up. Visit or telephone when the impact of your communication will linger in their minds long after you finish. …

[continue reading Protection - Defense and other helpful pages]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Retirement out of sight? Working past 90: 1 million elderly Americans still in work force By John Chrisoffersen The Associated Press Article Last Updated: 09/02/2007 11:35:07 PM MDT

…Manpower has urged companies to start thinking about ways to retain and recruit older workers, through flexible scheduling, for example. This will help them fill positions as the labor pool shrinks. According to Holmes, companies need to extend their diversity training to include age, as well as race and gender.

…Experts cite several factors for the growth, including people living longer and the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act in 2000, which allowed workers 65 through 69 to earn as much money as they want without losing Social Security benefits. Other reasons include the gradual increase in the age for receiving Social Security benefits to 67 and a decline in traditional pensions and retiree health benefits. [read more, They're all younger than Waldo McBurney, a 104-year-old beekeeper from Kansas who was recently declared America's oldest worker.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oldsters Help Propel Wii to Number 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TOKYO TURNING GREY…By 2020, about 14 percent of the population of greater Tokyo — around 4.9 million people of a predicted population of 35 million — will be aged 75 or older. Currently only around 7 percent of the greater Tokyo area are in this age bracket.

Within the next 15 years, the bustling city that never stops will be one of the world’s greyest metropolises…. Though greater Tokyo does not yet have a clear strategy for dealing with its greying population, some other Japanese cities are already taking steps of their own. [read more By Hideyuki Sano TOKYO, Sept 21 (Reuters)]

NEW YORK — They honored the daughter of a sharecropper at the U.S. Open, and a crowd of 23,000 that included many people with incomes resembling plantation owners stood and applauded.

Althea Gibson died four years ago at age 76. Monday night, the U.S. Tennis Assn. did its best to resurrect her.

In 1957, Gibson became the first American of African descent to win the United States tennis title. It was the U.S. Nationals at Forest Hills then, it is the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows now. Monday night marked the 50th anniversary of her victory.

In 1950, Gibson was the first of her race [sic] to be allowed to enter the U.S. Nationals. The 50th anniversary of that was in 2000, when she was still alive and living nearby in Montclair, N.J. Her tennis barrier-breaking occurred only three years after Jackie Robinson had done a similar thing in baseball. That anniversary, as well as several of Robinson’s other landmark moments, were never missed by baseball or society.
[...]

• 
  By Bill Dwyre , August 28, 2007 http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dwyre28aug28,0,7021441.story

further information

• http://womenshistory.about.com/od/gibsonalthea/a/althea_gibson.htm
• http://www.altheagibson.com/PhotoGallery.htm

Site Search Tags: Tolstoy’s+bicycle

“Some people say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” Edwards said. “So I always like to mention George Dawson. He died a couple of years ago at age 102 or 103. What’s remarkable about George Dawson is that he learned to read at age 98.”

Dawson, of Texas, who was the grandson of slaves, then collaborated with co-author Richard Glaubman to write his autobiography, “Life is So Good,”‘ published in 2000 by Random House.

2011-05-28 Oprah recently posted this video about Mr Dawson’s legacy, George Dawson’s Legacy May 13, 2011

According to this entry, Mr Dawson published his first book at 102 years.

• Three centuries of life, George Dawson!
  http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1243/Three_centuries_of_life_George_Dawson

• Centenarian George Dawson at the Huffington Center on Aging
  http://www.hcoa.org/centenarians/george_dawson.htm

African American Read-In has a more detailed biography, “George Dawson also received two Doctorates of Humane letters from Texas Weslyan University and New School of New York City. In 2002, George Dawson Middle School was named in his honor in Southlake, Texas.” Click the photo to visit.

Mr Dawson’s accomplishments came up in a news summary of what the latest studies say about retaining or improving mental agility (caffeine in women. not men, is another finding). The summary is pretty good about the types of “neurobics” (stupid term, IMO) which are recommended more and more frequently. They also note the relationship between physical exercise and mental ability, “The general concept is: what’s good for your heart is good for your brain,” Mirza said.

In Bethel, they will probably just hide another jigsaw piece I hear they still won’t let the elderlies run the place.

Work your way to brain fitness
Posted by Linda S. Mah/Gazette August 21, 2007 17:14PM

…Physical exercise, social involvement, challenging activities and new experiences are all recommended as ways to help keep our brains in top-notch condition.

“The analogy may be trite, but the brain is like a muscle,” said Morry Edwards, a licensed clinical psychologist with Neuropsychology Associates in Kalamazoo. “The circuits strengthen when you use your brain. If you don’t, the circuits fade.”…

“Some more-recent research shows it’s not just the exercise but the type of exercise or variety of exercise that you do which is important,” Mirza said.
[...]

• http://blog.mlive.com/kalamazoo_gazette_extra/2007/08/work_your_way_to_brain_fitness.html

O’Folks off their rocker Add this to Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, puzzles, caffeine, gerontology, mental+health, dementia, neurology, education, literacy, boingboing.net, exercise

• http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200708161327/death_of_man_who_rediscovered_the_tahake

It was assumed, when Dr. Geoffrey Orbell rediscovered the takahe in Fiordland’s Murchison Mountains in 1948, that the bird had been extinct for over 50 years. Dr. Orbell described the magical moment this way: “Suddenly I saw in a clearing in the snow grass a bird with a bright red beak and a blue and green colouring. And there, no more than twenty metres away from us stood a living Notornis, the bird that was supposed to be extinct.”

• http://www.mtbruce.org.nz/takahe.htm

I saw takahe at Mt Bruce. It is a wonderful place to visit. The birds are about a large chicken in size.
click to enlarge

The Associated Press, Published: August 15, 2007

• New Zealand doctor who rediscovered rare flightless bird dies aged 98
  http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/15/asia/AS-GEN-New-Zealand-Obit-Orbell.php

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand doctor Geoffrey Orbell, who rediscovered a flightless bird that was believed extinct almost 60 years ago, has died in the southern city of Dunedin, his family said Wednesday. He was 98.

No one had seen a live takahe — a unique blue-green, hen-like bird with a bright red bill — since the late 1890s, when Orbell and three companions found a small colony in Fiordland on South Island in November 1948. The discovery stunned the world of ornithology and made front-page news across the globe.
…
Geoffrey Buckland Orbell was born Oct. 7, 1908, at Pukeuri on South Island… He graduated in medicine and chemistry in 1934, then went to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London where he received a Diploma in Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery… Orbell didn’t retire from medicine until he was 70….

Almost 300 takahe (Notornis mantelli) now live in Fiordland and other sanctuaries thanks to careful husbandry and breeding programs…. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II made him a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1953

Regnum: Animalia • Phylum: Chordata • Classis: Aves • Ordo: Gruiformes • Familia: Rallidae • Genus: Porphyrio

Geoffrey Orbell, a doctor who was happiest in the outdoors where he found the “extinct” takahe in 1948, has died in Dunedin just a few weeks short of his 99th birthday. Orbell was a man of many talents – ophthalmologist, cabinet maker, boat and house builder, skilled shot (founder of the NZ Deerstalkers Association), tramper, fisherman and local body politician. But above all he will be remembered for his rediscovery of the takahe, the unique and flightless blue-green, hen-like bird with the bright red bill in the depths of Fiordland. [...]

• http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4166852a7693.html

O’Folks off their rocker Add this to Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, New+Zealand, Aotearoa, bird, physician

Rosalynn Carter Caregiving Award to Recognize Partnership Between Research and Community Organizations
Deadline: August 30, 2007 A program of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving ( http://www.rosalynncarter.org/ ) at Georgia Southwestern State University, the 2007 Rosalynn Carter Caregiving Award will provide $20,000 to continue the work of an outstanding partnership between a research organization and a community-based organization that have come together to implement an evidence-based caregiver intervention.

Winning partnerships shall have clearly demonstrated one or more of the following: dedication to developing effective evidence-based caregiver interventions that improve the health and well-being of caregivers; encouragement of collaboration and partnerships between all stakeholders in the caregiving process; potential for developing or more effectively using financial, educational, and human resources to support caregivers effective reach into the target population; and potential to serve as a model for other individuals, groups, organizations, or communities in efforts to better serve the needs of caregivers.

Visit the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving Web site for program information and nomination form.

RFP Link: http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10008402/rosalynncarter

For additional RFPs in Human Services, visit:
http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_human_services.jhtml

I don’t know what they mean by elderly, the oldest olds? The age group was 70-82. See comments.

BMJ 2007;335:285-287 (11 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.39241.630741.BE1
Analysis by
Dee Mangin, senior lecturer in general practice1, Kieran Sweeney, honorary clinical senior lecturer in general practice2, Iona Heath, general practitioner3

1 Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch New Zealand, 2 Peninsula Medical School, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Exeter EX2 5DW, 3 Caversham Group Practice, London NW5 2UP

Dee Mangin, Kieran Sweeney, and Iona Heath argue that, rather than prolonging life, preventive treatments in elderly people simply change the cause of death—the manner of our dying

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Summary points

* Single disease models should not be applied to preventive treatments in elderly people
* Preventive treatments in elderly people may select cause of death without the patient’s informed consent
* Preventive use of statins shows no overall benefit in elderly people as cardiovascular mortality and morbidity are replaced by cancer
* A more sophisticated model is needed to assess the benefits and harms of preventive treatment in elderly people

Preventive health care aims to delay the onset of illness and disease and to prevent untimely and premature deaths. But the theory and rhetoric of prevention do not deal with the problem of how such health care applies to people who have already exceeded an average lifespan. In recent years, concerns about equity of access to treatments have focused on ageism. As a result, preventive interventions are encouraged regardless of age, and this can be harmful to the patient and expensive for the health . . .

[Full text of this article via paid subscription only] The full text is now available.
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/335/7614/285?etoc

O’Folks off their rocker Add this to Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: BMJ, preventive health, think piece, elderly, gerontology, physician

Add this to Bookmarks:

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Retired 97-year-old O.C. doctor is still in the game
By GREG HARDESTY, The Orange County Register

…White, two weeks after suffering a minor stroke he diagnosed himself, is touring the $203 million Patient Care Center at St. Joseph Hospital, where he began mending bodies in 1939, in the old hospital building that now houses administrative offices.

… The sleek operating rooms inside the new St. Joe’s facility, opening in October, have ceiling-mounted surgical lights and voice-activated surgical equipment, flat-screen computer monitors and tiny video recorders to transmit live feeds of procedures… White used to make $15 house calls at a time when Orange County’s population was 130,000 (Irvine alone today has more than 200,000 residents).

He’s delivered more than 1,500 babies….

One former patient takes him to lunch every year … on his birthday (June 30, 1910). White diagnosed her breast cancer in the early stages, when she was in her 40s. She’s in her 60s now. Perhaps these connections explain why, after retiring as a family practitioner 31 years ago – the year Jimmy Carter became president – White still hasn’t had his fill of St. Joe’s. Since retiring, White has volunteered more than 11,000 hours at the hospital – the equivalent of working for more than five years, every day, without a day off. [...]

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/life/themorningread/article_1803814.php

Read the rest, especially his list of the changes he’s seen in healthcare over the years, White titles his list, “From Cradle to Grave Practice.” That would make an exciting oral history or blog. Especially for eldercare from the participant/observer point of view.

Add this to Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, physician, volunteer, elderblogger

September 23-29, 2007: Deaf Awareness Week
An earlier commenter noted that there isn’t much discussion here about hearing loss. The topic is one that is seldom brought up but it is significant as an underlying cause to irritability and depression and isolation and even abuse from others. Can anyone suggest sources of further information?

[deadline]

Site Search Tags: deadline, grandparents, deaf, hearing, September

Makes sense as the Older Americans Act so designates those over 55. But 50?

That’s the question facing journalists who write about retirement and aging. But the issue goes beyond the language those in the media use. The words we all choose to describe people in midlife and beyond – ourselves and others – help to define and shape attitudes about the later years, both positive and negative…

Then there are the adjectives that are meant to sound complimentary but actually boomerang. Think of spry, perky, chipper, feisty, sweet, little, and grandmotherly. For one journalist responding to the survey, the cloying phrase “100 years young” represents the worst possible cliché about aging. [...]

Time Goes By has frequently written about terminology. I don’t favor “elders” because it is an honorific in many cultures; “the elderlies” is a good compromise in New Mexico and elsewhere. Where is “aged” and aging/ageing”?

The article has good reviews of two of Bergman and Antonioni films.

After Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni died on the same day, those shocked by their passing were outnumbered only, perhaps, by those shocked that Antonioni had still been alive, at age 94. Here is our list of 10 quietly long-lived arts figures who are still with us:

• Sid Caesar, 85. Pray for a screen comeback for the TV legend so his final credit won’t be as “Old Army Buddy” in Comic Book: The Movie.
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 88. The oldest living Nobel laureate for literature, the author of Cancer Ward returned to Russia in 1994 after his exile, and now writes speeches and pamphlets in which he rails against East and West alike.
• Arthur C. Clarke, 89. How great a sci-fi writer is the creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Childhood’s End? So great, he has actually found the secret for travelling into the future: take care of yourself and just wait.
• Vera Lynn, 90. The British songbird whose songs like “The White Cliffs of Dover” kept morale high in World War II has outlasted the Nazi threat by 62 years. The optimism of her wartime hit “We’ll Meet Again” was made to seem outdated at the climax of Dr. Strangelove, but then again she has outlived all of that movie’s principals. Who’s old hat now, Stanley Kubrick?
• Olivia de Havilland, 91. Hollywood’s full of humiliations for older actresses. For example, de Havilland’s onscreen paramour Dick Powell (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1935) has been dead for 44 years.
• Les Paul, 92. Never mind mere survival: The man who pioneered the solid-body electric guitar – without whom rock `n’ roll couldn’t have existed – is still playing every Monday at New York’s Iridium Club.
• Budd Schulberg, 93. He helped write A Star Is Born – the original 1937 version, starring Janet Gaynor – and also won an Oscar for writing On the Waterfront. So you kids stay off his lawn.
• Pinetop Perkins, 94. Three years ago, this piano bluesman became the oldest person ever nominated for a Grammy. He still gigs weekly, like Les Paul, at the Broken Spoke in Austin, Tex.
• Studs Terkel, 94. The famed broadcaster and documentarist of the U.S. working class recently said, “The older you are, the freer you are, as long as you last.” The productive Terkel seems to believe it; he’s got a memoir coming out in November. (J.D. Salinger, seven years younger, hasn’t published anything new for 42 years.)
• Albert Hofman, 101. Not strictly an artist, but this European scientist’s creation of LSD in 1938 made acid rock, Robert Crumb and other ’60s innovations possible. Here’s a one-hour NFB documentary on him: tinyurl.com/yr44r7
-Garnet Fraser

But, there are others, too, such as Jack LaLanne and Wow!!! Lena Horne

Born Sept. 26, 1914, Jack LaLanne says he started life “as a weak, sick, miserable kid,” who was addicted to sugar. He learned about exercising and eating healthy when he was 15 and began his fitness crusade. At age 35, he was a living example of the positive effects of exercising and eating right.”

Trained as a chiropractor, LaLanne began advocating weight training in the 1930s even though doctors at the time thought the new practice would give people heart attacks and lower their sex drives. Science has since proved LeLanne was right…

LaLanne took his ideas on health and fitness to the national airways with the Jack LaLanne Show, which ran from 1951-1985. The show earned LaLanne a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. [...]

http://www.wpostflash.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/070608/GAL-07Jun08-77378/captions/PHO-07Jun08-77383.html

Jack LaLanne — who’s planning a long swim for his 95th birthday — demonstrates how to keep in shape in the gym of a Washington hotel. (Photos By Carol Guzy — The Washington Post)

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2004 Nursing Homes: what LTC providers learned from battling four hurricanes

2004- Elderly in Florida at risk in every hurricane season

2006 AI/AN data report from US Census 2000

2006 National Adult Day Services Week

A push for stay-at-home healthcare

A say in one’s or other’s life?

AARP Bulletin: Blogosphere 101

AGS Foundation for Health in Aging

AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE LONG TERM CARE CONFERENCE 2006

Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Awards

Activism At All Ages

Activity and exercise

Administration on Aging Pandemic Preparation

Administration on Aging Region X: AK, ID, OR, WA

After Katrina, transplanted Creoles vow to keep culture alive

Age at retirement and long term survival of an industrial population BMJ

Age by decade

Ageism in services for transient ischaemic attack and stroke

Ageism rife in all generations

Ageways 67: Older citizens monitoring

Aging and Toxic Response (EPA review)

Aid agencies ignored special needs of elderly people after tsunami

Alaska Aging Advocacy Network teleconference

Alaska Commission on Aging (ACOA)

Alaska FY2006 Adult Day Program Awards

Alaska FY2006 Nutrition Transportation and Support Services

Alaska Highway and Aleutians War

Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) The Senior Housing

Alaska : State limits rules for personal care in the home

Alaska Planning Checklist

Alaska Senior Care special session

Algorithm as aid to improve seating

Almost Home- Broadcast Premiere

Annotated ONC CoB MOA

Annual Rate of Fall Injuries – CDC

Anti-tremor mouse stops PC shakes

Another engineering project needed

AoA Homepage &gt; Older Americans Act: Title III Regulations

Assisted living homes cash woes left elderly in lurch

Atlantic Philanthropies: Mobilize Seniors

Audio versions of books in public domain, free

BBC Aging website

Bad lighting

Baen Books free for blind, dyslexic, paralyzed, or disabled readers

Bath falls common among older adults, but can be prevented

Best Ways to Convince Your Legislators

Bethel Senior Advisory Board Regular Meeting, 10 February 2004

Bethel Senior Center Building Grants

Bethel fuel sales tax corrected

Bethel’s assisted living home construction 2006

Bethel, Alaska – Wikipedia

Bethel contact info senior services

Bethel, SAB Bylaws 2001

Blog readers feedback needed

Brit boomers compaign against mandatory retirement

Brookdale Foundation RFP National Group Respite Program

Buzz words terminology

CATALOGUE OF ONTARIO INJURY PREVENTION PROGRAMS

Call for presentations AIAN Long Term Care conference

Caring is a man’s job too

Carphone Warehouse refuses Internet service to over-70s

Cartoon ethnic eldercare stereotyping 2

Nonagenarian Champion of women’s rights

Charlie King builds the Alaska Canada Highway

CHECKLIST FOR STAIRWAYS, ESPECIALLY FOR HOMES

Chop-stick mod

Chron.com | Katrina’s toll on the sick, elderly emerges

Commenting, categories on blogs

Comments on Al-Can and Aleutians photos

Comments sought on Alaska Medicaid revision

Commission surveys the effects of eroding benefits for elderly

Condom amulets

Conversando con su médico-Free Publication to Improve Doctor/Patient Communication

Cooperative Agreement Opportunity: 2006feb21

Creative Retirement Manitoba Home Page

Dad deserves a say about his life, even if he’s wrong

Deciphering MedSpeak

Disability across the Socioeconomic Spectrum (USA, NEJM)

Distractions hit ageing memory’

Dr. Lydia T. Black

Dramatic Changes in U.S. Aging

EPA Technical Assistance Building Healthy Communities

EPA community self-assessment

ES&H [Environment, safety, & health] Good lighting

ES&H Avoid dangerous furniture design principles

ES&H furniture

ES&H Wish List for Seniors, task lights

Elder Abuse and Neglect Assessment

Elder Blogosphere

Elder Care Initiative

Elder Wisdom Circle

Elder neighbor in crisis?

Elder-Mentor programs gearing up in Bethel

Elderbloggers

Elderbloggers Stake Their Claim

Elderly of Katrina

Elders losing to extremists in Pakistan

Environmental Impacts of Hurricane Katrina

Ethnic stereotyping and ageism

Eudora Welty

Everyone is an auditor of care

Evolution’s oldest known example of compassion for the elderly

Eye-Catching Images of Nature

Eyes wide apart: Illustration Friday: AGING

FCC reduces closed captions

Fairbanks North Star Borough bylaws

Falls Prevention Best Practice Guidelines

Federal Register of notices related to “older”

Feline Alzheimer’s disease

First Neighborhood Networks Center in Native Alaskan Community Opens

Free audio books update

Friends ‘help people live longer’

Funding and planning resources

Funding for start-up day programs

Funds

George Hohman

Geriatric care managers

Getcare.com Checklist Summary

Google’s search-engine for accessible sites

Grabbing public toilets

Grandparents’ Days or Respect for the Aged Day

Grants for Retirement Research

Grants: Developmental Research on Elder Mistreatment

Grate Sidewalks (Bad gate)

Growing Older – Liz Taylor

Guidance for Health-Care Providers, Relief Workers, and Shelter Operators MMWR Weekly

HHS/AoA Atlantic Philanthropies grants

Hand Steady cup and wineglass holder

Healthy Vision Community Awards

Help Age International

Help the Aged (UK)

Here is what you can do to assist hurricane victims

HomeMods!

How much money does a centenarian need for retirement?

How singing unlocks the brain

How to calculate hazardous materials exposure for older adults

How to Dremel Dog Nails @ DoberDawn.com

How to fall-proof your body and your home

How to start — Karen G in Vancouver

ID theft in medical records

Ideas to exercise in small cold places

If I’m going to the North Pole, why the hell do I need a senior center?

Improve our community by better serving the older people

In-home care rules offered to curb abuse

Incoming links

Information sites

Intergenerational Approaches to HIV/AIDS Prevention

Internet Resources to Teach about Aging

Internet an Important Health Tool, But Not for Seniors, Study Finds

Japan Today – Abuse of elderly – a secret sin

Jigsaw puzzles Stave off ageism

John Huston movie from the Aleutians

Joy into cycling for disabled

Katrina hit the old of all races

Last Quarter-Game of Life

Lead and Older Adults

Legal help for seniors and their families

Letter to the Editor On Neglecting Seniors

Lifeline offers cheap calling (Alaska)

Living on cruise ships is cost effective for elderly people

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

Long-term nursing care in Alaska

Lynne Curry: A new outlook can benefit

M Catherine Bateson

MOA Transfer Senior Center Passes

Making Reports to Adult Protective Services

Mapping the Growth of Older America

Mary Ann Sundown

Mary Ann Sundown on YouTube

May Is Older Americans Month

McAdow: Past hurricanes felt locally

Measuring Vital Signs in Elderly People

Medicaid ID Rule takes effect

Medical Reference for Non-Medical Librarians

Medical Student Training in Aging Research

Meth and elder abuse

Mild Cognitive Impairment: Who Is Confused?

Money woes change Anchorage public television

More Bethel plots

More on seizures of legal prescriptions

NIH Hot Weather Advice for Older People

National Family Caregivers Association

Neglect of Bethel Elders again

Nesting in place

New Eligibility Rules for Lifeline and Link-Up Support on Tribal Lands

New life-course for an aging society

New Report Includes “Call to Action” on Libraries and Active Older Adults

New international consensus on cardiopulmonary resuscitation

New theme

No room for seniors

Nome Community Center

Nominations for Media Awards

Non-invasive detection of hypoglycaemia using a novel, fully biocompatible and patient friendly alarm system

nonagenarian Champion of women’s rights 1910-2006

Nonagenarian experience needed

Nonagenarian painter still fights for Minamata patients

nonagenarian: At 94, American Indian linguist

nonagenarian: Claudia Alta Taylor “Lady Bird” Johnson

nonagenarian: George W. Comstock, leader against TB

nonagenarian: Gladys Jung

nonagenarian: Legendary Flying Tigers nurse,

nonagenarian: Mahala Ashley Dickerson

nonagenarian: Malietoa Tanumafili II,

Nonagenarian inventor of instant ramen

Nonagenarian: prison care

nonagenarian: Queen of gardens in Alaska, 1915 – 2006

nonagenarian: Sewage feeds my family: Vince Doran

nonagenarian: Tolstoy’s Bicyclists Nola Ochs, 95

nonagenarian: Tolstoy’s bicyclists

nonagenarian: Typewriter repairer 1930 to 20??

nonagenarian: Violinist, pioneer pilot

nonagenarian: Wow!!! Lena Horne is a nonagenarian

nonagenarian: Barry Commoner,

Nosy sons save mother via webcam – Engadget

Nursing Home Quality Monitor

Nursing Resources Assessment Tools

Nursing home didn’t evacuate Katrina’s Aftermath

Old Age a triumph of development

Old Senior Center : New Improved Senior Center

Old abused mostly by their own children

Old age ‘is no bar to sharp mind’

Old women step forward as ‘martyrs’

Older American Indian women appeared less concerned about elder abuse than older men

Older Americans Act &gt; Part 1326 Regulations – Grants to Indian Tribes

older dog care

Older People ­ a new power for development

Older Persons Action Group, Inc.

Older people in disasters and humanitarian crises: Guidelines for best practice

On-line history making

Oral health grants

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

p/o old folks

Pablita Velarde exhibition

Painful result with new reycling bin

Pandemic flu planning

Parliamentarians go on ‘strike’

Pets and Katrina

Physical Activity in Older, Rural, Hispanic, and Non-Hispanics

Poorest places in the United States – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Power wheelchairs are available to those who qualify for program

Prisons Not Geared to the Needs of the Elderly, Study Finds

Publications List from National Institute on Aging

Pueblos: Seminar tries to educate elderly about abuse

Purpose prize 2007

Quick notes

Register Now for a Title VI Training Technical Assistance Field Forum & Listening Session Near You!

Request for Ideas

Research/Information Sources on Aging

Respecting ElderBloggers

Revised posts for the feed readers

Rising Gas Prices Strain Home Care Agencies

Rolling Stones tour (biologically, the young olds)

SEC and NASD Investor Education Foundation

SNAQ Assessment ToolSNAQ Assessment Tool

Safer homes may cut falls in elderly people with poor vision

Scientists Sock It To Socks

Seating–modify, buy, or build

Senior Advisory Board letter

Senior Center Self-Assessment

Senior Center Transferred

Senior Center staff defends care of elders

senior citizen center – Audit

Senior Citizens of Kodiak, Inc.

Senior Information Office

Senior Services Transportation

Senior softball champion is an enigma even to his teammates

SeniorNet from The Scout Report — August 5, 2005

Seniors defend UA tuition waiver

Seniors select Medicare drug plan | opinion : Pick wisely

Separation of Church and State Day January 16

Sept. 10 US Grandparents Day

Silver Haired Legislature &amp; Congress

Six retirees, recalling their delight in outdoor movies, bring free films to remote villages.

Small wheelchair car you drive with a joystick

Snuggle-sacks for the older hypoglycaemia alarm

Social Security Online

Speak Mind Bethel Senior Center

Special-needs evacuation

State Elder Abuse Hotlines – National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA)

State of Aging and Health in America Report 2007

Study: even light activity helps elderly

suicide methods used by elderly and younger adults

Supporting older carers

Talking Book Librarian available

The Crippen Diaries

The End of Retirement

The Mom &amp; Me Journals dot Net

The single patient, the self-serving hospital

Purpose Prize Experience Corps

The Scout Report — AARP

Think ahead to stay safe at home

Though envious years would say “forget”.

Tips for events managers working with older people

Tobacco Articles: Listing Aging and or Elderly

Tolstoy’s Bicycle

Tolstoy’s Bicyclist: 75-year-old cancer survivor skis to North Pole

Tolstoy’s Bicyclist: Papa John Alexie Scholarship

Training Grants Program

UA tuition waiver for seniors stays

US Customs Seizures of Legally Prescribed Prescriptions

US anti-war grannies face justice

Universal Design grant

Urgent! AK Teleconferences Medicaid rewrite

Usability awards are just a start

veterans tribal cemetery bill

Vibrating beds as osteoporosis exercise

Virtual aging for living in a real world

Vitamin and mineral supplements for preventing infections in older people — Gariballa 331 (7512): 304 — BMJ

Wasilla Area Seniors

Web refs I found useful

Webpage reader for Firefox

What Should I Look For in Assisted Living?

What is successful ageing and who should define it?

What, me worry? We have a plan.

Wheelchair design looks to the South

Wheelchair mods!

Wheelchairs given design makeover

When you visit the senior center

Whip up some hurricane cuisine

Who is “old” enough? Who is “poor” enough?

Why blog? Who, me?

Words of wisdom about academic culture

Working women over 70 caught in the retirement trap

World Usability Day

Yaktrax Walker may reduce outdoor falls during winter

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At 95, killer hopes to win freedom

By J. Michael Kennedy, LA Times Staff Writer, June 29, 2007

SAN LUIS OBISPO – John Rodriguez didn’t seem to know what was happening to him.

The state’s oldest inmate didn’t immediately realize that the state parole board had recommended Thursday that he be freed. Instead, the 95-year-old sat hunched in his wheelchair, looking slightly confused, as he had for much of the four-hour hearing at the California Men’s Colony….

The Rodriguez case is unique in that it casts a spotlight on California’s aging prison population and the reluctance of the governor to release prisoners convicted of murder even if they have served their minimum sentences. In Rodriguez’s case, Thursday’s hearing marked the seventh time the state parole board has recommended that he be released….

Meanwhile, Rodriguez is the epitome of the aging prisoner, a man who uses a walker, is hard of hearing and requires a wheelchair when being moved out of the hospital ward where he lives. His normal attire is pajama bottoms and a blue prison shirt…. One recent projection is that by 2030, California will have 33,000 geriatric prisoners, compared with about 9,500 now. [...]

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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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• http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707200121.html

…Kikue Wakatsuki, moved by the plight of the mercury-poisoning victims, decided to bill her customers specifically for “fund-raising,” saying their “donations” would be sent to help the patients in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture. No one complained.

Wakatsuki retired from the bar called Noa Noa long ago. She is now 91 years old and uses a wheelchair. But she continues to help Minamata disease victims.

Last month, Wakatsuki, who is also a painter, held her first private art exhibition in her hometown of Niigata, bringing her together with mercury-poisoning victims in the city for the first time….

Sanji Watanabe, 91, a Japanese folk singer who is also a victim of industrial mercury poisoning, sang in front of Wakatsuki.

Many of Wakatsuki’s fans, including former patrons of her bar in Shinjuku, showed up and danced to the music….

Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome first discovered in 1956. It is caused by consumption of marine products tainted with methyl mercury discharged from a Chisso Corp. plant into Minamata Bay. Although certified Minamata disease patients are entitled to payments for medical treatment, the standards for certification are rigid, and many sufferers have been left out.
…
Hideto Hatano… is also a key figure in managing the Niigata Eya art gallery, and he said he remembered hearing about Noa Noa’s manager who continued to support Minamata disease victims. When Hatano learned that Watatsuki had never held a private showing in her hometown, he invited her–and her paintings–to Niigata. [...]

See also
A Case Study of a Documentary Portrait (the article discusses the impact of the Eugene Smith photo on the family under a discussion of ethics in photography)

• on the Wayback machine, http://tinyurl.com/2yju8u, originally retrieved Aug 7, 2001 from www.nyip.com/tips/minamata0201.html

Editor’s Note: If you wish to view the photograph discussed in this article, it is still viewable online at www.masters-of-photography.com. Click on Smith, then click through the slides to the last one, which is “Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath.”

Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thursday, Sept. 12, 2004 THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF MINAMATA DISEASE Exploring a cautionary tale By STEPHEN HESSE

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George W. Comstock, 92, Dies; Leader in Fight Against TB
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, Published: July 18, 2007, NY Times

Dr. George W. Comstock, an epidemiologist who made major contributions to the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis and was regarded by many peers as the world’s foremost expert on the disease, died Sunday at his home in Smithsburg, Md. He was 92 and had worked until last week….

In 1957, the United States Public Health Service sought a doctor to study tuberculosis patterns in Alaska, where one of every 30 natives was in a tuberculosis hospital. Dr. Comstock volunteered, saying he saw an opportunity to study preventive treatment.

He conducted a controlled trial in 29 villages near Bethel, Alaska, where tuberculosis was rampant. Members of each household were given the drug INH or a placebo for a year, Dr. Chaisson said.

The study showed the effectiveness of INH in preventing tuberculosis: after a year, INH produced a 70 percent decline in cases of the disease; a follow-up study five years later showed the drug’s benefit had been sustained.

In the trial, Dr. Comstock and his family took INH themselves to convince the participants of his belief in the therapy’s safety, Dr. Chaisson said. After the trial, Dr. Comstock returned and gave INH to those who had received the placebo….

He was a lifelong advocate of public health efforts and expressed disappointment in later years that more doctors were not devoting their services to it. In an interview in 2003, Dr. Comstock said that members of medical school faculties had little contact with public health departments.

[read more]

• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/health/18comstock.html

George W. Comstock, 92; epidemiologist was influential in the treatment of tuberculosis
By Thomas H. Maugh II, LA Times Staff Writer, July 18, 2007

…Comstock was a young commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service after World War II when federal officials were considering a mass vaccination campaign against tuberculosis using the relatively new Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine, which is made from an attenuated strain of mycobacterium that produces TB in cows.

He organized a trial of the BCG vaccine in Georgia and Alabama that stretched from 1947 to 1951 and concluded that the vaccine had an efficacy of only 14% in preventing the disease. He argued forcefully that the efficacy was too low to produce widespread benefit and that vaccination would render the Mantoux skin test for detecting TB infections useless by making vaccine recipients permanently positive.

In a country like the United States, with a relatively low incidence of TB, he argued, it was more important to be able to identify those exposed to the mycobacterium and treat them. Federal authorities agreed, and the vaccine was never widely used here….

Comstock frequently quoted Horace Mann’s 1859 commencement address at Antioch College: “Be ashamed to die before you have won some victory for humanity.” Comstock expanded on that theme, noting that “most of us aren’t going to win any big victories, but we can win little ones every day, and they mount up. [read more at...]

• http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-comstock18jul18,1,5874278.story

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Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, TB, Bethel, public+health, tuberculosis, Kuskokwim, Yukon, Yup’ik, Eskimo, epidemiology, history

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11664985

They mentioned some of her own accomplishments, including as

• media mogul (radio) at a time when women did not participate in business, much less ran large ones
• impetus for the Highway Beautification Act 1965 (Lady Bird Act) which removed highway billboards
• as tireless worker for native plants photo from http://www.wildflower.org/ladybird/

These last two are hard to believe these days would have been much of a challenge to implement. But for anyone who witnessed the difference along federal highways and along the streets and parks of Washington, DC, and the then opposition , it was an amazing effort. The wildflower research center will be a lasting legacy, among others.

the first solo whistle-stop tour of a first lady in history (1964)
founded a national wildflower research center in Austin (1982)
first First Lady to receive Congressional Gold Medal (1988)

She was not the longest living First Lady (Bess Truman, 97 years).

Claudia Alta Taylor was born in Karnack, Texas, near the Louisiana border, on Dec. 22, 1912. She was 2 years old when she was given her nickname by a maid who described her as “purty as a lady bird.”

She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1934 with bachelor of arts and bachelor of journalism degrees, and met Johnson, then a congressional aide, the same year…. In 1988 she received the Congressional Gold Medal for her environmental and humanitarian work, becoming the first wife of a president to do so.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11219716.htm

In 1943, Mrs. Johnson bought a failing low-power daytime-only Austin radio station with an inheritance from her mother. Armed with her journalism degree and a tireless work ethic, she took a hands-on ownership role, selling advertising, hiring staff, and even cleaning floors. Over time, her Austin broadcasting company grew to include an AM and FM radio station and a television station, all bearing the same call letters: KTBC… Mrs. Johnson stayed actively involved in the LBJ Holding Company well into her 80s.
http://www.wildflower.org/ladybird/

Stay tuned over at Ed Darrell’s place for his perspective, as a Texas historian. Update. The direct link–
Steel magnolias have nothing on Lady Bird Johnson, who understood the power of a blanket of flowers, the importance of roots and family, and how much grace can mean to those who get it.

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• http://www3.brookings.edu/views/articles/200705frey.pdf

As the American population continues to age, there is a growing concern in some quarters that the government and the private sector might be ill-prepared with the increased demands of an older population. The Brookings Institution published a rather insightful 28-page paper on the growth of older America, authored by noted demographer William H. Frey. Drawing on analyses performed with data from past U.S. Censuses, Frey comments on a number of trends, including the migration of older Americans into economically dynamic Sun Belt areas such as Austin, Atlanta, and Dallas. The report makes excellent use of maps, charts, and graphs that track the projected growth of senior populations by state and the counties with the fastest-growing senior population. For urbanologists and planners, this report will be quite helpful. [KMG]

• From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007.
  http://scout.wisc.edu/

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, NPR

Several lawmakers argued Tuesday that increasing the amount of cash assistance would create an unsustainable amount of state spending for an entitlement that overlapped other state-sponsored programs for seniors.
http://www.adn.com/news/government/legislature/story/9084438p-9000510c.html
See earlier post, Alaska Senior Care special session – http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/2007/06/04/alaska-senior-care-special-session/

Vote for Your Favorite Essay, Poems and Photographs Contest to Commemorate 100th Anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Life

Vote for your favorite finalist from the many intergenerational teams that submitted photos, essays, or poems for the Rachel Carson “Sense of Wonder” contest. You may vote for your favorite in each of the five categories. The contest commemorates the 100th anniversary of environmentalist Rachel Carson’s life. Finalists were chosen from the entries submitted by teams in twelve states, including children as young as 15 months and some older adults over 90 years old.
http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/thesenseofwonder/contest/

The deadline to vote is Friday, July 20, 2007. Winners will be announced at the annual meeting of Generations United, July 24-27 in Washington, DC.

Visit Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub to see that Rachel Carson is still making folks think.

• http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/rachel-carsons-honor-defended/
• http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/rachel-carsons-friends-chime-in/

• http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/didnt-know-insanity-is-contagious-sen-tom-coburn/

Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging

The EPA is accepting applications from municipalities, counties and tribes for an award which recognizes outstanding community planning and strategies that support active aging. Awards for “Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging” will be presented to communities that demonstrate the best and most inclusive overall approach to implementing smart growth and active aging at the neighborhood, tribe, municipality, county, and/or regional levels.

Applicants must be public-sector entities in the United States and coordinate with their local Area Agency on Aging. Public-sector entities include all levels of elected governments, from city councils to state legislatures and their constituent parts such as planning departments and other executive branch divisions. Application, Award Guidelines and Entry Rules on the Excellence Awards for Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging can be found at http://www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/awards/

Applications are due October 17, 2007. Winners will be announced at the 7th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities Conference in Washington, DC, February 2008. For more general information on Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging please see http://epa.gov/aging/bhc/index.htm

New Web Site Supports Active Aging
The Learning Network for Active Aging recently launched their website, http://www.lnactiveaging.org, which will serve as one of the focal points for information exchange on the Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Initiative. The Learning Network is affiliated with the Active for Life initiative, headquartered at the School of Rural Public Health at Texas A&M Health Science Center. Active for Life ( http://www.activeforlife.info) is one of several Active Living projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The Learning Network receives technical support from the Healthy Aging Research Network at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and is coordinated with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA).

Mapping Older America
The Brookings Institute has recently released “Mapping the Growth of Older America: Seniors and Boomers in the Early 21st Century,” by William H. Frey (June 2007). This report highlights how the aging boomers, who constitute this decade’s fastest growing age group, are expanding nearly 50 percent in size from 2000 to 2010. This group-more highly educated, with more professional women, and more diverse than its predecessors-will add new stresses to suburban and Sun Belt locations where they are predominantly “retiring in place” with demands for health, transportation, and other services.
For full report see http://www3.brookings.edu/views/articles/200705frey.pdf

Fact sheets for Caregivers and Older Adults
The EPA Aging Initiative has developed fact sheets on environmental hazards that can worsen common chronic conditions. These brief fact sheets are available at no cost and can be downloaded at our website http://epa.gov/aging/resources/factsheets/index.htm#fs . The fact sheets have been translated into 11 languages. A low vision version is available on the website too. To request copies please send an email to: aging.info AT epa DOT gov

Most of the above is from June 2007 Aging Initiative List Serve published by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Sort of amazing as just a few years ago the current White House agency was promoting that older people were worth less when calculating environmental impacts.

The list serv is worth subscribing to. Unfortunately, they are not following the convention of putting their contact info on each issue so I’ll have to track down the info for you.

Site Search Tags: EPA, Alaska, Millard+Fillmores+Bathtub, maps, aging+in+place

[Liz O. Baylen for The New York Times]

Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub, a wonderful mix of history, education, and thoughtfulness, had this notice.

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By LESLIE ANNE JONES, Anchorage Daily News, Published: June 12, 2007

Vince Doran is the go-to man at Steelfab for sewage treatment plants. He designs all of them. A sticker on his filing cabinet reads, “Sewage feeds my family.”

He wears a red plaid tie and a sport coat with a purple “valor to victory” patch that proclaims him a member of the 34th Bomb Group (B-17)

Oh yes, one more thing about Doran. It sets him apart from the typical Anchorage worker. On Wednesday he turns 90.
…
On weekdays Doran wakes up and drives from the Pioneer Home to exercise at the Senior Center. He gets to Steelfab around 10 a.m. and works until midafternoon.
…
He was Alaska’s Outstanding Older Worker for 2005 and went to Washington, D.C., to meet Alaska’s congressional delegation.

In 2001 he took a trip on an icebreaker around northern Canadian islands and above Greenland. A member of Toastmasters for 30 years, he still speaks in public frequently [...]

read more about him at
http://www.adn.com/money/story/8970716p-8886400c.html

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Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, Pioneer+Home, WWII

Rita Wong, 2006

BEIJING, June 7 (Reuters) – A legendary Chinese nurse who cared for injured U.S. Flying Tigers airmen during World War Two and suffered beatings during the Cultural Revolution has died at 95, state media said on Thursday…

The Flying Tigers was the nickname for the American Volunteer Group that formed a fighter group that trained in China and defended the Burma supply line to China over the Himalayas known as the “Hump” before the United States entered the war.
…
At the beginning of the last century, when most Chinese girls married in their teens and stayed at home afterwards, Wong, also known as Huang Huanxiao, decided that she should receive an education and become a professional, the China Daily said…. She had just finished her course in nursing and started her internship at a hospital in Hong Kong, when Japanese troops attacked and took over on Christmas Day, 1941.
…
“She died with a smile, just like her Chinese name suggests – it translates into joy and smile,” Xinhua news agency quoted Gao Demin, Wong’s eldest son, as saying.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK177324.htm

from China Daily August 15, 2006–

Rita Wong, who escaped the Japanese in Hong Kong to join the Flying Tigers in China, had lived in anonymity in Kunming, capital of China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, for the past six decades, the China Daily said…

The woman from Macao, who got her degree in nursing at the University of Hong Kong in 1941, had lived in anonymity in Kunming, capital of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, for the past six decades.

Wong’s children didn’t even guess how eventful her life used to be until she and her husband, who was the only Chinese doctor at the hospital, took them to the Hump Flight Monument in the suburbs of Kunming one day in 1989… With a hunched back, which was broken in beatings during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), she read out the inscriptions in a firm voice and a graceful British accent.

In 2002 that she began to write down her memories in a diary, which she initially kept to herself. But in 2004, the 92-year-old learned from media reports that several Flying Tigers were to visit their old airport in Yunnanyi town in the mountains of Yunnan’s Dali. She told her children that she wanted to go and meet them.

[Wong and her husband] stated to work at a local hospital after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949… They had a happy life in the following years, apart from during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76). The couple had two sons and a daughter.

When China opened its doors to the rest of the world at the end of the 1970s, Wong set up a toy factory in Macao at an age of 67 with funding from her sisters sent from overseas.

She became the general manager and had more than 200 people working for her three years later.

Read the rest of her story here http://www.china.org.cn/english/NM-e/177978.htm

——————————–
Actually, all of Chinese and Chinese-American modern history (late 19th and the 20th century) is interesting. I wish we were more aware of the pre-Nixon stuff (Pacific Rim and California, Sun Yat-sen; but for the political junkies– all the Washington intrigues with Madame Chennault; Formosa or Taiwan; one China or two; Vietnam; those two little islands and WW III, etc.).

[Much of the Chinese significance in US history is little understood, e.g.,

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When a friend turned 80, she announced that she was going to buy her first computer. I asked her what she was going to do with it. She didn’t know. “Everyone was talking about it, so I thought I should get one to see what all the fuss is about. Now that I have one…” I could see her mind grinding away at the possibilities as she confronted this more-than-a-television thing….

A woman who once traveled by horse and buggy and lived the first 10 years of her life without electricity wasn’t going to let anything stop her now, not even the learning curve of new technology. [...]

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/06/04/are-you-blogging-your-passion-or-blogging-to-blog/

[see earlier posts, Blog readers feedback needed]

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Due to strong media attention and public pressure, legislators are calling themselves back to hold a special session focused on Senior Care to be held Tuesday, June 26th in Anchorage. This is a good indication that legislators intend to work towards finding a long-term authorization for the Senior Care program that benefits about 7,000 older Alaskans over the age of 65 who earn less than $16,133 for a single and $21,641 for a couple annually. Most Senior Care recipients use their benefits to help pay for food, rent, utilities, and other necessities. Without Senior Care, many recipients may slip through the holes of the social service “safety net.”

The House Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing this Wednesday, June 6th, at 4 pm at the Anchorage Legislative Information Office. The hearing will be teleconferenced statewide and the public is invited to testify. Currently, SB4 is the only bill on the agenda. This bill reauthorizes the needs-based Senior Care Program with an eligibility limit of 150% of the Alaska poverty level, no asset test, and a tiered benefit program tied to income ($175 monthly for households at 100% FPL; $150 monthly for households 100 to 135% FPL; and $100 for households 135 to 150% FPL). Please testify at this week’s hearing and encourage others, especially those who are Senior Care recipients, to testify and tell why this program is important for them. The Senior Care Program is scheduled to sunset on June 30th, 2007. Please call your local Legislative Information Office and ask if they are open for this special hearing on June 6th.

Lastly, we are building a public awareness campaign to put a face on the Senior Care program that will be used to educate legislators and the public. We are in the process of collecting stories from Senior Care recipients – no names or other personal information will be disclosed. We want to impress upon legislators and the public that the Senior Care program makes a real difference for those who receive the benefit.

Please send us any stories you may have concerning persons receiving Senior Care benefits, their circumstances, how they use the benefit, what they plan to do if the Senior Care Program is discontinued. This special session is a golden opportunity for us to advocate together for the best Senior Care program possible for those most in need, hopefully to extend beyond what the current program provides. Please feel free to call me for more information. Thank you. Denise

Denise Daniello, Executive Director
Alaska Commission on Aging
150 3rd Street, Suite 103 / P.O Box 110693
Juneau, AK 99811-0693

907-465-4879 (phone)
907-465-1398 (fax)
email: Denise_Daniello AT health DOT state.ak DOT us
www.alaskaaging.org

Resource for Visually Impaired
A small group of talking book librarians from nine states around the country are providing a virtual reference service called the InfoEyes Service, and the website for information on this national service is http://www.infoeyes.org/ [posted on HealthLiteracy 934]….

InfoEyes is a question and answer service for people with a visual impairment or other print limitation. You can ask a question about anything! Welcome to the InfoEyes Ask a Librarian service, a web-based reference service that helps libraries deliver reference services via e-mail and chat. InfoEyes is brought to you by your library. We will attempt to respond to your question within 48 hours.

It does require an Internet connection and an E-mail address. Appointments for the chat room are made via E-mail. Sounds counter-intuitive. However, the iVocalize software says it is a voice-over-Internet-protocol (VOIP) or audio / telephone program, so maybe once past the initial typing the service is vocal ?

Site Search Tags: BHIC, vision, library, reference, books, audio

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Malietoa had ruled the nation since it gained independence from New Zealand in 1962…. He was the world’s third-longest serving head of state, after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and Queen Elizabeth II….

Malietoa, who was appointed for life, was the world’s oldest head of state when he died.

He was the architect of Samoa’s constitution, under which the country’s next head of state will be selected by the legislature for a five-year term.

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6672103.stm

The Times has a more complete biography and a history of Samoa. [They call Samoa a backwater which is hardly the case in Polynesia and in contributions to science (human biology), literature, and even to Alaska and Los Angeles.]

• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1790046.ece

A tribal chief, Malietoa Tanumafili II was the head of state of the tiny Pacific country of Samoa from its independence in 1962 to his death, making him the world’s third-longest serving ruler. Malietoa’s quiet dignity and reassuring presence helped to spare Samoa the political turbulence to which many other Pacific nations have succumbed. He was thought to be the world’s oldest head of state when he died…. Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili was born in 1912 and educated at the government-run Leifiifi School, then in New Zealand at St Stephen’s College, Auckland, and Wesley College, Pukekohe. When his father died in 1940, he succeeded to the Malietoa title, and was appointed an adviser to the New Zealand colonial administration…

Under the Treaty of Berlin, Samoa had passed into German hands in December 1899, while the US gained what is now called American Samoa. But at the outset of the First World War, New Zealand took control of Western Samoa, replacing Germany as the colonial master. Until 1997 it was known as Western Samoa.

See also

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malietoa_Tanumafili_II_of_Samoa

• http://www.matangitonga.to/article/spnews/pacificislands/malietoa_150507.shtml

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian, Samoa

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Beloved elder Gladys Jung of Bethel celebrated her 90th birthday last week. Many friends and loved ones came to wish her a happy birthday at her comfortable home near the Kuskokwim River.

Gladys was born on April 30, 1917 in St. Michael to parents Oscar and Annie Hall. Her mother was from St. Michael and her father was from West Virginia. … Gladys is a University of Alaska Fairbanks Alumna, graduating from college with a teaching degree. She returned home where she taught in the old village of Nunacuaq, which has long been gone. In Nunacuaq she worked as an apprentice teacher. She remembers burning coal in the stove for heat. The teacher she worked with had the main school and she would send the little ones to Gladys, who was learning how to teach.

“There were no chairs and the kids would stand at the table and do their work,” she said.… Shortly after, she married Henry Jung and together they had nine children. The couple was asked to open the school in Napaskiak, which had not had a school before.

“My husband made little tables, there were no desks,” she recalls. “We traveled by dog team and by […]

• Read the rest at http://www.deltadiscovery.com/soapbox/soapbox.html

Gladys was also an active member of the Senior Center. A few years ago she recorded a radio ad against the use of iq’mik (sometimes ikmik), a mixture of chewing tobacco and “punk” or tree fungus ash, which is used by adults and even children. She then became known to the latest group of schoolchildren as the “Iq’mik Lady”

• http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/nov2005.html
• Tobacco Use in Bush Alaska
  http://tundramedicinedreams.blogspot.com/2006/05/tobacco-use-in-bush-alaska.html
• (pdf) http://www.ykhc.org/library/dangersofiqmik.pdf
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16147838&dopt=Citation
• (pdf) http://www.phs.ki.se/socmed/Tobacco_prevention/pages/Smokeless.pdf

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http://www.deltadiscovery.com/villagetelegraph/villagetelegraph.html

On April 18, 2007, the Alaska Moravian Seminary and Theological Institute awarded diplomas and certificates to the students for successfully completing the 2006-2007 school year.

A new scholarship fund was also created to encourage young people to attend the seminary. The “Papa John Alexie Scholarship” is named after John Alexie of Eek who graduated with a two year diploma. John began his seminary training at an age where most people are beyond retirement and was concerned if he would be able to pass the course.

“If I can do it, then so can anybody,” he said.

I don’t know his age for sure, but certainly an ageless accomplishment.

Add this to Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: Moravian, Eek, seminary, graduation

http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=13759
The purpose of the Intergenerational Approaches to HIV/AIDS Prevention Education with Women Across the Lifespan Pilot Program is to develop cross-generational HIV/AIDS prevention education approaches specific to women at risk for or living with HIV/AIDS and other female members of the family 12+ years old , particularly African American, Native American/American Indian, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander women from the Diaspora who are grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, and aunts. [Grants.gov Opportunities Posting Update]

It probably would support condom amulets, too.
From the always useful, BHIC blog focuses on health information issues related to the community, especially underserved communities.

http://library.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/archives/cat_scholarships_and_grants.html#002287

If you are disabled in any way which makes reading blogs and surfing the web a challenge, trying to work with what’s available or using special equipment, please let us how you access this blog and how you blog.

A lot of presumptions are made about what works and doesn’t work for accessibility standards and usability in web page design. Let’s cut through the assumptions and get the truth.

• http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/05/05/lets-hear-from-the-disabled/

Barbara Hillary made it all the way.

Read the story by MEGHAN BARR | Associated Press, May 6, 2007

• http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/61334.html

click photo to read story

Site Search Tags: Barbara+Hillary, septuagenarian

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click photo to visit story 2

Sitting on the front row in her college classes carefully taking notes, Nola Ochs is just as likely to answer questions as to ask them. That’s not the only thing distinguishing her from fellow students at Fort Hays State University. She’s 95, and when she graduates May 12, she’ll be what is believed to be the world’s oldest person to be awarded a college degree.

She didn’t plan it that way. She just loved to learn as a teenager on a Hodgeman County farm, then as a teacher at a one-room school after graduating from high school and later as a farm wife and mother.

“That yearning for study was still there. I came here with no thought of it being an unusual thing at all,” she said. “It was something I wanted to do. It gave me a feeling of satisfaction. I like to study and learn.”

The record Ochs will break, according to Guinness World Records, belongs to Mozelle Richardson, who at age 90 in 2004 received a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma.
By Carl Manning, Associated Press, Last update: April 27, 2007 – 5:56 AM read more here [...]

• http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1148160.html

“She’s also living testimony to the contribution a healthy lifestyle can make to longevity and vitality.

“I don’t come from a particularly long lived family,” says Ochs,” …

A full-time student at Fort Hays, Ochs lives in an apartment on campus and enjoys walking for exercise. During school breaks and on occasional weekends, she drives 100 miles to her farm…. Read more [...]

• http://www.americangeriatrics.org/newsletter/2007Q1/ochs.asp

and the earlier story here,

• http://www.fhsu.edu/leader/2006/11/30/FHSUsmostseniorstudentcelebratesbirthday

FHSU’s most senior student celebrates birthday, Thursday November 30, 2006, Robert Cummins

During the break, senior Nola Ochs celebrated her birthday. She’s 95, and she reflected on her first semester at FHSU.

“I’ve had a good time,” she said. “I’ve worked like a beaver, but that’s what I came here for.”

Site Search Tags: university, nonagenarian

Add this to Bookmarks:

http://www.aoa.gov/press/oam/oam.asp

Background and suggestions for celebrating Older Americans Month (originally Senior Citizens Month when it was established in 1963), “a time to acknowledge the contributions of past and current older persons to our country, in particular those who defended our country.” Features history, a list of past themes, and materials and downloads (from 2003 to the present). From the Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services….

The theme for Older Americans Month 2007 is “Older Americans: Making Choices for a Healthier Future.”

I think Bethel will celebrate by not building the assisted living home again, by not passing reduced cab fares for elders, by rooting for a 20% sales tax increase for a municipal swimming pool, and mostly by not taking time out to visit the “inmates” as they call themselves “back there”, at the senior center.

I guess the AOA logo is appropriate, then, head ‘em off into the sunset.

Site Search Tags: AOA, HHS, Older+Americans+Month

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When he started in 1930, Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight was a fresh memory, Herbert Hoover was president, and the Empire State Building was under construction… Whitlock says that he has repaired around 300,000 typewriters in his career. The avocado IBM was job No. 300,001. “If you put the typewriters I’ve repaired end to end, it would take days to drive past them,” he boasts….

A 1910 Oliver is the oldest machine that Whitlock keeps in his shop today. Despite its ears, it is fairly conventional compared with other early typewriter designs. There was the Hammonia, Germany’s first writing machine, which looked like a bread-slicer. The Blickensderfer No. 5, which had keys that stuck out in all directions, making it look, in Whitlock’s words, “sort of like a centipede.” And, best of all, the Williams, which had a “grasshopper” type-action in which a jointed typebar kicked up, over, and down onto the platen roller.

Today, despite his former objections, Whitlock works mostly on electric and electronic typewriters (electrics are mechanical but run by a motor; electronics have computer chips). That’s all people bring. There isn’t any point in keeping manuals other than for decoration and company. [...]

continue reading at the Christian Science Monitor

• http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0426/p20s01-ussc.htm

Typist sells tradition
January 23, 2007
Lea Yu, Staff Reporter

Whitlock’s Typewriter Shop is at 272 York St. After 77 years in business, Whitlock continues to reconcile tradition with technology, catering to a new clientele of Yale and New Haven button pushers…

“William Manchester wrote all his books on typewriters and would not let anyone else touch his typewriter,” Frost said. “When Manson moved his shop, Manchester wrote a note comparing him to Leonardo [da Vinci].” … Frost, who majored in computer science at Yale, now repairs computers instead of typewriters and instructs individual offices on computer troubleshooting. He said much of his success comes from applying the valuable work ethic he acquired while watching Whitlock manage his business.

read more [...]

• http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/19520

Site Search Tags: nonagenarian

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Please take a minute and send in an abstract before April 30th [deadline] - we hope to select the presenters shortly after that deadline and offer invitations. This will give both Tribal and federal programs plenty of time to make their arrangements for travel.

Visit the conference website at http://www.aianlongtermcare.org. In addition to promising practices and model programs in LTC, we will have intensive daylong workshops on the PACE and Green House models of long term care.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Best regards, Bruce Bruce Finke, MD Acting Chief Medical Officer Nashville Area Indian Health Service IHS Elder Health Consultant, ELDERCARE@LISTSERV.IHS.GOV
413-584-0790
615-727-2044 (cell)

Site Search Tags: deadline, long-term+care, conference, ,NICOA

…Barbara Hillary is seventy-five, and a resident of Arverne, Queens. On April 20th, she will disembark from the Borneo ice camp, towing a fifty-pound sled and the wish to become the first African-American woman on record to set foot on the top of the world.

Hillary was a nurse for fifty-five years. “I always had dreams of travel,” she said. “But much of travel, as I saw it, was so sheeplike, so John Doe.” In 1992, she decided to take her first trip abroad, alone. (Hillary has never married, and, along with “one, Mind your own business; two, Maintain a sense of humor; and three, Tell an individual to go to hell when it’s needed,” she credits her air of youthfulness to remaining single.)
…
Hillary’s preparedness does not extend to the financial demands (equally rigorous) of her expedition…. Mayor Bloomberg referred me to the Department for the Aging, which sent a form letter of things I could do in the senior center,” she said. “Mister, don’t you get it? If I’m going to the North Pole, why the hell do I need a senior center?”

True North by Lauren Collins, March 26, 2007, New Yorker Magazine

• http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/03/26/070326ta_talk_collins

additional info at

• http://tinyurl.com/2g8vl6

Add to Bookmarks:

Site Search Tags: New+Yorker, Barbara+Hillary, North+Pole, Henson

• http://brookdalefoundation.org/

has issued a Request For Proposals for start-up social model group respite programs for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their family caregivers.

• http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10006834/brookdalefoundation

notice from the excellent BHIC (see sidebar)

• http://library.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/archives/cat_scholarships_and_grants.html#002221

Site Search Tags: Brookdale Foundation, day programs, dementia, deadline, grants

Dear Alaska Aging Advocacy Network,

ACoA will be holding a legislative teleconference tomorrow, Thursday April 5, from 9:30am-11:00am. We will be discussing very important issues that are currently moving through the Legislature. Specifically, we will focus on:

SB 4, related to Senior Care
HB 198 related to Senior Benefits

We will also discuss the Longevity Bonus.

We really want to hear from you regarding current legislation. We are looking for your input. If you are interested in participating, please contact your local senior center to see if they are participating as a host site. If so, you will need to go to that senior center for the call in. In Juneau, the meeting is held at the ACoA office at 150 3rd Street. You may call our office for further information at 907-465-3250.

A complete list of our watch list can be found at:
http://www.hss.state.ak.us/acoa/legislative/legWatchList.pdf

Sincerely,

Jeannette Lacey
UAA MSW Intern
Alaska Commission on Aging

Cory Doctorow: Hugh from Librivox (a project that enlists volunteers to create free audiobooks of public domain texts) sez, “We just had an extraordinary month. We published 70 texts (as part of a March madness campaign to finish as many books as we could). Our effort makes us, I suspect, the biggest maker of audio books in the world (at least in March). Among the titles now available for all the world to hear for free:”

* Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Einstein, Albert
* Sense and Sensibility by Austen, Jane
*Moby Dick, or the Whale – Herman Melville
*Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
*The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
* Candide – Voltaire
* The Sayings of Confucius – Confucius

Link
(Thanks, Hugh

See also:
Darwin’s “Origin of Species”: free audiobook
Audio of UN Declaration of Human Rights in 21 languages
Public domain books read aloud podcast
Collaborative audio-play of Wilde’s “Importance of Being Earnest”

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Site Search Tags: Librivox, audiobooks, free, accessibility, Boing-boing

6. The State of Aging and Health in America Report 2007 [pdf]

• http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/saha/

Recently, the Center for Disease Control released the 2007 State of Aging and Health in America Report. It’s a valuable document for anyone with an interest in public health, gerontology, and other allied fields. This website contains the full text of the report, along with the 2004 report as well. Visitors will also appreciate the extra features offered here, which include state-based report cards that examine fifteen key indicators of older adult health, such as obesity rates, smoking habits, flu vaccine updates, and others. Obtaining these report cards is quite simple, as users just need to click on the state they are interested in. After doing so, they can examine the statistics for these fifteen indicators, and see how different states compare. Additionally, the site contains resources for journalists who wish to use these findings in various publications, and a general section titled “Using the Report”. [KMG]

Site Search Tags: Internet+Scout, CDC, ageing, aging

Assisted Living Conversion Program

Application deadline Jun 7, 2007
The purpose of this program is to provide grants for the conversion of some or all of the dwelling units in an eligible project into assisted living facilities (ALFs) for frail elderly persons.

Sustainable Communities for All Ages: A Viable Futures Toolkit

Aimed at designing solutions to meet the needs of older generations that will also meet the needs of younger generations. Examples from around the country include developing new school curricula that encourage young people to go into health care fields, designing walkable communities that improve the health of all generations, and having after school programs share sites with senior centers. A user guide complements the toolkit.
Organization: Blue Moon Fund
Date: 2007

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Site Search Tags: deadline, grants, age+in+place, RAC, modifications

If the video doesn’t play well in the viewer below, try going directly to the site (I usually have better luck at “Gootube” itself)–

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRAUd3IZWFs

Site Search Tags: Mary+Ann+Sundown, Eskimo+dancing, elderlies, octogenarian, Yup’ik, Eskimo, Scammon+Bay

Read the entry here [...] British Columbian? Over 98? Please call
Yesterday Helen Branswell reported on a British Columbia project to interview people who recall the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. Dr. Danuta Skowronski was just on CBC radio talking about it, so I went to the BC Centre for Disease Control where I found this announcement: Pandemic Profiles: Are You Ninety-Eight Years or Older? Excerpt:

The BCCDC will be conducting face-to-face or telephone interviews with British Columbians who were born in 1908 or earlier and have a lasting memory of the 1918-1920 pandemic. If you know of someone who has a compelling experience and might be interested in participating in this survey, please contact Westcoast Clinical Research at 604-524-7141 or by email at wccr AT telus DOT net.

Technorati Tags: nonagenarian, H5N1, help+wanted, bird+flu, Canada, history, epidemiology, Crofsblogs

Dr. Black survived Stalin, forced labor under the Nazis, refugee status, and never suffered fools, the pompous, the bully, nor laziness or sloppy scholarship. She was fond of cats, dogs, children, and those needing a friend in a strange land.

The following is summarized from documents at Lydia T. Black 1925 to 2007 and from the Kodiak Daily Mirror

Widowed with young children at 44, she went to college and finished her BA and MA in two years and her Ph.D. in another two years.

She studied at Northeastern University and Brandeis University in the Boston area before receiving her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She joined the faculty of anthropology in 1973 at Providence College in Rhode Island. She moved to Alaska in 1984 as Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks, whence she “retired” in 1998.

She continued her work in Kodiak, where she helped translate and catalogue Russian archives of St. Herman’s Seminary. The Orthodox Church in Alaska recognized her contribution by awarding her the Cross of St. Herman.

She wrote at least 66 more books and articles appearing in publications as diverse as Natural History, Arctic Anthropology and Studies in Soviet Thought and was a contributor to various exhibits and conferences on the Arctic, including the Library of Congress’ Meeting of the Frontiers, the New York Museum of Natural History’s Jesup Centenary Congress and the Smithsonian Institution’s Crossroads of the Continents.

One of her best-known books, “Aleut art — Unangam aguqaadangin” is a collection of beautifully photographed and carefully documented art made by Alaska Natives of the Aleutian Islands. Another, “Russians in Alaska, 1732 to 1867,” was published in 2004, the year Lydia turned 79.

In 2001, Russia awarded her the Order of Friendship, honoring her contribution to promoting cross-cultural understanding between Russia and America. She received the Alaska Anthropological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and the Alaska Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award for the Humanities in 2005.

Lydia was born in Kiev, where her grandmother came to live with the family. Her grandmother instituted an educational regimen for her which included two days per week of speaking Russian, two days per week of speaking French and two days per week of speaking German. On Sundays, the family could relax and speak Ukrainian. It was decreed that Lydia would study English in school. Lydia’s grandmother would take her to the ‘secret church’, hosted by three elderly women – the KGB eventually did arrive to arrest them.

Lydia’s father was executed when she was eight years old. At 16 (1941) her mother died of TB. Lydia was picked up into forced labor for Germany. At war’s end, Lydia was in Munich and got a job scrubbing toilets in American officers’ quarters. They realized Lydia could speak six languages (she had learned Polish during the war) so she became a translator at the UNRRA’s displaced children’s camp.

Lydia met and married Igor A. Black. They then emigrated to the U.S. in 1950. Igor became a thermodynamics engineer whose work on the Apollo Mission was officially commemorated by NASA. Lydia was a full-time wife and mother. Suddenly Igor died in 1969, leaving Lydia alone with three teen-aged daughters and a toddler. With her older daughters’ consent, Lydia returned to school as a full-time college student.

Dr Black died in Kodiak, AK, with family, friends, Orthodox services, and the feline sibling companions Masia and Vasia present.
Masia, faithful guardian during Lydia’s illness would wake Lydia in the middle of the night, to great complaint. However, Masia seemed to be sensing something physically awry in Lydia’s breathing while asleep and was waking her to “reset” her. Masia would reach over and: Slap-slap-slap, at which point Lydia would sputter and tell the cat to stop it. [Click on small picture to enlarge.]

Anthropologist Lydia Black Dead at 81
Casey Kelly, KMXT

KODIAK, AK (2007-03-13) Anthropologist Lydia Black, author of many books on Alaska Native culture and Alaska history, died Monday morning of liver failure at her home in Kodiak. She was 81. © Copyright 2007, apti

• http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/apti/news.newsmain?action= article&ARTICLE_ID=1053258

audio file (mp3 format), click to play or right click to download and save.

See also, Elder neighbor in crisis? and Prisons Not Geared to the Needs of the Elderly, Study Finds

The gray area between competency and incompetence is one of the most difficult dilemmas any family can face. We went through it when my mom was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and it was hell. I urged the daughter to take her dad to a physician for a diagnosis to know for sure what’s going on. But until he’s clearly mentally impaired, he’s in charge of his life.

• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2003598189_liztaylor05.html

And here is another example of the difficulties that can arise. How do we even discuss this?

• 90-year-old jailed for assaulting caregiver leaves facility
  Veteran of 2 wars had dementia, came to Alaska fleeing spirits
  By MEGAN HOLLAND, Anchorage Daily News, Published: March 10, 2007
  http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/8698799p-8598640c.html

The oldest jail inmate in state custody had a massive stroke Friday and the state immediately dropped the charges against him so he wouldn’t spend what could be his final days under a cloud of criminal allegations, prosecutors said.

Charlie Parks, a 90-year-old whose family says he suffers from dementia, had been in jail for three months. He was facing a felony assault charge that claimed he tried to stab his caregiver in an assisted living home in December….

But defense attorney John Bernitz said the incarceration of his client shows a fault with the state’s system.

“I don’t know who is personally responsible, but we as a community could have treated him better,” he said.

In November, Parks, a school teacher for 40 years, packed his frying pan, clothes, crystals and meditation books into a tattered plaid suitcase and sneaked out of his assisted living home in Kalispell, Mont., ahead of spirits he thought were chasing him. He cashed his Social Security check and bought a plane ticket to Alaska.

Once in Anchorage, he took up residence at the Days Inn on East Fifth Avenue… His hotel bill mounted and the Veterans of Foreign Wars chipped in before hotel staff found Parks’ daughter, his only child, in New Mexico. She contacted Alaska Adult Protective Services and Parks was moved to a five-bed assisted living home in Russian Jack. He had been there for little more than a month when, in December, he took a 4-inch serrated steak knife to his caregiver, prosecutors said. The caregiver was grazed by the knife.

Technorati Tags: Liz+Taylor, aging, nonagenarian, prison, dementia, custody, assisted+living, elderlies, elder+law, Adult+Protective+Services

• http://www.eudorawelty.org/

In the summer of 2001, noted author Eudora Welty passed away in her home state of Mississippi. Throughout her ninety-years she made significant contributions to the art of the short story and other literary forms, and she remains the subject of scholarship and admiration in many quarters.

Fortunately, the Eudora Welty Foundation was established in 1999 to celebrate her works and also to make sure that her various writings remain an essential part of academic curricula in high schools and colleges. On their site, visitors can view an interactive timeline of Welty’s life and also peruse a calendar of events sponsored by the Foundation and other related entities. Most visitors will benefit greatly from a trip over to the “Resources” area of the site, which includes a complete bibliography of her works, along with information on the Eudora Welty House and links to other Welty societies and organizations. [KMG]

• From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007.
• http://scout.wisc.edu/

Ms Welty also gave her name to the popular, eminently useful E-mail program, Eudora .

[The Flash is a terrible interference with getting information from the site.]

Technorati Tags: Eudora, Welty, nonagenarian, Internet+Scout
Site Search Tags: Eudora, Welty, nonagenarian, Internet+Scout

The following checklist has been designed to help you think about your Center from the “first impression” perspective. These are some of the things you could be looking at in your Center to prepare to make a positive, lasting impression on those who come to your Center.

If you are answering “no” to questions, you may want to look at modifying or improving that item. For best results, have a person who is unfamiliar with the Center complete the survey. Problems that we see on a daily basis can sometimes become “invisible” to our eyes.

This checklist can help prepare your Center to be in the best position possible for welcoming the new seniors who respond to the Senior Center Marketing Initiative of June 2002. Prepared by the Joint Committee on Senior Centers, February 2002.

The checklist is available as a pdf file here,

• http://www.paseniorcenters.org/special-interest/SeniorCenterChecklist.pdf

Compare this checklist with the one for the Bethel senior center, When you visit the senior center http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/2005/08/06/when-you-visit-the-senior-center/ and try it out, Grabbing public toilets http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/2006/10/24/grabbing-public-toilets/ or Visit Bethel Alaska’s Eddie Hoffman Senior Center

1 OUTSIDE AREAS

1. Is there clear signage identifying the location of the Center from the road?
2. Is a sign posted next to or above the entrance door to the Center so participants can easily find it upon approach to the Center?
3. Is the building exterior free from peeling paint or other repairs?
4. Is the parking lot free from debris and weeds?
5. Is the walkway and parking lot adequately lighted?
6. Are the shrubs, outside plants and lawn well maintained?
7. Are outside walkways free of hazardous objects, including debris, weeds and uneven or broken steps?
8. Is outdoor furniture clean and in good shape?
9. Is there easy access for individuals with disabilities?
10. Are rails leading to the doors secure and well maintained?
11. Are curbs painted to signify distinction of levels?
12. Is the outside of the Center attractive and inviting?

2 INSIDE AREAS

1. Is there adequate lighting in rooms, corridors, elevators and stairways?
2. Are guests acknowledged promptly when they enter your Center?
3. Would the atmosphere be characterized as pleasant?
4. Is there a pleasant smell when entering the Center?
5. Is the Center clean enough to meet your personal standards?
6. Is the area inside clutter free, not only on the floor, but also in the space surrounding it?
7. Is the furniture attractive and easy to get in and out of?
8. Is the furniture arranged to promote interaction and conversation?
9. Are magazines, books or other materials for activities neatly stacked and out of the path of travel?
10. Are curtains and window treatments clean and in good condition?
11. Is there an easy to find and easy to read bulletin board with activities, meal schedules and other current information?
12. Is the activity board or other written materials hanging at a readable level for elderly persons of different heights?
13. Are certificates and licenses posted, if required?
14. Is the lighting adequate for older persons?
15. Is the dining area attractive and inviting?
16. Are participants able to sit where they want during meal times without being assigned?
17. Is the kitchen clean and inviting?
18. Is the meal contribution policy, sign-in sheet, and contribution box easy to locate?
19. Does the noise level allow for conversations and quiet activities?

3 SAFETY

1. Are changes in floor levels or coverings distinct enough to prevent tripping?
2. Are carpets free from wear and frayed ends?
3. Are small rugs and runners slip-resistant and non-moving?
4. Are lamp, extension and telephone cords placed out of the flow of traffic?
5. Are chairs sturdy and not easily tipped?
6. Are there handrails in hallways and grab bars in bathrooms?
7. Are written emergency evacuation plans with center floor plans posted throughout the Center?
8. Is a fire extinguisher easy to find and do participants know how to use one?
9. Are emergency numbers posted near the phone?
10. Are smoke detectors properly located and in working condition?
11. Are hallways, passageways between rooms, and other heavy traffic areas equally well lit?
12. Are exits and passageways free from clutter?
13. In the kitchen area, are towels, curtains, and other things that might catch fire located away from the range?
14. Are all extension cords and appliance cords located away from the sink or range areas?
15. Are emergency exits clearly marked?
16. Is emergency lighting functional and adequate?

4 PROGRAM AND SERVICES

1. Are the Center hours and days of operation posted for participants?
2. Can Center hours be changed or altered if requested?
3. Is access to computers and the internet available?
4. Does the Center offer a wide variety of activities for different interests?
5. Are fitness activities offered regularly?
6. Are participants involved with planning activities?
7. Are costs for activities known to individuals?
8. Are other community groups or non-profits involved with Center activities?
9. Are you conducting marketing/advertising activities in your local area?
10. Are you making use of internet technology for advertising?
11. Are newsletters listing activities and menus given or sent to participants on a regular basis?
12. Is there a posted calendar of activities or a newsletter available for people who enter the Center?
13. Are new participants given an orientation to the Center?
14. Is there a welcoming committee made up of current participants to help make newcomers feel comfortable?