MATURE MARKET HEADLINES POSTED 12/16/98
ASHA Helps Hard-of-Hearing Hear
Have you been missing parts of conversations or had trouble hearing the telephone ringing? If so, you're not alone. Twenty-eight million Americans have a hearing loss. And there's a place for all 28 million of you to get sound, professional help. It's called ASHA. So don't feel sorry for yourself. Take action. Visit a certified audiologist, says the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). A certified audiologist is a professional who can evaluate whether or not you have a hearing loss, and educate you about your rehabilitative options. Audiologists specialize in preventing, identifying, and assessing hearing disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids and other assistive listening devices.
People with a hearing loss often find it beneficial to use hearing aids, assistive listening devices, or both. When properly fitted, a hearing aid can help you hear what you've been missing. However, the type of hearing aid that is right for you will depend on your hearing loss and your particular needs. Advances in technology have made available a wide-range of options such as digital, analog, canal aids that fit into the ear canal, and the old reliable, behind the ear aids.
Assistive listening devices include telecommunication devices called TTYs, alerting devices, and personal listening systems. All can improve the communication of people with a hearing impairment. However, just because these devices are available, doesn't necessarily mean that people know how to use them. Even the best device is useless in the hands of an untrained user. Consumers considering assistive listening devices need to educate themselves about their hearing loss and choose the option that will best suit their needs.
Consumers with questions about locating an ASHA certified audiologist, hearing evaluations, assistive listening devices, and buying hearing aids can call the ASHA Helpline at 1-800-638-8255 for free information.
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AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Seniors Cruise the Net for Health Advice
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), a part of the National Institutes of Health, has joined the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Office of Research on Women's Health, and the Department of Health and Human Service's Health Care Financing Administration in releasing the findings of a jointly sponsored project to "train trainers" of senior citizens from around the country in how to access health information on the Internet.
"Results of the project indicate that training had a positive impact on seniors' confidence in using computers and the Internet, in conducting consumer health information searches online, and in sharing health care information with doctors, families and friends," said NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D. He added, "Most importantly, we found that seniors can learn to use the Internet and don't want to be left behind on the information superhighway. Two-thirds of those who searched for health information on the Internet talked about it with their doctors, and more than half indicated they were more satisfied with their treatment as a result of their search."
The Library sponsored this project, in part, because of the growing public enthusiasm for searching MEDLINE on the Web, an NLM service introduced by Vice President Gore in 1997. Noted Dr. Lindberg: "The number of MEDLINE searches has increased amazingly, from 7 million a year to 120 million. And, about one-third of them are being done by consumers, indicative of the increasing public appetite for health information. Making health information on the Internet easily available to all citizens-even those who lack the necessary computer skills was the goal of this project."
The "Train the Trainer" project was developed and implemented by the SPRY Foundation (Setting Priorities for Retirement Years) to give older adults access to valuable health care information on the Internet, teach them how to evaluate the quality of that information, and enable them to exchange this information with family, friends, their community, and their health care providers.
"The findings of this study have important implications for older Americans," said Dr. Vivian W. Pinn, Director of the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health. "As the population continues to age, it is critical that the elderly have access to the latest information about their health based on recent results from biomedical research. Assisting senior citizens in utilizing the wealth of health resources available on the Internet can have important ramifications in enabling them to better understand their health concerns and their health care options."
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AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Students Advised to Plan for Retirement Career
Edgar Bronfman Sr., a man who devotes part of his retirement to collecting restitution for Holocaust victims, stopped by the Stanford University campus December 7 to urge students to begin thinking now about 30 years of retirement ahead. With personal life spans increasing at the same time that career life spans are shrinking, the former chief executive of the Seagram Co. said, American executives and professionals need to plan for separate retirement careers or for financing a very long period of skiing, fishing and swimming.
Bronfman, 69, is still chairman of the Montreal-based global company that he took over when his father died in 1971, but he turned over the day-to-day operations to son Edgar Jr. in 1994. Bronfman's own father refused to retire, a mistake his son vowed not to repeat. "Consumer markets are by definition a young person's game," he said, because most people don't change their buying habits much after the age of 45 or so. When America's drinking habits changed in the '50s, he said, "I told my father it was silly to be advertising to his friends, even if they weren't dead."
Bronfman came mostly to talk about retirement options. "There's a great deal of over-capacity in the world," he said, which leads to pressure to consolidate companies to achieve more economies on a global scale. That will "put more people out on the street early. That's one of the sadnesses of our system."
Those who plan toward possible retirement in their 50s, he said, are likely to be happier in their retirement years. In addition to those who use retirement for leisure activities, he said, he knows of former executives who volunteer to help small businesses in developing countries and others who have started their own small business in retirement. "The trick" that he is still trying to master, he said, is to "stay busy but a little less busy" than before retirement.
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AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Gap Between Retirement Planning and Action
The good news is that baby boomers are living longer than any other generation. The bad news, says the American Council of Life Insurance, is that many are not prepared for today's longer retirements, which can last 25 to 30 years, or more.
A nationwide survey conducted by Mathew Greenwald and Associates Inc indicates that although baby boomers are concerned about supporting a longer retirement, most of them have not paid attention to retirement financing and may not be fully prepared for a long retirement. "Managing retirement finances has always been difficult," Dr. Greenwald notes. "For future generations it will be much more difficult because the retirement period will be so long, and retirees will be exposed to the financial strain of outliving their income or needing long-term care."
According to the American Council of Life Insurance (ACLI), today's retirement concerns include the following.
- outliving financial resources: 49%
- having to pay for nursing care: 54%
- inflation reducing value of savings 63%
- cut backs in Social Security 66%
Despite these concerns, the gap between retirement planning and action continues to grow. According to a recent survey conducted by the ACLI, 92% of Americans agree they will need to take on more responsibility for funding their retirement. However, only 44% of non-retirees say they are saving for retirement and are able to report how much. Furthermore, only 55% of non-retirees have begun to think about retirement financing, despite widespread realization that Social Security and defined benefit pension plans will play a much smaller role in retirement funding.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
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AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Dr. David Demko, Editor
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