MATURE MARKET HEADLINES updated 12/21/99
Live-in Grandkids Stress Grandparents
One of the best things about grandparenting is you can always send the grandkids home once the fun's over. So how do those grandparents fare who are raising their grandchildren full-time as surrogate parents? Interesting question since there are about 4 million grandchildren living under their grandparent's roof. A recent study by Maximiliane E. Szinovacz, Stanley DeViney, and Maxine P. Atkinson sheds some light on what life is like in those households.
The study, reported in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, looked at how the movement of grandchildren into and out of grandparents' households influenced the psychological well-being. The researchers found gender differences in how grandparents were affected. Surrogate grandfathers tend to escape from their homes once grandchildren move in. Grandmothers, on the other hand, seek and find support from relatives and friends.
For most grandfathers, the surrogate parenting is typically as a spouse, and their enhanced bar/tavern visits could be an escape or a belief that there is someone else to look after the grandchildren. Grandfathers also seem to benefit from the grandchildren's companionship. Grandmothers, on the other hand, take the main burden of childcare, and this burden apparently leads to stress symptoms. Long-term stays of grandchildren seems to be particularly difficult when the grandchild's mother is also in the household.
There has been a 44 percent increase in the number of children living with grandparents according to the 1990 census. As a result, you can expect more research into this area as more and more grandparents take on the role of full-time caregiver for their grandchildren. The Journal of Gerontology is a publication of The Gerontological Society of America, the national organization of professionals in the field of aging.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
America's New Boomerang Parents: Grandma & Grandpa
Not Every Race A Winner in Grandparenting
Help for Grandparents Who Raise Grandkids
Faith Is Tie That Binds Elders to Grandkids
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Seen Your Senior Website Lately Ladies?
Ever notice how the best innovations turn out to be obvious to just about everyone on the planet? Obvious, that is, AFTER the innovation lands on our doorstep. In fact, you might say the best way to gage a truly great innovation is its ability to cause everyone to roll their eyes and sigh, "Why didn't I think of that?". Well, get ready to roll those baby-blues again. Another great idea has hit the Internet's superhighway.
The new Senior Women Web addresses two very obvious social concerns. They are the phenomenal growth of the nation's older population, and the fact that the majority of that population consists of women. Wait, there's more. Since women outlive men, the proportion of women continues to increase as that population ages. In fact, older women are the fastest growing segment of the worldwide population. That creates an obvious need for a one-stop, authoriative source of information and resources for mature women. Gee, I wish I'd thought of that. And I'm from a family of nine children with six sisters, all of whom fit the demographics of the new Senior Women Web. Duh?
The Senior Women Web is located on the worldwide web at www.seniorwomen.com. It's a vibrant and growing web site that is rapidly proving its popularity among women over 50. Fashioned to reflect women’s political, medical, financial and legal issues as well as offering information about leisure activities, appearance, home and garden, travel, education, family matters, romance and sex, the site features a large number of carefully-chosen links.
Originated by Tam Martinides Gray, a Senior Reporter for TIME MAGAZINE, the site is exceptionally wide and inclusive. With no ax to grind, the site’s mission statement is: “Whether you’re single or married, straight, lesbian or bi, employed or retired, a parent or without children, healthy or dealing with illness, let this be the place where women ‘of a certain age’ can find those precious commodities: information and community.”
Gray maintains that Senior Women, having moved beyond diapers, PTA, and the demands of budding careers, are more actively engaged in their worlds than ever before. They are often employed in the marketplace as well as at home. They make financial decisions, travel, and share their energies, resources and wealth with their families and their communities. They are a force in politics, where they have the voice, the strength, and the pocketbook to support their choices.
She defines “Senior Women” as women who have graduated from one lifestyle to another. She describes herself as having advanced through life’s earlier adventures and tests, and coming out the other side relieved and enriched. Along with those changes, Gray feels, comes a cultural shift in interests, with renewed emphasis on education and a need to navigate the complexities of relationships, health concerns, and financial matters.
In addition to the pertinent links, the site offers “Culture Watch” reviews (books, movies, plays, art exhibits, etc.), and articles to engage and stimulate the reader. There are several regular columnists who offer everything from a harrowing first-person account of a battle with addiction, to a primer for financial advice, to gentle schmooze and memories of childhood events.
Senior Women Web has already garnered a large bouquet of favorable reviews from Time Magazine, Argus Clearinghouse, The Scout Report, and Brandeis University. They've even received a plug from Ann Landers. Wow! What's next, Oprah?. If so, that sound you'll hear won't be another hurricane, it will be the collective sigh of millions of Americans saying, you guessed it, "Why didn't I think of that?".
The next time you surf the Internet, AgeVenture News recommends that you DO NOT pass GO and DO NOT collect $200 dollars, but GO DIRECTLY to www.seniorwomen.com. Ladies, have you seen your senior website, lately?
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Older Women's Market Is Sleeping Giant
Informed Women Best Rx for Safe Medicine
AARP & UN Dispel Myths of Older Women
Insurer Targets Needs Of Mature Women
Older Women, Pensions, and Marital Demise
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Medicare Extension Ounce of Prevention
Congress created the Medicare program more than 30 years ago to pay for hospital
and medical bills for senior citizens, to protect them from substantial costs
due to unexpected illnesses. Today it covers 39 million Americans. Congress
has broadened coverage under Medicare to include some preventive services, such
as breast-cancer screening and a few prescription drugs, but cost concerns have
often limited further extensions.
Three new reports from the Institute of Medicine (IOM)examine both the evidence for extending coverage for five specific services and the cost to Medicare of doing so. These services are nutrition therapy, medically necessary dental services, skin-cancer screening, routine care during clinical trials, and immunosuppressive drugs for transplant recipients. By the way, the IOM is a division of the National Academy of Sciences which was created by the United States Congress in 1863 to advise the government in scientific and technical matters.
The first IOM report, THE ROLE OF NUTRITION IN MAINTAINING HEALTH IN THE NATION'S ELDERLY
recommends expanding Medicare benefits to cover nutrition therapy in outpatient
and home settings, upon referral by a physician. It further recommends that registered dietitians provide these services. As many as 86 percent of those 65 and older have long-term health problems, such as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol, that are affected by diet.
The second IOM report, EXTENDING MEDICARE COVERAGE FOR PREVENTIVE AND OTHER SERVICES examines coverage of screening for skin cancer and of medically necessary dental services, and looks at time restrictions on coverage for immunosuppressive drugs after transplants. For example, patients who receive organ transplants are routinely given drugs to suppress their immune systems so that the body does not reject the new organ. Sixty percent of recipients now survive longer than five years. Medicare covers this therapy up to 44 months, which is less than four years. Another Medicare shortcoming is that it has explicitly excluded nearly all dental care from coverage. Dental care would be effective in reducing infections and other complications associated with serious medical conditions and their treatment.
The third IOM report, EXTENDING MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENT IN CLINICAL TRIALS says Medicare should pay for routine care of beneficiaries enrolled in clinical trials in the same way it pays for this care outside of clinical trials. Clinical trials are studies designed to discover or verify the safety and effectiveness of medical care. They are required for the approval of drugs and devices and are key to understanding the appropriate use of medical interventions of all types. In addition, the report calls for the creation of a national registry of clinical trials to analyze costs and track the experience of
Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in clinical trials.
AgeVenture News Service editor, Dr. David Demko, the youngest delegate to the 1981 White House Conference on Aging, commends the National Academy of Sciences for these far-reaching initiatives. "It's government service at its best. The reports call for extensions in Medicare that make the program relevant to our times. Medical science has achieved great strides in the prevention and treatment of chronic illnesses. Extending Medicare in order to keep pace with medical science is a matter of common sense because it's cost-effective." Like Ben Franklin said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It took Congress over 80 years to take Ben's advice and create the National Academy of Sciences in 1863. Let's hope today's Congress doesn't wait that long to extend Medicare.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Medicare Reform: Its Voices and Refrains
Senior Law Center Calls for Medicare Reform
Medicare Strangled by Government's Red Tape
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Professor Designs Elder-friendly Furniture
If you design it, they will be comfortable. That's the idea behind a new line of furniture that's designed for the special needs and comfort of the nation's older population. And there's no time like the present to get things underway because the current older population of 32 million elders will soon be replaced by 76 million baby boomers.
The new furniture line, called LifeSpan Furnishings, is the brain-child of Professor Brian Donnelly who has received many recognitions for his ground-breaking designs for
chairs and other furniture products. His innovative design approach offers great news for today's elders, the caregivers of aging parents and the millions of boomers who will embrace nothing less than products that bring dignity and grace to the aging process by fusing function, form and style.
Here's how it all began. In 1990, Donnelly found himself spending time with an aging and ailing father. For the first time, he envisioned his future-self thirty years down the road. As I understand Donnelly's futurist experience, he saw the future, and his enthusiasm for growing older was ... easily contained. Not one to dwell on the negative, the good professor transformed his disappointment into a great business opportunity. Donnelly set out to design products for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Today, the journey continues with the creation of a line of patented, universally designed furniture and the formation of a company appropriately named "LifeSpan Furnishings, LLC. The memory of his father still inspires him. "I want to remove the signs stuck to people's back labeling them as "old people" or "handicap" - products for seniors should be products we can all use and cherish. This is something that companies will have to understand and implement for them to have a stake in the huge and growing
aging world market."
There's a lesson here for venture capitalists. The proverbial "ivory tower" isn't inhabited exclusively by idealists, but men of action. Ideas and actions that are characteristically inventive, practical, and profitable. It should be easier than it currently is to forge the talents of business and academia. Look for the emergence of specially trained brokers capable of creating public-private ventures designed to address the needs of our rapidly graying society.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Cabinet-Maker Wins Top Aging Design Award
Kmart Ventures Into Elder Health Market
Johns Hopkins Joint-Ventures Wellness Clinics
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Dynamic Elder Tackles the Terminal Later
Arline Faas isn't what you might think of as a typical computer expert. The cheery 87-year old has never taken a computer class in her life. But, that was before her three children pitched in and bought her a computer. Since then, this 87 year old resident of Asbury Heights retirement community has become a one-woman help desk for fellow residents. Faas even uses her computer and her color printer to create posters around Asbury's campus notifying residents of the wide variety of activities and events. Though a mild stroke causes her to use a walker to steady herself, Faas hasn't slowed down a bit.
The widow of a Methodist minister, Faas chuckles at her early bouts of computer-phobia. "I was scared to death of it when I first started two years ago. I was afraid that if I did anything wrong it would blow up!" But buoyed by her desire to learn to use e-mail so that she could keep in touch with her children, Faas continued to practice and experiment until her fears faded and her proficiency grew.
Today, she routinely uses e-mail to communicate with her son and two daughters around the country. She also enjoys surfing the net to learn more about other countries and cultures. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Other residents at the Asbury Heights, a Pennsylvania long-term care community, frequently request help with the computer. "People will see me in the computer lab and they'll stop by and ask me questions."
Says Faas, "We need to conquer our fears and take things step by step. It's a wonderful sense of accomplishment to learn something new. I think if older people were given some challenges they would be so much better off. It's important for older people to find something to look forward to each day, something to get excited about. Don't let yourself be intimidated by new things ... just do it!" Faas credits faith, family, and a positive attitude with her bright disposition.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Computer Eyestrain Creates Cursor Cursers
Computer Improves Sight in Stroke Victims
Mr. Modem's Internet Guide for Seniors
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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