The Upside of Old Age
The New York Times is doing some of the best, freshest writing on aging. In a column today, physician Dr. Marc E. Agronin explores how often we make the wrong assumptions about old age. He share a story of an older woman in a nursing home. He expected her to be grieving for her late husband, but instead found she had thrown herself into new activities and relationships. I know that's not surprising to many who read this blog, but it highlights how our impressions of old age can be mistaken from time to time.
“So what’s it really like to be old?” I often ask my patients, who are mostly in their late 80s and 90s, and the responses are unexpected. “I forgot I was so old,” a 100-year-old patient recently told me, and then excused herself to make it to bingo on time.
Read Dr. Agronin's full post here. Also, read 50 Tips on Aging Gracefully courtesy of Ecumen customers and team members.
What's Shakespeare got to do with dementia?!
Recently, I witnessed the one-woman performance, Tales from a Trunk: Shakespearience, the brain-child of Marysue Moses, Memory Care Coordinator at St. Therese Southwest. Heavy on audience participation, Marysue involves all the senses in her fast paced, 45-minute show designed to engage memory care residents mentally and physically. Using a trunk filled with simple props, she keeps things lively from role-playing brief Shakespearean scenes to smelling herbs & flowers from the old Bard's garden. Some memory care residents will actually remember the program the next day, and compliment Marysue on it.
Moses has a theatrical background and figures she's performed Shakespearience 40 times over the years. Her inspiration came from personal experience with dementia: "My mother was living in a memory care community in Denver and I was notably unimpressed with the activities that were being offered. I wanted her to have something more stimulating, engaging, and respectful of her intelligence as well as her capacity to appreciate art and humor." She has created three other Tales from a Trunk, including one entitled The Fisherman and His Wife.
Often residents' family members are present and they too enjoy participating with their loved-one & learning a little Shakespeare. Beyond it being a nice activity or diversion, Marysue notes positives outcomes: "I notice that some residents are transported during the performance. They are really with the story, or the action, or totally in the participatory moment. In those moments, their dementia doesn't matter to them or to anyone else one whit, and it's those moments that I seek to create more and more of for persons with significant memory loss." Now that's Changing Aging!
Marysue Moses is available for bookings. ~Helen Rickman
Ruben Berg - A Senior Olympian Who Made Living Better
Ruben Berg, was a Senior Olympian who died Monday in a community that loved him - Ecumen's Parmly Lifepointes. Many of us were introduced to Ruben in 2004 when Warren Wolfe of the Minneapolis Star Tribune profiled him. As Warren shares in the story below, Ruben didn't let getting cut from his high school swim team hold him back. Ruben began competitive swimming again at age 79, going on to win more than 250 medals. Here's to Ruben: a role model for all of us in aging gracefully.
Ruben Berg's Story . . . . by Warren Wolfe, Minneapolis Star Tribune
His big, work-roughened hands pulling his hefty frame through the water, Ruben Berg touched the pool's edge, shouted out "four," and switched to a side stroke to start his fifth 50-yard lap.
"I've slowed down a lot since my heart bypass surgery back in 1999," Berg said after his 400-yard workout, scrunching his craggy face as he sought the right words.
At age 91, he uses a walker to trudge from the dressing room to the pool and his swimming strokes have lost some power. But he remains an intense competitor.
Since his first swimming meet in 1991 when he was 79, the former auto mechanic who washed out of his high school swim team has won 253 medals - nine this year.
At the Minnesota Masters swim meet last month in Minneapolis, Berg took 5 minutes and 41 seconds to cover 100 meters with his backstroke.
He has been among the top 10 swimmers in his age class - now age 90 to 94 - in the national Masters Swimming Organization since 1996 and is the oldest Minnesotan in the program.
"Sounds impressive, huh?" he said after emerging from the pool sporting his black-and-orange competition "dress-up" swimsuit. "But at my age, well, most of the competition is dead."
'Learned on the job'
Berg, who lives at Point Pleasant Heights senior community in Chisago City, has been an avid swimmer since childhood. He grew up in St. Paul near Berg Auto Repair on Selby Avenue and took over the business from his dad. He passed it on to his son before the shop closed.
A self-taught swimmer, Berg was cut from his Mechanic Arts High 
School swim team because "I didn't know how to do the strokes right. Heck, I still don't do the backstroke the way you're supposed to, one arm back at a time. Mostly I've learned on the job."
He suffered a stroke in 1986, and therapy has restored some strength to his speech, right leg, arm and hand. But at his daughter's suggestion, he took up competitive swimming in 1991 in Arizona, where he and his late wife, Clarice, spent their winters.
"I tell my daughter, Barbara, it's her fault I'm still alive," Berg said. "I don't think swimming will keep you young, but it keeps your joints moving and your heart ticking."
Ten years ago, he started volunteering four hours a month at the Hazelden treatment center, 7 miles up the road, in part so he could use its pool for his workouts. He works in the mailroom and occasionally conducts tours, as he did last week. Hazelden recently honored him as its oldest volunteer.
Olympics fan
Usually, Berg is not big on spectator sports. "Mostly I'd rather do than watch," he said. "I mean, what's the point?"
But he's made an exception for the Olympic Games in Athens. For the past week, Berg has been glued to his television between his twice-weekly swims, watching the athletes compete.
"This morning I was up at 5 to watch the American women's basketball team," he said Friday before his swim. "Have you seen the muscles on those athletes? It's almost unbelievable, even the women. We're all pikers compared to them. I don't know anybody with muscles like even the table-tennis players have."
At times, Berg said, he is a little sad that his muscles won't carry him as fast or as far as they used to.
"Well, I don't work out with weights like I used to, but even so, I can't do the crawl anymore and my speed is pretty much in low gear," he said.
"But the thing I have to remind myself is that when I started swimming competitively in 1991 I'd swim 25 meters and then die. Then I built up my strength so I could do 50 meters before I died.
"So when I do 400 yards twice a week, I guess that's OK."
His next Masters swim meet will be in April, right before his 92nd birthday, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
"I'll probably win something because I may be the only one in the 90-94 class," he said.
"To be honest, I like the medals. I like winning. But really, I just do this for my health now, so I can keep moving," he said.
"If somebody beats me, that'll be OK. Hell, now I'm happy just to be upright."
More Seniors are Smoking Marijauna
Photo: Associated Press
The Associated Press has put Matt Sendensky on the aging beat. The fact that AP sees aging as an important beat is one sign of Changing Aging in America and here's another one courtesy of Sedensky on how marijuana use is increasing among U.S. seniors.
In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.
Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.
Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.
"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.
Why We Gain Weight As We Age
One of the most popular events at Ecumen communities is exercise class. A story this morning on National Public radio - Why We Gain Weight as We Age - illustrates how important exercise is to wellness as we age.
Rock On, Dick Clark: Vance Opperman's Letter to the Wall Street Journal
Vance Opperman, publisher of Twin Cities Business Magazine, sent an extremely good letter to Wall Street Journal Editor- in-Chief Robert Thomson. Click here for full text. It's the subject of his "Open Letter" column in his Twin Cities Business Magazine. Vance says, "People who keep working in their golden years should be celebrated, not denigrated." Couldn't agree more. In fact, states that figure out how to tap the skills of older workers are going to find themselves better positioned economically and competitively.
Future of Aging Services Conference - Social Media Workshop
If you're going to be at the AAHSA Future of Aging Services Conference and Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., this Wednesday, please join Ecumen at the 12:30 to 2 p.m. session on social media. I'll be joining Larry Zook, CEO of Landis Homes in Pennsylvania; Ted Goins, president of Lutheran Services for the Aging, in North Carolina and Craig Collins-Young, who leads internet content for AAHSA, in a panel discussion called "Using Social Media to Tell Your Story." Will be a lot of fun. What's interesting is that just 5 years ago, we wouldn't have such a discussion. As Bob Dylan sang, "The Times, They are a Changing."
Changing Aging in Bayfield, Wisconsin, Through CORE
Why should Arizona or Florida be the meccas for enjoying one's senior years?
We have incredibly beautiful areas in the Upper Midwest that people don't want to leave . . . One such place is Bayfield, Wisconsin, a picturesque village on the North Shore of Wisconsin overlooking the Chequamegon Bay and The Apostle Islands. As you can see from the picture above, it's right out of Norman Rockwell's studio.
A very cool group of neighbors sees Bayfield as a destination for a lifetime. They have formed CORE Community Resources, which is empowering seniors in the Bayfield area to remain independent and involved in their community.
CORE has a definite "changing aging" vision:
To create a community that becomes a national example of how neighbors can help seniors
live and thrive and benefit their community.
CORE is an example of a new movement where people are joining together to shape their future and "age in community." Another local example is Mill City Commons, which Ecumen helped spawn in Minneapolis.
CORE volunteers provide transportation; a wide array of educational and speaker series; a store called ENCORE, wellness programs, home repair, navigation and links to health care services, and more.
The Upper Midwest has some of the most beautiful places to age, but it's going to take groups of people to make them aging friendly. Kudos to CORE for seeing the possibilities in aging and what they could mean for the future vitality of a community.
Innovation and PERS (Personal Emergency Response System)
Lori Orlov at Aging in Place Technology Watch has an interesting post on the lack of "innovation" in PERS devices or Personal Emergency Response Systems (known by many as the terrible "I've fallen and can't get up" commercials). This device is going to totally evolve, especially as technology companies and senior services pros work closer together. We recently met with a major global company that wants to serve the senior market, but they said they don't know anything about seniors and senior services. Well we don't know anythnig about manufacturing the products they develop. Collaboration: the key to living better.
Ecumen and Alzheimer's Association CLASS Act Op-ed
An op-ed in today's Saint Paul Pioneer Press by Kathryn Roberts, president and CEO of Ecumen, and Mary Birchard, executive director of the Minnesota/North Dakota chapter of the Alzheimer's Association follows:
Americans Need a New Way to Pay for Long-Term Services and Support
Congress last considered transforming the inadequate way we pay for long-term care 20 years ago when the bi-partisan Pepper Commission created its Call for Action for health reform. Nothing happened.
Fast forward to last fall: Authorities filed charges against a Minnesota farmer whose alleged crime was keeping his wife at home with him. She sat in the easy chair, he on the davenport and, when she wandered, as many people with Alzheimer's do, a wiggling chain attached to her called him to her aid. Authorities faulted his ingenuity, arrested him and made his wife go to a nursing home before finally dropping charges. She returned home.
At least he had a plan. Most of us don't. So let's have a televised congressional health care summit and include a good idea - the CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports). In both Senate and House health bills, it would increase personal responsibility; empower more people with affordable services; and slow growth to Medicaid, America's de facto long-term services insurer.
Someone develops Alzheimer's every 70 seconds. Nearly 800,000 people nationally had strokes last year - the largest cause of adult disability. We don't know what's next. We do know that the overwhelming majority of Americans are uninsured for Alzheimer's care or other supportive services, leaving most of us vulnerable to a cycle of personal stress and fiscal loss. It's unacceptable.
People - often in crisis - frequently scramble to find supportive services only to learn they're not Medicare-covered. After spending into poverty and qualifying for Medicaid, they learn their only choice for shelter and care is most often an institutional government-funded nursing home.
Seventy-three percent of family caregivers work outside the home. Two-thirds have missed work to provide care - a $34 billion business productivity hit. Employee health suffers. A new study of the National Alliance of Caregiving at the University of Pittsburgh shows employee caregivers cost businesses an average of 8 percent in increased health costs or $13 billion annually. Many caregivers stop personal savings. Examples abound of caregiving families, including those of newly returned veterans, impoverishing themselves.
These families are giving us a lot. For example, family care for Alzheimer's in Minnesota is valued at nearly $2 billion. And every 1 percent decline in family caregiving costs state government $30 million.
The CLASS Act would provide coverage where most have none. Through voluntary payroll deduction, Americans 18-plus would pay premiums - set by the Secretary of Health - building a national risk pool minus pre-existing condition penalties. Upon five years of vesting, someone needing help with daily activities, such as dressing, would receive a cash benefit to self-direct.
This national benefit would be self-funded by premiums and earned interest, not tax dollars. Some have concerns about its solvency; however, legislation mandates solvency for 75 years, and Congressional Budget Office modeling shows it meets this requirement.
Some are concerned the CLASS Act would threaten private insurance. It won't. Few have private long-term care insurance. A new approach will elevate the need for service and care planning and spur new products, such as supplemental insurance plans - similar to those for Medicare - extending the national benefit. We'll also see state innovation wrapping around the benefit, slowing growth to Medicaid and strengthening it for those unable to escape poverty.
An average $75 daily benefit for enrollees sounds small. But it would be more than $27,000 annually a person could self-direct. A husband could get respite, paying for a half day of in-home services for his wife with Alzheimer's. It could provide someone with multiple sclerosis morning assistance to dress and continue working.
People moving into their 70s have more disabilities than our previous generation. Most young people have no insurance for a long-term disability. Policymakers didn't see this when Medicare and Medicaid were formed in 1965. The CLASS Act does.