Green House Project Conference – Live Streaming
Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community Planned Green House
Information about the conference is from the Changing Aging website and more information is available there. Because of continuing interest in the Green House Homes movement, and after posting four Green House Homes pieces, on this blog, I am planning to listen in to these presentations, and you can, too. See the information below.
Begin Section from Website
You can view the conference livestream from The Green House website here. Here’s a schedule for the sessions that will be broadcast live, including Dr. Bill Thomas and panels featuring elders and shahbazim:
September 29th@ 9:00-10:00a EDT
- Elderhood: on Being and Doing,Dr. Bill Thomas, Founder of the Eden Alternative and The Green House Model
September 29th @ 4:15-5:15p EDT
- Elders Rule! Panel of Elders Talk about a Life Worth Living!
September 30th @ 1:30-2:30p EDT
- In a Different Voice,Panel of Shahbazim
As Our Parents Age has published a series of articles on the planning and building of Green House Homes, a concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. The series includes: Green Houses for Older Elders, Replacing a Nursing Community with Green House Homes, Nuts and Bolts of Green House Planning, and Building a Green House Home – The Inside. To learn even more about Green House® Homes go to the web site and request the DVD and/or guide-book.
iPad for Dad, #15: Amazing Shared Memories
If a goal of the iPad is to connect people and media, that is what now happens between my dad and me. His iPad has added unexpected and pleasurable reading to my day as he sends, via e-mail, memories, reminiscences, and musings. This virtual interaction, so different from the other ways we connect with each other, is exciting as Dad passes along family history. The iPad makes it so easy.
In the past Dad, a journal writer for more than 65 years, would go to his computer, wake it up, log in, go to e-mail, log-in, write an e-mail and send it. However, if he wrote a short essay and wanted to send it to me or to a friend, he had added steps of attaching or cutting and pasting his writing into the body of an e-mail message. With so many steps Dad did not always remember one thing or another – not because of memory issues, but rather because Dad has a busy life and does not use the computer enough to make so many steps second nature. It is akin to the way I feel when I return to my work computer after a long vacation.
Continuing Care Retirement Communities
Lately continuing care retirement communities (CCRC’s) are in the news. Confusing information abounds, and it can be worrisome for anyone who is in the process of choosing a CCRC, as well as for aging parents who already live in a community. In the last two months (August – September 2010) The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each published an article on the subject.
- Concerns Rise About Continuing-Care Enclaves, New York Times
- Continuing-Care Retirement Communities: Weighing the Risks, Wall Street Journal
For a lot more helpful information on CCRC’s check out the Our Parents blog. Leigh Ann Otte has written two comprehensive posts highlighting the issues involved and linking to outside resources. Both also link to other informational posts on her blog. Check out the links below.
Physical Capability and Aging
Research published on September 10, 2010 by British Medical Journal (BMJ), Objectively Measured Physical Capability Levels and Mortality: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, re-examined a range of published studies that looked at the physical capabilities of older adults. Conducting a meta-analysis, which is a statistical method for examining multiple studies and pooling the results, researchers reviewed results from 1950-2009, evaluating how physical activities such as balancing on one leg, getting up from a chair, gripping objects, and walking speed affect older people’s lives. According to the article, “Growing evidence from single studies suggests that these objective measures of physical capability are also useful markers of current and future health.” Adding to this body of evidence, the meta-analysis found that the inability to perform basic physical tasks effectively is a predictor of mortality (article abstract).
Investigators began their project with more than 50 studies that examined physical capabilities, most on older people over 60 years of age, but they eliminated those with people in hospitals or nursing homes. Thirty-three studies, with data from more than 100,000 individuals, were eventually used in the project. Of the physical capabilities studied, the researchers found that “…grip strength was the most frequently examined measure in the published literature.” Nineteen of the studies focused on issues associated decreasing grip strength.
Are We Ever Old?
Just when do we become old? Carolyn Rosenblatt, in her Aging Parents blog over at Forbes, asks this question. Months ago I wrote a post, Aging Parents: Bodies Slower but Same World View, describing how my 90-year-old grandmother giggled like a schoolgirl when good-looking men strolled by on the boardwalk. The view from her eyes had nothing to do with her age. What an amazing lesson that was for me.
When Do We Become Old?, Rosenblatt’s post on September 22, 2010, points out that people, no matter what age, do not like to think of themselves as old, and no one wants to lose control of life.
In our relationships with aging parents we rely on gentleness, thoughtfulness, and wisdom, but successful interaction requires us to recognize these same qualities in our parents.
More Info on Falling – Aging in Place Tech Watch
As Our Parents Age has posted many pieces on seniors and falling — a topic near and dear after two of our senior parents fell numerous times in their later years. Over at Aging in Place Technology Watch, Laurie Orlof posted comments and thoughts about senior falls on September 12, 2010. She also reviewed some recent research, puzzling on why the number of falls remains so high. It is worth taking the time to read, and also to consider signing up for Laurie’s blog updates and Twitter posts (AgingTech). So much to learn!
One comment in her post rang true for my family.
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Check out the “Be the Noodle” Review
While I was intently focused on my Green House posts last week, Inside Aging Parent Care posted a terrific review of Be The
Noodle by Lois Kelly.
What I love about this book is the noodle support metaphor. When the summer waters are rough in my beloved St. Lawrence River, a noodle is just the ticket for extra support on a hot day when one of us — not just aging parents — wants to stay in the water for a long time. A noodle is strong and secure, and it keeps a person from tiring or sinking, functioning just like a caregiver does when a family member is seriously ill.
I have yet to read Kelly’s entire book — I picked it up at a friend’s house — but the hospice experience described in the book is similar to our experience during the last months of end of my mother-in-law’s life. Suffice it to say, hospice was amazing, and so it this book.
Getting Ready for the Gray Tsunami… Staggering Statistics
The American Medical News, a publication of the American Medical Association (AMA), just published an interesting opinion piece, Coping with Baby Boomers and Staggering Statistics, by Ardis Dee Hoven, M.D., a AMA board member. After the statistics, she has many ideas and recommendations for physicians, medical training, especially in relation to geriatrics information.
Becoming A Grown-up Child
One day in April 2007 my husband and I were the adult kids in our families — we are the only adult children
— and the next day we became what we laughingly call “real grown-ups,” helping first one, then two, and increasingly all three of our parents. It’s time to give back, and we do so willingly and happily. However the process is not easy, and it is not free from anxiety and tension. Check out the As Our Parents Age About page to learn more about the mission of this blog.
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As Our Parents Age by Marti Weston is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on work at AsOurParentsAge.wordpress.com and AsOurParentsAge.net
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