Today’s seniors are living longer than ever before. On the surface, that sounds great: a longer lifespan means more time to do everything they’ve ever dreamed of! There’s just one problem: the graying of America is causing not only a great deal of personal expense to many Americans, but also public expense as the increased cost of caring for seniors puts heavier demand on the existing systems designed to provide for them. Here are some important pointers relevant to states on the east coast and across the country.

The Cost of Long-Term Care

Most senior care options don’t come cheap. Many seniors experience this reality all too quickly. Nursing homes can add up fast: a private room in America’s average nursing home facility costs close to $7,000 per month, running even higher in some states like NY. Even a semi-private room runs over $6,000. For this reason, many seniors are now trying to avoid nursing homes for as long as possible. One popular option is an assisted living facility, which still runs an average of $3,200 per month across the United States. Continuing Care Retirement Communities, which are open to seniors who require varying levels of care, can average more than any other option: with entrance fees that can equal $100,000 or more and monthly fees that average between $3,000 and $5,000, these are not communities for elderly individuals who are struggling to make ends meet. In fact, many seniors struggle to find the means to pay for their long-term care, leaving Medicaid, Medicare, and other public care programs responsible for paying for their twilight years.

Aging in Place

To help lower costs, many seniors choose to age in place, staying at home instead of moving into a long-term care facility. Aging in place, however, isn’t as inexpensive as it sounds at first. As increased care goes from convenience to necessity, many seniors find themselves needing to make modifications to their homes. They might need to install grab bars, widen doorways and add ramps for wheelchairs, or install a new bathtub or shower. Eventually, a hospital bed or rails for the existing bed may be needed. Home modifications, however, are not the only expensive parts of aging in place. Those seniors who choose this option may also find themselves needing to pay for in-home care, meal delivery, and even adult day care services in order to make it possible for them to stay at home longer.

Medicare and Medicaid Sustainability

Fifty years ago, Medicare and Medicaid were created in order to protect seniors and provide them with the medical care they needed during their twilight years. Unfortunately, it was impossible to predict the advances in medical technology or the current imbalance of seniors compared to the working population: as baby boomers enter their twilight years, more people are in need of Medicaid and Medicare services than ever before. The rising cost of health care has also put so much strain on these systems that they’re in danger of collapsing under it. Unfortunately, these programs are no longer adequate to providing the care that America’s graying population will need in the years to come.

Planning for the Future

Dealing with the rising cost of senior care isn’t just a personal problem. It’s necessary, as time goes on, to find ways to reduce the cost of elder care; find solutions that allow for the preservation of health of senior adults; and to look into European models that are currently effective in providing the care that seniors need. Improvements to the existing health care system are certainly necessary in order to ensure that seniors are able to receive the quality of care they deserve.

Personal planning as well as public planning is imperative at this juncture in order to prevent crisis. Baby boomers are hitting their twilight years quickly, and there aren’t enough solutions currently available to handle their medical needs. Seniors need to be prepared to handle their own costs of aging for as long as possible in order to help ease the burden on an over-stretched system. The public, however, will need to make changes to deal with its aging seniors sooner rather than later.

Summer is a favorite time of year for many people. Everyone relishes the opportunity to enjoy their favorite outdoor activities, especially after a winter of feeling trapped indoors. As people age, however, they are more vulnerable to the dangers of heat, sun exposure, and dehydration. In addition, dehydration may increase the risk of a serious cardiovascular event like a heart attack, stroke or kidney failure. During a record-breaking heat wave, one study found that the increased heat triggered not just an increase in emergency room trips, but a 75% increase in heat-related deaths.

Why It’s a Problem

As you age, you don’t sweat as well as young people—which means that it’s harder to cool off. It’s also more difficult to adjust to sudden changes in temperature, like heading outside after sitting in an air-conditioned house or car. Stepping quickly from one extreme to the other can also cause stress on the body that makes it difficult to adjust to the temperature change. Seniors are also more likely to have chronic medical conditions that change the body’s normal response to heat, take prescription medications that may impair the body’s ability to regulate its temperature, or even take medications that inhibit perspiration. Seniors also don’t notice the increased heat the way younger people do, which can make it difficult for them to recognize the signs and risks associated with high temperatures.

Signs of Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke

Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are heat-related illnesses caused by spending too much time in the heat, usually accompanied by dehydration. When heat stroke occurs, the body may lose its ability to regulate temperature. The most obvious external signs of heat exhaustion include confusion, dizziness, fainting, and fatigue. The individual suffering from heat exhaustion may also complain of headache, abdominal cramps, or diarrhea. Muscle cramps and dark-colored urine are further signs that heat exhaustion has occurred. In the event of heat stroke, a racing heart, rapid breathing, flushed skin, and an extremely high body temperature, generally around 104, will appear.

Avoiding Heat Stroke and Heat Exhaustion in the Elderly

The first step to avoiding heat stroke and heat exhaustion is to remain hydrated. Cutting back on caffeine and alcohol and drinking plenty of liquids, especially water, will make it easier to keep the body functioning normally. Dressing appropriately, including layered clothing when you anticipate going in and outside several times, can help keep heat exhaustion and heat stroke at bay. It’s also important to choose outside time carefully. Seniors shouldn’t stay outside for too long, and remaining inside during the mid-day hours can be helpful. It’s also important to use air conditioning or open the windows at night, when you will be less likely to recognize symptoms of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Seniors should seek air-conditioned environments throughout the majority of the day.

Checking the heat index and the weather forecast before you go out is another great way to ensure that you won’t end up outside in too-hot temperatures, especially if you no longer “feel” the heat the way you once did. Use skin protection: avoid direct sun exposure as much as possible and keep sunscreen readily accessible, where it’s easy to use and you will remember it often. If you’re going to be participating in an outdoor activity, take plenty of breaks to cool down when necessary.

Be aware of the side effects of your prescriptions and how your body responds to strenuous activity. Make sure that you know the warning signs of heat stroke and heat exhaustion and pay attention to them: don’t ignore symptoms just to enjoy a little bit more time outdoors. It can also be helpful to rinse away the heat of the day by taking a cool shower or getting in the water outside.

By knowing the symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion and taking steps to protect yourself or senior loved ones, you can prepare for a happier, healthier summer for everyone. If the senior in your life experiences heat-related issues, make sure that they seek medical attention immediately. Paying attention to the heat and staying away from the sun during the hottest part of the day will ensure that they are less likely to experience problems.

Financing assisted living or elder care for a loved one presents quite a dilemma – how do you provide the best quality care and keep your finances secure at the same time? It’s a difficult consideration, but if you’re willing to do some research, there are ways in which you can save money while simultaneously providing quality care for the ones you love.

1. Assess Your Medicaid Options

Elder care and assisted living options available through Medicaid vary by state, so your first step is to check your area’s Department of Community Health. Generally, Medicaid covers the healthcare needs of low-income people; however, several states also have waiver programs for the elderly and folks with disabilities who need help with day-to-day expenses. Additionally, some states cover personal and nursing services as well. It is also worth noting that Medicaid was recently expanded under the Affordable Care Act, so if your loved ones didn’t qualify before, they might now – try filling out an application at the Health Insurance Marketplace to find out. You don’t need to worry about the open enrollment deadline, as it doesn’t apply to Medicaid applications.

2. Investigate Financial Aid

A variety of financial aid options exist beyond just Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Look into Veteran Affairs (VA) benefits programs (if applicable), non-profit foundations, and long-term care insurance (if care isn’t needed yet) to help offset your costs. Religious organizations such as The Good Samaritan Society can help you find affordable housing options and offer other forms of assistance as well.

3. Consider an Independent Caregiver

Choosing a qualified independent caregiver instead of a professional organization can save you as much as 30% in costs, according to The American Elder Care Research Organization. However, make sure you invest in a background check to confirm that your caregiver is qualified and reputable. To find independent caregivers near you, try the CareFamily website. You can also check with friends, family, and social organizations to see if they can refer you to a quality independent caregiver.

4. Use a Home Monitoring Service

If your loved one needs light supervision instead of full-time assistance, try installing a home monitoring service. This system allows you to monitor the individual from a remote location with the use of cameras and sensors. If this exceeds your price range, consider Lifeline, a device designed by Philips. Lifeline connects the elder individual to a trained response associate in the case of a slip or fall. One of its newly added features automatically alerts a response associate if a fall is detected by the device, even if the person wearing it doesn’t manually call in. The associate can then assess the situation and contact a family member, send emergency services if necessary, and follow up to see that help has arrived.

5.Use a Meal Service

Preparing homemade meals for your loved one can be time-consuming and strenuous. If your budget is tight, consider a meal service. You can specify dietary restrictions, and choose how many meals an elder receives in a given day. If you are trying to help regulate your loved one’s diet, this is an excellent option as well. Two services to consider that offer extensive menus are CarePathways and DineWise.

Final Thoughts Your best bet is to always shop the competition, and your most effective way to do so is to use the power of the Internet. Take your time and do the necessary research so that you can make an informed decision. Taking care of an elderly relative is something most of us are faced with, and learning to help and respond in a caring yet affordable way will help to relieve the stress from all involved parties.
What are you doing to impact your senior living costs?

Ron Sullivan is based in Georgia and writes about retirement, home care, and personal finance.
Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Senior Planning Services.

There are plenty of great charities and nonprofit organizations in need of help, but when you’ve got extra time on your hands and are looking for a great place to volunteer, it can be hard to know where to start! There’s certainly no shortage of opportunities for those willing to donate their time, skill, and talent during retirement. As you look for more ways that you can give back to your community, enhance your own life, and live an active lifestyle throughout your retirement years? Consider some of these fantastic opportunities.

Working with Children and Teens

If you have a heart for children or teenagers, there are plenty of chances to work with them and give them the attention they need in order to succeed. A former teacher, professor, or teacher’s assistant would make an amazing tutor or mentor for students. You can work with neglected children, become a host family for an international exchange student, or volunteer with at-risk children and teens. Senior Corps, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are always looking for volunteers who are willing to give their time and energy to improving the lives of children and teenagers.

Vacation and Volunteer

Volunteering can take you to some fascinating places that you might never have considered without the volunteer opportunity. Try taking a vacation that will open up new volunteer opportunities, including tutoring in Navajo Reservation schools or restoring historic sites around the country. Want to take it further? You could volunteer in Nepal or take your teaching skills to Cambodia to instruct students in English, French, or math.

Hunger and Poverty Relief

Have a passion for feeding people? That doesn’t have to stop at your own front door. Northwest Harvest and Meals on Wheels are amazing volunteer opportunities for anyone looking for a chance to help feed people who would otherwise go hungry. You can work with Habitat for Humanity or a number of other local programs to build and repair affordable housing for people who need shelter. Doctors and nurses go on plenty of medical mission trips both out of the country and within their own towns. No medical experience is no problem! The thing that’s needed most is willing hands.

Disaster Relief

Following a natural disaster, volunteers are needed more desperately than ever. From earthquakes and tsunamis to tornadoes, floods, and more, every natural disaster needs plenty of hands to help restore the quality of life that people left behind. Red Cross volunteering is a great way to find your way into these needy communities. You can bring CPR and other lifesaving skills directly to the people who need it most or work to handle supplies, donations, and administrative tasks. Survivors of the crisis will likely be stunned, in need of comfort, and waiting for assistance to start rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of the disaster. Retired physicians, nurses, EMTs, pharmacists, and other medical professionals can offer their skills to the Medical Reserve Corps. Interpreters, chaplains, office workers, and legal advisers are always in need in disaster relief areas.

Tour Guide

Love talking to people and have plenty of knowledge to share? Working as a tour guide might be the perfect opportunity for you! You can offer your skills to lead tours for universities, museums, botanical gardens historical sites, or land conservation groups. Work with public or private organizations according to what appeals to you! You’ll be in the perfect position to preserve landmarks and educate visitors. Have a more specialized set of skills? Try rehabilitating birds of prey or driving and maintaining antique steam cars.

Political Activism

If politics is your specialty, volunteer with a political campaign, grassroots organization, or political action committee. You can lead rallies for or against any given issue, taking your passion to the next generation. Knock on doors, call voters, or circulate petitions to help increase awareness about a variety of candidates and topics. Have a passion for helping military service members and their families? Consider finding a volunteer organization in your area that will allow you to thank them for their service.

Legal Advocate

If you’re passionate about standing up for people who might not be able to stand up for themselves, working as a legal advocate is a great way to volunteer your time and energy. You can advocate for foster children, defend the rights of minorities, or represent battered spouses in domestic abuse cases. You also have the option to work on behalf of environmental organizations, public land trusts, and animal rights groups or work with governments of developing nations to advance human rights. You can also take on a volunteer role in an administrative office or non-profit organization.

Humane Societies and Animal Shelters

Have a passion for animals and helping them find their forever homes? Volunteer to care for animals in shelters! You can also organize fundraising events, perform administrative tasks, or volunteer as a legal advocate or grant writer. Other volunteers will help rescue pets after floods, fires, and natural disasters. You can even foster one or more animals to help give them a temporary place to live until they find that forever home.

Environmental Volunteering

If your passion is for the environment, there are a wide range of opportunities available for you. Work with the National Park Service, preserve coral reefs, and advocate for protection of endangered wildlife populations. You can pick up trash and remove invasive plants in rivers. Gathering water samples from streams for environmental studies is also an important task.

Professional and Creative Opportunities

If you have a wide range of creative or professional skills, you can put them into play in a variety of areas. Try offering your skills as a photographer, a graphic designer, or a musician. Offer your skills in marketing, human resources, IT, strategic planning, marketing, accounting, and more. You can also work as a board member to help create a community-wide impact: try HandsOn Network or All For Good as a great starting place. As a former accountant or someone who just happens to be good with numbers, helping people complete and file their taxes is an amazing volunteer service, especially for those who might otherwise struggle with the task.

Elderly People

You may be retired, but you’re not ready to call yourself old yet! Working with an elderly person is the perfect way to give back some time and energy. You can work with seniors to help with paperwork, bill paying, and grocery shopping or simply offer companionship and a listening ear. Volunteer with older drivers to help maintain safe driving skills in spite of deteriorating physical ability. Work as a handyman to help an older neighbor or returning veteran with home repairs, ramp construction, and other needed tasks that they may not be able to handle on their own. In many cases, your efforts may be what enables an elderly individual to continue to live independently.

Create Your Own Opportunity

If you’re looking for a place to volunteer, but haven’t been able to find something that fits your passions and skills, consider creating your own volunteer organization! If you see a need that is going unfilled, there’s no one better than you to fill it. Your new creation will open doors for others to volunteer, too.

Volunteering is a rewarding use of your time that you’ll never regret. Don’t spend your retirement years wishing you’d found a chance to give back! Instead, dive in with a local organization and see what difference your skills can make as you leave a legacy for future generations.

The 2014 Oscars made history for the world of Alzheimer’s disease as Julianne Moore won the Oscar for best actress in the film Still Alice, a film about the life of a woman diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Based on the book written by Lisa Genova, the world took real notice of a disease that is reaching epidemic levels around the world; leaving us all to ask “What if?”

Moore’s character, Dr. Alice Howland, was a 50 year old linguistics professor at Columbia University when she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. After finding that she inherited the gene from her father her three grown children had to choose if they wanted to find out if they too carried the gene. Her oldest daughter, pregnant with twins, tested positive; while her twins were negative for carrying the gene. Her son, a junior doctor tested negative and her other daughter made the decision to not be tested.

Testing For Alzheimer’s

• There are genetic tests used to determine the risk factor of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; however, they are not 100% accurate in determining if you will definitely have Alzheimer’s.
• Early onset Alzheimer’s generally occurs between the ages of 30 and 60.
• Early onset Alzheimer’s is most often caused by a mutated gene inherited by a family member (usually a parent) and is called familial Alzheimer’s disease or (FAD).
• Currently, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) feels that genetic testing will most likely never be able to 100% correctly predict the disease due to a number of other factors that can highly influence the development of Alzheimer’s and its progression.
• There is an international group Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), which studies families with the genetic mutation known to cause early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
• Early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnoses represent less than 5% of all Alzheimer’s cases.

Genetic testing for Alzheimer’s does not guarantee you will or will not be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, only if you are at increased risk. There are other factors that play into whether or not the known gene mutates into the gene which seems to create a breakdown that creates forms of amyloid plaques (consistent with all Alzheimer’s patients) in the brain.

To Test or Not To Test

In the beginning, Alice had a plan to end her life when she became ill. Strategically planning out the entire way to end her life once her mind was no longer working was what she thought was best. She came to this conclusion once she knew that she would die from Alzheimer’s disease. No spoiler here on whether she changes her mind or she chooses to live life to the end of her given time.

Many have different views on this idea and I don’t believe there is ever going to be an agreement on that thought. However, I can share what a woman told me about her own mother who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.

If my mother had decided to take her life when she could still realize she was slipping away, we would have missed much joy and laughter as a family.

Most of all, we would have missed her last birthday celebration. She not only smiled non-stop at the surprise party, but she ate like a trooper, opened gifts and seemed so very ‘there’ with us.

We would hve missed quiet times sitting outside in the gazebo while looking at the flowers, the birds, and the sky (smiling).

We would have missed playing UNO and ‘wheelchair races.’ Those few memories we made far outweighed the days where she wasn’t really with us and we missed her.

Whether portrayed on film, book or in real life, Alzheimer’s disease is not easy for anyone. Deciding whether or not to test to see if you are at risk is a very personal decision; for everyone who has Alzheimer’s or someone they love who is affected, we all hope for a cure to come.

Materials Referenced:

NIH – Alzheimer’s Genetics Testing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOYCE APPERSON, RN, GCM

Joyce Apperson is a Registered Nurse and Geriatric Care Manager with 15 plus years of experience working with advocating for seniors. She is the founder and President of Caring Connection, Inc., which provides in-home care and geriatric care management in Harford County, Baltimore County and Cecil County in Maryland. Joyce currently serves on the Harford County Advisory Board on Aging. In addition to writing articles here for the Caring Connection’s blog, Joyce has been a regular contributor on senior care topics to the County Gazette and an advisory board member for her local Area Agency on Aging.