Retirement Living News

June 2008

HEADLINES  (Click on headline to read story)

• AARPSurvey Finds Boomers and Their Parents Share Concerns About Current Economic Slowdown, But Manage Differently
• Lawmakers Pursue Silver Alert Program to find Lost Seniors
• Aging Experts See Need for High-Tech Devices to Monitor Seniors in Future Years
• NAHB Annouces Awards for Best Senior Housing
• New Book: A Place Called Canterbury

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NEWS STORIES

AARP Survey Finds Boomers and Their Parents Share Concerns About Current Economic Slowdown, But Manage Differently 

A comprehensive survey released last month by AARP finds baby boomers and their parents' generation are managing the current economic downturn differently. It is forcing millions of Americans to make very difficult decisions on their immediate survival and long-term financial security. 

Baby boomers are feeling a relatively greater impact of the economic downturn, and some of their reactions - like compromising their retirement savings and even cutting back on medications - have negative implications for the future. More than one out of four middle-aged and older workers (27%) say they postponed plans to retire due to the recent economic downturn. Almost 25% of people ages 45-64 are prematurely taking money out of their 401(k)s and other investments. Younger boomers (ages 45-54), in particular, are doing things like postponing paying bills (27%) and even cutting back on medications (17%). 

"It may be years before we realize the full scope of the current economic crisis," says Tom Nelson, AARP's Chief Operating Officer. "Taking money out of your retirement savings has a compounding effect because that money is not allowed to grow at a time when you have fewer working years to replace the losses. Even more troubling, shortchanging your health care can lead to higher health care costs down the road." 

Retirees and 65+ Americans are more likely to depend on fixed incomes, which means they have less room to make spending changes and may be bearing the biggest burden of rising prices. Almost six-out-of-ten (59%) of people 65+ in this group are having a harder time paying for food, gas and medicine, and more than a third (34%) of all retirees have had to help a child pay bills in the last year. More than one-in-ten (11%) of retirees have had to seek help from loved ones or charity organizations in the last year. "Retirees and older Americans have had to deal with skyrocketing health care costs on fixed incomes for years," said Nelson. "For them, the current economic slump means more of the same." 

Overall, the poll shows that there is a sense of shared pain and common concerns among boomers and older generations -- both among retirees and those looking to retire in the foreseeable future. Eighty-one percent of all respondents say the economy is in fairly bad or very bad condition and 75 percent think it's getting worse. Almost two-thirds (63%) of those asked own stocks individually or through retirement plans like 401(k)'s or IRAs. More than 7 in 10 (72%) of these investors lost money on their portfolio in the last year. 

While most of all respondents (58%) are not concerned about the impact of mortgage foreclosures on their personal well-being, almost 9 in 10 are concerned about the effect of foreclosures on the larger economy and 64% are concerned about the impact on their communities. The survey, titled "The Economic Slowdown's Impact on Middle-Aged and Older Americans.." was conducted conducted April 12 - 23, 2008 by Woelfel Research, Inc. To view the complete study, visit: http://www.aarp.org/research/economy/trends/economy_survey.html.
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Lawmakers Pursue Silver Alert Program to Find Lost Seniors

Efforts are underway at the federal and state level to expand a program known as Silver Alert to find and return seniors and others with dementia to their homes. Every year, hundreds of seniors and others with dementia wander away, on foot or driving, and if not found within 24 hours, at least half suffer serious injury or death, according to the Alzheimer's Association. As baby boomers age, the toll is expected to multiply. 

So far, Silver Alert -- patterned after a national program for missing children known as Amber Alert -- has resulted in the safe return of a majority of those reported. Colorado was the first state to enact a Silver Alert program in 2006, followed in 2007 by Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas. Virginia adopted a similar program called Senior Alert in 2007 and Kentucky this year adopted a program called Golden Alert. Legislators in Florida, Louisiana and New York are discussing proposals for next year. 

Like the successful Amber Alert program established in the mid-1990s to locate missing children, the state-run Silver Alert accelerates the usual missing persons search by using public broadcast systems, state transportation department automated road signs and a 511 emergency call line to involve the community in rescuing vulnerable seniors. 

In April, the death of an 86-year-old Florida woman who disappeared from an assisted-living facility prompted Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) to propose a $5.6 million federal grant program that would offer at least $100,000 per state to seed development of the program. 

"This tragedy unfortunately highlights the very real problem of older residents, many of whom suffer from diseases which leave them easily confused and disoriented, wandering away from their homes or care-giving facilities and meeting harm because family, friends and authorities could not find them in time," Bilirakis said. 

Inspired by the initial success of Silver Alert, other members of Congress want to speed nationwide development of the program. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) has drafted a bill to create a Silver Alert program at the national level, to assist in locating and returning to safety seniors who have become "lost." It is designed to encourage Silver Alert programs at the state level, and coordinate the efforts across the U.S. 

State programs -- which administrators say are inexpensive to operate because they piggyback on existing Amber Alert communication systems -- vary from state to state. All states use similar public announcements but differ on who is covered and what is required to file an alert. In Texas and North Carolina, law enforcement officials say the use of Silver Alert is growing rapidly as more people learn about the program.
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Aging Experts See Need for High-Tech Devices to Monitor Seniors 
in Future Years

The coming wave of aging Americans threatens to swamp the existing number of retirement communities, assisted living and nursing home facilities in the coming years. Thus it will be impossible to accommodate everyone who will need, or might want, more structured care. Experts say motion sensors and other high-tech devices will help cover the shortfall, allowing older people to live independently for longer. 

In March 2008 the Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), a program of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, released a report saying that technology systems to underpin living independently, or what some call "aging in place," are still years from being rolled out on a larger scale due to inadequate financing for research and other incentives. CAST is an international coalition of more than 400 technology companies, aging-services organizations, research universities, and government representatives that is leading the charge to expedite the development, evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies that can improve the aging experience. 

The report, titled State of Technology in Aging Services: Summary, offers a vision for long-term care that includes using integrated information technology systems to support older people living in their homes. One of the key barriers that stand in the way of implementing some of this technology is the lack of awareness and usability challenges, both perceived and real, on the part of older consumers. There is also a lack of consensus regarding the value of technology in "aging in place" care, and an absence of adequate financial incentives to encourage investment in this technology like coverage by insurance companies. 

The report offers six recommended actions to advance the development and adoption of several technologies. 

To read a copy of the report, click here. http://www.agingtech.org/documents/bscf_state_technoloy_summary.pdf
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NAHB Announces Awards for Best Senior Housing

The National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) 50+ Housing Council has announced the winners for its 2008 Best of 50+ Housing Awards, which honor excellence and innovation in the design, development and marketing of housing for older consumers. The annual awards program was held in late April during the Building for Boomers and Beyond: 50+ Housing Symposium in New Orleans.

Among the winners of this year's awards were the following: 

Active Adult Housing: Overall Community  
Small (Up to 200 homes) 
Adams Farm, Shrewsbury, MA  
Chester River Landing, Chesterton, MD 
Midsize (201 to 750 homes) 
Vallagio at Inverness, Englewood, CO  
The Palace Management Group, Weston, FL  
Large (Over 750 homes) 
Village at Deaton Creek, Hoschton, GA  
Sun City Festival, Buckeye, AZ  

Continuing Care Retirement Community: Overall Community 
Midsize (Up to 200 units) 
Plush Mills, Wallingford, PA  
Large (over 200 units) 
Friendship Village of Schaumburg, Schaumburg, IL
Wind Crest, Highlands Ranch, CO 

Assisted Living Residences: Overall Facility 
Grace House, Silver Spring, MD  
Parker at Stone Gate, Highland Park, NJ 
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New Book: A Place Called Canterbury

A Place Called Canterbury is the story about the move of writer Dudley Clendinen's mother -- a Southern matron with an iron will but creaking bones. She sold her house and moved to Canterbury Tower, a life care community in Tampa Bay, Fla. There she found herself in a microcosm of the New Old Age. Canterbury was filled not just with old Tampa neighbors but also with strangers from across the country. Wealthy, middle class, or barely afloat; Christian, Jewish, or faithless; proud, widowed, or still married; grumpy or dear -- they had all come together, at the average age of 86, in search of a last place to live and die.

Clendinen (once a reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times) found that after moving his mother to Canterbury Tower there was a book of tales to be told in Canterbury. He conveys a fascination with the way the facility was full of formidable, interesting people "meeting each other for the first time, at almost the end of their lives. 

A Place Called Canterbury is a beautifully written, often hilarious, deeply moving look at how the oldest Americans are living with the reality of living longer. Peopled by brave, daffy, memorable characters determined to grow old with dignity -- and to help one another avoid the dreaded nursing wing. The book is like a kind of soap opera. Likewise, it is a poignant chronicle of the last years of the Greatest Generation and their children, the Boomers, as they are drawn into old age with their parents. A Place Called Canterbury is an essential read for anyone with aging parents and anyone wondering what their own old age will look like. To order a copy from Amazon, click here. 
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