Tag Archives: seniors

Out Of Sight. Out Of Mind. Why Seniors Are Getting The Invisible Treatment.

America is going back to normal as states reopen and Covid restrictions lift, but in many communities, the elderly, people of color and people with disabilities feel left out. Though vaccines have brought hope to millions of Americans, seniors are getting the invisible treatment in the race for population immunity. They are at the most at risk, the hardest to reach, and have suffered the highest fatalities from Covid 19.

Covid 19 vaccines are now available at no cost to everyone living in the US (over the age of 12+) regardless of insurance or immigration status.  Given that the world is bracing for the next wave of infections spawned by the virulent Delta and Delta Plus variants, why aren’t vaccines reaching vulnerable seniors who need it most?

Advocates at a June 5th EMS briefing explained why seniors are getting left behind.

Why seniors in minority communities aren’t getting vaccinated 

Overall, some 25% of people 65 and older have not been vaccinated though that number is possibly higher, said Kim McCoy Wade, Director, California Dept. of Aging, which co-sponsored the panel. Data showed shocking disparities about why older people in minority communities were not getting their shots.

Describing the vaccination trend in California, Wade said the variation in vaccination rates by race, ethnicity and age, and by community, was striking.

“The number that jumped out at me was that only 40% of Latinos over 60+ were vaccinated, compared to more than 75% of older adults (3 out of 4 seniors 65 + ) statewide – half of what the state is tracking for White and Asian American elders,” said Wade. The vaccination rate for white and Asian elderly in California is at 80%, and only at 60% for Black and Native American elders, she added. But older Latinos (60+) are the only racial group where the vaccination rate is much lower than for Latinos in their 50s and even lower for those in the 70-80 age range.

At issue in the vaccine rollout employed by the medical establishment, noted disability rights advocate Jessica Lehman, is that race hangs like a shadow over black and brown bodies.

It’s why people facing the greatest challenge accessing vaccines are seniors with limited English language ability from immigrant and low-income communities.


What’s stopping seniors from signing up for vaccines?

Typically, many seniors are isolated and hard to reach because they live alone, are homebound, not mobile, do not speak English, or cannot access the Internet. But there is a higher biological risk associated with age and disability, that the pandemic exposed with devastating effect.

Four percent of older Americas live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, explained Dr. Louise Aronson, Professor of Medicine, UCSF, but accounted for 35% of deaths nationwide. Older people who contracted Covid when the pandemic hit were relocated to nursing facilities alongside the high-risk residents already there. There was limited or no access to testing or PPE for care givers, who in turn took Covid back into their communities.

For Infectious Disease specialist Dr. Rakhshan Chida, Medical Director at an OTP (opioid treatment program) clinic in New York, it was a nightmare that became reality.  Working in inadequately ventilated treatment rooms when the pandemic hit, without access to masks, PPE, or testing, Chida described the inevitable disaster as “working in a den of covid.” Every day 2 or 3 patients tested positive.

In March, at the start of the pandemic, half her staff of 40 contracted the virus, and Chida took the infection home to her 87-year-old mother who lives with her. While her mother made a quick recovery, Chida experienced severe Covid symptoms and was ill for three weeks. But she was back on the frontlines after her quarantine, to attend to her vulnerable population of active and ex-users, including those who are in the 50+ age group.

But Chida was starting to see signs of vaccine reluctance in her patients. One 73-year-old patient who developed nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea after the first shot, refused to get the second because her reaction scared her.

Fear of the vaccine is not an uncommon barrier reiterated Aronson, an expert on aging and author of the book “Elderhood”. While some seniors are primarily concerned about unknown side effects or allergies, there is a prevailing distrust of vaccines that stems from how quickly they were developed, and suspicion of the people responsible for decision making around them.

One of Aronson’s patients confessed she feared the vaccine would insert a tracking device into her body. Others felt their existing illnesses should preclude them from getting the vaccine when in fact the opposite is true.

“There is so much misinformation, particularly for the limited English community,” added Anni Chung, President & CEO, Self Help for the Elderly.

The fault lies in the US public health structure, remarked Aronson. Without a nationwide system, federal, state, and county websites employ digital strategies that don’t reach or address the needs of at-risk seniors, for the same reason that census and voter registration drives did not work effectively.

With little or no Internet access, it becomes harder for the homebound elderly, people in rural areas, and people for whom English is a second language, to get or receive communication from Federal, state and county health systems.

“Digital strategies are adding to the problem and to the risk,” said Aronson.

A study of Black seniors in their seventies, by Cindy Cox Roman, CEO, Help Age USA, identified gaps in their knowledge of vaccine facts arising from difficulty with digital access, and also from conflicting information obtained via a mix of sources – TV news, senior centers, elected officials, and libraries.

“Everybody does not have access to the web and cable is expensive,” said one respondent. “When the library is closed, where do people go for information? We are the lost generation of the information age.”

Chung, a member of the California Commission on Aging, said that elders could not navigate the appointment system. Some had grandchildren who hovered over their computers for 6 to 8 hours to get two appointments for their grandparents. But a senior who has nobody to help them “is at the mercy of waiting for something to happen.”

Even when seniors did manage to sign up for vaccines at mega sites, they encountered long lines and no seating which drove them away said Aronson. Homebound people had no way to get there. Unfortunately, the mega-site vaccine roll-out also kept away older folk who had been advised to stay away from crowds for their protection.

At Chida’s clinic in New York, one patient refused a vaccine, saying “We don’t leave the house so why should I vaccinate when I’m not going out and meeting people?”

The problem when elders don’t come out of the house, is that they remain invisible in the public eye, warned Aronson, but an older person of color who is homebound – is triply invisible and gets left behind.

Seniors with disabilities are another group getting the invisible treatment, added Lehman, Executive Director at Senior and Disability Action in the East Bay. She said nearly 1 in 10 nursing home residents died of Covid, while 1 in 12 died in long-term facilities, a crisis that took a while to recognize. Instead, hospitals with limited beds or ventilators were guilty of care rationing – making judgment calls about who to treat based on who they viewed as having a better quality of life. Often it meant that older people and people with disabilities were low on the priority list because they are seen as ‘expendable”. In Texas, for example,  Michael Hickson, a black, 46-year-old quadriplegic patient died of Covid after a doctor ordered his removal from a ventilator.

“The Covid pandemic is the most horrific manifestation of ableism and ageism we have ever seen in our lifetime,”  remarked Lehman.

 

How are states vaccinating seniors and at-risk adults?

In California, there’s a push to funnel vaccines from mega-sites to community sites, offer free transportation, phone lines in addition to online sign-ups, and drop-in appointments.

Community groups are getting outreach grants from the state, so trusted messengers – community leaders and partners – can address people’s concerns. In California, public health officials have planned town halls to reach minority communities. For example, Surgeon General Dr. Burke Harris will meet with the African American community and similar strategies will be employed for the Latino and AAPI communities. Gov. Gavin Newson has also introduced a lottery and gift cards to persuade the unvaccinated to get their shot.

High-touch community programs are necessary to reach and deliver information at a local level, using trusted messengers such as the local press, faith leaders, and caregivers. Aronson urged people to contact their health department to identify community groups that are creating vaccine access for homebound elders – fire departments, in-home supportive services, Meals on Wheels, the YMCA, and other community partners.

At her clinic in New York, Chida offered mobile patients metro cards and arranged car services to assist with transportation. About 27 homebound patients were targeted with single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccinations administered at home by nurses, and schedules for older patients were adjusted to sync vaccines with regular visits. Social worker representatives coordinated with the clinic to organize nurses, sharp boxes, PPE, consent forms and arranged dedicated outreach to patients at homeless shelters. And, the clinic coordinated with New York’s Department of Health to organize an in-house vaccination drive for  its own patients, including seniors.

“The community really has to step in big time,” and rally the community agreed Chung, because many seniors, especially in immigrant communities, are unlikely to answer phone calls from “official government agencies.”

In San Francisco, her Self Help team asked the Department of Health to identify alternative ways to get vaccines out to where seniors need them instead of waiting for seniors to come to get their shots.

Local health departments listened.  By March and April, they began to approve the distribution of vaccines through clinics, PCPs, primary care providers, and locations where seniors were more like to have access and are comfortable. At senior centers, people received shots along with their healthy meal packages.

“At one point 7 of our centers were reaching about 1500 people every day,” said Chung.

In April, Self Help and a community partnership team with providers from  NICOS Chinese Health Coalition, YMCA, Chinatown CDC-Self Help Chinese Hospital, and the Chinese doctors association, headed to a Chinatown zip code with the lowest vaccination rates to administer doses at congregate housing facilities. Through an intensive phone call campaign and neighborhood canvassing, they identified and contacted almost 1000 people in the tract.

”We were just very fortunate there were no major outbreaks in Chinatown,” added Chung. What helped was door-to-door advocacy and education early in the pandemic advising people to mask and practice social distancing, and trust in local, community health professionals. In an initiative to reach vulnerable bed-bound and homebound seniors, Self Help mobilized 14 doctors, 10 volunteer drivers, and 10 social workers, to administer vaccines to about 130 seniors. Self Help’s next vaccination rally in partnership with Walgreen will include a small raffle to persuade seniors to get the vaccine.

The panel encouraged reporters to cover stories from their communities to remind the government to add more resources where they were needed.

The pandemic is far from over cautioned Wade, and a true comeback will depend on being ‘laser focused’ on vaccinating older and at-risk adults.

******

In California, everyone age 12 can easily book a Covid 19 vaccine up via the MyTurn website, while entering to win Vax for the Win incentive program. My Turn also helps with organizing transportation and provides a list of hundreds of COVID-19 vaccine clinics accepting walk-ins, or call for services at 1-833-422-4255.

Meera Kymal is the Contributing Editor at India Currents.

 

Seniors! Get Advice On Medicare Open Enrollment

If you’ve been watching TV lately, you may have seen actor Danny Glover or Joe Namath, the 77-year-old NFL legend, urging you to call an 800 number to get fabulous extra benefits from Medicare.

There are plenty of other Medicare ads, too, many set against a red-white-and-blue background meant to suggest officialdom — though if you stand about a foot from the television screen, you might see the fine print saying they are not endorsed by any government agency.

Rather, they are health insurance agents aggressively vying for a piece of a lucrative market.

This is what Medicare’s annual enrollment period has come to. Beneficiaries — people who are 65 or older, or with long-term disabilities — have until Dec. 7 to join, switch or drop health or drug plans, which take effect Jan. 1. By switching plans, they can potentially save money or get benefits not ordinarily provided by the federal insurance program.

For all its complexity and nearly endless options, Medicare fundamentally boils down to two choices: traditional fee-for-service or the managed care approach of Medicare Advantage.

The right choice for you depends on your financial wherewithal and current health status, and on future health scenarios that are often difficult to foresee and unpleasant to contemplate.

Costs and benefits among the multitude of competing Medicare plans vary widely, and the maze of rules and other details can be overwhelming. Indeed, information overload is part of the reason a majority of the more than 60 million people on Medicare, including over 6 million in California, do not comparison-shop or switch to more suitable plans.

“I’ve been doing it for 33 years and my head still spins,” says Jill Selby, corporate vice president of strategic initiatives and product development at SCAN, a Long Beach nonprofit that is one of California’s largest purveyors of Medicare managed care, known as Medicare Advantage. “It’s definitely a college course.”

Which explains why airwaves and mailboxes are jammed with all that promotional material from people offering to help you pass the course.

Many are touting Medicare Advantage, which is administered by private health insurers. It might save you money, but not necessarily, and research suggests that, in some cases, it costs the government more than administering traditional Medicare.

But the hard marketing is not necessarily a sign of bad faith. Licensed insurance agents want the nice commission they get when they sign somebody up, but they can also provide valuable information on the bewildering nuances of Medicare.

Industry insiders and outside experts agree most people should not navigate Medicare alone. “It’s just too complicated for the average individual,” says Mark Diel, chief executive officer of California Coverage and Health Initiatives, a statewide association of local outreach and health care enrollment organizations.

However, if you decide to consult with an insurance agent, keep your antenna up. Ask people you trust to recommend agents, or try eHealth or another established online brokerage. Vet any agent you choose by asking questions on the phone.

“Be careful if you feel like the insurance agent is pushing you to make a decision,” says Andrew Shea, senior vice president of marketing at eHealth. And if in doubt, don’t hesitate to get a second opinion, Shea counsels.

You can also talk to a Medicare counselor through one of the State Health Insurance Assistance Programs, which are present in every state. Find your state’s SHIP at www.shiptacenter.org.

Medicare & You, a comprehensive handbook, is worth reading. Download it at the official Medicare website, www.medicare.gov.

The website offers a deep dive into all aspects of Medicare. If you type in your ZIP code, you can see and compare all the Medicare Advantage plans, supplemental insurance plans, known as Medigap, and stand-alone drug (Part D) plans.

The site also shows you quality ratings of the plans, on a five-star scale. And it will display your drug costs under each plan if you type in all your prescriptions. Explore the website before you talk to an insurance agent.

California Coverage and Health Initiatives can refer you to licensed insurance agents who will provide local advice and enrollment assistance. Call 833-720-2244. Its members specialize in helping people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people.

These so-called dual eligibles — nearly 1.5 million in California and about 12 million nationwide — get additional benefits, and in some cases they don’t have to pay Medicare’s monthly medical (Part B) premium, which will be $148.50 in 2021 for most beneficiaries, but higher for people above certain income thresholds.

If you choose traditional Medicare, consider a Medigap supplement if you can afford it. Without it, you’re liable for 20% of your physician and outpatient costs and a hefty hospital deductible, with no cap on how much you pay out of your own pocket. If you need prescription drugs, you’ll probably want a Part D plan.

Medicare Advantage, by contrast, is a one-stop shop. It usually includes a drug benefit in addition to other Medicare benefits, with cost sharing for services and prescriptions that varies from plan to plan. Medicare Advantage plans typically have low to no premiums — aside from the Part B premium that most people pay in either version of Medicare. And they increasingly offer additional benefits, including vision, dental, transportation, meal deliveries and even coverage while traveling abroad.

Beware of the risks, however.

Yes, the traditional Medicare route is generally more expensive upfront if you want to be fully covered. That’s because you pay a monthly premium for a Medigap policy, which can cost $200 or more. Add to that the premium for Part D, estimated to average $41 a month in 2021, according to KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)

However, Medigap policies will often protect you against large medical bills if you need lots of care.

In some cases, Medicare Advantage could end up being more expensive if you get seriously ill or injured, because copays can quickly add up. They are typically capped each year, but can still cost you thousands of dollars. Advantage plans also typically have more limited provider networks, and the extra benefits they offer can be subject to restrictions.

Over one-third of Medicare beneficiaries nationally are enrolled in Advantage plans. In California, about 40% are.

The main appeal of traditional Medicare is that it doesn’t have the rules and restrictions of managed care.

Dr. Mark Kalish, a retired psychiatrist in San Diego, says he opted for traditional fee-for-service with Medigap and Part D because he didn’t want a “mother may I” plan.

“I’m 69 years old, so heart attacks happen; cancer happens. I want to be able to pick my own doctor and go where I want,” Kalish says. “I’ve done well, so the money isn’t an issue for me.”

Be aware that if you don’t join a Medigap plan during a six-month open enrollment period that begins when you enroll in Medicare Part B, you could be denied coverage for a preexisting condition if you try to buy one later.

There are a few exceptions to that in federal law, and four states — New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut — require continuous or yearly access to Medigap coverage regardless of health status.

Make sure you understand the rules and exceptions that apply to you.

Indeed, that is an excellent rule of thumb for all Medicare beneficiaries. Read up and talk to insurance agents and Medicare counselors. Talk to friends, family members, your doctor, your health plan — and other health plans.

When it comes to Medicare, says Erin Trish, associate director of the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, “it takes a village.”

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Teenagers Use Technology to Fight Dementia

Brainy Haven is a nonprofit created by high school students from Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Its founders, Raayan Brar, Darron King, and Siddharth Jha, worked collaboratively on the initiative after realizing the lack of online resources for not just the elderly, but specifically those with dementia-related illnesses.

“In the modern world we live in, using technology to better those around us is our obligation,” says Jha. “At Brainy Haven, our team hopes to serve those with dementia-related illness by aiding their process, which can be terrifying for many families.”

Brainy Haven aims to assist those with memory through the use of technological resources. Their website contains an assortment of puzzles and brain teasers for dementia patients to use, ranging from patterns to a fully functional memory game. Having already sent it out to many nursing homes, the team at Brainy Haven has received positive feedback from users.

However, wanting to do more, the three contacted a team at the University of Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center to receive feedback on structure and implementation. “I had known the Alzheimer’s Center’s Director, Dr. Henry Paulson, from past events so it seemed like he’d be the perfect person to reach out to for help,” King explained, “Dr. Paulson kindly introduced us to a group of people with diverse skill sets working at the Center and they gave us some detailed, brilliant feedback.”

In addition to Brainy Haven’s carefully crafted program, users can find important information regarding dementia-related illnesses and their impact on the brain. The team was astonished to see the sheer number of people affected by dementia and they hope that through Brainy Haven, those who are lucky enough to not have been afflicted with dementia can take a few moments to educate themselves on what dementia really is and its effects on their communities.

Brar remembers reading an article from the Hindustan Times and being shocked at how many Indians that are personally affected by this devastating issue.  “Helping the community during difficult times is an amazing thing to do,” Brar says, “I have always wanted to better society, and what we did is something so simple, but I do believe that it can help the lives of our seniors.” The trio is proud of the work that they had done, and now they want teenagers all around the world to do something similar and help benefit their community in some small way.

Sticking to their roots in India, Jha and Brar plan on sending out customized programs to homes in India. Both having had family affected by dementia-related illnesses, the two are aiming to help those suffering in their ancestral lands. “After talking to family members and visiting India numerous times as I child, I hope to be able to give back to the people of Bihar and others who have not been blessed with the same opportunities as myself,” says Jha. “Brainy Haven is the first step to accomplishing that goal.”

Siddharth Jha hopes to change the world and solve global problems through management and technology. When he is not coding, Sid can often be found playing a game of chess or partaking in any other strategic activity.

Raayan Brar passion in life comes from the joy of teaching others and helping the community. As a teacher at various student programs, Raayan knows and enjoys the true value of critical thinking.

Darron King is planning to pursue a career in the field of neuroscience and psychology in his future endeavors. He is interested in learning about the endless capabilities of the human brain and is excited about the future of neurology.

South Asian Seniors Get Educated on Black Lives

Growing up as a South Asian girl, society, media and even family had always ingrained in me that light was beautiful. Days in the sun would always be followed by the dreaded moment of evaluating how much I had tanned and then a series of home remedies, skin lightening products like fair and lovely, and even milk baths. As I’ve grown up, I’ve learned that this experience, one shared by many South Asians, has a name: Colorism. 

This summer, as our country reeled from the Black Lives Matter movement, I started to think about anti-blackness or colorism in my own community. Inspired and motivated by national activists, I sought to take action in a way that felt authentic to myself. Drawing on my experiences as President of the Palo Alto Youth Council and Co-founder of a Real Talk, where I facilitate conversations between people with different political perspectives, I knew I wanted to start an intergenerational discussion about the role of the South Asian community in the Black Lives Matter movement. So, I reached out to the Bay Area Indian Community Center to take over their weekly Thursday morning virtual yoga class for seniors to lead a seminar on Black Lives Matter. 

Coming into the seminar, I worried about what the response would be to my presentation. Talking about skin color with South Asians has always seemed taboo to me. I knew that starting this conversation would be uncomfortable, especially with individuals much older than me, but also a critical step in the culture shift around beauty and race that needs to happen in our community.

I started off the seminar with a presentation on Black Lives Matter, explaining the parts of the movement, especially on social media, that many seniors lacked information on. I next moved into a lesson about the connection between the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and Indian independence movements, highlighting the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on Martin Luther King Junior. Finally, after presenting some statistics about the booming business of skin-lightening products, the dowry system, and colorism, I opened the floor up to discussion, and to say the least, I was blown away.

My initial fears of silence and anger quickly dissipated as seniors started to share their own experiences. They spoke passionately about housing discrimination they had faced in America, personal insecurities about their skin color, and the beauty standards associated with marriage. I also received pushback – some uncles and aunties highlighted my own lack of knowledge growing up in America and argued that this was just how the system worked. However, overall, the conversation ended on a hopeful note, as seniors reflected on the power of the younger generation to start shifting old beauty standards to reflect our community’s core values of good character, equality, and justice. 

As communities across the country fight for racial justice, I believe we, the South Asian community, not only have an opportunity, but rather a responsibility to look within at how we perpetuate racism. This means educating ourselves, showing up as allies to support other people of color, but also having uncomfortable, even taboo, conversations about race. My call to action for you as a reader is to start and lead these conversations with your parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends. That is how we will begin to shift our culture.

Check out the Seminar below!

Divya Ganesan is a senior at Castilleja High School in Palo Alto, CA. She is passionate about connecting different cultures, ages, and political perspectives through leadership, collaboration, and technology.

The New Digital World Can Give Seniors A Hard Time

Family gatherings on Zoom and FaceTime. Online orders from grocery stores and pharmacies. Telehealth appointments with physicians.

These have been lifesavers for many older adults staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic. But an unprecedented shift to virtual interactions has a downside: Large numbers of seniors are unable to participate.

Among them are older adults with dementia (14% of those 71 and older), hearing loss (nearly two-thirds of those 70 and older) and impaired vision (13.5% of those 65 and older), who can have a hard time using digital devices and programs designed without their needs in mind. (Think small icons, difficult-to-read typefaces, inadequate captioning among the hurdles.)

Many older adults with limited financial resources also may not be able to afford devices or the associated internet service fees. (Half of seniors living alone and 23% of those in two-person households are unable to afford basic necessities.) Others are not adept at using technology and lack the assistance to learn.

During the pandemic, which has hit older adults especially hard, this divide between technology “haves” and “have-nots” has serious consequences.

Older adults in the “haves” group have more access to virtual social interactions and telehealth services, and more opportunities to secure essential supplies online. Meanwhile, the “have-nots” are at greater risk of social isolation, forgoing medical care and being without food or other necessary items.

Dr. Charlotte Yeh, chief medical officer for AARP Services, observed difficulties associated with technology this year when trying to remotely teach her 92-year-old father how to use an iPhone. She lives in Boston; her father lives in Pittsburgh.

Yeh’s mother had always handled communication for the couple, but she was in a nursing home after being hospitalized for pneumonia. Because of the pandemic, the home had closed to visitors. To talk to her and other family members, Yeh’s father had to resort to technology.

But various impairments got in the way: Yeh’s father is blind in one eye, with severe hearing loss and a cochlear implant, and he had trouble hearing conversations over the iPhone. And it was more difficult than Yeh expected to find an easy-to-use iPhone app that accurately translates speech into captions.

Often, family members would try to arrange Zoom meetings. For these, Yeh’s father used a computer but still had problems because he could not read the very small captions on Zoom. A tech-savvy granddaughter solved that problem by connecting a tablet with a separate transcription program.

When Yeh’s mother, who was 90, came home in early April, physicians treating her for metastatic lung cancer wanted to arrange telehealth visits. But this could not occur via cellphone (the screen was too small) or her computer (too hard to move it around). Physicians could examine lesions around the older woman’s mouth only when a tablet was held at just the right angle, with a phone’s flashlight aimed at it for extra light.

“It was like a three-ring circus,” Yeh said. Her family had the resources needed to solve these problems; many do not, she noted. Yeh’s mother passed away in July; her father is now living alone, making him more dependent on technology than ever.

When SCAN Health Plan, a Medicare Advantage plan with 215,000 members in California, surveyed its most vulnerable members after the pandemic hit, it discovered that about one-third did not have access to the technology needed for a telehealth appointment. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had expanded the use of telehealth in March.

Other barriers also stood in the way of serving SCAN’s members remotely. Many people needed translation services, which are difficult to arrange for telehealth visits. “We realized language barriers are a big thing,” said Eve Gelb, SCAN’s senior vice president of health care services.

Nearly 40% of the plan’s members have vision issues that interfere with their ability to use digital devices; 28% have a clinically significant hearing impairment.

“We need to target interventions to help these people,” Gelb said. SCAN is considering sending community health workers into the homes of vulnerable members to help them conduct telehealth visits. Also, it may give members easy-to-use devices, with essential functions already set up, to keep at home, Gelb said.

Landmark Health serves a highly vulnerable group of 42,000 people in 14 states, bringing services into patients’ homes. Its average patient is nearly 80 years old, with eight medical conditions. After the first few weeks of the pandemic, Landmark halted in-person visits to homes because personal protective equipment, or PPE, was in short supply.

Instead, Landmark tried to deliver care remotely. It soon discovered that fewer than 25% of patients had appropriate technology and knew how to use it, according to Nick Loporcaro, the chief executive officer. “Telehealth is not the panacea, especially for this population,” he said.

Landmark plans to experiment with what he calls “facilitated telehealth”: nonmedical staff members bringing devices to patients’ homes and managing telehealth visits. (It now has enough PPE to make this possible.) And it, too, is looking at technology that it can give to members.

One alternative gaining attention is GrandPad, a tablet loaded with senior-friendly apps designed for adults 75 and older. In July, the National PACE Association, whose members run programs providing comprehensive services to frail seniors who live at home, announced a partnership with GrandPad to encourage adoption of this technology.

“Everyone is scrambling to move to this new remote care model and looking for options,” said Scott Lien, co-founder and chief executive officer of the company, which is headquartered in Orange County, California.

PACE Southeast Michigan purchased 125 GrandPads for highly vulnerable members after closing five centers in March where seniors receive services. The devices have been “remarkably successful” in facilitating video-streamed social and telehealth interactions and allowing nurses and social workers to address emerging needs, said Roger Anderson, senior director of operational support and innovation.

Another alternative is technology from iN2L (an acronym for It’s Never Too Late), a company that specializes in serving people with dementia. In Florida, under a new program sponsored by the state’s Department of Elder Affairs, iN2L tablets loaded with dementia-specific content have been distributed to 300 nursing homes and assisted living centers.

The goal is to help seniors with cognitive impairment connect virtually with friends and family and engage in online activities that ease social isolation, said Sam Fazio, senior director of quality care and psychosocial research at the Alzheimer’s Association, a partner in the effort. But because of budget constraints, only two tablets are being sent to each long-term care community.

Families report it can be difficult to schedule adequate time with loved ones when only a few devices are available. This happened to Maitely Weismann’s 77-year-old mother after she moved into a short-staffed Los Angeles memory care facility in March. After seeing how hard it was to connect, Weismann, who lives in Los Angeles, gave her mother an iPad and hired an aide to ensure that mother and daughter were able to talk each night.

Without the aide’s assistance, Weismann’s mother would end up accidentally pausing the video or turning off the device. “She probably wanted to reach out and touch me, and when she touched the screen it would go blank and she’d panic,” Weismann said.

What’s needed going forward? Laurie Orlov, founder of the blog Aging in Place Technology Watch, said nursing homes, assisted living centers and senior communities need to install communitywide Wi-Fi services — something that many lack.

“We need to enable Zoom get-togethers. We need the ability to put voice technology in individual rooms, so people can access Amazon Alexa or Google products,” she said. “We need more group activities that enable multiple residents to communicate with each other virtually. And we need vendors to bundle connectivity, devices, training and service in packages designed for older adults.”

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The New Normal For Seniors In A Post-Vaccine World

Imagine this scenario, perhaps a year or two in the future: An effective COVID-19 vaccine is routinely available and the world is moving forward. Life, however, will likely never be the same — particularly for people over 60.

That is the conclusion of geriatric medical doctors, aging experts, futurists and industry specialists. Experts say that in the aftermath of the pandemic, everything will change, from the way older folks receive health care to how they travel and shop. Also overturned: their work life and relationships with one another.

“In the past few months, the entire world has had a near-death experience,” said Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave, a think tank on aging around the world. “We’ve been forced to stop and think: I could die or someone I love could die. When those events happen, people think about what matters and what they will do differently.”

Older adults are uniquely vulnerable because their immune systems tend to deteriorate with age, making it so much harder for them to battle not just COVID-19 but all infectious diseases. They are also more likely to suffer other health conditions, like heart and respiratory diseases, that make it tougher to fight or recover from illness. So it’s no surprise that even in the future, when a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available — and widely used — most seniors will be taking additional precautions.

“Before COVID-19, baby boomers” — those born after 1945 but before 1965 — “felt reassured that with all the benefits of modern medicine, they could live for years and years,” said Dr. Mehrdad Ayati, who teaches geriatric medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and advises the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. “What we never calculated was that a pandemic could totally change the dialogue.”

It has. Here’s a preview of post-vaccine life for older Americans:

Medical Care

  • Time to learn telemed. Only 62% of people over 75 use the internet — and fewer than 28% are comfortable with social media, according to data from the Pew Research Center. “That’s lethal in the modern age of health care,” Dychtwald said, so there will be a drumbeat to make them fluent users of online health care.
  • 1 in 3 visits will be telemed. Dr. Ronan Factora, a geriatrician at Cleveland Clinic, said he saw no patients age 60 and up via telemedicine before the pandemic. He predicted that by the time a COVID-19 vaccine is available, at least a third of those visits will be virtual. “It will become a significant part of my practice,” he said. Older patients likely will see their doctors more often than once a year for a checkup and benefit from improved overall health care, he said.
  • Many doctors instead of just one. More regular remote care will be bolstered by a team of doctors, said Greg Poland, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic. The team model “allows me to see more patients more efficiently,” he said. “If everyone has to come to the office and wait for the nurse to bring them in from the waiting room, well, that’s an inherent drag on my productivity.”
  • Drugstores will do more vaccinations. To avoid the germs in doctors’ offices, older patients will prefer to go to drugstores for regular vaccinations such as flu shots, Factora said.
  • Your plumbing will be your doctor. In the not-too-distant future — perhaps just a few years from now — older Americans will have special devices at home to regularly analyze urine and fecal samples, Dychtwald said, letting them avoid the doctor’s office.

Travel

  • Punch up the Google Maps. Many trips of 800 miles or less will likely become road trips instead of flights, said Ed Perkins, a syndicated travel columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Perkins, who is 90, said that’s certainly what he plans to do — even after there’s a vaccine.
  • Regional and local travel will replace foreign travel. Dychtwald, who is 70, said he will be much less inclined to travel abroad. For example, he said, onetime plans with his wife to visit India are now unlikely, even if a good vaccine is available, because they want to avoid large concentrations of people. That said, each year only 25% of people 65 and up travel outside the U.S. annually, vs. 45% of the general population, according to a survey by Visa. The most popular trip for seniors: visiting grandchildren.
  • Demand for business class will grow. When older travelers (who are financially able) choose to fly, they will more frequently book roomy business-class seats because they won’t want to sit too close to other passengers, Factora said.
  • Buying three seats for two. Older couples who fly together — and have the money — will pay for all three seats so no one is between them, Perkins said.
  • Hotels will market medical care. Medical capability will be built into more travel options, Dychtwald said. For example, some hotels will advertise a doctor on-site — or one close by. “The era is over of being removed from health care and feeling comfortable,” he said.
  • Disinfecting will be a sales pitch. Expect a rich combination of health and safety “theater” — particularly on cruises that host many older travelers, Perkins said: “Employees will be wandering around with disinfecting fogs and wiping everything 10 times.”
  • Cruises will require proof of vaccination. Passengers — as well as cruise employees — will likely have to prove they’ve been vaccinated before traveling, Factora said.

Eating/Shopping

  • Local eateries will gain trust. Neighborhood and small-market restaurants will draw loyal customers — mainly because they know and trust the owners, said Christopher Muller, a hospitality professor at Boston University.
  • Safety will be a bragging point. To appeal to older diners in particular, restaurants will prominently display safety-inspection signage and visibly signal their cleanliness standards, Muller said. They will even hire employees exclusively to wipe down tables, chairs and all high-touch points — and these employees will be easy to identify and very visible

Home Life

  • The homecoming. Because of so many COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, more seniors will leave assisted living facilities and nursing homes to move in with their families, Factora said. “Families will generally move closer together,” he said.
  • The fortress. Home delivery of almost everything will become the norm for older Americans, and in-person shopping will become much less common, Factora said.
  • Older workers will stay home. The 60-and-up workforce increasingly will be reluctant to work anywhere but from home and will be very slow to re-embrace grocery shopping. “Instacart delivery will become the new normal for them,” Dychtwald said.

Gatherings

  • Forced social distancing. Whenever or wherever large families gather, people exhibiting COVID-like symptoms may not be welcomed under any circumstances, Ayati said.
  • Older folks will disengage, at a cost. Depression will skyrocket among older people who isolate from family get-togethers and large gatherings, Ayati said. “As the older population pulls back from engaging in society, this is a very bad thing.”
  • Public restrooms will be revamped. For germ avoidance, they’ll increasingly get no-touch toilets, urinals, sinks and entrances/exits. “One of the most disastrous places you can go into is a public restroom,” Poland said. “That’s about the riskiest place.”

  • This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Seniors Facing More than the Coronavirus Threat!

Close down group meals for seniors. Cancel social gatherings.

The directive, from the Illinois Department on Aging, sent shock waves through senior service organizations late last week.

Overnight, Area Agencies on Aging had to figure out how to help people in their homes instead of at sites where they mingle and get various types of assistance.

This is the new reality as the COVID-19 virus barrels into communities across America. Older adults — the demographic group most at risk of dying if they become ill ― are being warned against going out and risking contagion. And programs that serve this population are struggling to ensure that seniors who live in the community, especially those who are sick and frail, aren’t neglected.

This vulnerable population far outstrips a group that has received more attention: older adults in nursing homes. In the U.S., only 1.4 million seniors reside in these institutions; by contrast, about 47 million older adults are aging in place. An additional 812,000 seniors make their homes at assisted living facilities.

While some of these seniors are relatively healthy, a significant portion of them are not. Outside of nursing homes, 15% of America’s 65-and-older population (more than 7 million seniors) is frail, a condition that greatly reduces their ability to cope with even minor medical setbacks. Sixty percent have at least two chronic conditions, such as heart disease, lung disease or diabetes, that raise the chance that the coronavirus could kill them.

But the virus is far from the only threat older adults face. The specter of hunger and malnutrition looms, as sites serving group meals shut down and seniors are unable or afraid to go out and shop for groceries. An estimated 5.5 million older adults were considered “food insecure” — without consistent access to sufficient healthy food ― even before this crisis.

As the health care system becomes preoccupied with the new coronavirus, non-urgent doctors’ visits are being canceled. Older adults who otherwise might have had chronic illness checkups may now deteriorate at home, unnoticed. If they don’t go out, their mobility could become compromised — a risk for decline.

Furthermore, if older adults stop seeing people regularly, isolation and loneliness could set in, generating stress and undermining their ability to cope. And if paid companions and home health aides become ill, quarantined or unable to work because they need to care for children whose schools have closed, older adults could be left without needed care.

Yet government agencies have not issued detailed guidance about how to protect these at-risk seniors amid the threat of the COVID-19 virus.

“I’m very disappointed and surprised at the lack of focus by the CDC in specifically addressing the needs of these high-risk patients,” said Dr. Carla Perissinotto, associate chief for geriatrics clinical programs at the University of California-San Francisco, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection.

In this vacuum, programs that serve vulnerable seniors are scrambling to adjust and minimize potential damage.

Meals on Wheels America CEO Ellie Hollander said “we have grave concerns” as senior centers and group dining sites serving hot meals to millions of at-risk older adults close. “The demand for home-delivered meals is going to increase exponentially,” she predicted.

That presents a host of challenges. How will transportation be arranged, and who will deliver the meals? About two-thirds of the volunteers that Meals on Wheels depends on are age 60 or older ― the age group now being told to limit contact with other people as much as possible.

In suburban Cook County just outside Chicago, AgeOptions, an Area Agency on Aging that serves 172,000 older adults, on Thursday shuttered 36 dining sites, 21 memory cafes for people with dementia and their caregivers, and programs at 30 libraries after the Illinois Department on Aging recommended that all such gatherings be suspended.

Older adults who depend on a hot breakfast, lunch or dinner “were met at their cars with packaged meals” and sent home instead of having a chance to sit with friends and socialize, said Diane Slezak, AgeOptions president. The agency is scrambling to figure out how to provide meals for pickup or bring them to people’s homes.

With Mather, another Illinois organization focused on seniors, AgeOptions plans to expand “Telephone Topics” — a call-in program featuring group discussions, lectures, meditation classes and live performances — for seniors now confined at home and at risk of social isolation.

In New York City, Mount Sinai at Home every day serves about 1,200 older adults who are homebound with serious illnesses and disabilities — an extraordinarily vulnerable group. A major concern is what will happen to clients if home care workers become sick with the coronavirus, are quarantined or are unable to show up for work because they have to care for family members, said Dr. Linda DeCherrie, Mount Sinai at Home’s clinical director and a professor of geriatrics at Mount Sinai Health System.

With that in mind, DeCherrie and her colleagues are checking with every patient on the program’s roster, evaluating how much help the person is getting and asking whether they know someone ― a son or daughter, a friend, a neighbor — who could step in if aides become unavailable. “We want to have those names and contact information ready,” she said.

If caregivers aren’t available, these frail, homebound patients could deteriorate rapidly. “We don’t want to take them to the hospital, if at all possible,” DeCherrie said. “The hospitals are going to be full and we don’t want to expose them to that environment.”

In San Francisco, UCSF’s Care at Home program serves about 400 similarly vulnerable older adults. “Testing [for the coronavirus] is even more of a problem for people who are homebound,” said Perissinotto, who oversees the program. And adequate protective equipment ― gloves, gowns, masks, eye shields — is extremely difficult to find for home-based providers, Perissinotto said, a concern voiced by other experts as well.

To the extent possible, UCSF program staff are trying to do video visits so they can assess whether patients are symptomatic ― feverish or coughing — before going out to their homes. But some patients don’t have the technology that makes that possible or aren’t comfortable using it. And others, with cognitive impairments who don’t have family at home, may not be able to respond appropriately.

At UCSF’s general medicine clinic, nonessential medical visits have been canceled. “I have a lot of older patients with chronic pain or diabetes who otherwise would come in for three-month visits,” said Dr. Anna Chodos, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine who practices in the clinic. “Now, I’m talking to them over the phone.”

“I’m less worried about people who can answer the phone and report on what they’re doing,” she said. “But I have a lot of older patients who are living alone with mild dementia, serious hearing issues and mobility impairments who can’t work their phones.”

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Aging with Dignity

Once upon a time, our elderly were hard working, productive adults. Then, as they aged, society began to place less value on their existence; adding insult to injury, many elderly today often find themselves in the embarrassing position of being dictated to by their children or carers, without any recourse to self determination. 

Self determination is the process by which a person controls their own life.  In our youth we have this control and tend to underestimate its value. Only as people age and gradually lose their independence do they realize that self determination matters in how they live the remainder of their lives. 

Traditionally in India, the joint family structure allowed for elderly family members to be taken care of organically. But, as industrialization, urbanization and migration changed how societies function, the bond that held families of various generations together began to fracture, become fragile or even become non-existent, leading to the rise of a new paradigm-  that many families and communities everywhere face today – how do we as a society create a system that allows for our senior citizens to live their lives with dignity, independence and self determination but with the safeguards of physical and financial security?  And how do we deal with the issue of depression that creeps in with social isolation and loss of purpose as people grow older?    

This is where Archana Sharma of Samvedna Senior Care comes in.  

After a long and successful career in the tech world, Archana Sharma started Samvedna in 2013  with the aim of making a discernible difference in the lives of seniors. This was very personal for her because her parents are fiercely independent and wanted to live in their own home, but started to find it difficult to do so without some help.  Archana first started with a senior activity center but soon realized that many seniors do not have the mobility to avail of its services. It led to her to create her home service enterprise.  

Archana defines her mission as “provid[ing] best in class senior care services for the elderly to help them live happy, active and independent lives, in the comfort of their home and community through interactive caregiving.” 

Samvedna’s services are concentrated in the Delhi NCR region and have grown over the years to include elder care services, dementia care and  counselling services for geriatric ailments, primarily to fulfill the need for in-place aging.  

Intellectual companionship @home

Elder Care services are companionship-based for seniors who live alone but want to live independently.  Trained counsellors and social workers visit regularly and encourage activities based on the seniors’ interests.  Home management services are also available for general house maintenance. 

 

 

Another service called General Wellbeing helps seniors with bank visits, medical appointments, managing hospital stays and other social engagements.  This service becomes invaluable when the social worker is able to understand and communicate the technical details of a senior citizen’s medical diagnosis. 

Deepak, a Bay Area resident, has been using Samvedna for the past four years and says, “They have professionally educated staff who visit my parents regularly. It gives me peace of mind knowing that my parents are being taken care of, and I get a daily email with an update on their condition.”

Samvedna also provides in- home, long term care .  In this case, caregivers often live with the family.  The in-home attendants are screened by Samvedna and specially trained in the nuances of senior care with sensitivity, especially in cases of dementia.  

Samvedna also provides services to help elderly people diagnosed with dementia, as well as support for their caregivers or family. Its comprehensive service starts with a thorough initial neurological assessment, and specific programs are then recommended to the client based on the results, whether it is cognitive stimulation therapy or social stimulation in a group environment.  Each care plan is reviewed and monitored regularly within their team of multidisciplinary specialists.  

But as Archana says, “early detection is key,” to diagnosing senior citizens accurately, giving them the right treatment and helping families cope with the disease.  Unfortunately, either because of the stigma or a general lack of awareness in India, dementia is often not diagnosed until it has progressed to a moderate or advanced stage.  Samvedna also has a support group for caregivers, which is invaluable because caregivers are often lonely, depressed, emotionally drained and physically spent while taking care of their loved ones.

The fact is, extended families of seniors lead busy lives, with demanding jobs and long commutes.  This 21st century lifestyle has changed the social dynamic of families, whether they live in India, abroad, or even in the same house. As a society, we need to do a better job of acknowledging this and finding solutions to help our senior citizens live a meaningful and dignified life.

Entrepreneurs like Archana Sharma and Samvedna are doing just that.  

More information and details of the services that Samvedna provides can be found at https://www.samvednacare.com/

Anjana Nagarajan-Butaney is a Bay Area resident with experience in educational non-profits, community building, networking and content development and was Community Director for an online platform. She is interested in how to strengthen communities by building connections to politics, science & technology, gender equality and public education.

Edited by Meera Kymal

Autumn Blues

Splayed on 75-year-old Kamala Krishnan’s bedside table are three books: Life After Death by Deepak Chopra, Reaching to Heaven by James Van Praagh, and Love and Death by P. Rajagopalachari. These books are a constant reminder that the hereafter is no further than an arm’s reach away.

Krishnan’s is the typical story of the elderly Indian American immigrant. After the death of her husband, she moved to America to live with her daughter. “Truly, I wish to die and not trouble her like this,” says Kamala Krishnan, with a betraying quaver to her voice.

Krishnan’s daughter, Kshetra Srinivasan, admits that this exhortation frequently occurs and usually accompanies a disagreement over something as trivial as a dinner menu that might consist of something as egregious as a green salad. “In India, only cows eat raw food like let-tooce. Here…” Krishnan shakes her head with patent dismay. It’s not really the salad that is the subject of the discourse between mother and daughter. The subtext is helplessness, loss of independence, cultural chasm, and a normalizing process that is frighteningly unfamiliar.

An elderly Indian grandmother, living in a retirement facility
An elderly Indian grandmother, living in a retirement facility

Seniors who immigrate to the United States to live with their children face the daunting challenge of having to adapt to a new way of life. Their frame of reference is limited to their families who, more than likely, are ambivalent custodians of tradition and culture. These seniors face language problems; receive limited or no economic or health benefits; encounter family conflicts; are not fully aware of programs for seniors and are at a loss to spend their time productively. They feel lonely and fall victim to depression and delirium.

Dr. Rita Ghatak, Director of the Geriatric Health Services at Stanford University Medical Center, confirms the cultural issues embedded in older adult care.  “Listening and quiet acceptance go a long way,” she replies to my question of how our generation should cope with supplanted elderly parents.

The brochure that is handed to Stanford Hospital patients has this introduction to her program: “Welcome to Aging Adult Services (AAS) at Stanford. This is a program devoted to meeting the needs of older adults and their families and providing them a continuum of care with support and resources.” What leaps out at me is the phrase “and their families.” It seems a much-overlooked aspect of adult care. “The family is the advocating unit for adult care,” Ghatak emphasizes.

Medical Needs

Usually medical advice is sought as a last resort among South Asian families. As adults age, common symptoms like tiredness, apathy, and memory loss mask parameters of more chilling diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, and chronic depression. Families are fooled into believing that these issues are part of the natural process of aging. “Besides, anything to do with mood and cognition has stigma associated with it,” Ghatak adds. So even if families are in the know, they sometimes don’t seek medical attention.

Ghatak relates a case where the parents immigrated to the United States to live with their children. The father, who had undiagnosed borderline dementia, had trouble adjusting into the affluent (and isolating) neighborhood, which exacerbated his condition. The family was forced to address the father’s ailment the day he went for a walk, got lost, fell, injured himself, and was taken to Stanford Hospital. The doctors at the emergency diagnosed and put him on a treatment course for dementia, which worked well. But once he got discharged the follow-ups were not performed. Besides overcoming the stigma surrounding the diagnosis of dementia there was the more practical issue of medical insurance coverage.

Insurance Complications

Insurance is such a huge problem that internist Caroline Stratz blames the system for failing the elderly, calling it, “the Mediocrity of Medicare.” In a heartfelt piece she wrote for the Los Altos Town Crier on January 20, 2010, Stratz agonized about having to withdraw from Medicare because of the steep drop in reimbursement rates. “When I started my practice nearly 10 years ago, colleagues advised me against accepting MediCare patients because reimbursement rates are low.” But Stratz held on to her ideals about the kind of medicine she would practice. Then this year, Medicare reimbursements dropped by a further 20 percent and she could no longer justify the lowered compensation.

The price of healthcare is so steep that, without insurance, the elderly have few options. It is estimated that in 1996, average annual managed care spending for depression was $6,777 and for dementia it was $11,114.
So what is the solution? According to Ghatak, to forestall medical costs, the elderly need a regimen of good diet, good exercise, and engagement with the family, community, and society.

Social Implications

Sarada Sankaran’s story is a textbook case of engagement. She is 71 years old and is a self-confessed computer addict. She habitually delves into the brightly lit stratum of our sphere that we call connectivity via cell phone, email, Facebook, and a blog. She drives, watches CNN/MSNBC, practices yoga daily, goes to the library, and is currently working on a Tamil drama script. She is sprightly, alert, and converses with her college-age grandchild well beyond the midnight chime of the grandparent clock. “I’ve adapted to this culture,” she says, “I have no qualms about shedding the sari and donning sweatpants. I’m in this country for my grandkids and I need to be able to relate to them. I believe in the power of now.” Truly amazing! But hers is not the typical story; it is the inspirational one.

Most elderly parents in the South Asian community help the family unit in definable ways: housekeeping, cooking, babysitting, helping with homework and, in some cases, driving grandchildren to activities. It is when role, responsibility, and ownership are not clearly defined that problems crop up. When Krishnan moved into her daughter’s house, she happily took on the task of cooking for the family. However, as the grandchildren grew into teenagers, the idea of eating grandmother’s freshly prepared Indian meals daily challenged their assimilated palates. Krishnan’s role in the household slowly began to erode, leading to her morbid fascination with death and despair.

An old picture of an Indian grandmother, in India, now living in a foreign country to be closer to her kids and grandkids.
An old picture of an Indian grandmother, in India, now living in a foreign country to be closer to her kids and grandkids.

Isn’t depression just part of aging? According to National Institute of Mental Health, temporary emotional experiences of sadness, apathy, grief, and despondency are normal. However, if these conditions persist, and they interfere significantly with the ability to function, then treatment should be considered. To recognize that a problem exists is the first step to a cure. In most cases, that is probably the hardest step. When parents are burdened with the demands of jobs and rearing young kids, the needs of elderly grandparents are bundled and swept behind the phrase  “when I have the time.”

There is a glow in Krishnan’s eyes as she returns from a trip to the grocery store. “The girl there recognized me,” she says sounding breathlessly like a young girl herself. “She gave me this packet free!” Krishnan reaches inside her bag and pulls out a packet of biscuits. Such a small gesture, with such a large reach.

According to Himanshu Rath of Agewell, a charity providing support to the elderly in India, “Collectively we celebrate the old. At home, we often ignore them. We say: ‘Have you had your medicine? Have you eaten?

Here is the remote control.’ And then we get on with our own lives.”

Managing Expectations

Initiator of the punctuated Google group, THATHA’s “R” US (thatha means grandfather in Tamil), Krishnamachar Sreenivasan understands how easy it is to fall into a blue state. His resume lists The Mitre Corporation, SRI, Hewlett Packard, and Agilent as employers. He is considered an expert in the field of computer performance evaluation and analysis of multiprocessors. The weeks following his retirement, however, his achievements were cold comfort. “I woke up in the morning and the only thing I changed was my remote battery.” It took great effort and considerable control before he came to grips with his changed situation. “I realized that there’s an unfavorable bias towards seniors. I had to do something to impact people around me.” He started a radio show on KLOK 1170 AM, a community service call-in program that airs every Wednesday from 11 to 12 pm every week, which aims to connect volunteers with those who need help.

Shifting the lens to the other end of the generational view, I queried some teenagers on living with elderly grandparents. “I love my grandmother, but I don’t understand her and she doesn’t understand me,” said a 14-year-old, adding, “She obsesses about food.” A college graduate explained that it was nice to find the warmth of her grandparents when she came home from school. “Not that I shared deep emotional moments with my grandparents,” she added. Her grandparents were there through her middle school and high school and she grew up with lots of religious events, good Indian food, Indian music, and Indian television.

Hesitatingly, she admitted that she’d been more attuned to their company when she’d been younger, but by the time she left for college, there was a large language, cultural, and generational barrier. “I did envy my Caucasian friends who were able to share a deeper emotional bond with their grandparents that was not complicated by language and culture.”

In September 2009, New York Times columnist, Patricia Leigh Brown wrote an article about the 100 Years Living Club, an all-male Sikh group of elderly immigrants. The group meets regularly at a mall in Fremont, Ca. to stave off feelings of isolation and alienation. According to Brown, late-life immigrants come to the country clinging to hopes and dreams of family togetherness, only to find that American society isn’t responsive to these cultural expectations.

A Growing Trend

Studies indicate that America’s ethnic elderly are the most isolated group in America and, yet, this group continues to grow. According to the 2007 census, one in three California seniors is foreign-born. It is estimated that the elderly constitute four percent of the global population (419 million) and there are approximately 350,000 Indian American elders, nationwide.

Yoga classes for seniors, to keep them engaged and provide them with more activities
Yoga classes for seniors, to keep them engaged and provide them with more activities

In his book gravely titled The Gray Dawn, Peter G. Petersen argues that, with the increase in life expectancy and decline of birth rates, the numbers of seniors will continue to grow, creating a demographic shift. The magnitude of this shift will result in seniors outnumbering the working age population. This will have a dire consequence on the economies of developed nations. This is partially borne out in Japan where it is predicted that, by 2015, one in four Japanese citizens will be 65 or older. As this shift in balance continues to dilate, Japan is looking at its trade surplus withering into deficit, driving industry and innovation overseas.

As public policy shifts are considered, ethnic seniors need to be part of the proviso. This group’s spiritual, physical, and psychological well-being becomes a critical parameter to social and economic prediction.

Local programs like the Community Ambassador program for Seniors (CAPS) and the India Community Center(ICC) offer a plethora of possibilities for seniors. ICC’s seniors program is designed around clubs and activities from simple socialization, yoga, and Bollywood dancing to round table discussions. Sankaran is an active member of the ICC senior program. Krishnan is a registered member, but finds it difficult to make it to the sessions. Krishnan informs me that conversations at the ICC Senior Center are wince- and wonder-worthy, ranging from daughters, daughters-in-law, financial crises, recipes, oil spill, medical problems, travel to India, and Bombay Jayashree ( a Karnatik music vocalist). Everybody is encouraged to participate.

One Friday afternoon I see Outreach cars pull in like grand limousines at the ICC-Cupertino parking lot. From these cars the elderly slowly emerge like stars, dressed in swathes of silk and serge. They grandly ascend the steps to the facility. I watch the way they enter and mingle with each other. This time, place and moment is theirs. They own it. I quietly leave, reminding myself that my time is just around the corner.

(Names of seniors have been changed at their request to preserve anonymity)

Jaya Padmanabhan is a prize-winning fiction writer and is currently in the process of writing a novel.

 Institutionalized Living

Hindi movies like Baghbaan and Lage Raho Munnabhai pillory the boomer generation for contemplating nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and retirement homes for their elderly parents. Newspapers decry the oursourcing of senior care with articles titled “Old Age Homes Against Our Culture.” But the times, they are a-changing. The harsh critical glare of disapproval is dissolving under the circumstances of nuclear double-income family units. Living in elderly group housing with nurses and doctors on call and the ability to talk about “the old days” is sounding more and more attractive. Canadian resident Saroj Sood voluntarily opted to live in a South Asian Assisted Living facility in Surrey, UK. She quoted the Vedas as justification for her move. Sood explained how the last of the four stages of a Hindu life, the “sanyasa” stage, requires renunciation of society and meditative solitude.

In the United States, South Asian elder institution options are limited to just a handful. In my research, I was able to source only two: AristaCare Nursing Homes, catering to elderly Indians, with three locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and a retirement facility, ShantiNiketan, in Tavares, Florida. ShantiNiketan is advertised as a retirement community for Seniors of Indian origin. Iggy Ignatius, the founder of the community project, says that he wanted to give it an “ashram” feel. The gated property consists of 54 condominiums, 35 of which are sold. There are Assisted Living facilities in the Bay Area catering to other ethnicities: Aegis Gardens in Fremont for elderly Chinese and On Lok Senior Health Center in Oakland for Filipino Americans, but none for South Asians. Is our diaspora equipped to handle the growing numbers of elderly?

 

Resources

Northern California

Outreach

Outreach’s Senior Transportation Program offers transportation options for seniors that can take them to any destination within the county. http://www.outreach1.org/seniors/seniors_mainpage.html. (408) 436-2865

India Community Center

With locations in Milpitas, Cupertino and Fremont, the India Community Center offers yoga classes for seniors, round table discussions, Jollywood dance classes opportunities to participate in theater, knitting club, bridge club or even a computer class. Subsidized lunches are provided to seniors as part of the program.(408) 934-1130 or check the website: http:indiacc.org/node/293

CAPS – Community Ambassador for Seniors Program

CAPS ambassadors serve seniors and their families by assisting with questions related to identifying local resources, programs, and services in the Tri-City area (Fremont, Newark, and Union City, Ca). Senior Helpline: (510) 574-2041

Stanford’s Adult Aging Services (AAS)

Stanford’s AAS program offers consultations, assessments, home visits, and general outreach assistance. Here is a list of some of the options:

• Geriatric Out-Patient Clinic and Consultation Service (650) 387-6777

• Dementia Support Program (650) 723-1303

• Partners in Caring (650) 725-4137: A program that helps older adults in their homes

• Strong for life (650) 725-4137: A muscle strengthening exercise program

Southern California

National Indo-American Association for Senior Citizens (NIAASC)

National Indo-American Association for Senior Citizens (NIAASC) started in 1998, serves Indian American seniors across America, “through information, referral and advocacy services.” http://www.niaasc.org/
Southern California

Dial-a-Ride services

Most cities in Southern California offer Dial-a-Ride transportation services to senior citizens (60 years of age or older), and individuals with disabilities.http://dpw.lacounty.gov/PDD/Transit/Page_01.cfm

Neighborhood Activities and Nutrition (NAAN)

Seniors are encouraged to visit Artesia’s Senior Center where they can form clubs and intermingle. The two big deterrents for South Asians, language and diet, were addressed by the Oldtimer’s Foundation, a community-based organization that began serving a weekly vegetarian Indian meal, cooked by a local restaurant owner and paid for by the county’s office of aging. (662) 272-5276