Nebraska AARP Webinar on Brain Health

I registered for an AARP Nebraska Webinar with a local researcher: Janelle Beadle, PhD, Director of the Aging Brain and Emotion Lab at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, talking about brain health on Tuesday, July 28 from 10 to 11 a.m. CT.

The Eudaimonia (Flourishing) Project for Us Elderly

In the Shakespeare tragedy King Lear, the title character says "O, reason not the need!" (Anthony Hopkins (Lear) and Florence Puge (Cordelia) in the 2018 BBC/Amazon production)

My work with what I call the Eudaimonia (U-DYE-moan-EE-a) Project, which I have created, has the purpose of addressing aging not simply a matter of care taking and managing disease, but also to emphasis the need to support this population in leading a flourishing life.

"Eudaimonia" is a central concept of Aristotelian ethics, and is roughly translated as good spirit. It's full meaning is about living a life and purpose and growth through your lifespan. Of course, this is applicable for all age groups who are able to make decisions about their lives, but I feel it's particularly important when considering our poor attitudes towards how we portray the elderly in the myriad of conditions and challenges they must face.

In this time of whirlwind activism, those concerned are citing the longstanding problems of taking care of the elderly, but miss the need to help them engender a sense of purpose.

I’m a devotee of Positive Psychology based on the work of humanistic psychologists, notably Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Erich Fromm. Below is a interesting illustration of Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid displayed as a function of personal development over a lifespan.

Omaha Community Action for the Elderly

This week, Julie Masters Ph.D., head of the Gerontology Program at UNO posted an article to the local newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald, about the community efforts to help the elderly during this Covid-19 pandemic.

I submitted a letter to the editor with an encouraging response:

It’s inspiring to read the Midland Voices piece by Julie Masters about the Omaha community’s effort to support the elderly during this Covid-19 pandemic. This outbreak serves to highlight the longstanding problems associated with not only elder care, but how society regards the elderly.

In “Elderhood,” a book by geriatrician Louise Aronson M.D., a finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize, she mentions the negative connotation associated with the term “old age,” and how its use harms our perception of the elderly. “At the very least, we are losing an opportunity to look at the final third of life with the same concern, curiosity, creativity, and rigor as we view the first two-thirds.”

Cicero is quoted: “ Old age will only be respected if it fights for itself, maintains its rights...and asserts control over its own to its last breath.”

We’re now thrown into a whirlwind of activism, looking for ethical answers for problems long ignored, with a determined sense of hope.

And, indeed activism should be the approach now as we look for solutions. My Eudaimonia Project is meant to create that vision.

How We'll Age by Louise Aronson, M.D.

How We'll Age is a sidebar as part of the article Live Wrong And Prosper, a piece about the future of families in the July/August 2020 issue of Wired magazine.

In the main article, Laurie Penny offers: "Many of us are failing to build the secure, stable households we were taught to desire. Not only is that OK, it's the future of families"

Louise Aronson, M.D., author of "Elderhood," and a geriatrician comments further in this sidebar. She emphasizes the variety of experiences among the elderly which are impacted by income, ethnicity, etc.

"Even before the pandemic, we'd done a lot to strip older lives of purpose and meaning." I would suggest this is not done actively, but as a result of negligence.

Nursing homes are much in the news due to the pandemic, but Aronson notes 93% of "older people do not live in facilities." For-profit owners account for 70% of nursing homes, which have a strong lobbying effort. Penalties for not abiding by regulations are small, and staff are generally underpaid. Add to this the prospect of the workers contracting Covid-19, which makes the job even less desirable.

Aronson suggests there may be creative solutions such as having the elderly "tutor children or immigrants," but this needn't be the only purpose that they should be given, In fact, it is preferable that each senior person develop a plan to actualize their own purpose well before they become less physically able. This approach has led me to create the Eudaimonia Project, meant to make known the need for citizens to find a purposeful pursuit that will carry them into elderhood.

Amazon Kindle eBooks: purchasing with a gift card

Sporadically I receive a gift card for participating in a survey, and recently I decided to purchased a Kindle eBook with this card. Once I was at the book's Web page on Amazon.com, I was only given the option of using the "Buy now with 1-Click©" button." This would apply this purchase to my credit card listed as my default payment option. I didn't want to do this.

I had Amazon help call me, and after 40 minutes with a courteous and kind rep, I had to end the call without resolution. But I did receive a very sincere email explaining a work around:

In this case, As you would use Visa Gift Cards to purchase Kindle books, What I suggest is, Whenever you get a Visa Gift Card, Don't add it to your Amazon account, But convert that Visa Gift Card into Amazon Gift Card balance by reloading your Amazon Gift Card here: https://www.amazon.com/asv/reload/order?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=asv_yab_reload_your_balance . Once money is reloaded from your Visa Gift Card to Amazon Gift Card, You can use the 1-Click to purchase your Kindle book and 1-Click will use the Gift Card balance. By this, you do not have to switch the default payment methods in 1-Click settings.

I've completely made the transition to buying mostly eBooks for several reasons: ability to highlight & annotate, not having the bulk and weight of paper books, etc. If I can't find a Kindle version of a book, I immediately check if a used copy is available.

"Older Americans Month" Proclamation by POTUS

Yesterday afternoon, President Trump held a presser where he announced the May will be designated as "Older Americans Month" by a proclamation he had signed. (The official home for this initiative seems to be on the Administration for Community Living website)

Various initiatives would be undertaken:

Medicare teleheath would continue to increase as it has already risen from 11,000 to 650,000 cases.

National Guard Chief Gen. Lengyel mentioned that 45,000 troops were already helping sanitize long-term health facilities, and staffing food banks, replacing the mostly senior volunteers.

FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor said that the 15,400 Medicare- & Medicaid-certified nursing homes will receive supplemental PPE shipments. CMS will receive $81 million through the CARES Act for inspections.

Coronavirus cases in nursing homes will be reported directly to the CDC, with testing data to be posted online. Cases will be reported to residents and family members.

The Coronavirus Commission for Safety & Quality in Nursing Homes has been established to address continuing problems, and will release a report in this month.

First impressions: "The Price We Pay" by Mark Makary, MD

It was a lucky accident that I heard an interview this morning on the local Omaha news/talk radio station with Mark Makary, MD about his book released yesterday: "The Price We Pay,"

"Financial toxicity" is the term he uses to describe the main problem with our broken healthcare delivery system with issues such as inappropriate care, over treatment, excessive billing practices, etc.

I'll probably take the deep dive into his book tonight, and develop this story further. Stay tuned.

UPDATE

Thought I'd share the toc: