The LTSS Center recommends that you put these 5 articles on your reading list.
HELPING AT-RISK HOMEOWNERS STAY PUT
A SHELTERFORCE magazine article entitled “Helping At-Risk Homeowners Stay Put With a Land Trust,” recently shed light on the plight of older homeowners with low and moderate incomes who are at risk of losing their home due to a medical crisis, divorce, or unexpected repair costs.
“According to experts, the United States is about to face a giant wave of aging baby boomers who are hoping to remain in their houses as they age, but who are often one outstanding tax bill or major repair away from losing their homes altogether,” writes Amanda Abrams.
Several innovative programs may present a solution to the problem, although questions remain about their sustainability, says the article.
The Community Aging in Place—Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) initiative, run by the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, sends a nurse, an occupational therapist, and a handyman to modify and improve the home environment of low-income seniors who want to age in place.
Through another program, called Project Sustained Legacy, the City of Lakes Community Land Trust in Minneapolis takes over the deed to land belonging to an existing homeowner. In return, City of Lakes addresses outstanding tax liens, mortgage payments, and deferred maintenance.
“There are big subgroups of folks who are housing poor or housing burdened,” LTSS Center Co-Director Robyn Stone told the magazine. “I don’t want to be too dramatic, but we could see the day when large swaths of elderly people literally have nowhere to go. Where is the investment for this going to come from?”
SERVING PEOPLE WITH SERIOUS ILLNESS
Last August, Robyn Stone wrote a blog about a workshop exploring how health care and social services might be integrated to better serve people with serious illness.
The workshop, sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, began with a presentation by Mary Ann and Frank Spitale, an older couple who described the hardships they had endured since Frank, a retired pharmacist, began experiencing a dramatic decline in his health.
The proceedings of the workshop, entitled Integrating Health Care and Social Services for People with Serious Illness were released recently by the National Academies. Stone served as one of the reviewers for the publication, which addresses:
- The gaps, challenges, and opportunities associated with providing services to people with serious illnesses.
- The key role and unique needs of caregivers.
- Innovative partnerships and collaborations for integrating services.
- Potential policy challenges and opportunities in this area.
CONSUMERS AND HEALTH SYSTEM DELIVERY REFORM
The Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation at Community Catalyst recently released a new report, IMPACT! How Consumers Have Shaped Health System Delivery Reform, which looks at the successful partnerships it has developed with state and local advocates to find, train, and support people with complex health and social needs who can influence delivery system reform.
The report identifies specific ways in which grassroots consumers have influenced delivery reform policy and practice, and pinpoints 6 factors that made these efforts so successful. The report also profiles engagement efforts in 6 states: Tennessee, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Alabama.
SHOULD ELDERS RETIRE FROM DRIVING?
Newsday recently addressed the sensitive topic of older drivers in an article entitled, “Experts: Senior citizens should plan for ‘driving retirement,’ too.”
“Although older drivers are safer drivers — they typically observe speed limits and don’t drink and drive — mile for mile they have higher crash rates than other age groups, except teenagers, according to the Journal of Traffic Safety,” reports Donna Kutt Nahas.
LTSS Center Fellow Dr. Elizabeth Dugan, author of The Driving Dilemma: The Complete Resource Guide for Older Drivers and Their Families, was one of the experts interviewed by the newspaper.
Dugan said that age is not a “great marker of driving fitness.” She explained that a range of conditions can challenge driving fitness, including vision and mobility impairments, dumbness of the feet stemming from diabetes, or drowsiness caused by pain medications.
“People age at different rates,” says Dugan. “Someone might be in horrible shape at 50 and another is doing great at 95.”
TOUTING THE BUREAU OF SAGES
Kaiser Health News shined a spotlight in April on the Bureau of Sages, a group of vulnerable seniors who advise researchers about what matters to them.
“It’s a groundbreaking program,” writes Judith Graham in “Researchers Seek Sage Advice Of Elders On Aging Issues. “Traditionally, ill, disabled and cognitively challenged older adults have been excluded from research and assumed to be too compromised to offer useful insights.”
LTSS Center Co-Director Robyn Stone is a former advisor to the Bureau of Sages. The LTSS Center is currently working with CJE SeniorLife, a LeadingAge member in Chicago, to expand the Bureau of Sages model.