Caregiving

• Adult day care gives Caregivers a break
  Services range from providing medical care to recreational activities.
• Cases of Abuse by Home Aides Draw Scrutiny
  Thefts, neglect, even killings underscore lack of regulation; addicts, criminals on payroll.
• Gadgets keep eye on elderly
  Remote monitoring systems help relatives have peace of mind.
• Helping to Care for Aging Parents
  Tips on helping elderly parents find resources and assistance, as well as information you can use to make sure they have adequate financial counseling to protect their assets.
• How can we help our nation's caregivers?
  Many caregivers are women and men in their mid-40's who are still building careers, investing for retirement and anticipating the freedom of an empty nest. Once they take over the caregiver role, they often experience sharp drops in income as a result of huge losses in wages and personal savings. The killer statistic is this: Over the course of a lifetime, caregivers sacrifice an average of more than $500,000 in total income.
• Preparation is Key in caring for Aging Parents
  As people live longer with chronic illnesses and our population ages, we all face new dynamic issues in our lives. The issues we must deal with range from locating and managing in-home care to discussing a move to a care facility with a reluctant parent while navigating the maze of Medicare and Medicaid.

Community Resources

• Five great places to live
  City living may cost a bit more, but urban communities also deliver peak value - in the form of culture, work options, mass transit, fitness opportunities, and more (P.S. These also happen to be terrific places to retire.)
• What Parents Leave Behind
  In her new book, Charlotte's Estate Lady guides grieving families in dealing with a lifetime of belongings.

Council on Aging in the News

• All for Seniors - Spring 2008
  This comprehensive resource directory of Senior-related services in the Greater Charlotte area is designed to provide you with all of the resource information that you need to get the answers and direction that you want.
• Annual Conference 2008 - Charlotte Observer
  Council on Aging hosts conference.
• Annual Conference 2008 - Charlotte Observer
  Conference features AARP speaker.
• Annual Conference 2008 - News 14 Interview
  News 14 Interview, April 29, 2008 with Rob Boisvert.
• Candidate's Forum 2007 - Charlotte Observer
  Seniors worry tax repeal would cut into services.
• Candidates Forum 2007 - Matthews Record
  Seniors question candidates.
• Legislative Agenda on Aging 2008 - News 14 Interview
  News 14 Interview, February 14, 2008 with Rob Boisvert.
• Professional Firefighters and Paramedics, NC
  Printed program for concert featuring The Platters starring Sonny Turner.
• UNC Greensboro Conference 2008
  Aging is Good Business (Printed Program)

Death, Dying and Bereavement

• Estate Lady on Mike Collins Show
  The Boomer Burden: As the boomer generation ages, so do their parents. As their parents pass on, what to do with a lifetime of memories and material possession becomes a burden. Julie Hall provides some keen insight.

Government Agencies

• Seniors Urged to Research their Drug Plan Options
  Thursday, November 15, 2007 is the start of the annual six-week open-enrollment period, when Medicare patients can join or switch their drug plans for 2008..."You should take this time and get a checkup for your plan and make sure that you're in the right plan," says Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Health, Safety & Well-being

• Alzheimer's care classes help, but few have time
  The findings are stunning: offering simple training to people struggling to care for loved ones with Alzheimer's disease not only eases their burden - it even can keep patients out of nursing homes for an extra 1 1/2 years.
• Cases of Abuse by Home Aides Draw Scrutiny
  Thefts, neglect, even killings underscore lack of regulation; addicts, criminals on payroll.
• Closing in on Alzheimer's
  This month, scientists are expected to announce final test results for the first in a whole new generation of drugs designed to attack the underlying cause of Alzheimer's disease - medicines that offer what one expert calls "genuine, tangible, quantifiable hope" for those with mild to moderate forms of the illness.
• Geriatric Care Faces Crisis
  A decline in care may be the lot of aging baby boomers.
• International Council on Active Aging Offers Tips on How Older Adults Can Become More Active in 2008
  It's that time of year: Millions of older adults are resolving to start a new fitness or physical activity regime. Here are 20 tips to help adults in their 50s and beyond succeed in becoming more physically active in 2008.
• Memory Blips as we Age can be Positive
  Emerging studies suggest that the assumption that older people are losing brainpower is wrong; instead the aging brain is simply taking in more data and shifting through the information
• NPR Broadcast, Dr. Robert Butler: "The Longevity Revolution"
  An expert on aging examines the remarkable transformation of human life expectancy. He explains the benefits and challenges an older population presents.
• Older Americans May Be Happier Than Younger Ones
  Several recent studies show that when you check on how happy people are at various ages, the elderly generally come out ahead.
• Protecting the vulnerable
  A national survey of state adult protective agencies released in 2006 turned up, in one year, 565,747 reports of abuse of vulnerable adults - larceny, neglect and cruelty of all sorts. With 89 percent of reports occurring in domestic settings, it's a disturbing snapshot of mistreatment of people in their own homes, mostly by their own kin, who are also likely to be their caregivers.
• Seniors Urged to Research their Drug Plan Options
  Thursday, November 15, 2007 is the start of the annual six-week open-enrollment period, when Medicare patients can join or switch their drug plans for 2008..."You should take this time and get a checkup for your plan and make sure that you're in the right plan," says Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
• Seniors eligible for free drug counseling
  North Carolina seniors will be eligible for free drug counseling from pharmacists about their medications through a new drug program launched Thursday. It's called ChecKmeds NC.
• Study Finds Seniors are Happiest Americans
  Socializing and learning contentment help older adults stave off the blues.
• The Science Behind Senior Moments
  A Wall Street Journal article explores the subtle differences and science between senior moments and early signs of Alzheimer's.

Housing/Physical Environment

• 55+ Housing in High Gear
  Active adult communities are among the most successful new-home neighborhoods. Almost 20 percent of buyers in Charlotte's seven-county market are 55 to 64 years old.
• Aging in Place in Multifamily Housing
  A significant proportion of people over the age 60 or older are living, and aging in place, in age-integrated multifamily housing developments.
• Charlotte, walk this way
  Walkable urban place make a city more livable.
• Housing and Aging
  To hear Charlotte Talk's August 20, 2007 segment on Aging and Housing on WFAE, click here. The segment focuses on home design for seniors and a look into the trend to "age in place." You'll hear from Patricia Fletcher, Gerontology Marketer, PeterAlex Media ; Dr. Jeff Rosenfeld, author of Home Design in an Aging World ; and Ronda Deitch, Charlotte AARP.
• REVERSE MORTGAGES: Your housing is finally paid off. Should you let it pay you?
  "Reverse mortgages, loans that let homeowners turn part of their equity in the house into cash in hand without having to sell their houses, are booming nationwide and in the Carolinas. The growth of reverse mortgages cheers proponents, who say the loans are a great way for seniors to better their lifestyle without selling their houses. It's especially good, they say, for seniors who are house-rich and cash-poor. And it concerns others..."
• Remote Control: Frail seniors embrace home monitoring
  Overseeing the aged from afar is a hot issue for working caregivers, and the technology needed to do so is available. But policymakers and others have long fretted that seniors would resist to electronic monitoring as an invasion of privacy..."
• What Parents Leave Behind
  In her new book, Charlotte's Estate Lady guides grieving families in dealing with a lifetime of belongings

Personal Finances

• Direct Deposit is Safest for Social Security Checks
  U.S. Treasury urges seniors to switch to direct deposit.
• Dreams Deferred
  The slumping U.S economy has baby boomers putting off retirement.
• Economic Stimulus Payment
  Information regarding the schedule, scams, and how to recieve the economic stimulus payment.
• Economy hitting the elderly especially hard
  Even as elderly Americans file for bankruptcy in record numbers, support is drying up from meal, transportation and other home assistance agencies that can't pay their own bills.
• Golden Opportunities:Tapping Into Homes Can Be Pitfall for the Elderly
  Article examines how businesses and investors seek to profit from the soaring number of older Americans, in ways helpful and harmful.
• Plan Would Let Seniors Work to Pay Taxes
  NY town wants to start program to let senior citizens work off property taxes, for $7 an hour.
• Planning for a Happier Ending
  What you need to know on making medical decisions at the end of life and how to fill out living wills.
• Questions to Ask Before Taking a Reverse Mortgage
  Here are some questions that experts say potential borrowers should ask before taking out a reverse mortgage.
• REVERSE MORTGAGES: Your housing is finally paid off. Should you let it pay you?
  "Reverse mortgages, loans that let homeowners turn part of their equity in the house into cash in hand without having to sell their houses, are booming nationwide and in the Carolinas. The growth of reverse mortgages cheers proponents, who say the loans are a great way for seniors to better their lifestyle without selling their houses. It's especially good, they say, for seniors who are house-rich and cash-poor. And it concerns others..."
• Scam Prevention Worksheet
  Print out this checklist, and keep it handy when telemarketers call. The questions will help you to determine whether a telemarketer call is legitimate or not.
• Shattered by debt
  With fixed incomes and unexpected expenses, older people are at high risk - and have less time to pick up the pieces.
• Target: Financial Abuse of Elderly
  In a recent 20-month period, Mecklenburg county social workers calculated $1.6 million in losses involoving elderly financial exploitation.
• What Parents Leave Behind
  In her new book, Charlotte's Estate Lady guides grieving families in dealing with a lifetime of belongings

Senior-Friendly Community

• A Student of America is put to the Test
  If she can pass citizenship exam, Ukrainian grandmother can finally call U.S. her official home.
• Aiming for the Sweet Spot
  The Atlanta developer who partnered in the late 1990s with Bank of America to build Gateway Village in uptown Charlotte is back with a new project.
• Center Eases Aging in a New Country
  The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Center at Shamrock offers new immigrants the opportunity to integrate into the community.
• She helps Seniors Keep their Pets
  From Charlotte Observers, Carolina People section.
• Street Smart: Cars dominate American roadways, but walkers, bikers and the disabled want more access.
  Kirkland [Washington] is in the vanguard of a growing national movement to plan "complete streets," which allow pedestrians, bicyclists and public transit riders to share the road safely with automobiles. It's one of the 52 cities and towns, six counties and 10 regional governments that now have policies requiring their transportation agencies to ensure that roads are routinely designed or redesigned for all modes of travel.
• Walkable Washington: City thrives by offering a mix of destinations accessible by foot
  "...the entire Washington citistate of 5.3 million people is now booming. And its starring specialty is what Leinberger calls "walkable urbanism" -- places with a mix of destinations people want, from shops and parks and schools to pubs and entertainment, accessible on foot.

Transportation

• Ride the Light Rail
  Read all about Charlotte's new light rail system.