Gray Matters Winter 2014

Gray Matters

Family Caregiver Class 2 Telephone Communities 4 Art Show 5 CalFresh Assistance 6

A quarterly publication of Area 1 Agency on Aging

Local Social Connections are Key for Healthy Aging

F

inancial planning is the preretirement focus of many a couple, but a healthy retirement may depend at least as much on social connectedness.

“We have to think broader,” said Patrick Arbore, executive director of the Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention and Grief-Related Services with the Institute on Aging. “We have to look at what is going on in our communities and find our place there.”

Marjorie Malcolm, Rees Hughes and Pam Brown are doing exactly that.

Malcolm spends 10 to 15 hours a week volunteering, mostly with Friends of the Library and as a tutor for kindergarten and first grade students.

“I feel almost overextended in terms of some of the things I am doing,” the avid gardener said. “I don’t know if you volunteer to become connected, or become connected because you volunteer. But I am doing things I believe in and purpose is the benefit of it.”

Volunteer Center of the Redwoods and RSVP Volunteer Statistics

Hughes calls retirement the “gift of time.” He spent his first year hiking, traveling, working on a book project and evaluating how he wanted to focus his energy and skills in the future.

“I wasn’t going to spend my time doing things that didn’t contribute much,” he said. “I wanted to figure out what was important to me and what organizations or activities fit with my interests and community needs.”

He is now all-things trail, diving into the North Coast Regional Land Trust, the Humboldt Trails Council and other land issues for almost 30 hours a week.

“I hope to be learning and volunteering every day of my life,” he said.

That’s exactly what Arbore likes to hear. By percentage of growth, the 85+ crowd is the fastest growing age category in America, and Arbore said the purpose and connections people build pre-retirement or in the early years of 

WINTER 2014

age 85+ 25 people 8%

by Age,

age 55-65 95 people 30%

age 75-84 70 people 22%

April 2013 - present

age 66-74 126 people 39%

age 85+ 3,762 hours age 55-65 95 people people 55-65 15% age 66-74age 126 age 75-84 people 5,10570hours age 85+ 25 people 20% age 75-84 7,776 hours 31%

30% 39% 22% 8%

by Hours Volunteered, April 2013 - present

age 66-74 8,732 hours 34%

continued on page 8 SPECIAL INSERT TO THE NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 2014

age 55-65 age 66-74 age 75-84 age 85+

age 55-6 age 66-7 age 75-8 age 85+

95 people 126 people 70 people 25 people

30% 39% 22% 8%

age 55-65 age 66-74 age 75-84 age 85+

5,105 hours 8,732 hours 7,776 hours 3,762 hours

20% of the work 34% of the work 31% of the work 15% of the work

1

Class for Family Caregivers Starts Again in January

J

oanie Forbes was no novice at caregiving, but 14 years as a respite care and bereavement volunteer for Hospice of Humboldt wasn’t enough to prepare her for the emotional load of caring for her mother or the need for support.

For that, the she turned to the Caregiver Training Series offered

by Area 1 Agency on Aging.

“My eyes were wide open, but it’s tough, really tough,” she said.

“It’s totally different when it’s a loved one; when you are seeing your mother cry with pain. In hospice work, you can care and give and educate, but you don’t have an emotional investment and you always go home to your own house. I don’t go home from this. I am here 24-7.”

Forbes grew up in the area and raised a family in Eureka.

She’d been gone 10 years before returning in August to move in with her 91-year-old mother and 92-year-old father. A broken hip three years ago became arthritic, confining her 96-pound mother to a wheelchair pending the outcome of a hip replacement surgery two weeks ago.

“I had more experience than

2 SPECIAL INSERT TO THE NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 2014

most, and I felt I got benefit from the class,” she said. “They gave me information about what to know and do for next steps. And hearing people’s different stories gave some support for the processes we were all going through.”

A1AA offers the quarterly series of courses to improve the quality of care and family caregiver competency while at the same time reducing the level of caregiver stress. The series includes hands-on activities, professional presentations, educational videos and discussion.

It is offered for free to family and informal care providers. Space is limited and pre-registration required at 442-3763. Respite assistance is available to help participants attend classes.

Forbes was one of a dozen to participate in the eight-hour fall series that ended Sept. 19 after four successive Thursday night classes.

The winter series at the A1AA office in Eureka begins Jan. 23 and runs 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

“The constant responsibility, the lack of knowledge regarding community resources and the lack of adequate training all contribute to frustration and stress among

family caregivers, many of whom are often unprepared for what is being asked of them,” said Jeanie Ren, Manager of Information and Assistance and Caregiver Services at A1AA. “Stress threatens the health of the caregiver and, when mixed with other family dynamics, can also lead to unintended abuse or neglect of the person who needs the care.”

Ren said caregiver support and stress management are covered in each series, but each series also has different focus areas.

Maggie Kraft, executive director of A1AA, said many families never hire anyone to help them.

“They can’t afford it, and even if they could, there aren’t enough caregivers out there for everyone to hire,” she said. “They need a short class they can take in bite-size pieces.”

Fortuna’s Susan LeRoy was less prepared than Forbes to become a caregiver.

“I needed help, any kind of help,” recalled the 63-year-old grandmother. Vascular dementia left her caring for her 62-year-old sister for the past 18 months, twothirds of it from long distance.

“I knew I didn’t handle a lot of situations right,” she said. “You hit a point where you get frustrated and angry. You don’t mean to take it out on the person you are caregiving

for, but you get sharp.”

LeRoy said she is better able to handle situations after completing the fall course and will enroll in the next three.

“When you walk right into caregiving, you are floundering,” Forbes said. “When I think about people going through it without a clue — you need to keep the word out about this class.”

Part three starts March 13 and part four on May 1. 

Who Will Care For You? In 2010, there were seven potential family caregivers aged 45 to 64 for every adult over age 80.

In 2030, it will be four to one.

By 2050: three to one.

Families are shrinking but demand is rising as Baby Boomers age away from being caretakers to becoming the ones who need caretaking.

Even more problematic: 68 percent of Americans think they will be able to rely on their children and other family members when it comes to longterm care.  Source: AARP Public Policy Institute

The Past Exalted Ruler’s Association of Eureka Elks Lodge #652 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the USA

Proud to be an Active Organization in our Community We support youth activities including: Hoop Shoot Soccer Adoption of Pine Hill School Scholarships for high school students We also support various senior and veteran programs, including: North Coast Honor Flight Meals on Wheels Gray Matters

Elks Fact: Nationally, the Elks are the second biggest contributor of scholarships, trailing only the U.S. government.

SPECIAL INSERT TO THE NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 2014

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Seniors Relieve Loneliness, Grief Through Free Telephone Communities

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oneliness and social isolation impact nearly one in every four North Coast seniors, but two telephone-based Bay Area programs are out to change that.

Senior Center Without Walls provides activities, conversation, classes and support at no charge to callers throughout California.

The Friendship Line, located in San Francisco, is the nation’s only 24-hour crisis hotline and emotional support warm line for older and disabled adults.

“Social connection can be challenging for some of our older or disabled adults,” said Maggie Kraft, executive director of Area 1 Agency on Aging. “These two programs bring people into telephone communities, but too many people know little or nothing about them.”

• Senior Center Without Walls In the past five years, 23 North Coast residents have participated in Senior Center Without Walls.

The Oakland nonprofit offers more than 60 classes in each of its three,

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12-week sessions and another 30 in each of the six-week bridge sessions between trimesters.

Most of the classes are small groups of five to 12 geared to participation. Popular classes include pet tales, open mike, brain aerobics, and men’s group. Also available are weekly classes for singing, Bible study, philosophy discussion, Boggle and bingo and a daily “Gratitude” class that is as simple as sharing something for which each of the 15 to 18 participants are grateful.

“We hear all the time from some folks who tell us they were on the verge of suicide, but this is what kept them going,” said Terry Englehart, founder and former director of Senior Center Without Walls (SCWW).

Participants throughout California call 1-877-797-7299 to register and receive a specific code to join a telephone conference classroom of choice. Class listings are sent by mail or available online at www. seniorcenterwithoutwalls.org. There is no cost to participate.

The program is sponsored by

Episcopal Senior Communities, but is non-denominational.

More than 1000 people have participated in SCWW since 2004 with an average of 330 enrolled during each of the recent sessions.

“I have to have something to do,” Elaine Silveria said from the living room of her Eureka home at Sea View Mobile Estates. The 94-year-old can’t walk to the mailbox and stopped driving six years ago.

“This gives me something to look forward to.”

• The Friendship Line The Friendship Line has been even busier. Forty-nine Humboldt County callers connected in September and calls from July-September were up 93 percent from the preceding quarter.

“We provide contact, connection and compassion,” said Patrick Arbore, director of the Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention and Grief-Related Services, a program of the Institute on Aging in San Francisco.

Arbore is the founder of The Friendship Line. Every month, trained volunteers and staffers place 3500 outgoing calls and answer another 3000 incoming calls.

“We say to individuals that you matter and we care about you,” he said, “and we do that daily, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

The number is 800-971-0016.

The call-in service features confidential discussions for people age 60 and older, younger disabled adults, and their caregivers who may be lonely, isolated, grieving, depressed, anxious and/or thinking about death or suicide.

The call out service — what Arbore calls a “creative, innovative” expansion of service — features phone calls to older adults for emotional support and well-being checks.

“We believe very strongly that connections are what bind us to life,” he said. “We ask what is happening, what is going on with you today? So many don’t have a vocabulary. Did you open a window? Look outdoors? See the sky and the plants? We tell them: be present. You are alive. It matters. It matters a lot.” 

Celebrate Aging in America

by Entering Juried Art Show

C

alling all artists age 60 years or better: it’s time to get your creative juices flowing. Submit your work in the 2nd annual “Being Here Now Art Show” to celebrate Older Americans Month in May. This year, Area 1 Agency on Aging invited Ink People to co-sponsor the May 3 exhibit.

As with last year, the event coincides with Arts Alive! in Old Town Eureka.

“We had more interest than we could accommodate last year and a packed house most of the evening,” said Maureen McGarry, A1AA’s coordinator for the show and project director for its volunteer program.

“It says to me that there are plenty of people in this age group with a lot of creativity and interest in expressing themselves.”

A1AA executive director Maggie Kraft is certain the “Being Here Now” show will reveal a thriving senior art community.

“Creativity doesn’t diminish with age,” she said. “In many cases, people have jobs and families that take up that creative energy early in life. But when they get older, they have more time, more experience, and a more mature brain that makes connections better.

Their art flourishes.”

Libby Maynard agreed. She’s executive director and co-founder of Ink People and one of last year’s exhibitors.

“Older adults have a lot of life experiences that tend to make their artwork very rich and meaningful,” she said.

Maynard said some people put aside artistic endeavors earlier in life because they have to ‘get a real job’ and that can be consuming.

“When they get home, all they want to do is fix dinner and read a book or watch TV,” she said.

She also sees many artists struggling to balance an active art career while holding down another job.

“It’s really hard,” she said. “But if you are a senior and lucky enough to have a retirement and not have to work, you can dedicate all of that energy and creative spirit to your art.”

The juried exhibit is open to all artistic visual mediums. The work of approximately 20 to 25 artists will be displayed at A1AA throughout the month, and much of it will be for sale.

“A judge decides what gets in and what doesn’t, and that means spectators in general will have a show with a unified vision,” Maynard said.

“For the artists, it means that entering doesn’t guarantee you will hang, not because the work was bad, but because it was one person’s choice and it didn’t fit as a thread in their vision.”

For more information or an application, drop by Ink People at 517 3rd Street, Suite 36, or A1AA at 434 Seventh Street, both in Eureka. 

SPECIAL INSERT TO THE NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 2014

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Pilot Meal Program, Assistive Device Grant End in March

“G

et it while it’s hot,” said the head of Area 1 Agency on Aging, and she was only half-joking.

Only three months remain on a one-year $135,000 CalFresh partnership grant that, among other things, provides to seniors and people with disabilities 14 home delivered frozen meals after discharge from the hospital and/or in-home assessments to receive free assistive devices for food preparation, storage and eating.

“We will apply for another CalFresh grant to continue efforts to enroll people in the program, but the meals may not be part of what we do in the future,” said Maggie Kraft, A1AA’s executive director. “Take advantage of it now. The clock is ticking.”

Through Dec. 17, 50 North Coast residents who lived in areas that include Arcata, Westhaven, McKinleyville, Fortuna and Eureka had each received 14 home delivered frozen meals in the week after hospital discharge.

Another 15 have received assistive devices to help with cutting, preparing and storing food. Assistive devices range from a plate with cupped rims and cutting board with a curved middle, both of which contain food, to a jar opener, electric can opener and reach extender.

“People would be amazed at the tools available to make food storage and preparation easier,” said Jeanie Ren, program leader for Senior Information & Assistance at A1AA.

6 SPECIAL INSERT TO THE NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 2014

Stroke, arthritis, and vision loss can make it hard for some people to eat properly, she said.

“It can be difficult to admit you need help or know where to go to find it, and harder yet to believe there is something out there that can help you,” Ren said.

In contrast, she said it can be easy to “say you are not hungry, and maybe even believe it, when chronic or short-term limitations make eating or food prep embarrassing or too difficult to do.”

“That leads to an end result no one wants: seniors going hungry, and the health problems that inevitably follow poor nutrition,” Kraft says. “No one wins in that scenario.”

The assistive devices project requires an in-home assessment. A1AA staff does the assessment at no cost to the client.

The hospital discharge program requires a phone call to A1AA to enroll and a phone call follow-up from Humboldt Senior Resource Center, which prepares and delivers the meals to those in a defined area.

Nutrition is often a problem among seniors even before they enter the hospital. According to a report titled “Impact of Nutritional Status on Hospitalization Outcomes of Patient and Elders,” as many as 53 percent of older adults admitted to the hospital are undernourished.

That same report says malnutrition leads to slow healing, increased complications, longer hospital stays, higher rates of admission to

long-term care, and increased mortality.

“Good nutrition keeps seniors out of hospitals to begin with, enhances their chances of getting out sooner, and makes it more likely they’ll stay out after discharge,” A1AA dietitian Debby Krzesni said. “We have to raise awareness among older adults of the link between good health and good food.”

The pilot hospital meal program traces its roots to a 2006 study in which Meals on Wheels Association of America provided 10 meals to patients after hospital discharge.

“Typically, those who chose to participate were sicker than those who declined, but insurance data showed that those who received the meals had a first month post discharge health care cost that was more than $1,000 lower on average than those who didn’t participate,” Krzesni said.

Both programs are the result of a partnership between Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services and A1AA to raise awareness, improve access, and alter attitudes around CalFresh, the state name for the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Community outreach, a food resource guide due in the spring, and assistance with CalFresh enrollment are also part of the plans.

“Every senior who enrolls in CalFresh is choosing to improve their health, stretch their dollars and reduce Medicare costs,” Kraft said. “We have to get more seniors to recognize the wisdom of that choice.”

For more information about the hospital discharge meal program or to arrange an in-home assessment, contact A1AA’s Information & Assistance staff at 442-3763. 

CalFresh Numbers Up Among People Age 60+ CalFresh enrollment among older adults in Humboldt County soared 22.5 percent in the first three quarters of 2013 as 131 people age 60 and older joined up between January and September.

According to statistics from Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, senior enrollment jumped from 582 in January 2013 to 713 by September.

“It’s terrific news, but we still have a lot of work to do,” said Maggie Kraft, executive director of Area 1 Agency on Aging.

According to Mathematica Policy Research, only 5 percent of California’s seniors who are receiving Social Security benefits and also CalFresh-eligible receive benefits.

Older adults receiving SSI—the State Supplemental Security Income program – are not eligible for CalFresh because a food supplement is automatically included in their SSI benefit.

To request a CalFresh application, call the DHHS Call Center at 1-877410-8809 and follow the prompts to reach a live voice.

For additional assistance, call A1AA at 442-3763. 

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SPECIAL INSERT TO THE NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 2014

7

Social Connections continued from page 1

retirement cushion them as the the losses of spouse, health and friends mount over time.

“I see it all the time: couples that are so dependent on one another that everything is in shambles when something happens to one,” Arbore said. “But I also see the other side of it.”

Arbore, who spoke at Humboldt State University Dec. 5, mentioned a woman who began to work as a long-term care ombudsperson volunteer as a 64-year-old. Now 85, she is four years a widow and still an ombudsperson. “’Partrick,’ she said. “I have a purpose. That whole group supported me through my husband’s death.’ You would never guess she was 85 years old. You wouldn’t think anything other than she is an older person whose volunteer work has kept her really useful.”

Maureen McGarry, a

gerontologist by training and program manager for Volunteer Center of the Redwoods and RSVP, said it’s common for recent retirees to avoid committing to anything for awhile. Brown, who retired 18 months ago as a social work professor at Humboldt State, twice rejected volunteer possibilities McGarry sent her way.

“They just want to stop and relax,” McGarry said. “But that is when depression can sneak in. The first few weeks or months can be just great, but then there is a void.”

Gardening, reading, travel – Arbore said all of that works for awhile, but questions arise as the years pass.

“We start asking, ‘What have I done with my life?’” Arbore said.

“What was my purpose? Did I just sit and watch TV for 20 years, or did I get involved in my church organization or numerous other organizations that need our wisdom

and energy?”

“Volunteering gives people the opportunity to really expand their personal identity, to do all of the things they weren’t able to do before,” McGarry said.

Even so, the loss of the daily routine of a job and the identity it gave “can really throw people,” she said.

Retirement has been a challenging transition for Brown.

She said total immersion in her career and an inability to imagine how a life without those work relationships and demands might look kept her from preretirement planning. She admits to an emptiness that is “new and uncomfortable.”

“I can’t say I like it, but I don’t want to just bandage it up,” she said. “I am embracing these moments of emptiness. When change is supposed to happen for me, it will. My life has been like

that, and it has been fortunate.”

This month, Brown starts her first volunteer gig for McGarry and RSVP. Brown and Ann DiverStamnes will co-host a 10-minute weekly radio show on KHSU called “Chronologically Gifted: Conversations on Life after 50.”

“It’s really different from anything I’ve done, and it’s the first time I am doing something that concerns me personally,” she said. “The more Annie and I talked about it, the more excited I got.”

Brown, Malcolm and Hughes are in the 55- to 65-year-old age group that accounts for 29 percent of the 319 volunteers on record with RSVP. “By making a difference in your community, you make a difference in your own life,” McGarry said. “We have something for everyone.”

To volunteer, call RSVP at 442-3763. 

Gray Matters is a quarterly publication of the Area 1 Agency on Aging.

Maggie Kraft, Executive Director • mkraft@a1aa.org

Nursery and Garden Center Shop and Power Equipment Landscape Contractors 1828 Central Ave. • McKinleyville • millerfarmsnursery.com

8 SPECIAL INSERT TO THE NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 2014

Carol Harrison, Editor • cah5@humboldt.edu AIAA is located at 434 Seventh Street in Eureka, 95501, across the street from Eureka Inn. Phone: 707-442-3763 Gray Matters is designed by graphic artist Lynn Jones of the NCJ and is posted on the NCJ website at www.northcoastjournal.com The next edition of Gray Matters is Thursday, April 3, 2014.