AMA JOURNAL SAYS HOME MODIFICATION CAN REDUCE INJURIES, IMPROVE LIFESTYLE FOR OLDER PATIENTS
Physicians are trained in medicine, but should they also learn interior design? According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, they should. Journal reporter Mike Mitka found that many medical experts believe home modification can reduce injuries and improve the lifestyles of older patients, those aged 65 and up.
Mitka reported that while home improvement advocates do not believe physicians should become architects, they do say making suggestions to patients to modify their homes can improve patients’ lives. In some cases, fairly simple changes may enable an elderly person to keep living among friends and neighbors instead of having to move to an assisted living residence.
"If the environment isn’t appropriate, injuries can occur that lead to major disability," said Ronald Adelman, MD, co-director of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. "But we don’t teach physicians about these different areas regarding functioning and living well," said Adelman. He added that physicians cannot be expected to perform detailed walkthroughs of all their patients’ homes, but they should know about the various community agencies that can provide such services and which ones may be able to assist in covering the costs for changes. Adelman also said physicians can also provide brochures suggesting safety modification solutions to various household problems. Such brochures can be ordered online through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov/ncipc/ncipchm.htm.
Cornell is acquainting physicians with home safety through Project GEM (Gerontologic Environmental Modification), which its creators say is the only hospital-based program of its kind.
Project GEM is headed by Rosemary Bakker, MS, a former interior designer who became aware of the problems facing many older adults through her mother’s experience with a hip fracture. Bakker is the author of Elderdesign: Designing and Furnishing a Home for Your Later Years (New York, Penguin Books, 1997). For more information go to http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/286/14/1699.
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STUDY SHOWS REPLACING SOME NURSING VISITS WITH VIDEO SESSIONS SAVES COSTS
A Penn State University-led study has shown that substituting interactive video sessions for up to half of a visiting nurse's in-home meetings with post-surgical or chronically ill patients can be a cost-effective way to provide care.
Dr. Kathryn Dansky, associate professor of health policy and administration, who lead the study, said that in general, the patients like working with the telecommunications equipment. She said the stations gave patients a sense of security because they could keep in touch with their nurse at all times. She said the nurses, too, responded favorably to the technology although three generations of telehomecare machines were introduced and tested during the study period.
Dansky said the study is the first to identify the specific costs associated with the new technology and to show that while the new approach imposes additional initial expenses for care delivery, it contributes substantial savings without compromising quality. It is also the first comprehensive study to link patient outcomes with the use of telehomecare.
For more information go to http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-10/ps-ivv100101.php.
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UK STUDY FINDS HOME VISITS MAY HELP ELDERLY LIVE LONGER
A new United Kingdom (UK) study shows that home visits may help the elderly live longer and reduce the odds that they will have to move to a nursing home or other institution, according to Reuters Health Information Service.
According to the study’s authors, the results call into question the wisdom of discontinuing home visits to the elderly, as some experts have recommended. The study’s lead author, Dr. Ruth Elkan of the University of Notingham, England, said, "The provision of routine home visits to older people should be considered seriously by policymakers."
Noting that there is widespread support for helping older people stay in their own homes, she told Reuters Health, "Our research suggests that routine home visits to all who are aged 65 and older may be an effective preventive strategy—a way of reducing admissions to residential care." Elkan and her colleagues decided to review studies of home care because the research on its benefits has been mixed. For more information go to http://www.reutershealth.com/.
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MANY ACTIVE ADULTS IN CHICAGO AREA WANT TO MOVE TO DETACHED HOUSES, NOT ATTACHED UNITS
Many active adults in the Chicago area want to move out of their large houses. Until recently, however, few options were available for couples in their late 40s and 50s who desired to stay in the suburbs, preferring the privacy of a single-family home over an attached unit, the Chicago Tribune stated.
According to reporter Nancy Ryan, builders have started to take notice. About 10 communities are under development or have opened in the last nine months in the Chicago area, which target individuals who desire a single-family home where they can eliminate mowing, shoveling and routine maintenance. Previously, developers in the suburbs and the city had accommodated this lucrative market with small upscale condos or townhouses, according to Ryan.
Demand for these new low-maintenance homes is also up in other major metropolitan markets, Gopal Ahluwalia, director of research for the National Association of Home Builders, told Ryan. In Chicago, as elsewhere, some developments are restricted to people 55 or older, but others have no age requirements and attract busy young couples or singles.
Ryan reported that building further out is not an option because buyers are determined to live in well-established suburbs rich in restaurants, movie theaters and shopping centers. For more information to go http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/index.html?ts=1040413379.
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FLEXIBLE DESIGN BECOMES GOAL OF MORE BUILDERS TO HELP PEOPLE "AGE IN PLACE"
Flexible design—having the house evolve with changes in needs and lifestyles—is becoming the goal of an increasing number of residential builders, both inside and outside of the active-adult market, columnist Al Heavens said in Realty Times. It is a way to accommodate homebuyers who over the next 20 years will increasingly prefer to age in place, that is, to grow old without moving.
As people age, they wish to devote less time to maintaining their homes and more time to living a life that they, through years of hard work, feel they deserve, according to Heavens. This means single-level living as much as it means freedom from mowing lawns and shoveling snow.
Single-level design was slow to gain a presence in many northeastern markets because builders believed it would not stand up to resale, the columnist indicated. He said their fears were unwarranted. Flexible design is becoming the goal to meet the needs of homebuyers who will remain in their houses longer than at any time since the Great Depression, according to demographers.
Many builders believe that while houses should be more flexible, the things that make them flexible have to be subtle. Heavens said active adults—who soon will be primarily baby boomers—tend to react poorly to things they perceive as "old." So many builders make all the doorways 30 inches wide to accommodate wheelchairs without making a big deal of it, Heavens reported. For more information go to http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/rtcpages/20011011_ageinplace.htm.
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ALTHOUGH TODAY’S SENIORS ONLY PEPPER INTERNET, SILVER TSUNAMI COMING, AARP SAYS
According to AARP, although today’s seniors are only peppering the Internet, the silver tsunami is coming. This is because the graying 50-64 year old age group is now among America’s most wired. The pre-retirement group is currently using the Internet at work and is comfortable using online resources for email, news, online banking, job information and work-related activities.
While senior citizens over the age of 65 comprise 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represent just 4 percent of the U.S. Internet population with a substantial number identifying themselves as Internet holdouts, according to Pew’s Internet and American Life Project.
Many of our oldest Americans see no reason to go online, but those who do become enthusiastic surfers, according to AARP. Often they are coaxed online by relatives who are anxious to have their senior family members participate in email activities. Once online, wired seniors are more likely to send email than the average Internet user, AARP said. Nearly three of five online seniors say that the Internet has improved family relationships. For more information go to http://www.aarp.org/.
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