A Market Builds: Homes Tailored to Seniors Spring Up in Metro Atlanta A recent article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (05/10/04; Christopher Quinn) highlights how metro Atlanta builders are currently realizing the explosive potential of the home market for seniors. According to the article, Georgia has the fastest-growing senior population (by percentage) of any state east of Colorado, and the growth is concentrated in metro Atlanta. Between 1990 and 2002, the number of 60-plus residents in metro Atlanta's 13 core counties grew from 286,739 to 410,391, a 43 percent increase. This number is growing rapidly. Currently, one in 10 metro Atlanta residents is a senior, but by 2030, one in five - 1.2 million of the area's projected 6 million people - will be 60 or older, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission's (ARC) Aging Atlanta project. The ARC and 50 partner organizations are studying changes that the growing senior population will bring. The groups expect region-wide changes in demands for transportation and health care services. Metro Atlanta home builders have already caught on to some of the characteristics of this age group, . such as having more disposable income and making little demand on the school systems. Several social and economic trends have converged to boost the area's senior population. The rapid growth of the Atlanta metro area beginning in the 1970s attracted then-young people in droves, who have stayed as they aged. Georgia is also attracting a substantial number of "half-backers," or those who retired to Florida, only to leave Florida after finding they didn't like the summer heat or missed the changing of seasons. "Re-nesters", or those who move to be close to family or grandchildren, are also moving to Atlanta in large numbers. The expanding market is not limited to Atlanta. One builder recalled attending his first senior housing seminar five years ago in Detroit, with about 80 other people. This year's seminar in Chicago attracted about 800 people. To learn more, read the complete article on HousingZone.com at http://www.housingzone.com/news2.asp?topicId=14523&docId=l:206929461. back to top PGA TOUR and Georgia-Pacific Partnership to Benefit Rebuilding Together Rebuilding Together, the nation's largest volunteer- based, non-profit organization dedicated to revitalizing the homes of low-income families in need, recently accepted a portion of a $200,000 national contribution presented as part of The Healthy Homes Tour. The Tour is a year-long, coast-to-coast effort by the PGA TOUR and the Georgia-Pacific Corp. to lend their support to affiliates of Rebuilding Together. The Healthy Homes Tour occurs alongside 2004 Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions events. On behalf of the Champions Tour and Georgia-Pacific, Rebuilding Together will receive financial support to help promote and sustain their ongoing, nationwide efforts to provide safe, healthy living environments for low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly and disabled. Five tour stops - in Boston, Mass., Long Island, N.Y., Charlotte, N.C., Houston, Tex., and Sonoma, Calif. - will become the focus of special collaborative home-rebuilding projects that will bring together the Champions Tour, the national Rebuilding Together organization, local affiliates and volunteers and Georgia-Pacific employees to showcase healthy homes for individuals identified in need. These events will feature Georgia-Pacific products and will highlight how organizations, companies and communities can work together to provide healthy and safe housing. The current 24 million low-income homeowners in the United States will increase to 28.5 million by the year 2010. More and more families are placed in the position of choosing between vital necessities such as food or medicine and a roof that does not leak. Rebuilding Together works to ensure that as many of those families as possible do not have to make these difficult choices, but can make the basic home repairs and maintenance needed to have a healthy home. For more information on Rebuilding Together and the Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions Tour, including a Tour schedule, read the complete press release at http://www.prnewswire.com. To find out more about Rebuilding Together, visit their website at http://www.rebuildingtogether.org. back to top Retirement Needs of Baby Boomers Studied for Senior Centers of the Future According to a recent article in the Reporter Online (05/22/04; Alison Dickman), two Pennsylvania county organizations are joining forces to study baby boomers‚ who will reach retirement age in the next decade‚ to determine how county senior centers will need to adapt to meet the needs of this population. The Montgomery County Department of Aging and Adult Services and the North Penn Community Health Foundation will research programs‚ services‚ facilities, locations, staffing and hours to determine the future development of area senior centers. According to Russell Johnson, executive director of the foundation, researching baby boomers is important because they are a large generation that is distinctly different from today's seniors. Baby boomers are more educated‚ have more diverse work experience and are more interested in healthy living than previous generations. Current services offered by the 10 county senior centers - including congregate meal programs‚ health promotion programs and entertainment - may not be desirable to baby boomers. According to Lansdale PEAK Center Executive Director Amy Cummings-Leight, senior centers were formed with the G.I. generation in mind‚ but baby boomers may be more interested in activities like learning skills‚ educational programs‚ art and culture and health and fitness programs. "What we're trying to do with this research is get information on the generation of people who will be coming to the senior centers so we have the tools and knowledge to plan our centers‚" she said. "We also want to know if we have to team up with other organizations‚ like hospitals or health centers in the future so we can re-engineer the centers to meet the needs of the community." For more information, read the complete article at http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/. back to top University of Pittsburgh Finds that People Would Trade Longevity for Quality End-of-Life Care University of Pittsburgh researchers have found that an overwhelming number of people surveyed would trade a longer life span in order to receive better end-of-life care. "People care a great deal about the quality of the death experience," said lead author Cindy L. Bryce, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine and researcher at the university's Center for Research on Health Care. The study, published in the May issue of the journal Medical Care, used a sampling of 104 persons who took a survey based on six scenarios involving an 80-year old man who died after a one month stay in an intensive care unit (ICU). On average, interviewees were willing to trade seven months of healthy life just to ensure better quality of care in the final month of life. In total, 75 percent said they would trade some amount of healthy life to improve the quality of end-of-life care. The study affirms that end-of-life care is important and that good end-of-life care includes both medical and non-medical considerations, including pain control and support for family members. According to Dr. Bryce, quantifying the value of end-of-life care is relevant for prioritizing care when resources are limited. Efforts to set health care priorities might include a cost effectiveness analysis (CEA), which compares the costs and benefits of various health care services to determine which ones provides the most benefit relative to their costs. Dr. Bryce said that although quality-adjusted life years are typically used as the measure of benefit, "quality-adjusted life years may not do a satisfactory job in measuring the benefits of end-of-life care, which could result in end-of-life services being rated as unimportant." "We need to develop the right kind of measurement tools because it's not enough to simply say 'x, y and z' are all important, which has always been true of all kinds of health services. Our study begins to assess how important 'x, y and z' are," she added. For more information on the study, read the complete press release at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-05/uopm-uop051904.php. back to top Life Leases Let Senior Citizens Feel at Home without Hassles of Owning A recent article in the Orlando Sentinel (05/23/04; G.K. Sharman) highlights a new real estate arrangement in Florida that combines many of the benefits of owning and renting for seniors. "Life leases" allow residents to feel as if they own their own living space. One example, Waterman Village in Mount Dora, Fl., provides more space than an apartment or a condo, and allows residents to add or tweak features, just as they might have for any other pre-construction home deal. Yet if they have a problem with an appliance, residents can simply call maintenance. Although life leases are new to Florida, they are well-known in Britain and Canada, where they have has been part of the senior housing market for more than 20 years, said Christine Thomas, one of two principals in Life Lease Associates of Canada, a consulting and development company. According to Thomas, in Canada, life-lease units can cost 10 to 15 percent less than comparable condos and they appreciate rapidly. In the communities that her company develops, residents have options when it comes time to sell. The owners or their heirs can sell the unit on their own or arrange to sell to someone on the waiting list, which most communities have. Five percent of the sales price goes back to the sponsor -- the organization or church that began the community. Waterman Village is one of only a few Florida communities to offer life leases, says executive director Dale Lind. The Waterman's newest neighborhood, The Manors, consists of 56 life-lease units. Residents pay a deposit starting at $150,000, plus slightly more than $1,400 a month for a unit at the Manors. The community offers five models with between 1,400 and 1,700 square feet of living space. Residents can't write off their mortgage interest on their 1040 forms, but they don't have to pay real estate taxes either. Neither the residents nor their heirs have to worry about reselling the units. When they leave, for whatever reason, Waterman Village refunds 75 percent of the deposit. Lind doesn't predict a surge in life-lease communities in Florida or other states. He cited differences in Canadian and American health-care systems; for example, Canadians have access to care that Americans often look to continuing-care communities to provide. For more information on life leases, read the complete article at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/orl-rliving23052304may23,1,4020822.story (free registration required). back to top HHS Launches Pilot Project with WebMD to Make HHS Consumer Health Information More Widely Available On May 17, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the launch of a nine-month pilot project with WebMD Health to make HHS consumer health information more widely and more rapidly available to the public on a new HHS "channel" on WebMD. The partnership will also accelerate the ability of HHS to disseminate life-saving information to the public in the event of a major public health emergency. The new HHS channel on WebMD is available at http://hhs.webmd.com . WebMD will make the information available in an HHS-branded educational center on WebMD Health and through WebMD's partner health sites; the new HHS channel will feature information from across the many HHS agencies that disseminate health information for the general public. The project will complement the recent redesign of the main HHS web site, http://www.hhs.gov , to a citizen-centric site that provides quick and easy access to a wealth of consumer health information. To learn more about the pilot project, read the complete press release at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040517.html. back to top AARP and Harvard University's Generations Policy Initiative Symposium Explores European and American Boomers' Situation According to the report How Will Boomers Fare at Retirement?, recently released by the AARP, boomers are no more likely than previous generations to maintain their pre-retirement living standards in old age, despite accumulating greater wealth and generating more income. Another survey of boomers' expectations surrounding retirement, also recently issued by AARP, suggests they know it. The survey finds that financial worries cloud boomers' rosy view of retirement. How Will Boomers Fare at Retirement? was prepared for AARP by The Urban Institute. According to the study, boomers will amass more wealth in real terms at retirement than will the two previous generations. Median household wealth at age 67 will grow from $448,000 among current retirees to $600,000 among boomers. The study shows income at retirement is consistent with trends in wealth at retirement. Projected household income at age 67 will increase from $44,000 among current retirees to $65,000 among boomers. As with wealth, there will be income disparities among older and younger boomers. Non-retirement income is expected to decline between older and younger boomers. Yet the study suggests that whether the increased income and wealth at retirement will translate to better well-being in retirement is somewhat questionable. Although their real incomes will be higher than earlier generations, boomers will not achieve the higher economic replacement rates they will need compared to current retirees. Replacement rates are the percentage of income during the working years that a person retains in retirement. Not only will boomers not achieve higher replacement rates, the study said, younger boomers will be less likely than current retirees to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. The economic research is supported by a new uncertainty in boomers' expectations and attitudes about retirement found in the phase II Boomers Envision Retirement survey. The uncertainty emerges in a survey conducted by RoperASW, which contrasts responses from the1998 survey. The survey found that less than one-third of boomers equate retirement with having enough money, a decline of 10 points from 1998. Slightly fewer than half see retirement as a time to indulge themselves, down seven points from 1998. For more information, read the complete press release at http://www.aarp.org/research/press/presscurrentnews/Articles/a2004-05-20-boomers.html, or read the report, How Will Boomers Fare at Retirement? at http://research.aarp.org/econ/2004_05_boomers.html. back to top Technology May Help Seniors Live Independently According to a recent article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (05/21/04; Toni Coleman), concerned relatives of elderly family members who live alone may be able to turn to a new high-tech system that monitors seniors' activities, or lack thereof. "Smart House" technology, which checks changes in a senior's normal routine and alerts drop-in caregivers, may help some seniors remain independent by identifying health problems early on and providing peace of mind to relatives. The technology was recently on display at The Homestead in Maplewood, Minn., a Volunteers of America-owned assisted-living complex, as part of the fifth annual Senior Housing Showcase. The showcase, which allowed families to look into 68 living options for senior citizens, took place on May 21 and 22, 2004. According to Sylvia Graham, Homestead residence director, the system has helped prevent a flooding by detecting that the toilet was constantly running, and a fire through a heat sensor that alerted staff who found a dried-out coffee pot sitting on a lit burner. But its greatest potential may lie outside of assisted-living facilities as more seniors opt to remain in their homes. About 77 percent of Minnesotans 65 and older own their homes, and one of three older adults in Minnesota lives alone, according to the 2000 census. The technology, developed by the University of Virginia's Medical Automation Research Center, was tested in two Volunteers of America-owned residential facilities for senior citizens. It uses small, wireless motion sensors throughout the apartment and a pulse-monitoring strap attached to the mattress to communicate with a small computer under the bed. The computer sends activity data via a modem to the University of Virginia, which then sends the data to a password-protected website, where it can be reviewed online by Homestead staff. Initially, there was some concern about the "Big Brother" nature of the system, but seniors and their family members warmed to the idea once they learned there would be no cameras or recording devices. After more pilot programs, the system will be available for purchase in about 12 to 14 months, Olson said. For more information, read the complete article at http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/8717735.htm?1c (free registration required). back to top | 
