Caring for those with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia

Because of our aging population, some states have seen the need for a new system to help law enforcement agencies find elderly people who have wandered away. It is called the “Silver Alert” system. It is like the Amber Alert system which goes into action immediately when a child goes missing. If a senior citizen is reported missing and they are considered to have a serious health condition, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, law enforcement will enter their information into the system, and all media will be immediately notified. Generally with senior citizens the first 48 hours are the most important, because they often have serious health issues.

Every state has an Amber Alert program, while only five states currently have a silver alert program. Three more states are presently working on adopting silver alert legislation. Oddly enough, Florida has no such law and has the highest population in the country of people over 65. In late February of 2008, an elderly woman signed herself out of the home for seniors where she lived in Key Largo, Florida. She planned to do some shopping. She had suffered from bouts of dementia in the past, but according to her daughter she had shown recent improvement and had made other similar short trips in the last month. Unfortunately, her body was found about a week later in Clearwater, Florida. Authorities and divers are looking for her car in the water nearby. This tragedy could possibly have been averted.

The Alzheimer’s Association affirms that six out of ten people with dementia will wander at least once. It is predicted that tracking the elderly will become a full-grown industry when 78 million baby boomers reach old age.

Gerri Tyber

Operations Manager, Barton Home Care

I don’t know about you, but my wife and I have grown weary of chain restaurants. We are tired of the predictability. It’s the Mom & Pop restaurants that we seek out and try to support. Unfortunately, in this day and age, it’s more and more about big business. Consolidation is a word often used. The good Mom & Pops are harder to find.

Virtually gone are the small hardware stores where you really got great service by friendly people. We all know what Wal Mart has done to the small family business.

Now you may say that it’s not all bad. Yes, you do get economies of scale from such companies and that usually does translate into saving money. And it’s reality so there’s not a lot of value in moaning about things you cannot change.

However, I have decided that there is something that I do have control over. That is my home care business.

Because of the changing demographics, more and more people are deciding to open a home health care business for seniors. They’re popping up like mushrooms on a rainy night. Some make it, but many do not. Currently in Colorado, home care is a Mom & Pop industry.

It’s just a matter of time before big business realizes the opportunity in the growing home care business. I can’t tell you when, but there will be “consolidation” in this industry. And whether or not that’s good is yet to be determined.

The challenge is that this is a people business. It’s all about one-on-one, personalized care for our vulnerable senior population. I have seen firsthand where “large” home care companies have dropped the ball on the vital care needed by an elder. Bigger is not always better — of that I am convinced.

We have decided that we will continue with our highly personalized, boutique approach to home care. We will perservere just like the Mom & Pop restaurants that truly provide value to their customers. I think more and more people are realizing that greatness can come in small packages.

Tom Barton

Owner, Barton Home Care

Long Term Care Health Insurance May Be Worth a Look

There are a number of interpretations by various studies of how long we may be expected to live. A team of Harvard researchers conducted a 21-year study (1980-2001) and considered factors like disease, income, access to health care and geographic area. Based on this study they came up with “8” Americas.

“America One,” comprised of about 10 million Asians, has an average life expectancy of 85. “America Two,” consists of approximately 3½ million low-income whites who live predominantly in the Dakotas, Iowa, Montana, Minnesota and Nebraska. This lower than normal income group lives an average of 79 years and demonstrates the best level of health among whites. The majority of the population, about 214 million, has a life expectancy of 78 and makes up “America Three” while “America Four” consists of poor whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley whose life expectancy is 75. “America Five, or Western Native Americans, live to an average of 73 as do “American Six” which is categorized as black-middle America. Making up “America Seven and Eight,” both with a life expectancy of 71, are low-income Southern rural blacks and high-risk urban blacks.

Another look at longevity, this time on a global level, is one calculated by the World Health Organization called HALEs (Healthy Life Expectancy). This is the average number of years a newborn can expect to live in “full health.” It’s a complicated calculation made by demographers and statisticians to adjust life expectancy to reflect how much of that time will be spent in poor health. Consider these contrasting numbers: a male in Afghanistan has a HALE of 35 years, but a life expectancy of 42 years while a male in the United States has a HALE of 67 years and a life expectancy of 75. Similar contrasts exist for females. A female in Afghanistan has a HALE of 36 with a life expectancy of 42 while a female in the United States has a HALE of 71 with a life expectancy of 80.

A more general overview is provided by the Center of Disease Control for Health Statistics. Their computations show that a child born in the United States in 2005 can expect to live 77.9 years, up from 77.8 in 2004 and continuing a rise dating back decades. U.S. life expectancy was 75.8 years in 1995 and 69.6 years in 1955.

The United States, a country of 300 million people, ranks 42nd in the world in life expectancy. One basic conclusion that can be drawn from all these studies is that we are living longer and need to make appropriate provisions for that prolonged existence. Long term care health insurance is one option to consider in preparing for one’s future.

Gerri Tyber
Operations Manager, Barton Home Care