New of the Week
Observations About Some Things That Caught My Eye
Coffee tied to better heart health, no added risk for Afib, studies find
McKnight’s - Daily coffee consumption is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, atrial fibrillation and to relative longevity, investigators say. The findings held true across two studies of people with and without cardiovascular disease — including those already living with Afib.
The studies are the largest to look at coffee and heart health, according to the researchers, and will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session in April.
Observation - I just had this conversation with my physician. He begs to differ a bit!
How to Live to 100. For one sturdy wartime survivor, living intensely has been the best revenge.
From NYT - Natalie Harley likes to tell of the night in the late 1960s when she appeared on the Johnny Carson show. A gregarious hostess and entrepreneur who, with her husband, headed a luxury packaging firm, she possessed a resourcefulness with a ribbon and shears that had piqued Carson’s curiosity.
Her challenge, he told her, would be to gift-wrap a football, tricky under ordinary circumstances, but daunting with a live audience.
“I will need something personal,” she told her host and, without preamble, lunged toward him. “Then I cut off his tie,” she recalled with a hoot.
She joined the only Black female unit sent overseas in WWII. Now 102, she’s the oldest living member
From WAPO - As World War II escalated, Romay Johnson Davis’s five brothers enlisted, despite segregation and profuse discrimination both within the armed forces and society as a whole. Davis yearned to join them.
In 1943 when the Women’s Army Corps was created, she finally saw her chance.
She joined more than 850 Black women in a specialized Army unit that deployed overseas. The women sailed to England, where they were tasked with duties such as sorting an enormous backlog of mail for overseas troops.
Today, only six of the women are still alive. At 102, Romay Johnson Davis is the oldest.
Observation - feel good story of the week.
Providers concerned about bill targeting safety in assisted living residences
McKnight’s - SB 22-154, “Increasing safety in assisted living residences,” was introduced last week in the Colorado legislature and would require an assisted living community to provide a 30-day written notice to a resident prior involuntarily discharging a resident. The bill also establishes a grievance process.
As McKnight’s Senior Living previously reported, Sen. Jessie Danielson (D-Wheat Ridge) said the bill will “hold assisted living facilities accountable” in instances when neglect or abuse are alleged. Although assisted living communities in Colorado are licensed, individual administrators and owners are not — something Danielson said she intends to address.
Observation - I am not as deep in the weeds on this particular state and issues but I am definitely in favor of more regulation in assisted living. To know that you could evict a resident without notice sounds unfair and scary.
I used to hate hearing old people describe their aches and pains. Oh, how the tables have turned.
WAPO - Your body, they say, is a temple. But live long enough and it will become a temple of doom, its walls cracking, its foundation settling, its floors splitting open to reveal pits of boiling lava below.
And isn’t that a wonderful thing?
Well, maybe “interesting” is a better word. The human body is endlessly entertaining.
You don’t pay a lot of attention to it when you’re young, pretty much taking it for granted. But when you reach middle age — and especially when you reach late middle age — it becomes as interesting as a prestige TV series, with as many plot twists as “Game of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad.”
At just shy of 60, I wake up every morning thinking, “I wonder what’s going to happen next?”
Observation - Hilarious and hits a bit close to home.
United States has work to do to catch up with primary care results in other wealthy nations
Benefits Pro - The United States lags behind many high-income nations when it comes to primary care access and continuity.
“Evidence shows that a strong foundation of primary care yields better health outcomes overall; greater equity in health care access and outcomes; and lower per capita health costs,” according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund. “But in the United States, decades of underinvestment and a low provider supply, among other problems, have limited access to effective primary care.”
Observation - As I say, the U.S. has the best medical advances in the world and the worst health care system for administering them.
Aging In Place Is All The Rage, But It Is Not Easy
From Forbes - Colleague Howard Gleckman has a thoughtful piece about aging in place. “
It has become increasingly popular to promote home as a setting for both sophisticated medical treatment and long-term care, and often for good reason. But supporters of this trend need to recognize and reduce the burden it places on families who must take on ever-challenging clinical and organizational roles to make home care work.
More of us will get the care we need at home: But don’t forget, that will put a greater burden on their families. The least health care providers and payers can do is support them by better coordinating the treatments and supports they must navigate.”
How mental wellbeing champions can drive positive change
Benefits Pro - Challenges to wellbeing can not only drive down productivity and worsen the employee experience, but can also impact your organization’s culture. But regardless of the effect it has on an organization, the issue is this: When another person is in distress, it’s important to help them.
There are many tools and strategies companies can use to address mental wellbeing. Although no single effort can do it all alone, one of the most important strides you can take is to train and empower mental wellbeing champions.
Sometimes known as mental health or wellness champions, these are the employees who are positive role models and helpful resources for people who want to know more or need help.
Observation - I think this is a great idea for senior living. When you combine Covid, low staffing, lack of trust, low morale, shrinking budgets…well you get the idea.
Assisted living communities average more than $4,000 monthly. This is where they are the most and least costly
This article speaks for itself - https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/this-is-where-assisted-living-communities-are-most-and-least-costly.html
Threats, attacks on senior living workers now felonies in Wisconsin
McKnight’s - It now is a felony to threaten or attack senior living and other healthcare workers in Wisconsin after Gov. Tony Evers signed Assembly Bill 960 into law Wednesday.
AB 960 — now Wisconsin Act 209 — broadens workplace protections for healthcare providers and healthcare facility staff, and their families, and increases the penalty for a threat of battery against healthcare professionals. Battery or threats against healthcare workers now are class H felonies.
Observation - to add to the woes of staffing, this type of environment discourages people from seeking employment in this sector and puts an added burden to the people who continue to work. It’s sad that things have come to this. We can all do better. Protecting health care workers was a minor issue in the past. Now all of a sudden, it’s a thing!
Cognitive decline rates more than double over 10 years: study
McKnight’s - The incidence of cognitive decline more than doubled between 2009 and 2018 among seniors, according to a study published yesterday.
Investigators sought to track the number of people reporting first concerns about memory loss to their doctors and their subsequent chance of developing dementia. To do so, they examined data from 1.3 million adults aged 65 to 99 years old.
In 2009, physicians recorded 1 new case of cognitive decline for every 1,000 patients observed. This number rose to 3 new recorded cases per 1,000 by 2018. The number of patients reporting concerns about memory remained stable during the study period.
Observation - I am not a researcher. Could it be we are studying more people therefore finding more (remember - if you don’t test, you won’t find!); or are aging baby boomers coming into that time of life where they are more aware and diligent about reporting. In other words, were these rates always like this and we just uncovered it now?!
