I am sure you have heard the cliché “If you don’t lose it, you’ll lose it”. That is especially true when it comes to older adults. As an older adult it is vital that you get some sort of daily exercise to maintain good health.

The only problem is that most people get tired just hearing the word exercise but before you it out consider this. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Physical activity need not be strenuous to achieve health benefits.” CDC.gov also says exercise “Helps maintain the ability to live independently and reduces the risk of falling and fracturing bones.”

Obvious examples of this are short walks around the neighborhood or participating in a chair exercise program. But similar benefits can also be gained from an increase in leisure activity that could make getting some exercise a little more fun. Of course, you should always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

Most communities have recreation programs that focus on seniors. Your insurance provider may also sponsor activities in your area.

These groups offer weekly and daily activities that help older folks get some physical activity in a fun way. Most programs also offer transportation to seniors who need it.

Getting some exercise is important but having fun is just as beneficial. In fact participating in recreation activities can provide even more benefit that just exercise alone. The National Institute of Health links leisure activity to successful aging because leisure activities “offer a context in which older adults can improve their physical functions, enhance positive feelings and emotions, and promote social interactions.”

Simply put an active leisure lifestyle is not only fun but its healthy too. When you are making your resolutions for the New Year, consider resolving to have a little fun this next year. Your body, mind and spirit will thank you for it.

Make sure to subscribe to our website for more information on successful aging. For more articles by Anthony Fischer visit www.elderadvocacygroup.info.

The post Staying Active Is An Important Part Of Healthy Aging appeared first on Michigan Estate Planning.

Elements in a Comprehensive Effort
As long-term care facilities begin to plan their respiratory protection programs, they should keep
in mind several essential components to remain compliant, effectively mitigate risk and protect
patients and staff:

Qualified administrator
This individual should be intimately familiar with OSHA regulations and understand the
potential infectious hazards an organization may face. He or she should also be aware of the
necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) that will adequately safeguard staff. Typically
this is an N-95 respirator-a device that prevents the spread of target sized particulate matter 95%
of the time.

A written plan
Underpinning a dynamic program is a detailed document that describes how the organization
shields staff from respiratory hazards and complies with OSHA regulations. This document
should describe any PPE needed, as well as the required environmental controls, such as proper
ventilation. To assist organizations in crafting a written plan, OSHA provides in-depth resources
that outline necessary components. In particular, the agency’s small entity respiratory program
compliance guide is quite helpful, including a sample plan for reference.

A workplace analysis
To ensure a respiratory protection program mitigates the correct hazards, long-term care
organizations should conduct a workplace analysis to see what risks are, or may be, present.
Organizations should take this assessment seriously as it is the only way to guarantee the
selection of optimal respirators and PPE. The program administrator may want to consult
external resources when conducting this assessment, such as CDC modules about specific
airborne diseases.

Auto accidents can be financially, emotionally and physically devastating, especially during the holidays. Fortunately, it is easy to reduce the risk of being involved in a crash.

• Stay off the road after 1:00 a.m. Most drunk driving accidents occur between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Even if most people drive sober, inevitably, some will not. Keep loved ones off the roads in the early morning hours as much as possible.
• Get some sleep. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has found that cutting sleep short by even two or three hours can make an accident up to four times more likely. Anyone who is hung over or sleepy should stay out of the driver’s seat on New Year’s Day or the day after Christmas.
• Talk to young people. According to the CDC, a staggering 32 percent of fatal alcohol-related crashes involve a driver between the ages of 21 and 24. Know a young person coming home for the holidays? Let them know how much they are loved, and warn them about the risks of impaired driving.
• Get the car checked. Around the holidays, the National Safety Council recommends a full inspection and tune up to ensure optimal brake and acceleration response times. Temperature changes and extreme temperatures can cause mechanical problems. In addition, make sure the car has a spare tire, jumper cables and a first aid kit.
  Remember that no-refusal DWI checkpoints may be in effect. The Dallas police have made a habit of setting up mandatory sobriety checkpoints around the holidays. Anyone who refuses to take a breathalyzer or blood test may be arrested and taken to jail for a forced sample collection. Avoid the drama and make sure your driver has had absolutely nothing to drink.

At The Hale Law Firm, we have helped thousands of clients successfully prosecute their personal injury claims including auto accidents, wrongful death, dangerous products, brain injuries, burn injuries, and defective medical devices. Clients depend on their personal injury lawyers for guidance and legal advice across a broad range of personal injury accidents. To learn more, visit http://www.hale911.com/ or call 972.351.0000.

Landmarks around the world, including New York’s Empire State Building, will shine blue lights on Wednesday to show their support for autism awareness. Organizations large and small will host events to raise awareness of the growing public health issue of autism spectrum disorders.

World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) follows a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Statistics show, According to the report, one in 68 American children have an autism diagnosis, a 30 percent increase from a CDC study conducted last year, and more than double the number of children estimated to have autism in a 2000 study.

Experts do not know whether autism is actually affecting more people or whether diagnoses have increased as awareness of the disorder grows. According to CDC estimates, approximately 1.2 million people under the age of 21 in the U.S. have some form of autism.

Autism continues to be more prevalent in boys than in girls, with boys being diagnosed at a rate that is four and a half times greater than the rate for girls. Autism is also diagnosed more commonly in white children than in Hispanic or African-American children, which researchers believe is primarily due to a difference in reporting rather than in actual prevalence of the disorder.

Autism awareness focuses on the push for earlier diagnoses. Currently, autism can be diagnosed as early as age two, but most diagnoses are made around age four and a half. Greater awareness could result in earlier diagnoses, and researchers are currently studying ways of identifying higher risks of developing autism even in infants. The earlier a risk of autism can be identified, the earlier that intensive interventions can make a positive impact on the child’s development.

The Health and Human Services Department announced that it is launching an “unprecedented” initiative to help with earlier diagnoses, including research-based screening tools that families can use to identify possible indicators of autism in their children.

Read more about World Autism Awareness Day by visiting our special needs blog. Was this article of interest to you? If so, please LIKE our Facebook Page by clicking here.

The CDC study found that at least 50 percent of assisted living facility residents have high blood pressure; 40 percent or more have dementia or Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Twenty-four percent of assisted living residents have high blood pressure and a form of dementia, which greatly increases their likelihood of vertigo and falls. More than 50 percent of the senor residents of assisted living facilities in the U.S. are 85 years of age or older.

Thirty-four percent of residents have heart disease, and while heart disease can often be managed to some extent with statins, statins may be contraindicated in an individual who is taking certain high blood pressure medications. Also, statins can affect cognitive function. The interplay of multiple medications and multiple chronic conditions can mean an ongoing number of concerning medical issues, and that’s when care is consistent, which is not always the case. In the almost ten percent of residents of assisted living who have cognitive issues, heart disease and/or high blood pressure, affective treatment and care is an ongoing daunting process. Most of these residents are wholly dependant on others to affectively manage their complex medical needs.

The takeaway from the CDC study? Planning for your own long-term care and the likelihood of needing a comprehensive support team has never been more important. Please contact an elder law or estate planning attorney to help you plan for your comfortable and secure future.

Christopher J. Berry is a Michigan estate planning lawyer and Medicaid planning attorney dedicated to helping seniors, veterans and their families navigate the long-term care maze. To learn more visit http://www.michiganelderlawattorney.com/ or call 248.481.4000

by Steve Moran

Suit: Facility let woman ‘waste away’ is the title of a front page article in the Sacramento Bee, my local paper. Here is a brief summary of the lawsuit: Joan Boice was suffering from Alzheimer’s and was no longer able to live at home. In September 2008 she was moved into Emeritus at Emerald Hills, in Auburn (a community in the foothills outside of Sacramento) Three months later the community discovered pressure ulcers had formed on both of her feet, her right hip and her right elbow. Emerald Hills staff immediately began the process of having her transferred to a skilled nursing facility. She died 3 months after being moved the memory care building to a skilled nursing building. Here are the charges being made by the family: Emeritus is only commitment is to growing their empire and making money. They had inadequate staffing and staff training They should never have admitted her to the community as frail as she was It is unclear if they are suggesting they should have never let the wounds develop or if the primary error was not promptly noticing and addressing them. Here are the questions/issues (some legal, some operational) Should she have been admitted in the first place? Did she have pressure sores when she was admitted? When were the pressure sores first discovered? (There is conflicting evidence) Should the community have discovered the pressure sores sooner? Is this a case of being too aggressive about getting one more head in a bed? At what point should care givers have noticed newly formed pressure sores? Is this just a case of greedy lawyers taking advantage of a terrible situation or do they have a righteous cause? Who’s fault was this . . . if anyone’s? Does the family have any responsibility in all of this? Given that she may very well have died in the same time frame, should the company have any financial obligation here?

US News and World Reports 2013 Best Nursing Homes Report

by Steve Moran

California has better nursing homes than any other state in the US . . . it has to be a joke right? The vaunted magazine US News & World Report has just released their 2013 list of best nursing homes. I was astonished to see that California led the way in having the most and highest percentage of highly rated skilled nursing facilities. California did not lead by just a little bit. It “has twice as many highly rated homes as any other state, or in a region”. I found myself saying “Huh?” I live in California and in my many years in the senior housing industry I have been in maybe 2 or 3 thousand senior housing communities across with country and in more than half of all the licensed skilled nursing buildings in the State of California. I don’t think anyone who is objective about skilled nursing in this country, would ever try to make a credible argument that overall, California has the best nursing homes in the country. Within the skilled nursing community it is well known that the 5 star system is very flawed and in fact provides consumers very little in the way of useful information. A quick google search will provide a variety of articles that question the 5 star rating system. Here is my take after reading the article and browsing the list: US News & World Report has done a shabby job of reporting. In fact, they didn’t do any serious reporting or they would have been more cautious about equating a 5 star rating with the highest quality care. It confirms that the 5 star system continues to be flawed. This is not to say it has no value, but I would argue that at best, it’s value is primarily as a early detection tool to identify and rule out terrible nursing homes. The one reliable conclusion you can draw from the list is that the highly rated skilled buildings are experts at getting a high rating 5 star rating. There are some really great skilled nursing buildings in California and other states that don’t have a 5 star rating. In fact often these buildings take on patients with complex problems and get terrific results, but because those patients are complex it hurts their star rating.

How do you place your MDS Coordinator on the organizational chart?

Do they report to the DON or to the NHA? Analyzing trends related to enhanced realized gains/maximization. We agree that the MDS Coordinator role is “intrinsically integrative,” with potential to impact quality of care. However, the potential of the MDS Coordinator to influence important care processes such as assessment, decision-making and care planning may be moderated by the quality of their relationship patterns across the organization. Maximizing that potential by attention to relationships patterns among staff can help to unlock that capacity of the MDS Coordinator to positively influence care processes and improve quality of care. Its not Just the DON or NHA Good connections exists when there is latitude to interact and freedom to share information with others who can best use that information. Some connections occur naturally when staff members interact to do work. The number, variety, and quality of these connections influence the extent to which staff learns and the extent to which the organization is capable of change. New information flow refers to the exchange of information within or across levels of the organization. New information of good quality provides knowledge that the staff can use to adjust their work behavior. This information may be general, such as the mission of an organization, or specific, such as communication from a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) to a floor nurse that a resident appears more confused than is usual. This new information flow promotes mutual exchange of information for the purpose of understanding and making sense of a situation, allowing staff to adjust their behavior to meet emerging demands

Family Communications Important Aspect of Long-Term Care Facility Norovirus Prevention Measures

From Groupcast

Norovirus prevention measures implemented at senior living and skilled nursing centers demand improved family and visitor communications. Restricted access and containment measures are often at odds with family members’ desire to visit their loved ones. Immediate and ongoing communications with family members at the outset and during the quarantine are key to success. The norovirus, a fast-moving gastrointestinal virus, spreads quickly in settings where the community members are in close proximity and share eating facilities. Nursing homes, cruise ships, hotels, and schools are all locations where such a virus can rapidly spread from member to member. Unlike the vast majority of schools in the US, which now have implemented school-wide notification systems, many senior living and skilled nursing centers lack the ability to immediately reach key family members. For nursing facilities, the CDC recommends fast action to prevent norovirus outbreaks, including restricting visitation, separating residents during mealtimes, restricted activities, and quarantining known cases. Each of these measures can be of major concern to a family member, especially those who are accustomed to unfettered access to their mom, dad, or other senior family member. The key to addressing the concerns of family members is by increasing the level and frequency of communication, preferably by way of direct messaging, beginning with the instant the heightened measures are implemented. With a system such as GroupCast, which is already in use at numerous senior living centers, a facility administrator could effortlessly record a personal message to family members and broadcast it instantly to their home and cell phone numbers. As the conditions persist or expire, periodic norovirus communications should also be sent advising family members of facility conditions, how to get more information on the loved one’s status, expectations as to the duration of the restrictions,etc. According to the CDC, nearly 60% of norovirus cases occur at long-term care facilities: “Healthcare facilities, including nursing homes and hospitals, are the most commonly reported settings for norovirus outbreaks in the United States and other industrialized countries (see Norovirus in Healthcare Settings). Nearly two-thirds of all norovirus outbreaks reported in the United States occur in long-term care facilities.”

Outbreaks can sometimes last months according to the CDC: “Outbreaks in these settings can be quite long, sometimes lasting months. Illness can be more severe, occasionally even fatal, in hospitalized or nursing home patients compared with otherwise healthy people.” Prolonged modification of visitation and care programs can place extreme stress on caring family members. Heightened levels of mass communication with the family members is the key to successful disease management. Otherwise, the facility will be fighting two battles – the norovirus and irate family members demanding to know what is happening with their loved ones. Proactive communication will reduce stress on both sides and will serve to reduce inquiries to care staff from family members seeking information on the restrictions and when they will be lifted. Systems like GroupCast are the answer. Low-cost, easy-to-use, and highly effective, a mass notification system such as GroupCast can cover all forms of notification including phone broadcast, email broadcast and text messages. These are the very reasons why they have been so heavily embraced by schools, and why they should be equally embraced by long-term care facilities.

There are three kinds of distracted driving: taking your hands off the wheel; letting your mind wander off what you are doing; and taking your eyes off the road. No matter which distraction you indulge in, and some people do all three at once, the potential to wind up seriously injured or dead looms each time you text, or go webbing while driving.

The leading cause of death on the highways these days is texting while driving; a fact which is not much of a surprise given the huge media coverage of every death by texting news story. It’s not just the media that are warning the public about the dangers of distracted driving; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are also sounding alarm bells with a recent report that shows texting causing 25 percent of all accidents, injures 330,000 a year, increases your chances of a wreck by 23 times and is six times more dangerous than drunken driving.

Shocking news, isn’t it? Or perhaps not, as any right thinking American citizen realizes that taking their eyes off the road is asking for trouble. Or do they? If the CDC’s number indicate anything, they show people are not thinking about the consequences of their actions. And so, hundreds have been maimed and killed because they were texting or webbing. What is wrong with that picture? What is so important that it cannot wait and save a life?

Despite campaigns to make people aware of how dangerous texting/webbing is, year-after-year the accident statistics climb. Being perpetually connected is not necessarily a good thing, as the number of deaths and serious injuries so clearly point out. Consider this: if you take your eyes off the road for about 4.6 seconds, the time it takes to read a text message, and you’re driving at 55 mph, you have travelled the full length of a football field, of 100 yards, without seeing where you are going. Any wonder why accidents that kill happen when you drive blind?

The bottom line is that texting/webbing accidents are the second largest cause of preventable deaths today. They also cost the economy, meaning you, the taxpayers, over $100 billion yearly. If you have been in an accident where the other driver was texting or webbing, get in touch with a competent and knowledgeable Austin personal injury lawyer. You may wish to file a lawsuit to recover compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, medications and so forth.

Bobby Lee is an Austin personal injury lawyer for Lee, Gober and Reyna. If you need an Austin personal injury lawyer, contact an Austin personal injury attorney from Lee, Gober and Reyna. Visit RWLeelaw.com.