Free Online Lectures and Courses

Do you need new skills to recareer? Or would you like to listen to course lectures from some of the best universities in the world? There are now many opportunities for free learning online. There are no class credits for these classes, but you can't beat the convenience and the cost. One of the best sites for basic computer classes - everything from internet safety to Facebook - is gcflearnfree.org. This site is funded by the Goodwill Community Foundation and also provides tutorials for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, and Publisher.  If you would like to listen to lectures or access course materials for university courses, here is a list of good websites:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Courseware - 1900 courses!
• University of California Berkeley on YouTube 
• University of California Berkeley Webcasts
  
• iTunes U - Oxford University, Duke University, Cornell University, Stanford University, museums, research institutes, and more (free lectures, but you must download the iTunes software first)
• Harvard @Home class list
  
• Open Yale Courses - "... introductory classes taught by distinguished teachers and scholars ..."
  

America's Best Nursing Homes

     Last year, one of our blog posts described Medicare's Nursing Home Compare website.  This website ranks nursing homes by a 5 star system and only includes nursing homes that are certified to participate in Medicare. 
     Recently, the U.S. News & World Report has created its own searching tool for finding nursing homes - "America's Best Nursing Homes". It uses the data from the Medicare database, but adds features to make searching easier. For example, you can search for nursing homes with a four star rating, which are within 25 miles of a particular city, and which are owned by a nonprofit organization. It will also allow you to search for a particular nursing home, even if you only know part of the name of the home.  In addition, the U.S. News and World Report has published their honor roll of the top 34 nursing homes in the United States, which are listed here. More information about this nursing home search tool can be found here. 

International Day of Older Persons

The United Nations celebrated the "International Day of Older Persons" on October 1st, 2009.  This year's theme was  "Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of  the International Year of Older Persons: Towards a Society for All Ages".
    

The United Nations has developed "Principles For Older Persons" to "address the independence, participation, care, self-fulfillment, and dignity of older persons". To learn more about the United Nations Programme on Aging, please click here.

Recent Grandparents Survey

The MetLife Mature Market Institute recently published a survey about grandparents. Highlights of this report include:

•  63% of grandparents provided financial support for their grandchildren in the last five years.
• Only 32% of grandparents gave their children financial advice (such as start saving early in life).
  
• 26% of grandparents provided money for their grandchildren's education.
• 25% reported that they increased their financial support of grandchildren due to the poor economy.
  
• 22% believed that providing this money had a negative effect on their own financial situation.

This survey polled 1,077 U. S. adults aged 45+.  More information about this survey can be found here. 

Free Medicare Diabetes Screening

The American Diabetes Organization and more than twenty other organizations have created a national drive to promote diabetes testing in older adults. Diabetes testing is important because 1 in 3 older adults aged 65 and over have diabetes, but nearly 50% do not know that they have this disease.  In addition, another 40% have pre-diabetes. Individuals with diabetes are at risk for serious health problems such as blindness, poor circulation, and kidney damage. You can learn to manage your diabetes, but not until you are aware that you have this condition.  For more information about diabetes, click here.
  Medicare covers the cost of diabetes screening for most older adults aged 65 and older. You can qualify for the free blood glucose test if you are 65 and older, enrolled in Medicare, and have one of the following conditions:

• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol
• are overweight
• have a family history of diabetes
• a history of gestational diabetes

You can read more about how to qualify on this webpage.

If you want to enroll in Medicare, please click here. If you would like to find a health care provider that accepts Medicare, please click here. 

PBS Series about the Boomer Generation

Life (Part 2) is an interesting PBS series about the Boomer generation and how they are redefining middle age. The series will have "... a combination of roundtable discussions, on-location field pieces, one on one interviews, and provocative video essays..." 

Episode topics will include:

• Boomer Marriage
• Generation Gaps
• Caregiving
• Dancing with Doctors
• Fighting Ageism
• Encore Careers
• Boomer Grandparenting

The first episode will be available on the PBS website on 9/16/09. The full episode can be watched here.

Here is a clip from the Generation Gaps episode:

National Grandparents Day

National Grandparents Day is the first Sunday after Labor Day, which is September 13th this year. President Jimmy Carter proclaimed this celebration in 1978. Marion H. McQuade first championed the idea for this celebration and her descendants created a nonprofit organization, the National Grandparents Day Council. The organization website states:

"Our goals are to honor grandparents and to strengthen the bond between grandparents and grandchildren. Additionally, we strive to draw compassionate attention to the eldest of society's elderly--those in nursing homes.

Martha Barbis is the 2009 National Grandparent of the Year

Come join us at New River Library this Saturday, September 12th, from 2:00pm -4:00pm. We will be celebrating National Grandparent's Day by hosting an ice cream social. There will be Wii video games, craft activities for children and their grandparents, and you can make your own ice cream sundaes!


New River Library
34043 State Road 54
Zephyrhills, Fl.33543
Phone: (813)788-6375