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The U.S. Census Bureau has published the following Veterans Day facts:
- There were 23.2 million military vets in the U.S. in 2008
- 9.2 million were age 65 or older
- 2.6 million served in World War II
- 7.8 million served in the Vietnam War
- 2.8 million served in the Korean War
- 5.2 million in the Gulf War
- 6.0 million served in peacetime
- States with the most veterans: California, Florida, and Texas
- $36,779 was the average income for veterans
- 2.9 million received benefits for service-connected disabilities
November is National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month. The Alzheimer's Association provides facts and figures about this disease:
- Approximately 5.3 million people have Alzheimer's disease in the United States.
- Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.
- Alzheimer's and Dementia triple healthcare costs for Americans age 65 and older.
Here are two good websites about Alzheimers disease:
The Alzheimer's Foundation of America sponsors the "National Memory Screening Day" each year and this year's date is November 17th, 2009. On this date, qualified healthcare professionals offer free, confidential memory screenings. You can click here to search for local screening sites.
Do you care for an individual who has Alzheimer's disease? The National Institute on Aging provides a free 146 page publication called "Caring for a Person with Alzheimer's Disease: Your Easy-to-Use guide from the National Institute on Aging":
Hudson Regional Library will be hosting two programs about Alzheimer's disease this month:
- an "Alzheimer's Disease Overview" presented by a representative of the Alzheimer's Association on Wednesday, November 4th at 11:00am.
- The "Long way home: a journey through Alzheimers" presented by Marian Ritchie on Tuesday, November 17th, at 6:30pm.
Hudson Regional Library
8012 Library Road
Hudson, FL 34667
phone: (727)861-3040
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that all individuals 65 years and older get the "seasonal" flu shot. The CDC recommends this vaccination because older adults have a much higher risk of complications from the seasonal flu than do other age groups. According to the flu.gov website, approximately 36,000 people die each year from flu complications and 90% of these people were 65 or older. The Florida Department of Health has a web page to help you locate a flu shot in your area.
However, older adults are not in the initial target group for the "Swine Flu" (H1N1) shot, because this age group is the least likely to get this version of the flu. If you are interested in finding out more about the seasonal flu and the swine flu, the CDC has partnered with WebMD to provide a blog called "Focus on Flu".
Florida's Long-term Care Ombudsman Program will be sponsoring a "Senior Information Day" on Tuesday, October 27th from 2:30pm - 5:30pm at the New River Library.
Exhibitors include:
* Area Agency on Aging
* Bay Area Legal Services
* Caregiver program
* CARES (Community Aging
and Retirement Services)
* Department of Children & Families
* Department of Health
* Senior Helpline
* Senior Legal Helpline
* Senior Medicare Patrol Program
* SHINE (Serving the Health Insurance
Needs of Elders)
* Social Security Administration
* Veteran's Services
* Victims Advocate Program
Free gift bags will be available.
New River Library
34043 State Road 54
Zephyrhills, FL 33543
Phone: (813)788-6375
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:
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.
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.
