New Adult Day Care Guide

The MetLife Mature Market Institute and the National Adult Day Services Association have published a consumer guide called "The Essentials: Adult Day Services".   Adult Day Services (adult day care centers) care for elderly or disabled people during the day, so that they can continue to live in their homes.  These centers also help by providing respite time for caregivers.  Adult day care centers usually have:

• social activities
• meals and snacks
• nursing services
• personal care
• therapeutic activities
• transportation to/from the facility

In addition, some centers provide more intensive health care or rehabilitation following an accident or a more complex medical problem.  This guide gives advice on how to find a good adult day care center, what staffing ratios to look for, financial relief information, and resources.  Cost can range from $30 to about $150 per day, with a national average of about $61 per day.  You can download the guide here.  To find local Adult Day Care centers, you can use the Facility/Provider search on the FloridaHealthFinder website.

Senior Cards and Social at the Hugh Embry Library

The Hugh Embry Library will be hosting a Senior Cards and Social on Friday, January 28th at 1:00pm. This 'Social'  features crafts or sing-a-longs, bingo, cards, and light refreshments. This is a free event.

Hugh Embry Library
14215 Fourth Street
Dade City, FL 33523
For more Information: (352) 567-3576

Free Seminar on How to Avoid Financial Scams and Fraud

The Stetson University College of Law sponsors the Elder Consumer Protection Program.  This program was designed to provide an educational resource for topics pertaining to elder consumer protection - including financial scams and fraud.  The college sponsors free events as part of this program.  There are three upcoming programs: "Shield Yourself from Financial Exploitation (Financial and Consumer Scams and Frauds)", "Protect Yourself from Financial Abuse (Family Issues, Preplanning, Personal Legal Document Basics)", and "Batten Down Against Disaster Frauds and Scams (Price Gouging, Home Repair, Charity Fraud, Insurance)".

The first program is:

"Shield Yourself from Financial Exploitation (Financial and Consumer Scams and Frauds)"

Tuesday, January 25th 

from 9:00am - 2:00pm

at the Stetson University College of Law 

(Eleazer Courtroom)

1401 61^st Street South

Gulfport, Florida 33707

Although the program is free, they do require that you register, as there is limited space.  Light breakfast and lunch will be provided to registered attendees.  You can call  727-562-7888 to register or to get more information or you can e-mail elderconsumers@law.stetson.ed.

In addition, free consumer services will be available at this event -such as do-not-call/opt-out registration, free credit reports, and secure document shredding.

January/February Elder Update

 The Florida Department of Elder Affairs publishes a bi-monthly publication called the "Elder Update". The January/February issue has articles about the Social Security website,  keeping the older brain healthy, caregiving, how to save money on cell phones, and more. You can read this issue online here. You can access back issues of the Elder Update here. In addition, you can receive a free print subscription to this publication by filling out the online form here.

Pew Generations 2010

 Pew Internet has published the results of their Generations 2010 report. This report was based on a telephone survey of 2,252 adults, which asked about American's use of the internet. This report had three age categories for older adults: older boomers, ages 56-64; the Silent Generation, ages 65-73; and the G.I. generation ages 74 and above. Here are some of the highlights of the report which concern older adults:

• 76% of Older Boomers use the internet.
• 58% of the Silent Generation use the internet.
• 30% of the G.I. Generation use the internet.
• 44% of the Silent Generation have searched for financial information and this percentage is higher than for any other age group.
• All three "older adult" age groups have greatly increased their use of social network sites - with the percentage of the G.I. Generation who use Social Networking sites increasing from 4% in 2008 to 16% in 2010!
• 76% of Older Boomers get news online.
• Email is the top online activity for all "older adult" age groups, followed by "search", and then "finding health information".

The full report can be accessed here.

Best Retirement Destinations

 Portfolio.com has ranked the attractiveness of 157 retirement destinations.  Criteria for rating these destinations included: 

• the percentage of residents age 65 or older
• the median age of residents
• the number of seniors born out of state
• the percentage of seniors who moved to this area in the last 12 months

This data was taken from the 2009 American Community survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The top three retirement destinations were: Bradenton-Sarasota; Prescott, Arizona; and Lake Havasu City, Ariz.  Other Florida areas on the list included: Cape Coral-Fort Myers (4th), Naples (5th), Palm Bay Melbourne (6th), Homosassa Springs (7th), Ocala (8th), Punta Gorda (9th), Port St. Lucie (10th), and Tampa (11th).  The full list can be found here.

Here are some statistics about the Bradenton-Sarasota area:

• the median age is 48.1
• 27% of residents are are 65 or older
• 95% of the seniors in this region moved here from out of state

For more information, you can read the entire article here.

NIH Senior Health Website adds information about Anxiety Disorders

The National Institute of Health provides an excellent health resource for Older Adults called NIHSeniorHealth.  This website provides easy to understand health and aging information.  It is very accessible because it offers adjustable text size, text color, and the ability to have the text read aloud.  This website is a good place to start to find health information about a particular condition, such as diabetes or kidney disease.  The latest addition to the website is a section about Anxiety Disorders, which is located here.  Anxiety disorders "... are characterized by persistent, excessive and disabling fear and worry and get progressively worse if left untreated.  It is estimated that anxiety disorders affect between 3 and 14 percent of older adults in a given year" (National Institute on Aging press release).  More in-depth information about anxiety disorders can be found on the following web pages:

• National Institute of Mental Health: Anxiety
• MedlinePlus: Anxiety