Your immune system is a tremendously sustainable system! But we can exercise it with a dose of... laughter.

John Cleese takes us on a tour of a laughter therapy practice in India.

Laughter promotes stress reduction, community bonding, stronger immune system... and joy. What a simple solution!

The National Geographic Society has developed a series of catered tours called Expeditions. These precisely engineered adventures emphasize learning, and many of the Society's preeminent experts escort guests on their journeys.

Recreational Equipment Incorporated  showcases travel experiences across the nation and throughout the world.

Exploritas, a Boomer brand introduced last year by the former Elder Hostel, primarily to accommodate boomers.

Expect expansion in other industries focusing on an aging Boomer population.

A CNBC.com article identifies healthcare: an aging generation needs more medical care for diseases and disabilities related to aging. But the article doesn't address the rapidly growing developments in "age management" industries.

According to the AARP, the lowest cost reverse mortgages are public loans.

The least expensive reverse mortgages are the ones offered by state or local governments. But these "public sector" loans generally can be used for only a specific purpose, like home repairs. Many are only available to persons with low to moderate incomes. But the low cost can make these loans very attractive.

Energy Efficiency and Weatherization

Remodeling projects or home maintenance projects of significant sizes, such as major plumbing upgrades, or energy efficient window replacement or a new roof, can warrant using equity in your home.   These major home renovations can improve the quality of life for a senior at the same time they reduce monthly energy bills and improve the value of the home. 

Deferred Payment Loans (DPLs)

Many local and some state government agencies offer "deferred payment loans" (DPLs) for repairing or improving your home. This type of reverse mortgage gives you a one-time, lump sum advance. No repayment is required for as long as you live in your home.

Property Tax Deferral (PTD)

Some state and local government agencies offer "property tax deferral" (PTD) loans. This type of public sector reverse mortgage generally provides annual loan advances that can be used only to pay your property taxes. No repayment is required for as long as you live in your home.

According to a 2007 AARP study, some type of PTD program is available in parts or all of the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.

AARP does not endorse any reverse mortgage lender or product -- so do your homework and ask a trusted financal advisor for help in analyzing your situation and the reverse mortgages available to you.

Read more at AARP about Low-Cost Public Loans

Community Recycling in Cooperatives

In New York City, apartment building residents, superintendents, porters, and management company employees are being encouraged to participate in a new program to improve recycling in their apartment buildings. The program is called the NYC Apartment Building Recycling Initiative (ABRI). It provides training for the participants.

The city Department of Sanitation's Bureau of Waste Prevention Reuse and Recycling enrolls a building, and helps  assess how the building is recycling. After the participants complete their training session, they receive a building evaluation based on the site visit with suggestions on how to improve recycling in the building.

Over 200 buildings are registered in the program and 133 buildings that have sent residents, supers, and even some building managers to the evening training sessions. Increasingly, ABRI is becoming very popular with cooperative and condominium boards.

Trained volunteers  are implementing cooperative recycling programs

1) improvements on how the building is set up for recycling;

2) regular education geared to all residents; and

3) the organization of a committee or ad hoc group to keep the focus on recycling all year round.

If your cooperative or condominium would like to take advantage of this free training, visit www.CENYC.org.

RECYCLING ELECTRONICS

1) Upper West Side Recycling also accepts and recycles batteries and E-waste and runs periodic collections at fixed locations. For further information, contact Jeff Twine at 212 865-9595.

2) Per Scholas is New York City's only electronics processing facility. It has been reconditioning and recycling E-Waste since 1999. In addition to making low-cost computers available to children and adults who cannot afford a new computer, Per Scholas also trains local youth for full-time jobs as computer technicians. For more information call Per Scholas: (718) 772-0651.

CLOTHING AND TEXTILE RECYCLING

Upper West Side Recycling  focuses on collection and recycling of materials that are not picked up by the NYC Department of Sanitation.

They help buildings recycle clothing and other textiles. They help buildings organize and publicize an in-house textile drive, and will furnish a portable 4 x 21/2 foot clothing bin so that building residents don't have to haul these goods to a collection site, or worse, dump them in the trash.

Recyclable textiles include clean clothing (wearable or unwearable, shoes, pocketbooks, curtains, sheets, blankets, comforters, and towels. By participating you can help resident do their spring cleaning, keep textiles out of our landfills and recycle in an easy, convenient way.

http://www.cnyc.coop/

Affordable Housing Cooperatives for Seniors
CSI Support & Development services (CSI) specializes in affordable housing for low-income seniors with locations in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Michigan. A limited number of apartments are available in some locations for younger persons who are physically disabled and need the special features of a unit designed for the mobility impaired. Rend subsidies are available to those who qualify. 

Members of the co-op apartments have a voice and participate in the management of their buildings.

CSI apartment buildings are a part of a coast-to-coast housing network, founded in 1945. 

What is a cooperative apartment building?

• An arrangement where co-op members live separately in their own apartments, as they would in any other apartment building.
• A building democratically controlled by the residents.

Voting co-op members participate in management decisions. CSI believes that quality housing is best achieved by the people who live there.

• Co-ops are non-profit organizations. Any profits are put back into the co-op to benefit its members.
• Cooperative apartments rely on voluntary help from members to keep costs down and preserve the democratic environment. Our motto is: "Working Together to Help Each Other."

How does a CSI building work?

Cooperatives are based on principles going back to England in the 1800s. All consumer cooperatives follow these basic principles:

• Open, voluntary membership
• Democratic control
• Non-profit operation
• Continuing education
• Political, social, racial and religious neutrality
• Cooperation among local, national and international cooperatives

What is it like to live in a co-op?

Every floor has an elected floor representative who is a member of the building council and does the following:

• Welcomes newcomers
• Holds monthly floor meetings, reports council news to the floor, takes suggestions back to council
• Turns in requests for apartment maintenance

The council meets monthly to decide on many aspects of building operations from what color to paint the lounge walls to ordering new refrigerators and hallway carpeting.

Residents meet monthly at general meetings in the community room.  During these meetings:

• Members who attend vote on issues that the president presents
• Committees report on their activities
• Members elect officers annually

By-laws and house rules build the framework for governing our co-op, and they provide for democratic and more secure communities within the buildings.

Committees run on volunteer power. Some committees meet "as needed;" others meeting monthly. CSI Support & Development' staff provides thorough training for all committees. Some committees and their responsibilities are:

• Leasing -interview applicants; organize move-ins and move-outs; prepare apartments for new residents
• Recreation/Activities - plan and organize social events, such as special parties, weekly get-togethers and trips for building residents
• Fund-Raising- develop fund-raising ideas for house funds. Members vote on how their co-op spends these funds
• House Maintenance- tour building and report on maintenance needs; become familiar with building's mechanical systems; make recommendations for improvements
• Finance : Help the co-op manage its money by planning the annual operating budget and reviewing monthly expenses.

Every building has a CSI staff liaison or coordinator who is the building's link between building business and the CSI Support & Development Services' office. They work with the council, committees and individuals to create the best possible living environment for all members.

Residents of each building elect delegates to regional cooperative congresses, where they nominate candidates for the CSI Board of Directors. Congress delegates and the board review corporate issues at three meetings each year. Congress is the link between co-op members and the board.

The board of directors meets monthly. It sets policy, approves annual building budgets and major building contracts.

CSI Senior Cooperative Housing Locations

CALIFORNIA
Beaumont, CA
Cathedral City, CA
Gardena, CA
Irvine, CA
Lawndale, CA
Maywood, CA
Morena Valley, CA
North Hollywood, CA
Ontario, CA
Palm Springs, CA
San Bernardino, CA

MASSACHUSETTS
Charlestown, MA
Chelsea, MA
Everett, MA
Jamaica Plain, MA
Revere, MA
Roslindale, MA
South Boston, MA

MARYLAND
Baltimore, MD
Essex, MD
Randallstown, MD

MICHIGAN
Belleville, MI
Carleton, MI
Dearborn Heights, MI
Detroit, MI
Ecorse, MI
Flat Rock, MI
Hazel Park, MI
Highland Park, MI
Kalamazoo, MI
Madison Heights, MI
Plymouth, MI
Riverview, MI
Romulus, MI
Royal Oak, MI
Southgate, MI
Trenton, MI
Wyandotte, MI

http://www.csi.coop/

SafetyNet by LoJack helps caretakers of people with Alzheimer's, Down syndrome, and other diseases, prevent people from walking away from their caregivers.

LoJack says that it provides government agencies with specialized receivers and antennas that can be activated to locate a missing person wearing the company's ankle or wrist bracelet.

By combining Project Lifesaver's experience in electronic search and rescue, training, procedures and impressive success rate, and LoJack's more than two decades of recovery expertise and success attributed to its direct integration with law enforcement, LoJack SafetyNet/Project Lifesaver is the most effective solution for rescuing people at risk who wander.

LOJACK is also helping to sponsor Project Lifesaver International, a charity program that uses the company's technology to find lost elderly folks.

SOURCE: LoJack® SafetyNet

How would you like a coffeehouse or snack bar named for you? 

Vitalize! Wellness Centre, is a state‐of‐the‐art development that opened as part of the Ecumen community Parmly LifePointes in Chicago City, called Ruben's, named for a 94‐year‐old resident, and lifetime swimmer.  Being active in a local community brings many rewards...and a great community will use its own facilities to acknowledge achievements and inspiring people to further their mission -- including naming facilities after key residents!

The Vitalize! Wellness Centre,  features a warm‐water pool, juicing classes and rows of high‐tech exercise machines that boost a goal of helping residents to seize personal responsibility for "aging well." Ruben Berg is a prime example of that accomplishment, says Patricia Montgomery, the center's director.

She defines aging well as "live long, die short."

A 1998 book titled "Successful Aging," based on results of the groundbreaking MacArthur Foundation Study, taught us the powerful role each of us has in shaping our health and well‐being as we age.

Our genes determine only 30% of our destiny! 
The other 70 percent is up to us!

A decade after the book was published, other studies have confirmed and advanced those findings.

Most people can recite the wisdom of regular exercise, keeping weight within limits and that smoking is bad for your health, says Robert Kahn, co‐author of "Successful Aging"

He sees progress in Americans' understanding of aging well, he says. But it shows up more in what they know than what they do.  Like obesity -- it's increasing rather than decreasing.

Kahn sees too little about why people are living longer and what longer life means, he adds. "Or what a longer and productive and happy life can be."

He wants to see more information circulated about other findings, too, such as the need to challenge our brains often and in new ways to stay mentally sharp. And he'd like to see more about learning and productivity in older people's lives and less about leisure.

We get the hint :-)  So in this blog ... "Solutions for Senior Health" we're focusing on learning and productivity and healthful living!  Good behavior!

Dr. Roger Landry travels the country to educate audiences about aging well and to promote and train care providers in the how‐to of masterpiece living, a plan for successful living inspired by the MacArthur Foundation Study.

Questions remain about how to make it happen. "One is how to engage older adults. They're smart people with interesting lives." But our broader society tends to push them aside. Changing that, he says, would be a "win‐win" for people of every age.

IDEAS:  crossword puzzles and Sudoko and software such as  [m]Power cognitive fitness technology

Spirituality and Social Connectedness -- Solution for Isolation

Understanding of the value of both spirituality and social connectedness is growing, he says. "If we stay in our homes, almost by definition we stay more and 3
more isolated." Studies show that isolation heightens the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, falling and fractures.

"Alzheimer's disease still terrifies people," Landry says, and many aren't aware there are ways to ward it off.

Americans need to replace high levels of stress, which he calls "our national sickness," with more serenity and soulfulness.

States Are Developing Senior Communities

Cleveland (Ohio) Foundation Successful Aging Initiative (http://www.successfulaging.org), which is developing a three‐year, $4 million plan to create and maintain elder‐friendly communities in the city. Goals include creating lifelong learning and development centers and promoting employment and volunteer opportunities for older people.

Colorado,  (www.silverprintcolorado.org) is developing an independent coalition of individuals, organizations and businesses with a vision  to establish a culture for positive aging and addressing needs, contributions and opportunities for people age 60‐plus.

6 Dimensions of Wellness

• physical
• emotional
• intellectual
• social
• vocational
• spiritual

The hope is that individuals will hold onto an independent spirit. That can mean living one's passion, whether it's a long‐held one, something they've always wanted to try or a new discovery.

SOURCE:  Ecumen, "Senior Housing and Successful Aging in the 21st Century"

Over the last decade technology has created a whole new world - but it has largely been  geared to the young. Computer games. Camera phones. Reality TV.  But technology always seeks new market niches, especially those with scale -- and the Baby Boomer generation is bringing about that marketing nirvana.  Boomers love technology...and they are going to need practical applications of technology to help them live independently and cost effectively.

Technology is both helpful and fun -- "It's fun."  "And challenging,"

Leaders in the aging services field say introducing new technology is much more than a smart business move. They call it a must.

• Touch‐screen computers
• Software to test - and polish -  mental skills.

      Example:  The program by Dakim called (m)Power "It helps us keep our brains active."

Andrew Carle, nationally known for coining the term "nana technology" to identify innovations that improve seniors' quality of life. "They're not optional. They're mandatory," says Carle, who managed hospitals and senior housing before joining the faculty at George Mason University, where he directs a program in assisted living/senior housing administration.

Technologies that help provide care and well‐being will be essential as people live longer and a huge baby boom generation - those born between 1946 and 1964 - edges into retirement and later life, he says.

By 2030, 1 of every 5 people in the United States will be 65 or older, compared to 12 percent in that age group now.

And by 2050, there will be more than a million people over age 100.

"We have to have technology to help seniors live independently, or to allow one's caregiver to be as productive as three or four are today," he says. "Or we're not going to have enough professional caregivers."

Eric Dishman, general manager for health, research and innovation for the California‐based Intel Corp., backs up Carle's theory.

Dr. Michael Magee, son of a house‐call‐making doctor and director of the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, frames the challenge this way: "how to increase services for three times (3X)  as many seniors while reducing health‐care costs."

Technology is at the core of the solution, say Dishman and Magee in a video created for the Center for Aging Services Technology (CAST). In "Transforming an Aging Nation" (www.agingtech.org/index.aspx) and a companion video on the Web site, they share a look at one of many ways technology can bring efficiency to aging services.

The "new caregiver model"

What are some of these assistive technologies for seniors?

• Online games of solitaire and poker help seniors exercise their minds.
• A high‐tech watch reminds you to take  medications,
• Sensors turn off the burners on the stove if forgotten.
• Medical information is digitally recorded so any doctor has immediate access to it.
• A "reality family TV" monitor in the home allows two‐way communication with family members

Specific Senior Health Care Technologies Marry Information and Access

Health care always benefits from good information -- easily accessible at the right time.  And technology is capturing that information and making it readily available.

A Portable Health Profile on a miniature CD and tiny flash drive made by Critical Access  stores all sorts of medical records including X‐rays.

Many diabetics now carry cell phones that can analyze a strip of blood within seconds and send results to their doctors' offices.

Intel is researching how new technology can bring three pieces together: cell phones, inexpensive sensors that capture biological data and the infrastructure of health care.

Good decision‐making requires good information.

In Ecumen's senior housing communities, technology reduces doctor visits with a device called Invivi Soft Pulse that uses electromagnetic frequencies to minimize the pain of wounds from injuries or skin breakdown - a common condition as people age ‐‐ and help them heal.

A system called CareTracker makes recordkeeping and other "paperwork" more efficient, freeing up additional time for nurses and aides to deal directly with residents.

"Magic floors," are being developed in which sensors in a layer of carpet can track footstep patterns and detect changes in a person's gait that warn of potential falls.

Plastic pill cases are being designed to remind people when to take their pills. Sensors on a pill bottle alert someone that they are taking the wrong pill or taking a pill at the wrong time.

Ecumen residents barely notice the seven pocket‐flashlight sized motion sensors tucked in seven strategic places in residents' kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom to monitor  movement in the apartment. They're at the heart of a system called QuietCare  to detect longer‐than‐normal time spent in bed or the bathroom, which can signal something is wrong.

Technology for Seniors Goes Beyond Physical Health

Internet entrepreneurs are "dabbling in" a new twist on Web sites popular with teenagers. Sites like Eons, Razoom, Multiply and Boomertown help older adults stay connected from anywhere.

ABOUT the reference author:  Kay Harvey writes for Eldr Magazine and reports on aging, demographics, gender and psychology for the online newspaper MinnPost.com.

"The sheer numbers of my generation dominate a fast approaching, unprecedented demographic transformation in this country and in Minnesota. By 2020 we will have more seniors in our state than children," says Kathryn Roberts, CEO and President, Ecumen, an ELCA Lutheran organization that provides development of senior housing. Ecumen's "Baby Boomer" age studies have found the following:

Most want to:

• Live at home, not in institutions.
• Live in communities close to a wide variety of amenities.
• Participate in the payment of their care costs.
• Have more options for paying for that care.
• Do some type of work in retirement.
• Positively impact a community's life.
• Volunteer.
• Use technology.
• Have public policies that help them live where they want to live.

Who are these Baby Boomers?

• 67% of baby boomers plan to volunteer during retirement
• 65% believe thei can have an impact on a community's quality of life
• 69% of baby boomers don't plan to retire until they are 65 or older. 14% anticipate working past age 70.
• 46% say they will have a full or part time job in retirement.
• 73% of those who plan to work in retirement say their job will be different from their current job. 93% say they think it's likely they'll find a job they enjoy.

Choices

Boomers desire choices that help them live where they want to live, how they want to live -- independence, personalization, ease, choice, convenience, and wellness. Their desire for change and choice will not abate with time. It's not just a boomer desire, it's a human desire.

Age-specific

Many of the products for seniors today are built on what a younger generation assumes that seniors need, not what they actually want. This paternalistic approach keeps ageist assumptions alive, such as what we often see in today's advertising. In so many people's eyes, if you're old, you're invisible. Boomers are telling us they won't be invisible. We must focus on people's wants, not just their needs.

Long Term Care Insurance

Many baby boomers don't understand long-term care insurance. In fact, many of them dislike the name "longterm care." One insurance company changed the name of its product from long-term care to "total living coverage" and features centenarians in their marketing who are living the life they envisioned because they planned for it earlier in life.

Technology

Technology - from the internet to the iPod - is ubiquitous in boomers' lives. That's not decreasing. Boomers are telling us that they love technology and see it as a tool that will help them stay independent.

• Nearly 9 out of 10 boomers (85%) use the internet. -- Email, research and 71% use the internet at home!
  
• More than 62% plan to purchase a computer for internet access in the next year.
  
• 92% anticipate that technology will help them live longer and more independently.
  
• 95% of boomers want a central sate website where consumers can obtain unbiased consumer information and shopping for LTC insurance products.

European countries, Japan and South Korea are encouraging U.S. companies - through benefits and less bureaucratic environments - to set up research and development outside the United States. The global aging services market has been estimated to be as high as $140 billion dollars.

Find the complete report on Ecumen's Baby Boomer research at their website.