Recently in Senior Jobs Category

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.

Because of the recession and a new generation of workers, talent recruitment and benefits are changing.

Two large groups of employees, Boomers and Gen Y are driving innovative changes in work policies and benefits.  For example:

CVS/pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Caremark

As one of America's largest pharmacy chains, CVS has stores in every region of the country--and in every regional climate. In 2004 CVS created its Snowbird Program to let experienced store employees move seamlessly among CVS locations according to their seasonal preferences. As the program's name implies, many of the participants are mature workers who enjoy wintering in southern states and summering in northern ones. Since the program started, over 1,000 employees, ranging from retail clerks to pharmacists and managers, have enthusiastically participated, earning CVS a high-profile award from the American Society on Aging.

Time Warner

This cutting edge media and technology company has developed a mentoring program that engages people on both ends of their careers.

Some of the company's senior executives were challenged to stay at the forefront of a rapidly evolving new-media landscape. To raise their awareness of digital media, Time Warner launched Digital Reverse Mentoring--a program in which tech-savvy college students mentor senior executives on emerging digital trends and technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, and other Web 2.0 applications. In addition to imparting technical skills, Gen Y mentors provide Boomer mentees with a peek into the values, consumer behaviors, and communication styles of the younger generation.

Read more about changing "talent management" progress at Harvard Business Review.

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"

Experience Works is a national, charitable, community-based organization that helps older adults get the training they need to find good jobs in their communities.

The largest program offered by Experience Works is the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). This program, funded under Title V of the Older Americans Act as well as state and local grants, enables us to help thousands of low-income individuals, age 55 and older, throughout the United States.

Through this program, seniors benefit from training, counseling, and community service assignments at faith-based and community organizations in their communities, prior to transitioning into the workforce.

Participants are placed at eligible host agencies (primarily at faith-based and community organizations) for which they are paid the minimum wage for an average of 20 hours per week. A host agency is either a private nonprofit organization (other than a political party) that is tax exempt under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue code of 1954, or a public agency operated by a unit of government.

38% of Experience Work's SCSEP participants found permanent jobs, notably as

• teachers' aides
• emergency dispatchers
• care providers
• clerical assistants

Program Qualifications

• Be 55 years of age or older, and a resident of the state where he or she is enrolled in the SCSEP program.
• Annual family income must not be more than 125% of the established federal poverty income guidelines.
• Be eligible to work in the United States.
• Be currently unemployed.