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Two FREE elder law panels at MVES in June!
Join us on June 2 or June 14 for a free panel discussion and Q&A session with elder law attorney Nancy McPheeters. Space is limited, so reserve your spot today!
Read more.
Vermont's health care revolution
On Thursday, the governor of Vermont signed a bill to create a new single-payer health care system in the state.
Read more.
Availability of primary care increases community health
A study just released from the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that the more primary care being dispensed in a community, the lower the risk of elder hospitalization. The study used Medicare data from more than 5 million seniors.
Read more.
Guinness Book of World Records names oldest person
Maria Gomes Valentim, 114, of Brazil, was certified as the world's oldest person, edging past US woman Besse Cooper, who is 48 days younger.
Save the date!
Our next theatre benefit, a special performance of The Full Monty at Stoneham Theatre, will be on May 5, 2012.
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Christine and Henry Falzarano on their wedding day in 1945. Their daughter Christine serves on the MVES board of directors.
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My father was trapped in the gap
Christine Falzarano on the importance of helping elders with nowhere else to turn
I’ve lived in Everett since 1958, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be. Everett is a true community. It’s vibrant, friendly, and engaged.
Some days it takes me 20 minutes to walk a block because I meet so many friends along the way.
It’s hard for me to imagine a life without my community.
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Theatre benefit raises over $87,000 for Gap Fund
Last Saturday, more than 350 people gathered at the Stoneham Theatre to raise money for elders who need help that no one else can provide. The special performance of 42nd Street raised over $87,000 for the Gap Fund, which provides housing, transportation, and medication assistance to elders who can't get help from the government.
With the proceeds from the event, Mystic Valley Elder Services has raised over $700,000 toward its $1 million Gap Fund endowment goal.
Tai Chi may reduce risk of falls in elders
Tai chi may reduce risk of fall and improve overall mental health in elders, says a recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
"Our overview showed that tai chi, which combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow and gentle movements, may exert exercise-based general benefits for fall prevention and improvement of balance in older people as well as some meditative effects for improving psychological health," the study authors wrote.
"We recommend tai chi for older people for its various physical and psychological benefits. However, tai chi may not effectively treat inflammatory diseases and cardiorespiratory disorders," they concluded.
Storytelling may improve your health
A recent article from the Annals of Internal Medicine points to personal narrative as a way to actually get healthier.
In the study, sharing similar stories about ailments, fears, or surgeries was shown to lower the stress level of patients. In fact, in the study a group of patients with hypertension heard others' stories and shared their own experiences with high blood pressure. As a result, the patients' blood pressure actually dropped. The drop in their blood pressure was similar to other patients who used drug regimens to control their blood pressure.
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From the director: newly discovered abuse
Recently I have written about the challenges we are facing in dealing with elder abuse as well as what we can do together to lessen it and programs available to intervene when reported. However, I find that there may be another, not-so-subtle form of abuse occurring every single day in (nursing) homes across America.
The Inspector General of the federal Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is a pervasive and serious misuse of antipsychotics in nursing homes across the US. Antipsychotic medicines are generally used to manage symptoms of severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and delusional disorder, and they have a tranquilizing effect on the patient.
But the new report from the federal government shows that these drugs are being used not to treat illness, but to restrain patients who do not have these illnesses.
So although these may be "wonder drugs" for folks suffering from severe mental illness, for others they are a form of elder abuse.
Abuse takes many forms. It can be physical, emotional, financial, sexual or self neglect. In this case, it is drug abuse of the worst kind…and it is physical abuse being inflicted by another on some of the most vulnerable people in America.
Continue reading about nursing homes misprescribing antipsychotics to residents.
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A match made in Mystic Valley...
When Lisa and Johnny started sharing a cubicle at the Mystic Valley Elder Services headquarters in Malden a few years ago, probably neither one of them suspected that someday they'd be memorializing that cubicle on their wedding cake.
Lisa and Johnny were married on April 30 at Tewksbury Country Club. In lieu of wedding favors, the couple and their families donated $1,000 to the Gap Endowment Fund, which Lisa helps to manage here at Mystic Valley Elder Services.
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