Senior Living Fall 2018

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8 ESSEX MEDIA GROUP SENIOR LIVING FALL 2018 Heat is a necessity, not a luxury No matter what type of heating system you have, LEO’s Fuel Assistance program can help you pay your heating bills. 1 out of 3 homes is eligible; they currently serve nearly 3,000 households, and over 7,000 individuals. Homeowners, renters, and renters with heat included can benefit. Many that are not eligible for fuel assistance qualify for utility discounts; this benefit is just as helpful. Birgitta Damon, CEO of Lynn Economic Opportunity, Inc. understands that in order to serve the community, you must listen to their needs. “We know from data sourced from our community survey that 50% of respondents identified the cost of energy as a primary concern. We are committed to reaching all eligible residents in order to ease this burden. We can help so many more.” A New England winter is long. From November through April, LEO works to service as many eligible clients as possible. Once you have been through the intake process, the program is simple. Payments are made right to your heating company. LEO staff is knowledgeable, considerate and careful with sensitive documents. LEO’s main goal is to provide assistance to those most vulnerable to the cold. 23% of the individuals served are children under the age of 17 years old. 36% of fuel assisted households include a resident 60 years or older. Darlene Gallant, Community Services Director, sees the doors that open for a household once they engage with LEO, “Fuel Assistance is the gateway to other benefits. Those who have National Grid will receive a 25% discount on utility bills. This discount rate may qualify households for an energy audit, updated appliances, home weatherization and heating systems repair. LEO wants to reach working households who just need some help with winter heating costs. There is a misconception that fuel assistance is limited to individuals receiving government assistance. That notion is simply not the truth; our client base is incredibly diverse.” LEO serves residents of Lynn, Lynnfield, Marblehead, Nahant, Saugus, Swampscott and Wakefield. Stop by Lynn Economic Opportunity, Inc. (LEO) at 156 Broad Street, Room 110 or visit leoinc.org. For emergencies, use our 24-hour hotline: 781-581-7220 x 340. Walk-in hours: Monday - 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday - 1 to 4 p.m Thursday - 8 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. By appointment only on Tuesday evenings: 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Lynn Economic Opportunity, Inc., (LEO) works to alleviate the immediate impact of poverty while providing pathways to financial stability for individuals, families, and for the benefit of the community of Lynn and its surrounding towns. 156 Broad St. leoinc.org 781-581-7220
SENIOR LIVING FALL 2018 ESSEX MEDIA GROUP 9 Penn and Drexel experts see hope for better lives with dementia By Stacey Burling THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER It’s hard to argue that hearing you have dementia is not deeply depressing. After all, most forms of dementia are progressive, fatal and, currently, untreatable. But Philadelphia aging experts Laura Gitlin and Nancy Hodgson see hope. “There’s always something you can do,” said Hodgson, chair of gerontology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Gitlin, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University, said the lack of a medical cure doesn’t mean that life for people with dementia and their caregivers can’t be made better. She is appalled that primary-care doctors, who make most dementia diagnoses, are still telling patients there’s nothing they can do for them. “That’s just not acceptable,” she said. The duo, who previously worked together at Thomas Jefferson and Johns Hopkins Universities and the former Philadelphia Geriatric Center, collaborated on a new book, “Better Living with Dementia.” It advocates for a multidisciplinary approach to dementia care that emphasizes helping patients find meaningful activities they can do at any stage of the disease. Gitlin and Hodgson say the book is meant for both professional and lay audiences, but the academicpress price tag — online it starts at $76 — will likely deter many family caregivers. Broadly, it calls for thinking in a systemic way about how professionals, family caregivers, and society can support people with dementia — and caregivers — in their homes and communities. Hodgson said that medical professionals are “typically very deficitfocused.” They look for weaknesses that can be fixed. Given the lack of treatments for dementia, she said, it makes more sense to find “preserved strengths” and help patients use them as long as possible. Strategies that focus on using strengths to create meaningful activities can decrease social isolation, agitation, and boredom, Gitlin said. They work better than any drug now available. “There is no drug for boredom,” she said. “There is no drug for resisting care.” While they sympathize about the time pressures many doctors face, Gitlin and Hodgson said newly diagnosed patients and their families need much better education than they’re getting about dementia, an umbrella term for several types of progressive cognitive decline, including Alzheimer’s disease. At the very least, they should be told how to contact the Alzheimer’s Association, which has sound educational materials and support groups. Other organizations also support people with frontotemporal or Lewy body dementias. Yes, many people can easily search for these things online, but, Gitlin and Hodgson said, some elderly caregivers can’t and many others don’t. If caregivers don’t understand the disease and how it progresses, they have an especially hard time understanding a loved one’s behavior and responding appropriately. Gitlin suggests that caregivers who have the money — insurance likely won’t cover this — hire a geriatric social worker to assess their needs and help with long-term planning. Families need to think about safety, who will provide care, and where their loved one with dementia will live as the illness worsens. Hodgson thinks families can also benefit from an evaluation by an occupational therapist who is specifically trained in cognitive function. Insurance might cover this if a doctor writes a prescription. This kind of therapist can help people know what someone with dementia can still do and what is no longer safe. Families often learn the hard way that someone with dementia should no longer be driving or using the stove. Guns should be locked and monitored, if not banished from the house. Gitlin said families find it very hard to get rid of guns when, say, a former police officer gets dementia. “People struggle with this because they feel it’s a way of taking away a person’s identity,” she said. People with dementia often just sit PHOTO | TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE Nancy Hodgson, left, and Laura Gitlin have written a book on living with dementia, in Center City, Philadelphia. around all day, Hodgson said. This is where an evaluation can help families create meaningful activities. They may seem time-consuming, Hodgson said, but they pay off in better behavior. Gitlin said an occupational therapist learned that an agitated man in an adult day center had been an accountant. The center workers gave him a desk and a spreadsheet. Then they gave him money from the previous day to count and sort. He began looking forward to helping out each day. Another therapist helped a family set up a desk for an architect with dementia. They asked him to design a room each day. Other people might enjoy putting a salad together even if they can no longer follow a recipe or safely chop vegetables. Gitlin said doctors need to stop saying there’s nothing that can be done for dementia. “There’s a lot you can do,” she said, “and you can make life better.”
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