Articles Posted in Elder Law

In decades and centuries past, when people got old their children and younger relatives would care for them until they died. Now, when elderly Americans are too old to care for themselves and assisted living is not an option for financial, physical, or mental reasons many are sent to live in a sterile, hospital-like nursing home. However, one geriatrician is working on developing another option for where frail seniors can live and thrive: Green House homes.

Green House Project

Dr. Bill Thomas helped to create and develop the Green House project, a model for long-term care that nurtures the elderly and helps frail seniors thrive. The project was co-founded by Dr. Thomas and Steve McAlilly of Mississippi Methodist Senior Services in 2003, and it has since spread to 27 states.

One common concern for seniors living alone is the lack of community and companionship. Not only can it be dangerous for an elderly person to live alone, but loneliness can have a physical, emotional, and mental toll on someone of advanced age. However, in order to combat the issues associated with living alone, a growing trend amongst the elderly is the concept of cohousing.

Cohousing Communities

Cohousing is different than a retirement home or assisted living facility. A cohousing, or “coho” community, combines private apartments or homes designed around a communal space. The common area typically includes the kitchen, large dining room, laundry facilities, and recreational areas.

In multiple surveys and studies, senior Americans and retirees have not scored well on retirement literacy tests. In the latest study, U.S. citizens between the ages of sixty and 75 who were polled had an eighty percent failure rate of the retirement literacy test. The results of the poll and subsequent survey were released this week by the American College of Financial Services.

Results of the Study

The poll was conducted by the American College of Financial Services through online interviews of 1,019 people between the ages of sixty to 75 who had at least $100,000 in household assets. The participants were asked a series of 38 questions regarding retirement literacy basics. This included questions about Social Security, life expectancy, IRAs and other retirement accounts, life insurance, investments, and how bonds work. Only two in ten participants had passing grades.

MobileHelp first began its foray into the elder care technology industry with a system that allowed its customers a way to seek help through pushing a button on pendants worn around their necks. But in only a few short years, this company has expanded its offerings of elder care technology to include medical alert technology that can detect falls without the use of a button and can help prevent them, as well.

MobileHelp Mission

MobileHelp was founded in 2006 at the research park at Florida Atlantic University and today has more than 100,000 customers in all fifty states across the country. The company generated nearly $18.7 million in revenue in 2013 and sales growth of 3,305% over the last three years. To support its rapid growth and new ideas, the company has raised another $15 million from investors this year.

According to Kiplinger’s, elder financial abuse has been named the “crime of the 21st century,” and according to a new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, as many as twenty percent of America’s elderly population may be victims. However, new efforts by attorneys are being made to train people in this profession to spot and report potential elder financial abuse and fraud.

EIFFE Initiative

The Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation prevention program (EIFFE) was launched by a joint effort between the American Bar Association (ABA), nonprofit Investor Protection Trust, and its sister organization the Investor Protection Institute. The goal of EIFFE is to curb the increasing levels of elder financial abuse and exploitation by teaching attorneys how to spot the warning signs.

The increase in the number of elderly Baby Boomers has also meant an increase in the number of seniors abusing medication, other drugs, and alcohol. There are many delicate issues that arise in treating the elderly for addiction. However, efforts are now being made to screen and treat instances of elderly addiction in hospitals, nursing homes, and other treatment programs.

Elderly Addiction Statistics

Experts agree that as the population of seniors grows so does the number of those addicted to harmful substances. In 2009, a study was published that found that because of the large size “and high substance abuse rate” of the Baby Boomer generation, the number of Americans over the age of fifty with addiction abuse problems was expected to reach 5.7 million by 2020, double the number from 2006.

Very few caregivers are ever asked by their loved one’s doctors or other professionals how they are coping with the care of another. Questions like whether the caregiver is eating properly, exercising, sleeping enough, become depressed, or getting any free time is often overlooked. Thankfully, some physicians and other healthcare professionals have noticed the lack of care given to the actual caregivers, and they are doing something about it.

The Invisible Patient

Dr. Ronald D. Adelman, co-chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College recently gave a talk in addition to publishing an article about “the invisible patient,” the caregivers of the elderly. He contends that doctors should be assessing caregivers when they check on their elderly patients.

New research released last week reported that conflict and violence among nursing home residents is widespread and that extremely high rates of violence are common in some facilities. The author of the study, Karl Pillemer, is a professor of gerontology at Weill Cornell College of Medicine, and he presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. According to Professor Pillemer, over twenty percent of people living in the nursing homes studied were involved in at least one negative or aggressive encounter with another resident during a four week period.

Nursing Home Study

For the study, researchers looked at patient records at ten nursing homes in New York. They interviewed staff and residents and recorded incidents through direct observation. In a sample of over 2,000 residents, sixteen percent were involved in incidents that included swearing, screaming, or yelling.

Grieving LGBT spouses who recently lost a loved one are being dealt another harsh blow by the Social Security Administration, which is refusing to pay survivors’ benefits to same-sex spouses living in states where their marriage is not recognized. One couple married in Boston but living in Texas was together for over thirty years when one passed away from cancer. The SSA refused to pay benefits to the surviving spouse because although they were married in a state that recognized the union, their state of residence does not.

Survivors’ Benefits Lawsuit

As of now, Social Security will not approve applications for spousal or survivors’ benefits for LGBT couples in Texas and sixteen other states that still do not recognize same-sex marriage. In order to get justice for herself as well as other same-sex widows and widowers, Kathy Murphy, 62, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare are suing the Social Security Administration claiming that denying benefits to married same-sex couples is unconstitutional discrimination.

As the population ages and people live longer, the number of elderly Americans who fall and suffer serious injuries, or death, is soaring. As a result, retirement communities, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes where millions of senior citizens reside across the nation are trying to balance the safety of their residents and their desires to live as they choose.

The Dangers of Falls

The danger surrounding elderly falls is very real. In 2012, the number of seniors ages 65 and older who died as a result of a fall reached over 24,000 people. That is almost double the number from ten years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control.