Green House Celebrations and Living with Dementia

Residents of Stadium Place, donors, and City Council President Jack Young joined GEDCO, Catholic Charities and Melissa Honig from NCB Capital Impact as the Green House Residences at Stadium Place held a Community Orientation, Update and Celebration.

People living with dementia need a "champion of non-pharmacological Alzheimer's treatment."

Read this article Dear Mr. President:' A Letter From America's Dementia Patients, by John Zeisel in the Huffington Post (August 28, 2011).

Next week Green House adopters from around the nation will gather in Birmingham, Ala., Sept. 7-9 for the Fourth Annual Green House Meeting and Celebration. Many sessions will be broadcast live over the internet, including the keynote address by Dr. Bill Thomas.

Dementia and John Mackey

Godspeed to John Mackey, one of the greats of the old Baltimore Colts. Residents of Stadium Place, the urban retirement community developed by GEDCO on the site of the former Memorial Stadium, reminisced about watching John Mackey and Johnny Unitas during the heyday of the Baltimore Colts. We tip our hats to the memory of John Mackey and other Baltimore Colts who have passed away.

John Mackey suffered from dementia, which afflicts many older adults, including those that never played football. People start to lose their memory and have difficulty conversing and eating. They may also become angry and belligerent. The Green House Residences at Stadium Place, which will open in Spring, 2012, will provide care for older adults who need long-term nursing care, including those with Alzheimer's Disease and other dementia.

According to the Alzheimer's Association:

Dementia is a general term for loss of memory and other mental abilities
severe enough to interfere with daily life. It is caused by changes in
the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia,
accounting for 50 to 70 percent of cases.

There are 10 warning signs of Alzheimer's. If you or someone you know is experiencing any of the signs, please see a doctor. Early diagnosis gives you a chance to seek treatment and plan for the future. If you have questions, call us anytime: 877.877-IS IT ALZ (877.474.8259).

Dr. Bill Thomas at the TedX Conference - Elderhood Rising

Dr. Bill Thomas, founder of the Eden Alternative and the Green House Project, is an inspirational speaker and thought leader.

He was invited to give a PRO aging talk at the TEDx conference in San Francisco.

The talk, entitled Elderhood Rising: The Dawn of a New World Age,
is now on YouTube and you can watch and share it here.

Please share your comments on Dr. Thomas' comments about positive viewpoint on aging and elderhood.

Celebrating Aging at Stadium Place

More than fifty residents of Stadium Place celebrated Older Adults Month with a party this afternoon. One resident brought along music, and GEDCO provided a cake, celebrating GEDCO's 20th Anniversary and Stadium Place's 7th Birthday. Residents cheered for the decade they were born, and those who are 80 and older helped to blow out the candles. See more pictures on GEDCO's Facebook page.

GEDCO is going Green to meet LEEDS Construction Standards

Some long-term care providers are integrating LEEDS standards into their new buildings. GEDCO is building the first GREEN HOUSE® model of community-based long-term care in Maryland, and have designed it to meet the LEEDS-Silver level of certification. The improvements to the building will provide a better quality of life for the elders living in the building as well as the Shahbazim and other staff assisting them. See http://www.gedco.org/ for more information about The Green House Residences at Stadium Place.

During the design and development phase of the Baltimore project, the entire team was devoted to meeting the LEEDS standards. As a starting point, the project reuses a previously-developed site which reduces the environmental footprint of the building. In order to reduce exterior water consumption there will be no permanent irrigation system, and plants will be selected that are adapted to the local climate. Construction materials will be carefully selected so they contain large amounts of recycled content and they are manufactured and extracted regionally. In addition, the contractor has agreed to institute a construction waste management program that will divert at least 75% of construction debris from landfill. Another example of a design change is the HVAC system. The HVAC for this building will be a VRV (variable refrigerant volume) system which allows for individual space control and results in a far more economical and efficient system – it has a higher initial cost but will pay for itself over time through energy and operational savings.

Are you depending on Social Security benefits?

Social Security benefits are not as reliable as people believe. We need to start planning and saving more for our own retirement now, whether we are in our 20's, 40's, or 60's.

Eileen Ambrose has an excellent column in today's Baltimore Sun regarding financial planning for retirement. She highlights the fact that many boomers are starting to take their social security benefits before age 66, and this has a large financial impact.

For people born between 1943 and 1957, the Normal Retirement Age is now 66 years old. That means that benefits are reduced, for your entire lifetime, if you start taking benefits early. On the other hand, if you can wait just one more year to start SSA payments, the government will pay you an extra 8% of benefits.

A basic way older boomers may improve their finances is by delaying
retirement. Each year past age 66 that a worker defers collecting Social
Security, annual benefits go up another 8 percent, until age 70.

The Social Security Administration has a very easy to use calculator, to determine your normal retirement age, and how much in benefits you might lose or gain by changing the age when you first take benefits.

However, the calculations of future Social Security benefits will likely change for many people, since the government can't afford to keep paying these benefits. The unfunded liability for Social Security benefits, promised to be paid over the next 75 years, is $6.5 trillion.

As Paul Ryan noted, according to the 2011 annual report of the the trustees of Social Security:

The Trustees now project that Social Security has entered into a period of permanent cash deficits. That means that to pay full Social Security benefits, the government must cut spending, raise taxes, or, more realistically, borrow more money to finance pension payments.
The 75-year actuarial imbalance has increased to 2.22 percent of payroll (up from 1.92 percent last year).
Social Security faces a $6.5 trillion unfunded liability (up from $5.4 trillion last year.)
The Social Security Trust Funds are expected to go insolvent in 2036,
meaning that certain birth cohorts above the age of 55 can expect to see a 23 percent cut in their benefits.

Do we want to burden our children with sharply increased taxes and government debt to pay for social security benefits for their parents and grandparents? We need to start to solve this problem now.

National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month

What is Osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis, or porous bone, is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased risk of fractures of the hip, spine, and wrist. Men as well as women are affected by osteoporosis, a disease that can be prevented and treated. In the United States, more than 40 million people either already have osteoporosis or are at high risk due to low bone mass.

This is National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month. Estimates indicate that as many as 50 percent of Americans older than 50 will be at risk for osteoporosis fractures during their lifetimes. Osteoporosis is often called the “silent disease” because bone loss occurs without symptoms, but early diagnosis and treatment can reduce or prevent fractures from occurring.

For more information, vist the
NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases national Resource Center or the National Osteoporosis Foundation

Medicare Coverage:
Medicare provides coverage for bone mass measurements once every 24 months (or more often if medically-necessary) for a qualified Medicare beneficiary when ordered by a physician or qualified non-physician practitioner.

Did You Know: Medicare provides coverage for a FREE, Welcome to Medicare preventive visit and an annual wellness check-up? See Medicare site for more information.