Santa brings joy to young and old alike

Although I dislike and disagree with stores and other places of business that begin to celebrate the holidays far before any reasonable calendar date, certain worthwhile charitable endeavors must, of necessity, be planned well in advance.

One very worthwhile cause, now in its fifth year, is Be a Santa to a Senior, a program designed to give small gifts to local seniors who may be alone and struggling to keep up with increasing living costs.

Last year, for example, one senior wrote a letter saying what a big surprise it was to receive a gift of assorted warm socks and how she appreciated the generosity of a stranger.

The program, sponsored by the local Home Instead Senior Care office in Guilford, providers of nonmedical home care and companionship, works this way: Prior to the holidays, participating nonprofit organizations identify seniors in the community and give those names to Rick Cortellessa, who is in charge of the program for Home Instead.

Then, special Christmas trees will go up in Guilford at the Community Center, Walmart and Forte’s Gourmet Food Market; in Madison, at Stop & Shop and Robert’s Food Center; and at the Stop & Shop stores in North Branford and East Haven.

These trees will feature ornaments with a code for the senior’s name and their gift request. Shoppers can choose an ornament, buy an item on the list and after wrapping it, return the gift to the store.

Home Instead enlists the help of staff and other volunteers in distributing the gifts directly to the seniors’ homes so that a short holiday visit will be part of the gift presentation. Girl Scout Troop 62179 will help hand out gifts and sing carols at Watrous Nursing Center Dec. 21, and Troop 622303 will be singing and giving gifts at Apple Rehab in Guilford Dec. 19. The North Branford Senior Center and Social Services will have volunteers delivering gifts the week of Dec. 20.

Other participants in the Be a Santa program are The Guilford Foundation, Guilford Interfaith Ministries, towns of Guilford, Madison and East Haven Social Services and its senior centers.

According to the owner, David Delancy, “Last year, Home Instead experienced unprecedented giving in our communities. We hope to again reach out this year to even more older adults with gestures of holiday cheer and goodwill.”

I'm reading: Santa brings joy to young and old alike

With a little help from Rod Serling,‘You’re traveling through another dimension...’

Setting the clock back last Sunday started me thinking what it would be like if, instead of setting the clock back one hour, we had the ability to set it back in years.

After all, since time itself is an invention of mankind and is measured differently in other time zones and perhaps doesn’t even exist as we know it, in outer space or different spheres, it just might be possible to do.

What would we choose to have frozen in time, if we could go back, say, 50 years or so?

Of course, one of the first wishes that comes to mind would be our health and looks, but aside from that, what about the world around us?

I think I would opt for the slower life pace of that time, and I would willingly sacrifice computer, fax and cell phone if they were a condition to enjoying a more leisurely lifestyle. I would most certainly want to return to the neighborliness and special “chance encounters” that are fast disappearing from our so-called “connected” lifestyle.

I miss the interesting conversations and even friendships that resulted from the spur-of-the-moment chat with someone on a train, in a store, on the street or on an airplane. Now, everyone is on their cell phone or i-pod, talking, but oblivious to the chance to connect to the person right next to them.

Would it also be possible in this fast-paced world to keep the good manners of old? I feel positively girlish and happy when a gentleman opens a door, tips his hat or calls me “Ma’am” instead of “you guys.” And, since I still enjoying dressing up, is it too much to ask that on a Friday or Saturday dinner out, men don a jacket and tie? Since my mother was raised in England, good manners, especially toward our elders, was stressed in our home.

While I didn’t expect my children to rise when a senior entered the room as I was taught to do, children and young adults should realize that although the senior population may not be swift on the computer, they have, over the years, accumulated some worthwhile experience and wisdom.

I would enjoy having the New York that I knew 50-plus years ago, exciting and stimulating, but much less crowded and expensive. Even allowing for the lower salaries of those days, rental apartments, theater tickets and restaurants were much more affordable.

I also miss the gracious, medium-priced department stores: Best & Co., B. Altman, Peck & Peck, Russeks, De Pinna and Bonwit Teller. Their tea rooms, personal shoppers, fashion shows and elegant gilded elevators manned by white-gloved attendants who announced the treasures awaiting on each floor — all the lovely niceties that made shopping an uplifting and memorable experience.

I would like to regain the feelings of safety and security formerly enjoyed by both myself and my children. No worries when they rode their bikes, went to the local swimming pool, played with friends ... all, unsupervised by me.

There wasn’t any need to constantly know their whereabouts. The rule was — be home by suppertime. And the major discipline problems in the school were chewing gum and talking in class.

Does time sweeten our memory of past events? I wonder if 50 years from now, people will look back on 2010 with fond nostalgia. Since I don’t expect to be around then, someone else will have to make that comparison.

I'm reading: With a little help from Rod Serling,‘You’re traveling through another dimension...’

Now that you've retired, it's time to consider your next career

The “golden years” dream was freedom from work; now that we are living longer, healthier lives, the new dream is freedom to work. The goal today for many is doing what you love, helping others and getting paid for it.

Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers’ work and social purpose was founded by Marc Freedman, a leading voice about the changing face of retirement. In 2005, Civic Ventures created an annual prize for people in encore careers to showcase the value of experience and dispute the notion that innovation is the sole province of the young.

Ten people, older than 60 will win this year’s Purpose Prize on Wednesday and receive up to $100,000 each. The 2007 winner, Dr. Donald Berwick, was later appointed by President Barack Obama to be administrator of the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.

Berwick, a pediatrician with a master’s in public policy, launched a campaign to improve hospital safety and save lives by implementing six specific improvements in care, including ones to reduce medication errors and infections. In 18 months, 3,100 hospitals joined the effort and reduced deaths by 120,000 over the previous year.

In stark contrast, one of the 2008 winners, Catalino Tapia, was 20 years old when he came to America with a sixth-grade education and $6 in his pocket. He worked at many different jobs, but eventually became skilled at gardening and was sought after by affluent clients.

When he realized one of his dreams with son Noel graduating from law school, Catalino decided to help children of poor gardeners go to college, and with the help of seed money from some of his wealthy clients, he started a foundation to provide college scholarships.

The stories of past winners of the Purpose Prize on the Civic Ventures, seen at www.encore.org, are as amazing as they are inspirational.

One of the reasons it is so important to highlight the contributions seniors can make to society is there has been a growing national conversation about whether to make investments in children vs. expenditures for the elderly.

Obviously, since life expectancy will continue to increase, it no longer makes sense to spend the last third of our lives on a subsidized vacation. Encore careers encourage those in their 60s and 70s to trade money for meaning and become the backbone in fields such as education, healthcare, government and nonprofits.

Social Security can then support the truly dependent who retire on disability. Forty colleges in America have received grants to implement programs to help seniors re-career and prepare for encore careers in the fields mentioned above.

An excellent television program, “Open Mind,” airing at noon Saturdays on WNET-13, is currently discussing the MacArthur Foundation Research on an Aging Society and what we will have to do to accommodate an aging population.

A recent show discussed the trans-generational effects of the Experience Corps program in which senior volunteers have served as mentors to underprivileged children in more than 200 schools. Not only did the youngsters in grades K-3 improve dramatically with the additional attention and help, scientific studies of the seniors involved showed better health, improved memory and reasoning power as well as emotional well being.

The lesson, then, is not to pit one generation against the other, but to make investments across life’s course so that we all may benefit. Author Robert Hill adopts the perspective that positive aging doesn’t just happen; it is our actions and our intentional behaviors that affect the quality of our lives. What is known is that two of the most important features are:

-Close, long-lasting, meaningful relationships

-Engagement in purposeful activities that have meaning to us

If you are interested in reading the stories of some of the risk takers, idealists and innovators who are changing lives, starting with their own, or if you want information on a possible encore career for yourself, visit http://www.encore.org/.

I'm reading: Now that you've retired, it's time to consider your next career

Consider this before casting your vote

Listening to the articulate and knowledgeable Kate McEvoy of the Connecticut Agency on Aging discuss the forthcoming changes in the Federal Health Care Program at a recent Guilford VNA symposium, I was both excited and concerned.

Excited because many of the proposed changes which will take effect this coming January will benefit older adults, middle-income individuals, those with pre-existing conditions and seniors who would prefer to receive care at home instead of in a nursing home.

However, I am very concerned that because of the law’s complexities, false information about some of the provisions, our present stalemate in Congress, which will have to approve funding, that hopes for improving our flawed health-care system could be stymied or permanently shelved.

We spend about $7,681 per person on health care ... more than double the spending of European countries, Japan and other industrialized nations. We have the best emergency system, but not the best health-care system, and we are the only wealthy industrialized country in the world that lacks some form of universal health care.

Total government spending per capita in the United States on health care is 23 percent higher than Canada (which is funded by a mix of 70 public and 30 percent private) yet life expectancy is longer in Canada and they enjoy a lower infant mortality rate.

The new law would expand Medicaid coverage to those not historically qualified and by emphasizing preventative care, lower-income individuals would not be using the costly emergency room as their health-care provider. Also of note in this health-care reform is the elimination of deductibles and co-payments for Medicare and covering preventative services. It will also include an annual “wellness” doctor visit and establish tax credits for those with incomes above Medicaid limits. Additionally, as of January 2011, a voluntary, public long-term care insurance program with lower premiums than private insurance and not related to health status, would become available to working individuals.

The average monthly premium would be $123 and offer a benefit of up to $27,000 a year that the individual could decide to use for home care or home modification, as they choose.

To address the increasing shortage of health care workers, there are provisions for scholarships, loans and state grants to providers in medically underserved areas as well as graduate medical education initiatives.

And, (hurrah!) there will also be a schedule in which the coverage gap or doughnut hole, will be gradually closed.

Effective, starting this year, plans cannot impose lifetime or annual coverage limits for a list of essential benefits, and they may not rescind policies.

Premiums may no longer be determined according to health or gender, although they may be higher for the aged. Other excellent provisions include:

-Streamlined access to information rating nursing homes.

-Requirements for national and state criminal background checks for certain employees of home-care and nursing-home providers.

-Continuation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Connecticut. This funds the Husky program which helps grandparents raising grandchildren.

None of the proposed changed limit your choice of doctors. However, we certainly need to control spiraling costs. Older women who outlive men by five years or more, are especially at risk since they are more likely to need care, but usually have less income to cover the cost.

The affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama, seeks to change the system in which doctors and hospitals get paid for each service they provide to a comprehensive system whereby they are paid to achieve healthy outcomes in patients, regardless of the number of tests or procedures.

These are all important issues which affect our lives and our pocketbooks. Be sure before voting on Nov. 3 that you know where the candidates stand on these important topics. It might be well to recall the words of Mahatma Ghandhi who said, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”

I'm reading: Consider this before casting your vote