GBO NEWS: PBS on Assisted Living Abuses; Palliative Care Sources; Prize Deadlines
GBO NEWS: GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
July 31, 2013 — Volume 13, Number 11
Editor’s Note: The new “GBO News” marks the 20th year of the Journalists Network on Generations. Click through this table of contents to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. This format is “scalable” for computer, e-pad or mobile. Let us know what you think of the new format.
IN THIS ISSUE: Liberals Charge Carlos Danger with Aiding the Enemy.
1. GEN BEATLES NEWS: Elder Abuse Reality Check: Frontline’s “Life and Death in Assisted Living”; ***Elder Abuse Fiction Check: The Crown of Life Society
2. PALLIATIVE CARE ON THE NEWS CURVE: New America Media Palliative Care Fellowship Yields Online Media Kit for All; Palliative Health Journalists Webinar, Aug. 7
3. RESOURCES & DEADLINES: ***Application Deadlines for Two Health Journalism Fellowships; ***Off the Grid Press Prize for Poets Over 60, Deadline Aug. 31
4. THE SUMMER BOOK BEAT: Theodore Roszak’s Posthumous Novel, The Crystal Child, About Immortality From the Lab to Mount Olympus
1. GEN BEATLES NEWS
***Reality Check: Frontline’s “Life and Death in Assisted Living,” the result of a yearlong investigation by ProPublica’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter A.C. Thompson, premiered Tuesday and is airing on PBS stations this week. A good overview of what Thompson found is provided by Richard Eisenberg, senior Web editor of the Money & Security and Work & Purpose channels of Next Avenue, the PBS website for the 50-plus set.
Among those Thompson interviewed was Catherine Hawes, director of the Texas A&M Program on Aging and Long-Term Care Policy. She has been a leading researcher on and critic of the assisted living industry for at least 25 years, back when “assisted living” was one of only about 20 terms used around the country for residential-care facilities, such as “board-and-care homes.” She tells Thompson, “The head of a state licensing agency told me assisted living is the rock we don’t want to look under.”
Eisenberg notes that Thompson, winner of the 2011 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence from Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, stresses, “Assisted living is a great option for a lot of people and was created to fill a real need.” But they are un- or under-regulated by states and prone to chronic understaffing, often by poorly trained, managed or screened care providers, and too frequently end up exploiting seniors or those with disabilities in their care.
Also, Eisenberg quotes Thompson, “There’s incredible pressure on people working for the big chains to move in as many people as possible. And that can lead to decisions to move in seniors who shouldn’t be there. They may have psychiatric problems or serious behavioral problems and should be in a nursing home or a hospital.”
***Fiction Check: The Crown of Life Society is a novel about financial elder abuse by writer William Henry and elder law attorney A. Frank Johns, Jr. Newly published as an e-book, the novel evolved from a Washington Post article Henry wrote several years ago about his wife’s experience serving as caregiver for her elderly cousin. Henry e-mailed GBO News that after the cousin died, they learned he had written a “surprise will in which he’d given his house to the home health aide my wife hired.” (He has also posted more factual information on this issue on the book’s website.) The novel, he said, explores “the many ways in which elderly people are exploited for financial gain, and the struggles of families with caregiving responsibilities for elderly loved ones. . . . The primary villain has established the Crown of Life Society, where women using stolen identities are trained to exploit the elders in their care.
Henry invites GBO New readers to access a free download on the Smashwords link. Enter the coupon code EZ66R at checkout.
2. PALLIATIVE CARE ON THE NEWS CURVE
Most reporters on the generations beat know it’s hard enough to pitch editors and producers on caregiving. (Are they still saying “Depressing – what else you got?”). But for some reason there’s been a recent – and welcomed – spate of journalistic interest in end-of-life care. Perhaps, the international vigil for Nelson Mandela, who turned 95 on July 18, is playing a role. Even though he is reportedly improving, public squabbles in the Mandela clan have raised concerns over decision making around his decline. (See Rick Lyman’s July 11 New York Times report, “Mandela’s Kin Face Gray Area on End of Life.”)
Adding to U.S. media interest could be around the Institute of Medicine’s current hearings and research by IOM’s Committee on Approach Death (“Addressing Key End of Life Issues”).
The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) picked up on the growing interest and will hold a national webinar titled “Covering Medical Ethics, End-of-Life, and Palliative Care” on Aug. 7, 11 a.m. Eastern.
And New America Media (NAM) brought over a dozen journalists from ethnic and community media around California to Stanford University Medical School, July 11-12, for a fellowship-training program on palliative care. Although this was a California program, GBO readers nationwide could access the extensive background materials, stats and sources (with their contact information) from the NAM Palliative Care Fellowships program’s Online Media Kit Especially useful is the material developed by the program sponsor, the California Health Care Foundation. CHCF has funded extensive reporters and surveys on palliative care. (See the foundation’s website.)
Among the speakers was V.J. Periyakoil, MD, director of Stanford’s Palliative Care Education and Training Program, who has developed extensive online and video material on cross-cultural palliative care perspectives. (She created the Stanford In-reach for Successful Aging through Education (iSAGE) Project under an NIH minority health grant). A highlight for many was the presentation by Lisa Krieger, science and health reporter at the San Jose Mercury, who wrote the award-winning 2012 series on end- of-live care—beginning with her father’s struggle with the medical system in his final days. (Both are slated to participate in the AHCJ’s Aug. 7 webinar.)
Other experts at the NAM program were from major universities and organizations – spoke on a range of concerns from challenges for patients and their caregivers (with several on hand to share their experiences) to pediatric hospice for dying children to cost and quality concerns recently featured by the California health department. The program was designed to engage reporters with discussions of critical questions on palliative care that are sensitive to each community’s wishes – and fears. What does it means to very sick and terminally ill patients?
A fundamental question reporters raised up front (and frequently over they two days to the wonderfully engaged, but often jargon-bound experts) was what is the difference between palliative and hospice care. As NAM Health Editor Viji Sundaram noted in her follow-up piece on the fellowship workshop, “Palliative care — which includes hospice– focuses on relieving symptoms related to severe chronic illnesses. Hospice care is provided in the last six months of terminal illness, when an illness has gone beyond curative medical treatment and is no longer beneficial.”
Selected reporters include Rene Ciria-Cruz, U.S. Bureau Chief, Inquirer.net, official website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; Gerardo Fernandez, editor of the Spanish-English Alianza Metropolitan News, San Jose, Calif.; Daniela Gerson, Editor, Alhambra Source, a community news website serving a primarily Asian and Latino community, and director of USC Annenberg’s Civic Engagement and Journalism Initiative; Nadia Ivanova, producer, Afisha Radio and Slavic Diaspora, Sacramento, Calif.; Jen-Mei “Debbie” Juan, reporter, News For Chinese, San Jose area; Richard Jung Lee, reporter, Chinese-language World Journal (San Francisco); Monico “Mico” Letargo, Reporter, Asian Journal Publications, Inc., focusing on Filipino coverage; Pamela A. MacLean, Senior Writer, RedwoodAge.com, a national news site for readers over 40; Araceli Martínez Ortega, Northern California correspondent, La Opinion. Los Angeles; Richard Springer, reporter and columnist for India-West Newspaper, based in the S.F. Bay Area; Aruna Lee, NAM reporter, writing for Korean-language media; and John Burks, contributing writer, City Central Extra, San Francisco (and at 75, the “semi-retired” emeritus chair of San Francisco State University’s Department of Journalism).
3. RESOURCES & DEADLINES
*** Application Deadlines for Two Health Journalism Fellowships are coming up from the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ). The AHCJ-National Library of Medicine (NLM) Fellowship deadline is Aug. 9. Selected reporters will spend a week learning how to make best use of medical research, statistics and data. To be held the week of Sept. 15, the program will cover how to explore the latest NIH research; how to understand and interpret biomedical statistics; how to tap into NLM data, programs and resources; and how to use PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, ToxNet and Household Products Database. Fellowship includes AHCJ membership (new or renewal), travel expenses within the United States and lodging. For details check out the online application form.
Also, the AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance is a yearlong program allowing journalists to pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system. It can be local or national in scope, or a combination, such as an aspect of the Affordable Care Act playing out in your community or subject specialty, or the impact of particular evidence-based treatments on health outcomes, or an analysis of a health care organization’s performance, using public data sets. Fellows pursue the projects with the support of their newsrooms or freelance outlets, which commit to publish or air the work. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and AHCJ conferences, and a project allowance is available to defray the cost of field reporting, health data analysis and other project-related research. In addition, each fellow will receive a $2,500 fellowship award on successful completion of the project. Supported by The Commonwealth Fund, The application deadline is Nov. 4.
*** Off the Grid Press Poetry Prize Deadline Aug. 31: Any budding or blossomed poets on the gen beat over 60? If you have – or someone you know — has a lingering manuscript of verse in tucked away in a folder, you might submit it for a shot at a prize of $1,000 and publication by Off The Grid Press.
According to the nonprofit’s website, Off the Grid Press was founded in 2005 “to provide a forum for older, previously published poets, who are sometimes overlooked by the current marketplace.” Their guidelines don’t say how published “previously published” needs to be to qualify, but the competition calls for a manuscript of 60-80 pages. Since their founding, the press has published five books, “two of them prize winners.” There is a $25 entry fee and the deadline is Aug. 31: Off the Grid Press, Poetry Prize, 24 Quincy Street, Somerville, MA 02143; (617) 629-2541; Tam Lin Neville, Coeditor; guidelines are on the submissions section of their website.
4. THE SUMMER BOOK BEAT
The Crystal Child: Talk about literary longevity (if not immortal prose), GBO’s editor was surprised to learn of a new book by my late friend and mentor Theodore Roszak—and aging, or going beyond our chronological limits, beats at the deathless heart of this novel. Published posthumously by Roszak’s family as an e-book, The Crystal Child: A Story of the Buried Life, at 404 pages, is available through Amazon and other online distributors.
I greatly admired Ted for his rare success in publishing over 20 books in both nonfiction (from 1969’s The Making of a Counter Culture to 2009’s The Making of an Elder Culture) and fiction (notably, Filcker, 1991 with a 2005 reissue, and his Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein, 1996). Still, most journalists know, the closer a friend, the longer one holds his/her breath on cracking the spine on a volume by someone you know. In this case, though, the labyrinth of science, sex, life-extension quackery, a cast of well-drawn characters and a speculative nod to Bullfinch’s Mythologies – enabled this reader to exhale into a strong recommendation–and just in time for anyone’s August vacation plans.
As is common for speculative fiction, The Crystal Child is not for the feint of scientific heart. Ever the meticulous researcher and ardent iconoclast, Roszak assigns his rich characters to challenge the premises of longevity science at every double-helix plot twist. Now and then chapters break into heady, and sometimes long-winded, discourse about the science, philosophy, ethics and humanity of the quest to exceed our mortal coil. But science does foster its debates.
In the book, the brilliant gerontologist, Judith Stein, MD, finds herself presented with the fate of nine-year-old Aaron Lacey. The boy is rapidly declining from progeria, the rare affliction that superannuates children, dooming them to whither and die seemingly of old age within a few short years. But Aaron’s condition stands apart from other known cases of the disease.
After Stein applies a variety of unusual treatments to the wizened youth, Aaron improves much to her surprise—improves so decisively at first that within a few months he has metamorphosed into a beauty worthy of ancient Greek sculpture. What’s more, he has evolved into a stunning intellect—although one still confined to a child’s body and emotional level. The boy’s Olympian glow, gemlike perspicacity and volatile immaturity generate a tension that drives this tale to strange and distant locations and tears apart the lives—some deservedly–of those claiming a stake in his wellbeing.
The Crystal Child asks whether there might be evolutionary stages for us beyond our mammalian understanding. After all, in the mere space of the last century, the human race has achieved stunning changes. We’ve added about three decades to average live expectancy, creating new life stages along the way: adolescence and more recently what some call middlescence, the living extension of active, healthier midlife. But why, asks Roszak, should we assume humanity is destined to more of the same, years stretched forward with morbidity “compressed,” as science now projects, into a few short days or weeks of suffering following a long and mostly vigorous life? What if there’s something more ahead, as we take one step beyond mortality and realize an almost crystalline state of perfection that may have occurred randomly through the ages, only to be dismissed as anomalies—or miracles. What if time is not only relative, but irrelevant to human destiny?
In the end, Roszak embraces his subject as much for its searching narrative as for his story’s critique of a research-and-discovery mindset incarcerated by a scientific rigidity. The Crystal Child is not only a good yarn, but a thought-provoking one fit for reading under the nearest golden bough.
–Paul Kleyman
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The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online with in-kind support from New America Media (NAM). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. NAM is an online, nonprofit news service reaching 3,000 ethnic media outlets in the United States. GBO News readers are invited to visit the NAM website, and click on the Ethnic Elders section logo on the right side. Opinions expressed in GBO do not represent those of NAM. Copyright 2013, JNG. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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