GBO NEWS: Caregiving from Fair Labor–to Murder; Herb Gold’s 20th Novel at 91
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
March 11, 2015 — Volume 15, Number 4
Editor’s Note: GBO News, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generation publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. You can subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge simply by sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. You’ll receive the table of contents as e-mail, just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org.
IN THIS ISSUE: Ain’t Going to Let Nobody Turn Us ’Round.
1. CALENDAR: Journalists Meet-Up at Aging in America Conference, Chicago, March 23-27; *** What’s Next Boomer Business Summit Mini-Conference at ASA, March 26.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS: Herbert Gold 20th Novel—And 91st Birthday; ***Sacramento Bee’s Anita Creamer Unretires from Paper
3. LONG-TERM CARE NEWS & BLUES: Mostly With TLC–But Sometimes Murder —Genworth Names Freelancer Sally Abrahms to LTC Advisory Council; *** “Long-Term Care Policies: Let the Buyer Beware” in New York Times; *** “An Extra Layer of Care: The Progress of Palliative Medicine” in Harvard Magazine; *** “Age of Dignity Author, Caregivers Call for Home-Worker & Immigrant Rights,” New America Media; *** “Will the Elder Boom Spur a Caring Revolution? Ai-jen Poo’s Inspiring Vision,” Yes! Magazine; ***New AARP Caregiving Poll; *** “Elder Abuse: When Caregiving Goes Wrong,” AARP Bulletin; *** “Aging in Place Concept Oversold, Professor Argues,” Washington Post.
4. EYES ON THE PRIZE: National Health Journalism Fellowship Deadline, April 1
1. CALENDAR
*** AGING IN AMERICA, CHICAGO, MARCH 23-27: The American Society on Aging’s (ASA) 2015 Aging in America annual conference will be held in Chicago, March 23-27. Attending reporters should check in with Bob Rosenblatt (bobrosenblatt7@gmail.com, cell: 202-413-8368) for information on the press room location and any meet-ups and group feeds.
Journalists wishing to cover the conference may register by calling or e-mailing ASA’s Jutka Mandoki (ASA membership development director) — 415-974-9630 or jmandoki@asaging.org. Reporters can find details about the conference at the Aging in America website.
*** 2015 What’s Next Boomer Business Summit [http://www.boomersummit.com/home/agenda/] is a mini-conference being held also at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency, all day March 26. Reporters need to register separately from the ASA conference. Any interested media should contact Nicole Tieman, Susan Davis International PR, 202.414.0799; ntieman@susandavis.com.
What’s Next can be a great place to find stories on technology innovations and practice in aging. Among journalists on this year’s program are author Gail Sheehey, Eric Taub (New York Times), top age-beat freelancer Sally Abrams, Reuters columnist Mark Miller, and New York Times and Forbes columnist Kerry Hannon. Plenaries and breakout sessions will focus on such areas as trends in housing, transportation, social and mobile marketing and commerce, grandparenting, caregiving–and pets.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** Herbert Gold 20th Novel—In Time for 91st Birthday: The always eloquent and ever wry author Herbert Gold just saw publication of When a Psychopath Falls in Love (Jorvik Press), his 32nd book of fiction and nonfiction. Gold’s last book, his 2008 memoir, had this editor’s favorite title of any book on aging in recent member, Still Alive! A Temporary Condition.
Born in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, in 1924, Gold’s early itinerary led him to Columbia University in New York, the Sorbonne in Paris and eventually the Beat Generation’s school of life in San Francisco, along the way becoming close to such writers as Anaïs Nin and Allen Ginsberg. Father of five, grandfather of six, he keeps fit by writing books, articles and reviews on his Royal typewriter. If you click on the publisher’s website link above, you can see a short San Francisco Chronicle video from last year of Gold in his apartment on Russian Hill, showing his writing nook, which makes me think of a library corner that time forgot. He’ll explain to you that he just didn’t have the patience to learn the computer his children gave him some years ago. (Old-writer diversity alert: I.F. Stone wrote his final book in the 1990s on a Mac Plus his daughter got him to use.)
Meanwhile, GBONews is eagerly awaiting a review copy of When a Psychopath Falls in Love. Describing the novel as “a journey of lost souls seeking attachment, revenge and redemption at the edge of San Francisco Bay,” the Jorvik website notes that the book takes readers from Haiti (on which Gold has done major journalism over the past half century) to San Francisco’s Tenderloin, and from the Summer of Love to (possibly) a day for murder.
For press information and a media review copy, journalists can contact Jorvik’s Peter Stansill at peter@jorvikpress.com.
***Sacramento Bee’s Anita Creamer Departs Paper: After six years as the generations beat reporter at the Sacramento Bee, Anita Creamer decided to escape from the daily-newsroom pace and move on. She stressed that after 37 years of daily journalism experience, 25 at the Bee, she took a buy-out offer, even though her editors “tried to talk me into staying.” But, she added, “It was time.”
Creamer e-mailed GBONews.org, “I left newspapers, but I certainly didn’t retire!” She is freelancing and continuing to write about aging, along with other subjects. “Right now, I’m working on a story on dementia, end-of-life care and the death with dignity debate for Comstock’s, which is a business magazine here in Sacramento.”
With ongoing coverage and projects such as her fine 2014 series on Alzheimer’s disease, Creamer continued the award-winning gen-beat coverage done for many years by Nancy Weaver Teichert. GBONews hopes to reporter later on whether the paper will continue covering the beat.
Sacramento-based author and age-media maven Stuart Greenbaum blogged that Creamer was “the last full-time reporter to cover aging at a major newspaper in California . . . . (Another sad day in the devolution of this curiously underrepresented news coverage.)” Greenbaum praised her almost weekly features, noting that Creamer “would take in-depth looks into the myriad personal aspects of growing old; and with her eloquent prose reward readers with a balance of heart-warming and heart-wrenching stories.”
3. CAREGIVING NEWS & BLUES: Mostly With TLC–But Sometimes Murder
*** Genworth Financial named freelance/blogger Sally Abrahms to its new Advisory Council on Long Term Care in February. Abrahms has written on retirement over the years for the likes of Time, Newsweek, AARP publications, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, which recently carried her piece, “Find Your Niche in a Retirement Enclave,”
Genworth, one of the dwindling number of long-term care insurance (LTCI) providers, tapped Abrahms for its “panel of four prestigious subject matter experts in the fields of aging, caregiving, psychology and financial planning,” says a company press release. The group, adds the release, “will serve as advocates for the importance of long-term care awareness and planning by contributing content to the National Advisory Center for Long Term Care Information (NACLTCI) educational hub.”
A recent Genworth survey, says the release, found “nearly 70 percent of respondents underestimated the need for long-term care in America, unaware that the Department of Health and Human Services estimates nearly 70 percent of American adults over the age of 65 will require some form of long-term care in their lifetime. Additionally, of respondents without long-term care coverage, only 15 percent had an alternate plan in place.”
*** “Long-Term Care Policies: Let the Buyer Beware,” was the header on Jane Gross’ New York Times letter to the editor. It was notable to see a letter by one of the newspaper’s long-time staffers that was critical of a NYT article. Gross was the NYT’s generations-beat reporter for years and established its “New Old Age” blog. She’s also the author of A Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our Aging Parents — and Ourselves (Random House, 2011).
In her letter, Gross said paper’s Feb. 21 “Your Money Adviser” column by Ann Carrns, “offers useful information about pricing, provided by the director of the trade association of long-term insurance carriers. But the column does not mention risks to buyers that might be a deterrent to potential customers if they were aware of them.”
Gross explained that some leading insurers have ceased writing LTCI policies: “Many are discovering them cost-prohibitive and abandoning customers who have paid tens of thousands of dollars in premiums. Several companies are refusing to pay legitimate claims, leaving the elderly without coverage . . . .”
She stated, “Ours is a nation with no public policy involving long-term care . . . Many think these insurance policies are the magic bullet. They are not.” Gross is not alone. Writing in Forbes, financial contributor William Baldwin said as much two years ago, along with other writers in various media.
Replying to a GBONews e-mail, Gross said she’d previously blogged about how companies, decided to stop writing new LTCI policies because “they didn’t understand what it was actually going to cost at payout time.”
Policyholders accessed their benefits more than corporations, such as MetLife (which eventually left the LTCI market) anticipated. Also, significantly fewer clients than insurers anticipated dropped their policies annually, such as when people died before they needed benefits or because they stopped paying premiums, perhaps because of losing a job or a divorce.
Regarding LTCI Policies, Gross told GBONews, “I happen to have one, though would not buy it [today] knowing what I learned in the years since.”
*** “An Extra Layer of Care: The progress of palliative medicine,” by Debra Bradley Ruder, in the March-April Harvard Magazine offers an incisive overview of care at life’s end across the ages.
*** “’Age of Dignity’ Author, Caregivers Call for Home-Worker & Immigrant Rights,” New America Media, News Report, Paul Kleyman, (March 9). After all, she did move the policy gauge as a leading advocate for the successful passage of Domestic Workers Bill of Rights as law in New York, Hawaii, Massachusetts and other states to protect the rights of home care workers and those they serve.
*** ALSO — “Will the Elder Boom Spur a Caring Revolution? Ai-jen Poo’s Inspiring Vision,” by Wendy Lustbader, Yes! Magazine. In reviewing The Age of Dignity, 2014 MacArthur “genius” Ai-jen Poo’s new book new book Lustbader found herself deeply skeptical of Poo’s enthusiasm–and phoned her.
Lustbader knows as much as anyone in the country about Poo’s topic, humanizing the U.S. caregiving system. She is the author of four books on aging and a co-founder of the Pioneer Network for Culture Change, the national group of innovators working to change the nursing-home mindset in the United States, Lustbader sagged as she closed The Age of Dignity. “My excitement plummeted as I tried to imagine Poo’s vision translated into line items in the federal budget or even groundbreaking legislation.”
The book has received justifiable criticism elsewhere, such as in the NYT Book Review (March 1). Gerontologist Louise Aronson generally praised the book, but qualified, “Poo’s language is often conversational and sometimes sounds like a spiritual self-help book — even in passages where straightforward reporting might better serve her purpose.”
In an interview, Poo told Lustbader that change “requires a 360-degree storytelling environment,” and that a wide range of media can “make these stories and relationships visible in popular culture and media to inspiring influential storytellers to tell their stories.”
Lustbader continues, “She flattened my doubt once and for all in a few impassioned sentences. ‘So much of politics actually is emotion, people’s experience of life. The power of human story speaks to that side of us.’”
While journalists make a living doing the first draft of storytelling–seeing how infrequently our tales, told and retold, move the policy needle–Lustbader admits that Poo’s passion “got me.” She added, “The political will to support the dignity of those who are not able-bodied—frail elders and other people who need assistance in their daily lives—will come from all of us speaking up, telling our tales about the home care workers and family caregivers who are the unsung heroes of our world.”
Review copies of the Age of Dignity are available from Julie McCarroll at the New Press, 212.564.4406, jmccarroll@thenewpress.com.
*** New AARP Caregiving Poll: A new AARP poll reveals that more than 7 in 10 registered voters age 40 and older say Congress should improve resources for family caregivers who help their loved ones to live independently. The report coincides with the launch of a bipartisan, bicameral Assisting Caregivers Today Caucus in Congress.
*** “Elder Abuse: When Caregiving Goes Wrong,” by Rick Schmitt, in the new AARP Bulletin (March 2015), summarizes his lest-we-forget caution in the drop head: “Many families are using paid home health aides. But what happens when all isn’t as it seems?”
Schmitt’s piece, with the hardcopy head, “The Stranger in Your Home,” leads the cover story package titled “Outrages!” His piece chronicles the tragedy of an elderly San Diego couple and the caregiver eventually convicted of the wife’s murder, after worker plundered the family’s $600,000 estate. A sidebar recommends “10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Health Aide.”
The “Outrages!” coverage also includes AARP Bulletin staffer Carole Fleck’s examination of pension clawbacks allowed for struggling multiemployer plans in legislation passed last December. The story, “Can they Grab Your Pension?” details how the new law threatens to leave thousands of retirees staggering pension losses. Other pieces filling out the section are Jane Bryant Quinn’s column on “Five Misleading Investment Pitches,” author Sid Kirschheimer’s “Dunned for Fake Debt: Don’t let Swindlers make you pay money you don’t owe,” and Jan Goodwin’s “Widow’s Home Is Seized Over $6.30 Fee.” Now, that’s a cluster of headlines worthy of a supermarket tab—except for the lack of space aliens, and the abundance of notably factual material.
*** “Aging in Place concept has been oversold, professor argues,” by Frederick Kunkle, Washington Post, (March 5), examines the provocative thesis of Stephen M. Golant in his new book, Aging in the Right Place (Health Professions Press, as noted also in our last issue).
Golant, a gerontologist and urban geographer at the University of Florida, Gainesville, stresses, write Kunkle, that “older people are a really diverse lot. Their ability to count on family members is very variable. Their ability to cope with their declines and their losses in health and people is very variable. So to suggest indiscriminately that aging in place is good for everyone is also an irresponsible position to take.”
Kunkel also interviewed AARP housing-policy expert Rodney Harrell, who agreed, “People need better choices.” Kunkle paraphrased Harrell, “Too many homes and communities were designed in ways that run counter to an older person’s needs, particularly in suburbs that were designed around the automobile . . . . People of every age would benefit if public planners focused more on designing communities that combine walk-ability, accessibility to employment, grocery shopping, health care and other needs, and adequate housing at all price levels.”
Harrell quotes Golant “We know how to provide beautiful long-term care. What we don’t know how to do is make that kind of product affordable to anyone but [those] in a higher income bracket.”
Reporters interested in Aging in the Right Place can request press information and a media review copy from Kaitlin Konecke, (410) 337-9585 x181; e-mail: kkonecke@healthpropress.com.
4. EYES ON THE PRIZE
***National Health Journalism Fellowship Deadline, April 1: Based at USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism, the all-expenses-paid fellowship will be held July 12-16, in Los Angeles. The 2015 fellowship program, says their website, “is designed for journalists who want to do groundbreaking reporting on vulnerable children and families and the community conditions that contribute to their well-being. Fellows will gain insights into the latest research on how a child’s lifetime development is affected by early experiences of trauma, including abuse, neglect parental stress and community violence. Other workshops and discussions – with distinguished journalists, researchers, clinicians and community case workers — will delve into the impact of poverty on children, including food insecurity, substandard housing and parents’ economic insecurity.” GBONews would love to see some multigenerational projects get into this mix. the competition is open to newsroom staffers and freelancers.
While this is a wonderful program, their website is rather confusing, so if you apply, we suggest your talking with the program staff (see contact information below) to get clear which of the two funded program you’re applying for. There are actually two related fellowship comes with reporting grants of $2,000-$10,000 to underwrite reporting on health issues in underserved communities, vulnerable children or health care reform. Although the site says, “Fellows each receive a reporting stipend of $2,000 to offset the costs of ambitious investigative and explanatory journalism,” it goes on to say that two alternative sources can grant a reporter of news organization from $2,000-$10,000, although it’s not clear wither this is in lieu of the $2,000 or supplemental to it. The grants can be used to defray costs such as travel, database acquisition and analysis, translation services, and so on.
For more information, visit the link provided above or e-mail Martha Shirk at Cahealth@usc.edu.
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