GBO NEWS: MemoryWell Journalists Tell Dementia Patients’ Stories; Gen-Beat Reporters in New Orleans Event; Poverty Stats, Older Women, Steinem and, Oh, Yeah, Trump: & MORE
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
October 12, 2016 — Volume 16, Number 16
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: Happy Indigenous Peoples & Immigrant Heritage Day (Orange-Haired, Too).
1. AGE BEATLES NEWS: MemoryWell’s Journalistic Storytelling for Dementia Patients
2. AGING JOURNALISTS IN NEW ORLEANS: Registration & Online Resources (Even for those not attending) for Gerontological Society on Aging Annual Scientific Meeting, also with keynote by NYT columnist and Solutions Journalism Network co-founder David Bornstein.
3. THE STORYBOARD: *** “The Givers,” by Francine Russo, Scientific American-MIND (November-December); *** “President Trump Wouldn’t Have To Wait For Congress To Undo Much Of The Health Law,” by Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News (Oct. 7): *** “Who Deserves to Be Poor?” by Brooke Gladstone, On the Media, WNYC/public radio nationwide (Week of Oct. 6); *** “Gloria Steinem Never Stops: A Feminist Icon Has Fans, Critics, and Plenty Yet to Do,” by John Leland, New York Times (Oct. 9), and “The Gray Gender Gap: Older Women Are Likelier to Go It Alone,” by Paula Span, New York Times (Oct. 7 online; Oct. 11 in “Science Times”); *** “4 Animals Who Mourn Their Dead,” by Kristina Chew, Care2 (Oct. 8); *** Did Donald Trump Cheat On His Social Security And Medicare Taxes? by Nancy Altman, Huffington Post (Oct. 8).
4. GOOD SOURCES: *** “Living Below the Line: Economic Insecurity and Older Americans Insecurity in the States 2016,” UMass Boston’s Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging (Sept. 6); *** “Patient-Centered Medical Homes [PCMH] and the Care of Older Adults,” John A. Hartford Foundation Change AGEnts (September 2016); *** Resources for the 8th Biennial Asian American (AA) and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (NHPI) Health Conference now online.
1. AGE BEATLES NEWS
***MemoryWell: You’re a rising star in Time’s Washington bureau, a regular on Hardball with Chris Matthews, author of a bestseller on women in politics and, by the way, you recently struggled with your father’s care as he was dying with dementia. What’s your next career move? In the case of Jay Newton-Small it’s to quit your day job for Time and go freelance while launching your new business devoted to storytelling about the lives of cognitively-impaired patients.
Really? Really.
Newton-Small e-mailed GBONews that she recently left the Time staff “to focus on MemoryWell full time, but I will still contribute to Time and I will still do some media, such as Hardball.” She added that several publications have asked her to write on women, politics, and more recently, on “ issues relating to aging. That would be more in line with MemoryWell. So I will certainly keep a foot in the journalism world, even as I devote the majority of my time to another kind of narrative– telling the life stories of those who suffer from Alzheimer’s and dementia.”
Newton-Small, author of the book Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works (Time Books), had a storied childhood, growing up in Asia, Africa and Europe as the daughter of two United Nations diplomats, an Australian father and Chinese Malayan mother. Newton-Small holds a master’s in journalism from Columbia University, was a 2015 Harvard Institute of Politics fellow and is a 2016 New America Foundation Fellow. At Time since 2007, she has covered stories ranging from the earthquake in Haiti to the 2015 terror attacks in Paris.
She has seen much of our world of woe firsthand, but what proved most unsettling for her was seeing her father, Graham “Gray” Newton-Small, decline from Alzheimer’s disease over 15 years, Eventually he was evicted from one nursing home, as his behavior became erratic and violent at times, something not uncommon among dementia patients. Gray died last July.
Newton-Small e-mailed GBONews that her idea for MemoryWell emerged a couple of years ago when she had to move her father to a new home because of his increasing behavioral outbursts.
“The new place asked me to fill out a 20-page questionnaire about his life. This made no sense to me: How were they ever going to remember 20 pages of data points for the 150 residents there? I’m a journalist. Instead, I wrote down his story. [http://tinyurl.com/h7zrf6y] They loved it. It hugely improved his care — helping his nurses relate to him and giving them tools with which to redirect him. MemoryWell was born.”
FB for Those Who Can’t Remember Who They Are
Since then, she and her co-founder, Ilan Brat of the Washington Post, developed a mobile-responsive website they aim to develop as an app. She explained, “I call it Facebook for people who can’t remember who they are. The life story anchors each person’s page, and family members give us their loved ones’ favorite music and photos, videos and readings, which we post or link to. This gives caregivers, and family members a highly personalized toolbox of the resident’s favorite things with which to engage them.”
Newton-Small noted that the linked profile she developed help her connect with her Dad during visits. She poignantly added, “In the last few years of his life, he might not of known who I was, but he always was happy to walk with me when I played him the Beatles, one of his favorites.” Often, all one has to do to engage someone like her Dad would be to click, perhaps, on “Michelle” or “Norwegian Wood” or to show the person his or her wedding photo.
The idea of personalizing the stories of dementia patients for facility or home care staff, as well as family and friends, is hardly new. Over the years, this editor has seen numerous approaches using video profiles, scrap books and “memory boxes” with familiar images and items placed next to nursing home rooms, so wandering patients could find the way back along the corridors. What seems new are Newton-Small’s use of online media, accessible by cell phone, tablet or computer, and the idea of engaging journalists to work with families on those stories.
A for-profit enterprise, MemoryWell will be primarily marketed to residential-care communities or home health care agencies. “But we are also hoping to engage families as well down the road,” Newton-Small said.
She said they’ve already lined about three-dozen journalists and expect to have a pool of 100 by the end of this years. Their plan is to match writers with seniors and their families, who are enrolled in memory-care programs. Newton-Small has known from Time and her previous work at Bloomberg News, and the Wall Street Journal in Ilan’s case. Among those they’ve recruited so far, she said, “several have been touched directly by Alzheimer’s or dementia.”
In addition, Newton-Small invited GBONews writers to contact her for possible inclusion. “Given their familiarity with the field, I’m sure they’d be wonderful additions to MemoryWell!!” (Her contact information is below.)
Participating reporters will work with a proprietary set of questions that help them work through the profiles. The questionnaire includes “questions designed to be sensitive to families effected by these terrible diseases while quickly getting to the heart of the information we need,” she said.
MemoryWell’s client agreement also assigns the company non-exclusive right to use content in developing other material. She said, “When we get a critical mass of stories we hope to become a powerful tool for researchers. For example, anyone looking to examine the Korean War could find MemoryWell’s profiles of Korean War vets a powerful first hand resource.”
For more information or to inquire about freelancing with MemoryWell, contact Jay Newton-Small, at jnewtonsmall@gmail.com; (202) 460-0424. Say you heard about her from GBONews. Here’s the website: www.memory-well.com.
2. AGING JOURNALISTS IN NEW ORLEANS
***Got Beignets? If you’re coming to New Orleans next month to bite into those hot little fried puffs, also join the Journalists in Aging to sink you teeth into some of the 450 papers and sessions at the Gerontological Society on Aging (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting. Attended by 4,000 professionals in aging from around the world, the program (see the searchable link below) will also include special lunch briefings each day for reporters, plus the Journalists Reception on Friday evening.
Of notable interest for GBONews irregulars this year is that the GSA conference keynoter will be journalist David Bornstein, who co-authors the “Fixes” column in The New York Times “Opinionator” section. It explores and analyzes potential solutions to major social problems. He is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network, which supports journalists who report on constructive responses to social problems.
The conference will be held at the New Orleans Marriott and Sheraton hotels (across the street from one another near the French Quarter), Nov. 16-20. Complimentary media registration allows access to all sessions and the Exhibit Hall. Badges and printed program materials can be picked up in the Press Room, to be located in room Studio 3 of the New Orleans Marriott. Registration information is available at www.geron.org/press.
Reporters attending the conference are invited to a Journalists Reception to be held in the meeting’s Press Room in the Marriott, Friday, Nov. 18, from 5:30-7 p.m. Those interested in continuing the conversations can head out for a “no-host” dinner at a nearby NOLA eatery.
As always, at the reception, we’ll circle up the chairs and get appetized with some nibbles, vino or other drinkables. We will take a spin around the room with introductions, so reporters can find out who else is there and get some idea of what people are covering.
Even if you’re not able to join the NOLA schmooze with us, GSA’s searchable program is a great source of stories and sources for the latest research on topics you’re researching. To use the online conference program, click on the box saying “Continue as Guest.” You can search by subject (dementia, retirement, women, Hispanic, etc.); by state, such as to find out who in your area is presenting what; or individual names). When you bring up a session title of interest, click on it to see the abstract description.
If you have questions or wish to get a speaker’s contact information, if you can’t find it via Google, GSA’s Todd Kluss usually can get it for you. For details, contact GSA’s Todd Kluss, tkluss@geron.org; (202)587-2839.
3. THE STORYBOARD
*** “The Givers,” by Francine Russo, Scientific American-MIND (November-December): The copy line under the head says, “Tens of millions of people tend to a loved one on a full- or part-time basis, often putting their own life on hold. Now researchers are finding ways to help them care for others without losing themselves.”
Russo, author of They’re Your Parents, Too! How Siblings Can Survive Their Parents’ Aging Without Driving Each Other Crazy (Bantam, 2010), has been a frequent contributor to Scientific American’s “Neurology,” “Behavior & Society” editions, and now it’s newest offshoot, “MIND.”
She writes, “As the population ages and caregivers’ numbers mount ever higher, the emotional, physical and financial costs to individuals and society are ballooning. In 1993, under President Bill Clinton, the U.S. Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act, which offers eligible workers some relief in the form of protected leave from work to care for a family member. In recent years more than half of states have approved AARP-developed legislation that requires hospitals to provide training in essential medical tasks for those caring for a relative newly released from a hospital. Nevertheless, the U.S. continues to lag behind many European and some Asian countries when it comes to support for caregivers.”
Russo’s latest cover story for Scientific America, “The Givers,” spreads over 10 pages. She e-mailed GBONews that the story “covers the latest research and interventions for caregivers. Some are new permutations on well-known existing programs, but others, like SHARE from [Cleveland’s] Benjamin Rose Institute, are brand new and very promising.” It’s available online Oct 13, but you might hit a paywall, and it reaches newstands Oct 18.
*** “President Trump Wouldn’t Have To Wait For Congress To Undo Much Of The Health Law,” by Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News (Oct. 7): Oh-oh, if you didn’t know —Donald Trump “absolutely, through executive action, could have tremendous interference to the point of literally stopping a train on its tracks,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of law and health policy at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Rovner’s report continues, “The Republican-led Congress has refused to make changes to the law that would help it work better — such as offering a fix when insurers cancelled policies that individuals thought they would be able to keep. As staunch opponents of the law, they, of course, have little incentive to improve it.”
Also, “There are several measures Trump could take on Day One of his presidency to cripple the law’s effectiveness. Perhaps Trump’s easiest action — and the one that would produce the largest impact—would be to drop the administration’s appeal of a lawsuit filed by Republican House members in 2014. That suit, House v. Burwell, charged that the Obama administration was unconstitutionally spending money that Congress had not formally appropriated; it was spending funds to reimburse health insurers who were providing coverage to working-poor policyholders.”
*** “Who Deserves to Be Poor?” by Brooke Gladstone, On the Media, WNYC Radio (Week of Oct. 6, on public radio stations): Hooray for some real, in-depth journalism this week on a significant policy issue. There’s a lot going on, of course, but given the absorbing and distracting news of this month, it’s great to see/hear at least some journalists making reporting great again.
The compelling five-part series now in progress is by Brooke Gladstone and her On the Media co-host Bob Garfield. The series title is, “Busted: America’s Poverty Myths.” This past week’s Part 2, “Who Deserves to Be Poor?” is especially relevant for GBONews readers. If you devoted 90 minutes to Sunday’s ugly presidential debate, cleanse your soiled media spirit with 41 minutes of this superb example of social reporting. You’ll never see (or use) the term “individual responsibility” again as a mere proxy for one side of the same ol’ bland “bipartisan” political debate over the legitimacy of welfare.
Gladstone’s second installment, says the show’s website, traces “the history of welfare in America, from aid to widows after the Civil War to Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty to Bill Clinton’s pledge to ‘end welfare as we know it.’” Aptly, she revisits and debunks President Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen,” a woman found to be defrauding the system, but whom Reagan falsely touted as typical of the lazy and larcenous sorts, who supposedly become welfare-dependent at the expense of honest, hard-working Americans. With the help of Kathy Edin, co-author of $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, Gladstone explores “how the notion of government assistance sapping people of initiative has long shaped policy . . . and permitted many in poverty to fall through the cracks.”
In Cleveland, Gladstone meets Carla Scott, 30, who is coping with care for her severely debilitated premature infant. Despite job skills and great initiative, she must sell her plasma for bus fare even to get to temporary employment. She needs to take on short-term jobs because her child’s constant risk of medical emergencies precludes her from accepting a full-time position. Particularly telling is the conversation toward the end of the story with Carla and her nonagenarian grandmother, Grace, a hardline believer in “personal responsibility.”
*** “Gloria Steinem Never Stops: A Feminist Icon Has Fans, Critics, and Plenty Yet to Do,” continues John Leland’s richly engaging series of very old New Yorkers, both celebrated and those just making their unknown way through life. The occasional Times series began two years ago as Leland followed a sample of six elders over the course of a year. As GBONews recently reported, he’s now developing the idea into a book. The profiles to date have sometimes been bracing with the realities of isolation or loss, and often, as in the case of this smart and entertaining Steinem profile, have brought readers along to an apartment filled with the energy of our times, or perhaps to sit on a park bench occupied by the sorrows of the city.
In addition to Leland’s word portrait of Steinem, you’ll find the compelling photo portrait of her by Caitlin Ochs, showing her subject’s unpolished beauty. Steinem’s gaze pierces page or screen, her eyes seeming to search through for the viewer’s truth. Yet, for those who didn’t happen to see the nearly half-page image in black-and-white print or in color via an internet feed, the NYT’s online version may well have fallen unseen in the cyber forest. Like too many fine stories in posted editions, this one was all but impossible to find on the NYT’s U.S. section. (Yes, it’s in the New York section, but the online version doesn’t show a link for the City coverage per se.) How ironic that the interview seemed to find no room on Sunday, Oct. 9, with article after article blocked into the layout about the Donald Trump groping video.
What’s more, my initial search for the print headline, “Gloria Steinem Never Stops” at first yielded that headline, but once clicked, the screen jumped to Leland’s story showing this header: “Showgirls, Pastrami and Candor: Gloria Steinem’s New York.” That’s a strange bit of headline writing in that Leland records Steinem’s bemused exasperation about how detractors have identified her since her early exposé of going undercover as a Playboy Bunny for Show magazine: “To this day when people don’t like me they introduce me as a former Bunny, as a put-down,” she said. “On the other hand, I did improve the working conditions for those women.” Is there a headline editor in the house?
That kvetch aside, Leland’s story happily proceeds from his lede, “These are lively times to be Gloria Steinem, with the possibility of the first woman elected president and the word ‘feminist’ — seen in bus-size letters on the Beyoncé concert stage — again finding currency among young women.” What comes through so strongly by the end of the profile is Steinem’s infectious engagement with travel, life and work, particularly her love of journalism.
Leland writes, “Her age has made her more strategic and also freer, she said: ‘Fifty was hardest for me, because it’s the end of the center of life, especially a gendered center of life. But by the time I got to be 60, it was like a new world. Society has given up because it’s all about having or raising children, really, and by 60 society doesn’t care that much, so you’re free. Seventy was certainly about mortality. And 80 even more so.’ She cited a Native American observation that old age is like childhood, a time of wonder, because both are near to the unknown.”
*** “The Gray Gender Gap: Older Women Are Likelier to Go It Alone,” by Paula Span, New York Times (Oct. 7 online, also Oct. 11 in “Science Times” section): Important companion reading with the Gloria Steinem profile. Span dissects the new federal report on aging statistics. She writes, “The numbers that jumped out at me from the latest report, called Older Americans 2016, concerned a more intimate matter: gender differences in marital status. To be blunt, they’re enormous, with consequences beyond the purely personal.”
*** “4 Animals Who Mourn Their Dead,” by Kristina Chew, Care2 (Reposted as a Care2 “favorite” on Oct. 8; originally run Sept 3, 2012): This editor will never scowl and a Western Blue Jay again, even as one pecks away at the fruit currently ripening on my fig tree. Can you guess what the other three animals are? More than a list, the article includes fascinating information and links to other worthwhile scientific articles and videos.
*** “Did Donald Trump Cheat On His Social Security and Medicare Taxes?” by Nancy Altman, Huffington Post (Oct. 8): Now that we all know that he’s boasted of cheating on his wives (we’ll see if it was all just “locker room talk”), what about cheating on his Social Security?
Altman, co-founder of the progressive advocacy group, Social Security Works and an expert who has been seriously considered for top posts at the Social Security Administration, writes, “In 1995, did billionaire Donald Trump pay less for Social Security and Medicare than minimum wage workers paid? Has he paid less in every subsequent year? If he did, he probably cheated. The only way to know for sure is to see his federal income tax returns. But there is indeed evidence already in the public domain that suggests that, on top of being a racist, a misogynist, and a xenophobe, Donald Trump is a tax cheat.”
4. GOOD SOURCES
*** “Living Below the Line: Economic Insecurity and Older Americans Insecurity in the States 2016,” UMass Boston’s Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging (Sept. 6): “In every U.S. state, more than 4 in 10 older adults are at risk of being unable to afford basic needs and age independently in their homes.” The UMass Boston’s Gerontology Institute did key work in developing the Elder Index, which measures how much older adults need to meet their basic needs. Currently managed by the institute and National Council on Aging, the Elder Index address the question, “What is the true cost of growing older in America?”
The new report and online resource enable reporters and others to compare the income security levels of seniors in each state and county. Unlike the long outdate Federal Poverty Level (FPL), the Elder Index gauges the cost of housing, health care, transportation, food and miscellaneous essentials.
Journalists can use the database to examine compare expenses across locations and family types; download national, state, county and city index data; and access additional information on elder economic security
The new report updates estimates suggesting that “half of older adults living alone, and one out of four older adults living in two-elder households, lack the financial resources required to pay for basic needs. The Gerontology Institute compares the 2016 household incomes for adults age 65 and above living in one- and two-person households to the 2016 Elder Economic Security Standard Index,” the full scholarly name for the tool. Users can calculate Elder Economic Insecurity Rates (EEIRs), the percentage of independent older adults age 65 or older living in households with annual incomes that do not support economic security.”
It goes on, “National averages suggest that 53% of older adults living alone, and 26% of older adults living in elder couple households (with an older spouse, partner, or some other older adult), have annual incomes below the Elder Index value. In every state, more than four out of 10 elder singles are at risk of being unable to afford basic needs.”
*** “Patient-Centered Medical Homes [PCMH] and the Care of Older Adults” includes the after-colon subhead, “How comprehensive care coordination, community connections, and person-directed care can make a difference.” The white paper is new from the John A. Hartford Foundation Change AGEnts, a great source for reporters looking for experts on health and long-term care research and model programs around the county.
In the case, the foundations PCMH Network (how our academic friends love their acronyms), focuses on one of more promising community health models emerging around the country, the medical home. The idea of a single public health point of service for seniors, especially those with complicated care needs, isn’t new. But the “person-centered” version, although jargonish, holds a lot of promise.
According to the 52-page paper, “The PCMH is accountable for providing most of each patient’s physical and mental health care needs, including prevention and wellness, acute care, and chronic care. Provider-directed medical practice teams on the frontline of medicine that take responsibility for the ongoing, comprehensive care of each patient have been shown to improve care and outcomes. Personal provider teams are trained in the provision of personalized, comprehensive care for both wellness and illness. Long-term physician-patient relationships are key to the success of the medical home.”
But, it goes on, “National and local definitions of PCMHs have little or no focus on advance care planning, functional status, mental and behavioral health, or comprehensive assessments and interventions for older or medically complex patients.” Many are frail and have multiple chronic conditions, and there has not been enough attention to family and caregivers. The paper advocates “for enhancing primary care for older adults, both with and without medically complex needs . . . . The PCMH team should be ready to serve older adults both with and without medically complex needs because health status can quickly change for this population.”
The white paper includes personal stories of patients; the role of how community-based organizations; recommendations for how PCMHs can enhance primary care delivery; explanations of challenges for PCMHs in five areas: and links to resources.
*** Resources for the 8th Biennial Asian American (AA) and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (NHPI) Health Conference are now posted online. These Power Points for many of the speakers. Yes, we know, bo-o-ring – but not if you’re looking to story leads and experts on them.
A release for the conference, which was held in New York City, states, “The population of AA and NHPI older adults is one of the fastest growing and diverse older adult populations in the United States and is projected to grow to 8.5 million by 2060, from 1.8 million in 2012. However, there is a lack of targeted health resources, research, and services focused on this growing population.”
Posted PPTs are for such sessions as “Social Isolation in AA and NHPI Communities” and “Culture-Centered Approaches to Dementia.” The speaker’s list also included some of the best-known authorities on AA/NAPI aging. The event was organized by AARP, the New York University School of Medicine, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (Part of NIH) and others. For more information contact Bonnie Kwong, 415.501.0776; bkwong@niwapr.com, or Elaine Meyer, 646.501.2895; elaine.meyer@nyumc.org.
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