GBO NEWS: 18 Get Journalists in Aging Fellowships; World Aging Congress Press; AP Poll—Majority Want Medicare LTC Coverage; Justice in Aging Book Club Summer Reading List (Seriously!)
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations — Our 24th Year.
May 31, 2017 — Volume 17, Number 6
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: The Latest from Washington–Nyet!
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: ** 18 Named for Journalists in Aging Fellows Program; ***Application Deadline for NIHCM Foundation Journalism Grants, July 24.
2. CALENDAR & RESOURCES: *** World Aging Congress Press Registration; ***Legacy Film Festival at World Congress; *** Application Letters for NIHCM Foundation Health Journalism Grants Due by July 24.
3. THE STORY BOARD: *** “Poll: Older Americans Want Medicare-Covered Long-Term Care,” by Emily Swanson, Associated Press;
*** “When Volunteers Help Ombudsmen Give Nursing Home Residents ‘A Voice’ In Their Care,” by Susan Jaffe, Kaiser Health News and Washington Post; *** “PROFILES IN OLD AGE: Part 1 — Family, Friends and Purpose Fend Off Isolation,” Deseret News/New America Media, Lois M. Collins, Part 2— “Most Elders Want to Stay at Homes, But Is That What’s Best?” Deseret News/New America Media;
*** “The Real Financial Costs of Caregiving,” Minneapolis Star Tribune/New America Media by Katy Read; *** “Challenges Loom for Growing Elderly Filipino American Population,” Philippine News/New America Media, by Neil Gonzalez, (May 17); *** Part 1— “A Black Father and Son at the Intersection of Dementia, Poverty and Homelessness,” Los Angeles Sentinel/New America Media; Charlene Muhammad, (May 11) and Part 2 – “Dementia, Poverty & Homelessness Intersect Leaving Black Elders’ Needs Unmet,” Los Angeles Sentinel/New America Media, (May 12);
*** “Can You Hear Me Now? 8 Options for Affordable Hearing Aids,” Part 1– Senior Planet/New America Media, Erica Manfred (April 25) and Part 2 — “The Problems with Hearing Aids—and the Solutions,” Senior Planet/New America Media, (May 2); *** “Life Expectancy Can Vary By 20 Years Depending On Where You Live,” by Rob Stein, NPR All Things Considered.
4. THE BOOKMOBILE: ***The Justice in Aging Book Club’s Summer Reading Recommendations; *** “Blind Author Trish Vickers Dies Day Book Is Published,” BBC News (March 11).
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE
*** 18 Named for Journalists in Aging Fellows Program: New America Media (NAM) and The Gerotological Society of American (GSA) have selected 18 reporters for the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, now in its eighth year. The reporters represent a wide range of general-audience, ethnic and community media outlets, including public radio affiliates, daily newspapers around the United States, and non-English-language media, as well as national publications. The program is done in collaboration with the Journalists Network on Generations, publisher of GBONews.org.
The new fellows were selected by a panel of journalists and experts in aging based reporters’ proposals for in-depth stories or series. Among selected projects were a series for the Washington Post on disparities in hospice access, a KQED (San Francisco) public radio series on mental-health treatment issues for older African Americans, and an Arab American News report on elders’ social isolation in Detroit.
The Fellows will participate in the World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics, which GSA will host in San Francisco from July 23 to 27. It will attract over 6000 experts from across the United States and 75 countries. (See the item elsewhere in this GBONews on how other reporters may sign up for complimentary press credentials.) The chosen fellows will research their proposed reporting projects form among the conference’s 650 presentations. The quadrennial World Congress, presented this year with the theme, “Global Aging and Health: Bridging Science, Policy, and Practice,” only comes to the U.S. every 32 years.
In addition, 11 past participants will join the new group as Continuing Fellows, who will received travel grants to defray the costs of attending the meeting. The new group of fellows will bring the total number of journalists who have participated in the program to 136.
This year’s Journalists in Aging fellows are:
Arthur Allen, Editor, eHealth, POLITICO: Project — An investigative report on reducing unnecessary and inappropriate prescriptions and procedures for older patients.
David T. Baker, Associate Editor, The Louisiana Weekly, New Orleans: Project–The rising cost of senior living, especially for African American elders.
Beth Baker, Contributor and author, PBS Next Avenue: Project–Intergenerational model programs engaging children and seniors.
Jeneé Darden, Freelance Producer, KQED Public Radio, San Francisco: Project: Culturally-competent mental health treatment for older African Americans.
Jeanne Erdmann, Contributor, Washington Post: Project:–Medical, geographic and financial disparities to hospice access.
Jacqueline Garcia, Reporter, La Opinión, Los Angeles: Project– Issues for aging undocumented jornaleros (day-labor workers).
Kelli B. Grant, CFP, Personal Finance and Consumer Spending Reporter, CNBC: Project–The intersections between longevity and financial planning.
Gretchen Grosky, Silver Linings Solutions Journalists, The Union Leader, Manchester, NH: Project–Isolation of rural seniors in a state that promoted retirement there, but offers limited senior services.
Susan Jaffe, Contributing Writer for Kaiser Health News based in Washington, D. C.: Project–How Medicare anti-fraud rules create problems for patients and their families.
Julia Kassem, Reporter, Arab American News, Detroit area: Project–Poor transportation issues resulting in isolation of Arab American elders.
Debra Krol, Contributor, Indian Country Today Media Network: Project–Eldercare challenges for tribes and families.
Zhihong “Cecilia” Li, Reporter/Photographer, Sing Tao Daily (New York): Project–Housing challenges for Chinese older adults, especially immigrants.
JoAnn Mar*, Producer and Announcer, KALW Public Radio, San Francisco: Project–Documentary on insights from physicians and patients on the challenges of providing universal comfort care at the end of life.
D. Kevin McNeir, Editor, The Washington Informer: Project–Aging baby boomers, working 9 to 5, many after 65.
Roshan Nebhrajani, Staff Writer/Producer, The New Tropic, Miami: Project– Profiles of five seniors showing changing demographics around Miami.
Kent Paterson, Reporter, NMPolitics.net: Project–Growing relocation/retirement of citizens of the U.S. and Canada to Mexico.
Stephanie Sanchez, Senior Reporter, KAWC-FM, Yuma, Ariz.: Project–Aging farm workers in Yuma County.”
Tibisay Zea, Senior Reporter/Digital Content Coordinator, El Planeta Media, Boston: Project–Undocumented Latino elders in New England.
*Editor’s Note: An earlier posting of this GBONews included Barrett Newkirk of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, however, he has withdrawn from the program, and JoAnn Mar of KALW has been selected to participate.
This year’s fellowship program funders include The Silver Century Foundation, AARP, The Commonwealth Fund, The Retirement Research Foundation and The John A. Hartford Foundation.
*** Application Deadline for NIHCM Foundation Journalism Grants, July 24: The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation is accepting applications for its fourth round of grant making. By that date, not later than 5 p.m. Eastern, interested journalists must submit an initial Letter of Inquiry (more about this below). The foundation will bestow six-to-eight grants for proposed projects that could take up to a year. Individual project amounts vary, depending on such as factors as travel and research costs, but the total amount available for this year’s grant project is $200,000.
NIHCM Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. They are seeking proposals about ways to improve the health of Americans by examining “emerging health issues and their implications for cost, quality and access. Grants will provide funding for health reporting, educational opportunities for health care reporters, and/or support for documentary films and their public engagement campaigns.” Applicants may be staff or freelancers, and the foundation will consider either new projects or those already underway.
For the July 24 deadline, they ask for a detailed Letter of Inquiry (or “LOI,” as the funding jargon goes) via their online submission system. The website includes details about this process and the requirements. The LOI must include a list of requested information, such as the budget you will be requesting, intended audience and your dissemination outlets, a PDF with 1000-word or less narrative description of the proposed project–double-spaced and otherwise following their prescribed grant application form. If you submit an LOI, you will receive a confirmation. But if you don’t get it, be sure to check your spam folder. If it’s not there, follow up directly with Carolyn Myers at nihcm@nihcm.org. For other questions related to the program, please contact Kathryn Santoro, 202-296-4196 or e-mail nihcm@nihcm.org. Please specify “JOURNALISM GRANT QUESTION” in the e-mail subject line.
2. CALENDAR & RESOURCES
*** The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) invites journaliststo attend the 2017 World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics — the largest interdisciplinary conference in the field of aging — from July 23 to 27, in San Francisco.
GSA is hosting this event on behalf of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG). Sessions will take place at the Moscone West convention and exhibit center and San Francisco Marriott Marquis hotel about a block away. The theme, “Global Aging and Health: Bridging Science, Policy, and Practice,” will bring together representatives from medicine, nursing, social science, psychological science, finance, policy fields, and other disciplines to address the latest approaches to improving the quality of life of the world’s older adults. There will be more than 650 scientific sessions featuring new research, plus hundreds of research poster papers.
The complimentary media registration allows access to all scientific sessions and the Exhibit Hall. Badges and printed program materials can be picked up in the Press Room, which will be located in room Nob Hill B of the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Registration information is available at www.iagg2017.org/media.
*** Also, the Legacy Film Festival on Aging will have a Day of Films on Aging during the World Congress on July 26. It’s a chance to preview a mix of theatrical and documentary shorts. We’ll have more about this program in a later issue of GBONews. The San Francisco-based Legacy Film Festival will hold its seventh year in the City by the Bay in September. But for July’s World Congress program, many of the selected films, most of them running a half-hour or less, will include a Q&A on topics ranging from HIV to Alzheimer’s care. For more information on this program, contact Festival Executive Director Sheila Malkind, at info@legacyfilmfestivalonaging.org; 415/861-2159.
*** “Where Medicaid Stands: From the AHCA to State Waivers” is a backgrounder on one of the most contentious elements of the health care debate. It’s a newly released transcript of the May 24 webinar by the bipartisan Alliance for Health Reform. It also include a video of the panel discussion. The program was presented in collaboration with the Association of Health Care Journalists.
According to the website, the webinar focused on the impact of the GOP’s American Health Care Act on states and Medicaid beneficiaries. The announcement says that the speakers addressed such concerns as “how a system of per capita caps would work, what we learned from the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, and how states might respond to new waiver flexibility from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.” Speakers were from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation and the conservative Manhattan Institute, the National Governors Association, along with Tony Leys, health reporter, Des Moines Register.
3. THE STORY BOARD
*** “Poll: Older Americans Want Medicare-Covered Long-Term Care,” by Emily Swanson, Associated Press (May 25): The survey found, “More than half of older Americans —56 percent — think the federal government should devote a great deal or a lot of effort to helping people with the costs of long-term care [LTC], and another 30 percent think it should make a moderate effort to do so.” That is, 86 percent of the age 40-plus Americans surveyed think Medicare should play a greater role in covering continuing care. Currently, Medicare covers only very limited post-hospital treatment to stabilize a patient’s medical condition.
The study shows, “Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans now think Medicare should bear a large part of the burden,” according to the story. It was conducted in English and Spanish by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research with funding from the SCAN Foundation.
Swanson goes on, “The poll has other signs of growing support for government involvement in providing long-term care. Seventy percent of older Americans say they favor a government-administered long-term care insurance program, up from 53 percent who said so a year ago. Most also favor tax policies to encourage long-term care planning . . . . Most also favor tax breaks for people who provide care to family members and employers who give paid family leave to workers.”
Swanson continues that two-thirds of Americans in the 40-plus group that was polled said “they’ve done little or no planning for their own long-term care needs. In fact, the survey shows that if anything, older Americans feel less prepared for the costs of care than they have in recent years.”
The story stresses that a Medicare LTC option “is unlikely to gain much traction as President Donald Trump’s administration and Republicans in Congress look to cut the federal budget and repeal President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law. Most older Americans mistakenly believe they can rely on Medicare already, the poll shows, while few have done much planning for their own long-term care.”
*** “When Volunteers Help Ombudsmen Give Nursing Home Residents ‘A Voice’ In Their Care,” by Susan Jaffe, Kaiser Health News and Washington Post (May 2): “The ombudsmen’s offices, which operate under federal law in all 50 states and the District, investigated 200,000 complaints in 2015, according to the Administration on Aging, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Of those, almost 117,000 were reported to have been resolved in a way that satisfied the person who made the complaint, and about 30,000 were partially resolved. At the top of the list were problems concerning care, residents’ rights, physical environment, admissions and discharges, and abuse and neglect.”
*** “PROFILES IN OLD AGE: Family, Friends and Purpose Fend Off Isolation,” Deseret News/New America Media, Lois M. Collins (May 28): Two women from different walks of life, former Utah First Lady Norma Matheson and Betty Newbold, face old age living alone with their own kinds of social-supports. Part 2— “Most Elders Want to Stay at Homes, But Is That What’s Best?” Deseret News/New America Media (May 29). America’s 46 million seniors will nearly double by 2060, meaning the U.S. Most want to age at home, but the country needs more age-friendly options when that’s not possible.
*** “The Real Financial Costs of Caregiving,” Minneapolis Star Tribune/New America Media , by Katy Read (May 18). Minnesotans who provide caregiving for loved ones may face real financial hardships of their own. Also, a new report hits California care facilities on worker abuse.
*** “Challenges Loom for Growing Elderly Filipino American Population,” Philippine News/New America Media, by Neil Gonzalez (May 17). The population of Filipino and other Asian American elders will quadruple by 2050. Model programs exist, yet the U.S. is ill-equipped to serve its ethnic seniors.
*** “A Black Father and Son at the Intersection of Dementia, Poverty and Homelessness,” Part 1– Los Angeles Sentinel/New America Media , News Feature, Charlene Muhammad, (May 11). A USC expert on African American aging, Bryan Gaines got an unexpected master course in family caregiving when he had to help his estranged father, who had Alzheimer’s. Part 2 – “Dementia, Poverty & Homelessness Intersect Leaving Black Elders’ Needs Unmet,” Los Angeles Sentinel/New America Media , (May 12). Link: http://tinyurl.com/kxm4v99. Especially for black families, an elder’s dementia can run into the high costs of care leaving many in poverty and even homeless.
*** “Can You Hear Me Now? 8 Options for Affordable Hearing Aids,” Part 1– Senior Planet/New America Media , Erica Manfred (April 25). Two-thirds of Americans 70-plus have significant hearing loss, but only 20 percent buy hearing aids. Here’s a guide to eight cost and technology options and Part 2 — “The Problems With Hearing Aids—And the Solutions,” Senior Planet/New America Media , (May 2). Link: http://tinyurl.com/kmlpjrp. Hearing aids cost too much, they’re ugly, they make me look old. SeniorPlanet’s Eric Manfred answers 8 complaints, including these with great solutions.
*** “Life Expectancy Can Vary By 20 Years Depending On Where You Live,” by Rob Stein, NPR All Things Considered (May 8): Good readers of GBONews, Stein’s three-minute radio piece (with online text) about a JAMA Internal Medicine study is only the latest in a steady trickle of articles and research regarding one of most important (and complex) issues in aging. Social scientists for years have shown worldwide that there’s a huge longevity gap based on income – and this editor will add, education. Stein begins by quoting Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. His team examined records from every U.S. county between 1980 and 2014. Of the findings, he said simply, “It’s dramatic.”
Murray continued, “What we found is that the gap is enormous.” In 2014, his team found a 20.1-year spread between counties with the longest and shortest typical life spans based on life expectancy at birth.” The average in places like places like Marin County, Calif., and Summit County, Colo., is age 87. For those in Oglala Lakota County, S.D., including Pine Ridge Native American reservation, or along the lower Mississippi River Valley and parts of West Virginia and Kentucky, it’s age 67.
Stein reports, “There’s no sign of the gap closing. In fact, it appears to be widening. Between 1980 and 2014, the gap between the highest and lowest life spans increased by about two years. ‘With every passing year, inequality — however you measure it — has been widening over the last 34 years,’ Murray says.
Stein notes that those most negatively affected have the lowest incomes and educational levels. He adds, “It looks as if the counties with the lowest life spans haven’t made much progress fighting significant health problems such as smoking and obesity.” That’s true and important to mention, but also it’s important for reporters who may go more deeply into this issue to be wary of stating it out of context, since it can be thrown at people, as if they are to blame, an inclination of some politicians especially these days.
Stein, for instance, quotes Dartmouth health policy researcher Ellen Meara: “One of the things we’ve seen in this country is that for some groups, their possibilities look worse than those of their parents, and that’s after generations of always doing better than the previous generation. And in a situation like that, smoking — relative to not smoking — looks more appealing [and] having a diet and a lifestyle that leads you to be obese looks more appealing than giving up things.” That is, what may look like a vice in Marin County may feel like a coping mechanism in other depressed areas – well, perhaps also in lower-income Marin City or nearby San Rafael.
For a much more comprehensive view, see the book, The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years (Harvard, 2015), [http://tinyurl.com/jqea53o] by University of Arizona sociologist Correy M. Abramson.
4. THE BOOKMOBILE
*** Justice in Aging Book Club Summer Reading Recommendations: GBO’s editor recently grabbed lunch at Oakland’s thriving Swan’s Market al fresco scene with legal eagle Kevin Prindiville, national director of Justice in Aging (JiA is the former National Senior Citizens Law Center). Between bits of delicious and delightfully messy Mexican fare, I mentioned Correy Abramson’s End Game, noted elsewhere in this issue, and Prindiville told me his nonprofit had read it in their book club. He explained that the club is something they do internally as a way for their staff, with offices in Washington, D.C., Oakland and Los Angeles, “to engage in a different way around the issues we work on. Most everyone in our organization participates.”
Currently, about 20 JiA staffer participate. They meet in-person in their three offices and then also have a video conference and debrief in staff meetings every other month. At present, they are reading We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang (Picador, 2016).
Previous selections from the Justice in Aging crew include:
The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years by Abramson (Harvard, 2015)
This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite (Networked Books, 2016)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Random House, 2015)
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (Penguin paperback, 2017).
And, invoking GBO’s editorial privilege of suggesting another nonfiction title, I’ll also suggest the latest volume offering compelling arguments for humanizing the American way of dying: Extreme Measures – Finding a Better Path to the End of Life, by Jessica Nutik Zitter, MD, MPH, (Avery/Penguin Random House 2017). Zitter, a contributor to the New York Times on end-of-life care, is also the key figure in the Oscar-nominated short documentary, Extremis produced by Dan Krauss (Netflix 2016). Zitter’s website also lists her readings and appearances. For information, her PR contact is Norbert Beatty: 917-886-8119, or either Anne Kosmoski (akosmoski@penguinrandomhouse.com) or Casey Maloney (212-366-2213(, cmaloney@penguinrandomhouse.com).
How about you good reader? Any suggestions to pass along in our June issue? If so, please include the full title of the book, author’s name, publisher, year of release and a link where readers can learn more about the volume. And don’t be shy: Feel free to include a recent one of your own.
*** “Blind Author Trish Vickers Dies Day Book Is Published,” BBC News (March 11): Thanks to satirist Paul Krassner, a lover of ironies both sweet and sour, for alerting us to this poignant story from across the Pond. BBC’s telling and another new report say that Vickers, 64, and had terminal cancer and lost her eyesight to diabetes 11 years ago. Starting on this book, her first, five years ago, she wrote it by hand. As her sight failed, she devised a system of rubber bands to guide her pen across a page as if it were lined paper. But, as the BBC piece states, “26 pages were blank as she did not realise her pen had run out of ink.” That was in 2011, when she discovered what had happened on her son Simon’s weekly visit to pick up the latest pages to read back to her for editing.
Devastated but undaunted, she and Simon called the local bobbies at Dorset HQ. The officers in the fingerprint division took up the forensic challenge, and five months later the police reported success. The pen, of course, left scratches on the otherwise blank sheets. Presumably they applied more sophisticated techniques than the one I recall we’d use as kids to send secret messages only readable after the recipient scribbled the page with a soft graphite pencil. Vickers told a reporter at the local Bridport News “I think they used a combination of various lights at different angles to see if they could get the impression made by my pen.”
Early this year, Vickers was able to find a publisher for her 110,000-word novel, Grannifer’s Legacy, about a woman named Jennifer who discovers a book written by her great-grandmother. When her publisher, Magic Oxygen, told her it would take six months to fabricate the books, Vickers knew that by then her cancer was advancing more rapidly. The Magic Oxygen crew went into high gear and produced the book in only two months. They delivered it to her home on March 9—two hours after she had died. The story does not end on that sad note, however. A portion of the book’s profits will be donated to South West Talking Newspapers.
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