GBONEWS: 17th Journalists in Aging Fellowships Deadline, July 24; UC’s New Age-Beat Site Wants Pitches; Sleepy Trump? (His Brain or Competence?); Social Security on the Ballot; Tucson’s Dancing Rodeo City Wreckettes; Lewy Body Dementia; & MORE
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
News Digest of the Journalists Network on Generations
June 22, 2026 — Volume 33, Number 6
EDITOR’S NOTE: GBONews, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. If you have difficulty getting to the full issue of GBONews with the links provided below, simply go to www.gbonews.org to read the latest or past editions. Send your news of stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. [pfkleyman@gmail.com]. To subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge, simply send a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. For each issue, we’ll email the table of contents and links to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. GBONews does not provide its list to other entities.
In This Issue: El Niño is coming! Better call in La Abuela.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: *** 17th Annual Journalists in Aging Fellows Program Deadline, July 24.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS: *** New The Long Game: Reporting for Grown-Ups site accepting story pitches.
3. THE STORYBOARD:*** “‘Sleepy Trump’?” (His Brain or Competence?) by Jem Bartholomew, Columbia Journalism Review;
*** “Social Security is on the ballot this fall – or, it should be,” by Mark Miller, RetirementRevised;
*** “Stroke Is 3rd Leading Cause of Death for Women. So Where Are They in the Clinical Trials?” by Sunita Sohrabji, American Community Media;
*** “‘Just Dead Ends’: APS investigation Left Daughter in the Dark,” by Rose Lundy, Maine Monitor;
*** “You Should Be Dancing, Yeah. Moving to music offers all kinds of benefits as you age,” by Anita Snow,Associated Press.
4. GOOD SOURCES: *** The Commonwealth Fund wide range of original and funded research/analyses on health care policy, such as *Impacts of new Trump administration insurance rule; *Findings from the Fund’s 2025 Affordability Survey and Focus Groups; *It’s 2026 Health Disparities Report; *Global Perspective on U.S. Health Care; *Telemedicine—How Beneficial?
5. AGING IN AMERICA NEWS: *** “The Girl Scout Way,” by AiANews Editor Mark Swartz (child psychology PhD student discovers Gray Panthers): ***Medicare’s Caregiver Pilot Program, commentary by Neal K. Shah; *** “Caregivers Prove Key in Lewy Body Dementia Treatment,” by Linda Shockley; *** SERIES on “Geriatric Emergency Department Care,” by Shalini Kathuria Narang.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE
*** 17th Annual Journalists in Aging Fellows Program Deadline, July 24: Here we go again! Applications are open to staff and freelance reporters who cover or wish to cover issues in aging for our fellowship program, a collaboration of GBONews publisher, the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG) and The Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Reporters at mainstream or ethnic/community news outlets in any language for audiences in the United States are welcome.
Selected Fellows receive a $1,500 stipend, plus all expenses covered to attend the training at GSA’s 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting, at National Harbor, MD, Nov. 4-7, 2026, with the theme, “Reinforcing Resilience in Aging Science, Research and Education.”
Applications must include a one-to-two-page story pitch for an in-depth project about any research-based aspect of aging. The fellowship requires reporters to deliver two projects based on current aging research, including a short initial story and major piece or series in the following months.
All applications for the fellowship will be reviewed by a selection committee of gerontologists and editorial professionals. The criteria will include clarity and originality of proposed in-depth story projects; quality of samples of published or produced work; and high-impact potential of proposals geographically and across focused populations (e.g., ethnic/racial, disability, gender, geographic, or senior press).
Journalists working in all types of media may apply. Many have originated in non-English outlets serving U.S. audiences, from El Tiempo Latino to Sing Tao Daily, as well as in general-media outlets, such as the Washington Post, Science Magazine, NPR News, non-profit newsrooms, and other local or regional news outlets.
GSA’s conference will bring about 4,500 professionals in gerontology from around the world, many of whom will present their research in hundreds of symposia, papers, and study posters on nearly every topic in aging.
Topics will range from the latest biological discoveries to public policy panels on federal cuts, as well as wide-ranging concerns, such as elder justice/elder abuse, retirement security, climate change, food insecurity, the arts and other positive developments, and—especially–how state and local services are coping with the new budget cuts.
To date, this program has helped generate more than 900 news stories produced by 258 alumni. Its main goals are to educate journalists about the most relevant background angles and sources on aging; and to disseminate information about new scientific findings, policy debates, innovations, and evidence-based solutions.
Also, GBONews readers, even if you don’t plan to apply, we’d greatly appreciate your helping to spread the word to your friends, colleagues and networks. Please post this quick blurb where it might bring another reporter a good turn.
“Applicants must submit proposals with an agreement by a news organization’s editor or producer to accept the project if it receives a fellowship. (Those who double as their outlet’s editor/producer need not provide a separate letter or email, but they should make their dual role clear in the proposal.) Questions: Liz Seegert: liz@lizseegert.com; Todd Kluss at tkluss@geron.org; Paul Kleyman, pfkleyman@gmail.com.”
Current program funders include Silver Century Foundation, The John A. Hartford Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM), Health Foundation for Western & Central New York, and contributor John Migliaccio.
***Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News[1] (KHN) was honored with the inaugural Robert Pear Award for Excellence in Social Insurance Journalism by the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance.
Named for the late Robert Pear, long a New York Times correspondent on social and health policy, NASI established the award to recognize “the vital role that thoughtful storytelling plays in helping people understand the issues that shape our lives,” according to its website.
Previously, Rovner devoted 16 years to covering health policy for National Public Radio. She also wrote for the National Journal’s “Congress Daily,” Congressional Quarterly and The Lancet. At KHN, she also hosts its podcast, “What the Health.” Her book, Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z, (CQ Press) is now in its third edition.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** UC Berkeley Journalism’s The Long Game: Reporting for Grown-Ups, a “new home for original reporting and writing for Americans over 60,” is now accepting story pitches from journalists around the country.
According to the program’s founder and editor, Diana Jean Schemo, “Though they stand among the most news-engaged readers, they are more often written about than for. Our readers have been around the block. They carry a sense of history, they’ve watched institutions, taboos, and fashions rise and fall, and they bring to every issue the kind of insight that only time provides.”
Schemo wrote, “Our goal is to write journalism that meets them where they are, covering the issues of the day through a lens that recognizes their stake in what happens next, in policy, in politics, in the institutions that shape all of our lives.”
The Long Game joins the international investigative reporting program, 100Reporters, and its documentary film festival, Double Exposure, in the fold of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Each week, Schemo explained, The Long Game will “dive into one story or issue, beginning with an original report or essay. During the week, we’ll expand the story with additional notes, research, expert interviews, and developments as stories evolve.” Also, in tandem, they’re beginning to drop episodes of Second Acts, “a new podcast about people who thought they were going to retire, only to find they instead pursued a longstanding interest or passion and ended up reinventing themselves,” Schiavo went on. “And next month comes the The Long View, an advice column for genuinely thorny questions, written by someone who is squarely in our demographic and has earned the standing to hold forth.”
On the new menu , as well, is The Long Game podcast on Substack that it initiated with “Ai-jen Poo: Caregiving in the ICE Age” (June 17, 2026). Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, also co-founded Caring Across Generations, a leading advocate for family care, which has consulted on series including The Pitt and movies including Night Bitch.
In the podcast, she discusses the immigration crackdown and its impact on caregivers across the country. A leading voice for eldercare workers, Poo also discussed her new film production company with Lydia Storie, Give Not Take Media. (The company’s debut film Take Me Home won a Sundance audience award in February.)
Schemo qualified that “the pay is modest, for now” for selected story proposals for The Long View. For information, contact Diana Jean Schemo, djschemo@100r.org.
3. THE STORYBOARD
*** “‘Sleepy Trump’?” by Jem Bartholomew, Columbia Journalism Review (CJR, June 15, 2026): The Dek – “What the discourse around the president’s health reveals—and conceals.”
The Lede: “Donald Trump has seemed extremely sleepy lately. He appeared to doze in a cabinet meeting, caught forty winks during a meeting in the Oval Office, nodded off at a Memorial Day event, and fell into a light snooze during the NBA finals. Sections of the press have been quick to pounce on these instances.”
She went on, “As Dan Diamond of the Washington Post put it last month, Trump ‘now receives some of the same questions that dogged’ his predecessor, Joe Biden: ‘namely, whether he is mentally and physically fit to perform the duties of commander in chief.’”
Age Bias: “With Trump, we’re not quite at the level of age-fixation reached under Biden, when ‘each fall and gaffe expands into an accordion of articles,’ as Lucy Schiller observed for CJR at the time. (Although, as Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson wrote in Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, there were ‘aggressive efforts’ by the White House to hide Biden’s ‘cognitive diminishment,’ which reporters may have missed, at least until Biden’s disastrous debate performance.)
“But it has become common to see news articles quoting medical professionals remotely diagnosing Trump or running comments from his political opponents . . . often pegged to questions about invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.”
Fitness: Bartholomew goes on, “As MS Now put it, ‘some critics have questioned his mental acuity, given his erratic governing style.’ This is what I find unhelpful about some of the presidential health coverage. Trump’s swollen legs and bruised hands are not abnormal signs of aging, which is what bodies do. ‘Even when trying to get the story right, a journalist can easily tilt toward ageism and ableism,’ Schiller wrote.”
“Under the surface, what many critics seem to be fixating on as evidence of Trump’s supposed deterioration—behavior that is impulsive, self-obsessed, and thoughtless—is really just an extension of Trump’s lifelong impulsiveness, self-obsession, and thoughtlessness. You can say that Trump is unfit for the world’s highest office—has always been unfit for that office—without grounding the argument in his age.”
“Gerontocracy” Claims: “Age, after all, is often a proxy for other things. When questions are raised about the president’s health, the subtext is: How did someone this erratic and narcissistic gain so much power? . . . When arguments are made about dismantling the supposed ‘gerontocracy,’ the underlying problem is the unequal distribution of wealth and power. The answer does not lie in pushing older Americans out of public life. ‘We don’t live in a gerontocracy but an oligarchy, and a focus on age can only distract from that more existential threat,’ James G. Chappel wrote in the Boston Review this month.”
“As Schiller put it: ‘Perhaps any serious thinker’s work is not to accept ‘oldness’ for the easy meaning it is typically assigned in this country, but to interrogate how it is built, how it is used, and the variations inside it.’ . . . All of this is playing out, of course, amid the backdrop of a deeply irresponsible war with Iran. . . . That is not down to Trump’s age, but to his career-long aversion to facts and his long-standing, childlike belief in his ability to bend any situation to his will.”
*** “Social Security is on the ballot this fall – or, it should be,” by Mark Miller, RetirementRevised Substack (June 13, 2026):
The Issue: Miller, also a frequent contributor to the New York Times “Retiring” column, analyses June’s annual report from the Social Security trustees, stressing, “They continue to project depletion of the combined retirement and disability trust funds (OASDI) in 2034, although some underlying factors in the numbers continue to worsen.”
Miller explaines, “Over the last couple decades, the accounts accumulated large surpluses, but these cushions are now being drained rapidly. . . If we reach the depletion date, benefits will be cut roughly 17%–most likely across the board. That would happen because Social Security has no legal authority to borrow money to make up shortfalls. Nothing has been done to address the problem, so it now falls squarely on the next Congress and presidential administration.”
Key Questions: “Taken together, these factors produced a big hit on Social Security’s ‘actuarial balance’. . . . Voters should be asking candidates for Congress this year–and for the White House after that–what they plan to do about this problem. Politicians love to promise that they ‘won’t touch Social Security,’ but that answer implicitly endorses the 20% across-the-board cut.
“In other words, doing nothing is, in fact, doing something quite significant to Social Security. That’s because program has no legal authority to borrow money to close the gap. Trump has abandoned his party’s long-standing position that trust fund depletion should be solved through benefit cuts–and the deadline is so close now that cuts wouldn’t address the short-term problem, anyway.”
Across the Aisle: “Democrats have repeatedly proposed raising taxes by lifting or eliminating the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax ($184,500 this year). That would help address rising income inequality–when Social Security was last reformed in 1983, 90% of the country’s wage base was taxed, but that has now fallen to just 83%, because a larger share of income is going to the top 10%.”
A Quote: Miller adds, “Discussing the 1983 reforms, [former U.S. Labor Secretary and UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus] Robert Reich notes. ‘It went from 90 percent to 83 percent because a steadily larger portion of the nation’s total income has gone to the top.
“In 1983, the richest 1 percent of Americans got 11.6 percent of total income. Today, the top 1 percent takes in more than 20 percent. This year, someone earning $1 million in wages stopped paying any Social Security payroll tax at the beginning of March. Jeff Bezos probably stopped a few minutes past midnight on January 1; Elon Musk, a few seconds after midnight on January 1.”
Miller emphasizes, “In point of fact, Bezos, Musk, and other robber barons of this Second Gilded Age get all the cash they need by borrowing against their fortunes, rather than bother with pesky wages, so they probably pay a pittance in Social Security taxes.)’”
Alternatives: He continues, “Other solutions that have been proposed include increasing payroll tax rates gradually over time, taxing returns on investments, or increasing revenues via general fund transfers or new dedicated revenue sources.”
Getting Smart: “The real question is what kind of retirement security we want Social Security to provide. We are in a situation where most accumulated retirement wealth is concentrated among a relatively small share of households.”
What’s more, he asserts, “Many Americans approaching retirement have little or no savings beyond Social Security, and millions already rely on the program for most of their income. Smart reforms would not simply restore long-term solvency. They would strengthen benefits to help close the retirement income gaps facing low- and middle-income Americans.”
*** “Stroke Is the 3rd Leading Cause of Death for Women. So Where Are They in the Clinical Trials?” by Sunita Sohrabji, American Community Media (June 15, 2026):
The Issue: “According to data from the American Stroke Association, stroke kills 90,000 women each year. One out of 5 women over the age of 55 will suffer a stroke. Yet as women live longer than ever before, often spending a third of their lives after menopause, researchers are only now beginning to understand how aging, hormones and vascular disease interact to shape long-term brain health.”
She, Too: “Women experience an average two-year delay in diagnosis across hundreds of medical conditions, said Dr. Liisa Galea, Treliving Family Chair in women’s mental health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada, and lead of the Women’s Health Research Cluster. ‘A two-year delay in diagnosis is a huge problem. Earlier interventions are most important for effective outcomes,’ she said. . . Women who may have suffered a stroke are often misdiagnosed. ‘We are still largely treating stroke as a male illness,’ said Galea. “You go to the emergency room and . . the doctor is saying: “No, no, you’re fine.”’”
Racial Disparity: “Black women experience stroke-related death at higher rates than any other racial groups. Socioeconomic factors further compound those risks. Limited access to health care, delayed diagnoses, medication costs and barriers to healthy nutrition can increase the likelihood of stroke and complicate recovery.”
New Research: “In a report released May 1, the World Economic Forum noted that men’s health has been the default globally. Historically, medical research, clinical trials, and healthcare products are designed around male biology. Women spend 25% of their lives in poor health, resulting in 75 million lost years of life globally. Addressing the health divide could boost the global economy by $1 trillion by 2040, noted the WEF.”
*** “‘Just dead ends’: Daughter said investigation into father’s care left her in the dark,” by Rose Lundy, Maine Monitor (June 5, 2026): The Dek – “Unable to feed or bathe himself, her father lived in squalor and developed a bone infection. How thorough was an investigation into his caregivers? The state declined to provide answers.”
The Lede: “Christiana Lauzon, [34,] answered a call from an unlisted phone number and had a five-minute conversation that she said left her shaking. It was a cold February morning, and the state agency that investigates reports of abuse and neglect of dependent adults had just called to say it was closing its investigation into her father’s care.
“Her father, Mark Lauzon, [59,] had relied on caregivers to help him at his home in Augusta, ME, but Christiana had discovered it in a state of squalor with rat feces covering her father’s bed. Water from the sink flooded the counters. He had gotten an infection that spread to his bones, requiring his toe to be amputated.
“In the call, the staff member with Adult Protective Services [APS] did not say what the investigation found — or whether investigators had found anything at all — and declined to answer her questions.”
Catch 22: “Under Maine law, Adult Protective Services records are subject to limited disclosure because even adults who are dependent retain privacy rights, an agency spokesperson said. The state will release investigative records to the dependent adults if they ask. But the fact that adults who cannot care for themselves have to request details about investigations into their own abuse or neglect may mean they don’t ask for the records at all, making it difficult to gain insight into the state’s findings and investigative process. To Christiana Lauzon, this feels like a cruel Catch-22.”
A Quote: “A court-appointed visitor, [a retired attorney,] . . . after reviewing [Christiana’s] petition to become her father’s legal guardian, said in a report to Kennebec County Probate Court that the case represented ‘another example of people reaching out to APS for assistance and intervention without adequate response.’”
APS Dilemma: “Adult Protective Services saw calls to its intake line nearly double in the last seven years. It received about 9,900 calls in 2019 and 18,500 last year. “
Gina Googins, associate director of Adult Protective Services “attributed the increase to heightened awareness of reportable. . . . . Adult Protective Services has to weigh privacy and protection for victims against the desire from family members for information, Googins said. The agency considers many factors in making its decision, Googins said. Is the family member the alleged perpetrator? Why does someone want the records? Does the victim want the records disclosed? Is the investigation ongoing? Is the guardianship being contested?”
And: “While releasing records to family members may provide clarity and closure for specific cases, it is important to think broadly about how policies affect the autonomy and privacy of older adults, said Mary Lou Ciolfi, assistant director of policy and education at the University of Maine Center on Aging.
“Ciolfi said these cases can become examples of ‘compassionate ageism’ when a family member tries to protect an older adult but ends up stifling their freedom. . . By requesting investigation reports and records from the state, family members may be invading their loved one’s privacy and right to determine what information is shared with their family, Ciolfi said.”
The Upshot: “‘My dad is what APS is supposed to protect,’ Christiana Lauzon said. ‘What are they actually doing? Are they actually visiting these people? Are they just saying they do? And I know that sounds terrible, but the experience I had was so disheartening. Every time I talked to someone, it was just dead ends.’”
*** “You should be dancing, yeah. Moving to music offers all kinds of benefits as you age,” by Anita Snow, Associated Press “Be Well” coverage (May 26, 2026):
The Lede: “Carol Ross can’t stop smiling at dance practice as she shouts out the steps of a routine to members of her tap and jazz troupe for women age 50 and older. . . [She] founded the Rodeo City Wreckettes group 23 years ago . . . Now 87, Ross and her husband and lifelong dance partner John, also 87, have long known what more older adults are now discovering: Moving to music is one of the best ways to stay healthy.”
And: “The Wreckettes perform throughout the year, from holiday events to rodeo shows, dressing up in a series of matching sparkly costumes. . . . But they all said what they love the most is being hired by retirement homes to perform for memory care patients. Wreckette members take turns picking a favorite charity to donate their earnings.”
What Dances in Vegas . . . : “A similar dance group for older women in Las Vegas, the Vegas Golden Gals, also performs at retirement homes, said Cheryl Cortez, the group’s president. They add pompoms to their routines.”
The Benefits: “Medical professionals say it doesn’t matter if it’s Western line dancing, ballroom steps, salsa, tap, Zumba at the gym, or with a group like the Wreckettes. Dance, like other exercise, can help people lose weight, get stronger, reduce fall risk, increase mobility and flexibility, and even improve brain health.”
Balance: “Dr. Thomas Johnson, a geriatrician at the UCHealth Seniors Clinic in Aurora, Colorado, said . . . dance can improve the balance of his patients at the clinic, which serves about 2,500 people 75 and older a year. He said older patients can benefit from adding two to three dance sessions to the 150 minutes of aerobic exercise he recommends for them each week, because dancing often involves movements that help with balance, such as walking backward or standing on one foot.
4. GOOD SOURCES
*** The Commonwealth Fund so prolifically posts policy analyses and briefs on health and social care issues that it’s long been one of this editor’s go-to sources for perspective and expert sources.
A New York-based operating foundation, the Commonwealth produces some of the most reliable papers in aging and other health areas around, as well as funding independent health policy research and related efforts to disseminate information to the public, such as through the Association of Health Care journalists and our own Journalists in Aging Fellows Program.
For reporters, their staff and grantee investigators provide a substantial contacts list of research authorities on a rich spectrum of topics. They produce so many, in fact, I’m copying a random group of recent subject lines and links from Commonwealth Fund emails, below. Check out a few and subscribe to their free feed for an ongoing supply of news-relevant discussions. Their material is great for prompting detailed questions and angles on a range of topics.
Here’s a sampling:
* “The Trump Administration’s New ACA Marketplace Rule Gives Insurance Companies Flexibility and Consumers Red Tape,” by Justin Giovannelli, J.D., project director, Center on Health Insurance Reforms, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University (June 17, 2026): “The new rule . . . ratchets up scrutiny of the enrollment process and imposes administrative barriers it projects will cause up to 2 million people to lose coverage. At the same time, it relaxes standards for health insurers.”
* “U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2026,” by Munira Z. Gunja, MPH, senior researcher, Commonwealth Fund, and colleagues (May 28, 2026): “The U.S., on average, has the poorest health outcomes of any high-income country, and among the poorest of the high- and middle-income nations belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).”
* “How Health Insurance Coverage Denials Affect Americans,” Findings from the Commonwealth Fund 2025 Affordability Survey and Focus Groups, by Sara R. Collins, PhD, senior scholar, and colleagues (June 4, 2026): “One in five privately insured U.S. adults report coverage denials for doctor-recommended care.”
* “In Germany, Long-Term Care Is a Societal Undertaking — Not an Individual Responsibility,” by Munira Z. Gunja, MPH (May 18, 2026): “Nearly 80 percent of older Americans don’t have the money to pay for long-term care services, and those who need it are more likely to deplete their savings before they die,” according to the National Council on Aging and LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass Boston. “In contrast, Germany — facing the same demographic pressures — stands out as a global leader with its universal long-term care insurance program.”
* “The Commonwealth Fund 2026 State Health Disparities Report,” by Jess Maksut, PhD, director. health equity research, Commonwealth Fund’s Achieving Equitable Outcomes program (April 29, 2026): “Rates of people skipping needed care because of cost are once again on the rise, with Hispanic and AIAN communities seeing the steepest increases.”
* “Is Private Equity a Friend or Foe to Physicians? The Devil Is in the Details,” by Sarah Klein, editor, Commonwealth Fund’s Transforming Care, a quarterly, review of innovative models of care, payment, and patient engagement, with Fund researcher Arnav Shah, MPP (April 30, 2026): “Salary caps, noncompete agreements, and other common features of private equity contracts mean that medical providers must read the fine print carefully to ensure their needs are met.”
* “When Barriers May Be Beneficial — What We’ve Learned About Telemedicine and Low-Value Care,” by Nicholas Daley, Research Assistant, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and Ishani Ganguli, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and former journalist (March 18, 2026): “Telemedicine coverage has not resulted in increased testing or spending; in fact, it’s reduced patient burdens while maintaining access to high-value care.
5. AGING IN AMERICA NEWS
* “The Girl Scout Way,” by AiANews Editor Mark Swartz (June 18, 2026): “When Isabel Postelnek took a part-time job at an assisted living facility the summer before her freshman year of college, she was planning to become a child psychologist. Within a week, she had changed her mind. ‘I realized I had found my passion,’ she says. ‘I love working with kids, but not as much as I love working with older adults.’ That pivot eventually led Postelnek, now a Ph.D. student in gerontology, to an internship with Gray Panthers NYC in the summer of 2024 — and to designing an inventive initiative that’s starting to spread: a Girl Scout patch focused on ageism, intergenerational connection, and the legacy of the Gray Panthers’ founder, Maggie Kuhn.”
Our colleagues at the Aging in America News website have been steadily churning out a fine range of coverage. Following is a selection of their June postings, so far.
* “The Coming Medicare Pivot,”: With a summary introduction and video op-ed (9:46 mins.), caregiver advocate and Johns Hopkins University researcher, Neal K. Shah, CEO of the nonprofit eldercare provider, CareYaya, explains the Medicare-funded eight-year pilot program, Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (the GUIDE model). It was launched by Medicare in 2024. But, available only to those with traditional Medicare, though, the program shuts out the 54% of older adults now on Medicare Advantage programs.
Shah believes, “With 63 million unpaid family caregivers, politicians from both sides of the aisle must acknowledge that the math of American aging has simply stopped working for the middle class.”
* “Caregivers Prove Key in Lewy Body Dementia Treatment,” by Linda Shockley (June 8, 2026): “Mary Lou Falcone. . . , a globally respected publicist and career nurturer to top classical music performers and organizations, [has] handled thorny crises and strategic planning with relative ease. But when her beloved husband, visual artist and musician. Nicholas T. Zann, was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia (LBD), she was at a loss.”
Shockley noted, “LBD is the most common form of progressive dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, affecting more than 1.4 million Americans. And while not rare, it is difficult to diagnose. She wrote a memoir, “I Didn’t See It Coming: Scenes of Love, Loss, and Lewy Body Dementia,” . . . and spearheaded, fundraised and executive produced a documentary film, “Facing the Wind” that focuses on the caregivers.”
* SERIES — “Geriatric Emergency Department Care,” by Shalini Kathuria Narang (June 3-4, 2026): Part 1, “Reducing Hospitalization and Mortality in Older Adults”: “Published in April, the first nationally representative study to examine hospital admission and mortality associated with Geriatric Emergency Department (GED) care after an emergency department (ED) visit by older adults in the U.S. highlights the relevance of GED care to acute care outcomes for older adults and the importance of expanding GED reach across diverse populations.
“The study pairs GED innovations with broader efforts to increase equitable outpatient access, supporting continuity of care, and reducing biases in care provision across diverse patient populations.”
Part 2, “Geriatric Emergency Department Care”: Interview with researchers, Yale’s Ula Hwang and Xi Chen, about their nationally representative study about GED care outcomes for older adults. –
The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2026 Paul Kleyman. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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