GBONEWS: New Age-Beat Journalism Award, Solutions Journalism Youth Fellowships, Census Counts 10 Million Seniors in Poverty, Medicaid Hit on Home Care; Facility Chain Understaffing; Voting Seniors Live Longer; Trailer Park Investors Squeeze Seniors; Fentanyl Threat to Elders; Grands Raising Grandkids
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations.
Sept. 28, 2026 — Volume 33, Number 9
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.
In This Issue: It’s Medicare Open Enrollment—Is your plan cancelled? Can you afford the price jump? Is anyone covering that?
Table of Contents
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: *** New Journalism Award from National Center to Reframe Aging; *** Solutions Journalism Network’s HEAL & Youth Fellowships.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS: *** Julie Pfitzinger new columnists at Minnesota Star Tribune; *** Forbes Columnist Howard Gleckman receives Leadership in Aging Award.
3. THE STORYBOARD
*** “What Medicaid cuts mean for those who rely on home healthcare,” by Tamar Faggen and Kimberly Adams,Marketplace Morning Report;
*** “Residents of a mobile home park try to buy their community before someone else does,” by Leigh Paterson, Marketplace;
*** “These initiatives may be able to thaw the frozen housing market,” by Harry Margolis, MarketWatch;
*** “How do you take care of parents who may not have taken great care of you?” by Brittany Luse, NPR’s All Things Considered;
*** “Potential buyer for Next Step chain accused of deliberate understaffing,” by Grace Ferguson, New Bedford(MA) Light nursing homes investigation.
*** “Too Young To Retire, Too Old To Be Hired,” by Don Akchin, The EndGame (Substack).
4. GOOD SOURCES
*** “Census Reports 10 Million Older Adults in Poverty. Congress Must Act to Strengthen Social Security,”Justice in Aging blog;
*** “Are You Planning for a Population That No Longer Exists?” by Dr. Joe Coughlin, MIT AgeLab’s Longevity Economy blog;
*** A Data Infrastructure for Measuring the Care Economy, Consensus Study Report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine;
*** “Can AI Help Older Adults Age Well? Benefits, Risks, and What Families Should Know,” by Debra Berlyn,National Council on Aging;
*** “Older Americans who vote live longer than those who don’t – new research,” by Sara Konrath, Director, Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research, Indiana University, and Femida Handy, University of Pennsylvania, The Conversation;
5. MORE STORYBOARD (Recent postings from 2026 Journalists in Aging Fellow): *** “Fentanyl poses rising threat to older adults,” by Mark Woolsey, Rough Draft Atlanta; ** “Opioid settlement funds could support programs for older adults raising grandchildren,” by Ellen Eldridge and Katie Scarlett Brandt, Georgia Public Broadcasting; *** “Dementia, cognitive decline, and why your bank may be unprepared to deal with an aging population,” by Taayoo Murray, Amsterdam News.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE
*** A New Journalism Award was just announced by the National Center to Reframe Aging, to honor “work that demonstrates exceptional commitment to reframing aging.” Nominations, to be opened in mid-2027, “may include investigative reporting, feature writing, or editorial journalism that moves beyond stereotypes to present authentic diverse, and compelling narratives that reflect the full spectrum of aging experiences.” Sponsoring this and a second honor for an organization is the John A. Hartford Foundation. Stay tuned to GBONews.org, as we learn more details.
The National Center to Reframe Aging was started in 2012, by eight national organizations in aging “to address the entrenched ageism in American society,” according to its website. It is “led by The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) on behalf of the Leaders of Aging Organizations.” (GSA also collaborates with GBONews.org on our Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, with support from several foundations, including the J.A. Hartford Foundation.)
Working with the social-science research firm FrameWorks Institute, their studies have “found that the public’s perception of aging is decidedly negative and antithetical to how most older people feel and what experts in the field know to be true.”
*** Solutions Journalism Network’s HEAL & Youth Building and Belonging Fellowships applications can be submitted now through Oct. 16, 2026. Generations-beat reporters looking across the age-span might check this out, perhaps with intergenerational approaches.
* The HEAL Fellowship supports journalists to report on systemic mental health solutions — including what’s working to fill the clinical care gap, to support young people through sudden distress, and to create access to culturally relevant supports. Read about the 2025-26 HEAL Fellows and their projects here.
* The Youth Building and Belonging Fellowship, focuses on pre-conditions of youth wellbeing, such as creating connections in schools and local spaces, “to build young people’s economic security and mobility, and to instill joy, confidence, and resilience.”Selected projects receive an honorarium of up to $5,000, proportional to the scope of the project, as well as “access to exclusive professional development sessions from SJN staff and external partners on storytelling, engagement, fundraising, equity and more.”
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** Julie Pfitzinger let us know she’s “excited to be one of the new columnists at The Minnesota Star Tribune! I’ll be covering questions about what it’s like to navigate life as part of the sandwich generation.” The former managing editor or the PBS Next Avenue website let GBONews.org know she’ll be fielding “questions I receive from readers–my guess is there may be some around aging topics, but the intent is to be squarely focused on sandwich generation topics.”
Here inaugural column addressed the question, “How can Mom ease tensions after her adult child moves back home?” (Aug. 29, 2026). Locally called the Strib, the paper’s announcement said, “Our new “The Sandwich Generation” advice column gives tips on co-existing until the boomerang kid flies back out into the world.” Pfitzinger followed up with “Mom died, dad needs constant help, my husband’s irked. How do I cope?” (Sept. 13, 2026), on “learning to set boundaries is essential when caregiving needs grow.”
*** Howard Gleckman was honored with the 2026 Leadership in Aging award from Seabury Resources for Aging, a terrific community-based on-profit that serves older adults in the DC area. A senior contributor to Forbes, he is also a non-resident fellow at The Urban Institute.
3. THE STORYBOARD
*** “What Medicaid cuts mean for those who rely on home healthcare,” by Tamar Faggen and Kimberly Adams,Marketplace Morning Report (Sept. 17, 2026): The Issue — “Among the provisions of the big Republican tax and spending law that President Donald Trump signed . . . are significant changes and cuts to Medicaid”
The continue, “As a result of the funding reductions, states have been slashing their Medicaid budgets by making cuts to services like home healthcare for those with disabilities and for the elderly. . . . For many, that will mean being forced to live at a nursing home or other institution rather than receiving care at home.”
They bring in Jayme Fraser, an investigations and data journalist, who wrote about this for USA Today (Sept. 7) for more about her reporting.
*** “Residents of a mobile home park try to buy their community before someone else does,” by Leigh Paterson, Marketplace (Sept. 17, 2026): Paterson, interim managing editor at KUNC, Community Radio for Northern Colorado, reported, “Corporate investors and private equity firms are buying up mobile home parks across the country. In Colorado, one community recently found out their park is for sale for $44.5 million.”
*** “These initiatives may be able to thaw the frozen housing market,” by Harry Margolis, MarketWatch (Aug. 3, 2026): The Lede: “Older homeowners — who own homes at a much higher rate than younger Americans — may hold a key to opening up the frozen U.S. housing market, and some politicians may be finding common ground on how to solve this thorny problem.
“Baby boomers — now between 62 and 80 — own 41% of homes in the U.S., according to the Federal Reserve Bank. Another 9% are owned by members of the Silent Generation — in their 80s and 90s — leaving the other half for the rest of the population. Many older homeowners may have more space than they need and want. “
Dilemmas: “Living in a single-family house in the suburbs, . . . the predominant form of housing constructed since World War II, may lead to isolation if they can no longer drive safely or if friends and family have moved or died. It can also be much more expensive to deliver eldercare if the care recipients are spread out over many miles of roads.”
Margolis adds, “Older homeowners, on average, get lower prices on selling their homes than younger ones, a study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found. This occurs for two reasons: Homes sold by older people tend to have poorer upkeep, and older sellers are more likely to sell their homes off-MLS — and to investors.”
Deterred From Selling: “Some older homeowners may be deterred from selling by the tax hit if their property has appreciated significantly in value since they bought it. . . . Many towns and cities help older homeowners stay in their homes by permitting them to defer their taxes until they sell their homes or pass away. Other states, such as California, have laws discouraging selling by only resetting values for local real estate taxes when properties change hands. All these factors contribute to older homeowners remaining in their own homes.”
Forcing vs. Incentivizing: “In contrast to the tax laws favoring older homeowners, Yale University professor Samuel Moyn, writing about the American “gerontocracy,” urged prodding seniors to move out of their homes by increasing taxes on real estate the longer a homeowner owns property.”
Margolis notes, “Most [conservatives and progressives] prefer a more benign approach of creating more attractive housing alternatives than Moyn’s proposal of forcing people out of their homes. . . . Congress recently passed the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act, which is designed to boost the supply of homes, limit corporate investment in single-family homes and increase mortgage availability.”
States Alternatives: “In Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, the former Republican governor, championed a law requiring towns served by public transportation to change their zoning laws to permit the construction of more multifamily housing.
“Now, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, a Democrat, is aggressively enforcing the statute against recalcitrant communities in the state. Eighteen states ranging from liberal California, Massachusetts and Oregon to more conservative Arkansas, Iowa and Montana have passed laws allowing for the construction of accessory dwelling units statewide.”
*** “How do you take care of parents who may not have taken great care of you?” by Brittany Luse, NPR’s All Things Considered (Sept. 2, 2026): Lead-in: “About 10% of all U.S. adults say they’re caregivers for a parent age 65 or over. And for those with a complicated, fraught or even abusive parent-child relationship, it can be especially tough to navigate elder care for someone who didn’t take great care of you.”
The Challenge: Northwestern University Adjunct professor and clinical psychologist Alexandra Solomon, said, “Doing to parents what was done to us doesn’t tend to be the answer. And it leaves, then, the adult child you know, in that awful spot of being, again, too powerful.”
He went on, “So I think the middle path is, how–is for the adult child who had, you know, an inadequate parent, for the adult child to say, how do I want to show up, not in reaction to how I was treated, but in reaction to my own understanding of my values and my boundaries and my integrity?”
Plan B: “Washington Post advice columnist Carolyn Hax [said], ‘Like, all the people in your family probably have 40 different things that they’re trying to balance. And you’re poor-me-ing yourself into this – into probably ruining those relationships. You can also say, . . . So what’s my Plan B? If you go in that direction, you have a good chance of setting up a care situation and keeping – preserving the relationships with your family.’”
U.S. Safety Net Frayed: Luce added, “Something that both experts agreed on was that as much as the solutions they’re recommending can be helpful on an individual level, they’re really more of a Band-Aid for America’s frayed social safety net.
“What most people want is for their family members to age in a safe and dignified environment, even if their relationships with those family members aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. But without structural shifts in how we care for all American seniors, those unsatisfying options will probably remain.”
*** “Potential buyer for Next Step chain accused of deliberate understaffing,” by Grace Ferguson, New Bedford (MA) Light (Sept. 10, 2026, “Free, Independent News”): The Dek – “Sweetwater Care and Next Step nursing home chains share similar track records on understaffing, which has prompted state prosecutors to take legal action in each case.”
The Lede: “Next Step Healthcare, a for-profit nursing home chain that prosecutors have accused of deliberate understaffing, could soon sell 11 of its 14 Massachusetts nursing homes. The potential buyer: a for-profit nursing home chain that prosecutors have accused of deliberate understaffing. Sweetwater Care, based in California, is asking Massachusetts health regulators for permission to permanently take over operations of the 11 Next Step nursing homes.
Ferguson adds, “Elder advocates with Dignity Alliance Massachusetts are concerned about Sweetwater’s track record. Health officials should block the acquisition, said Paul Lanzikos, co-founder of the alliance and the state’s former elder affairs secretary.”
Key Issue: “Staffing levels are one of the most important factors affecting whether nursing home residents get quality care and are treated with dignity, elder advocates say. Yet a New Bedford Light investigation this year found half of Massachusetts nursing homes were below the state’s minimum staffing ratios.
“In an interview . . . Gov. Maura Healeysaid she was not proposing new changes to staffing enforcement. Last year, regulators created a new sliding scale of understaffing penalties, increasing the cost of noncompliance for some nursing homes and decreasing it for other nursing homes. Healey said she wanted to ‘see how it goes’ before making another change.”
Among other stories in Ferguson’s ongoing investigation have been “Health officials quietly approve Royal nursing home sale,” Sept. 18, (“Elder advocates say state health officials are leaving the public in the dark about nursing home deals), and “Half of all nursing homes in Massachusetts are understaffed,” July 28 (“Five years after the state introduced staffing standards to improve care in nursing homes, 51% of facilities are out of compliance, a New Bedford Light investigation found. Resident advocates say state penalties are too low.”
*** “Too Young To Retire, Too Old To Be Hired,” by Don Akchin, The EndGame (Substack, Sept. 26, 2026). The Dek– “Traditional business policies and mindsets don’t align with workforce realities. Older employees pay the price.”
The Lede: “By all accounts, employers across many sectors of the U.S. economy are desperate for talented workers. This is ironic, because thousands of potential workers are right under employers’ noses and yet invisible to them. In fact, employers systematically keep these potential workers far from their doors. That potential pool is older workers.”
The Facts: Akchin writes, “Here is how invisible older workers really are. A global survey of the U.S., the U.K., and six other countries conducted by Generation, an international employment training nonprofit, found that the bulk of the long-term unemployed in many countries are people between the ages of 45 and 60, who face major hurdles to finding good jobs.”
The Problem: “Business runs on systems that were designed for a different reality: Systems built on conventional wisdom that older workers are expensive, younger workers are cheap.”
He explains, “The reality today, that these prejudiced assumptions cannot adjust to, is this: The world is in the throes of a significant demographic shift. . . . Workers 55 and older also happen to be the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. workforce, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They accounted for 24% of the labor force in 2022, compared to only 10% in 1994.”
AI, You Wonder? “Artificial Intelligence is not the culprit. An analysis by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that in jobs with high exposure to AI, there are fewer job exits than in low-exposure jobs, which tend to be more physical.”
4. GOOD SOURCES
*** “Census Reports 10 Million Older Adults in Poverty. Congress Must Act to Strengthen Social Security,” Justice in Aging blog (Sept. 17, 2026). JIA, approaching its 55th year in 2027, is the nation’s top national litigators and legal-advocacy trainers on issues affecting lower-income and marginalized older Americans. Check it out for developing news on issues ranging from Social Security to caregiving to equity in providing elder care. Here’s the latest on poverty among the 62 million Americans ages 65-plus:
The Stats: They posted, “The Census just released its annual report on poverty in the United States. The 2025 data shows the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) poverty rate at 15.4% among older adults. This rate isn’t a statistically significant change from last year, but the number of older adults in poverty is now over 10 million people, up from 9.5 million in 2024. Older adults of color had even higher rates: 27.6% of Latino older adults, 25.9% of Black older adults, 23.9% of American Indian and Alaska Native older adults, and 19.2% of Asian older adults were living in poverty under the SPM.”
The Upshot: “With Social Security facing an approaching financing shortfall, Congress must act to raise the revenue needed to secure the program for the future and reject cuts that would harm older adults who rely on Social Security. The Census report shows us both how much these programs accomplish, and how important it is to do more.”
*** “Are You Planning for a Population That No Longer Exists?” by Dr. Joe Coughlin (Sept. 21, 2021): The founder and director of MIT’s Agelab, Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD, critically assesses with the fertility vs. aging “demographics” narrative in this edition of his must-read Longevity Economy blog (also the title of his 2017 book) on LinkedIn.
His Lede: “The United States isn’t simply getting older. We are having fewer children and having them later, living in smaller and different households, and relying on family in different ways. Those changes are beginning to reshape the institutions built around assumptions of how most Americans once lived. Earlier this month, a hospital in upstate New York stopped delivering babies.
“This might otherwise be a local story. I think it is a larger signal. . . . The hospital cited multiple familiar challenges: difficulty staffing around the clock, fewer births over time, and families choosing regional hospitals with advanced resources.”
The Stats: “A new University of Minnesota analysis found 718 U.S. hospitals lost obstetric services between 2010 and 2024. Sixty-seven closed obstetric services in 2024 alone. By 2024, nearly half of American hospitals offered none. This is not just a rural issue: 42 of those 67 recent losses were urban. Pediatric care shows a related pattern.
Coughlin cites: “A JAMA Pediatrics study found pediatric inpatient units declined nearly 30% between 2008 and 2022, and pediatric beds almost 20%. In sharp contrast, there was only a 4.4% decline in adult units. Care is increasingly consolidating into fewer, larger, more specialized centers. The U.S. total fertility rate reached 1.60 births per woman in 2024. That is well below the roughly 2.1 births per woman generally considered replacement-level fertility in developed countries.
The Issue: “This isn’t a story about less demand. . . . It’s about different demand, in different places, requiring different capabilities. Imagine two 82-year-olds with the same diagnosis. . . , but how they live might be radically different. One has a spouse and three adult children nearby . . ., the other lives alone; an only child is 1,000 miles away and works full-time. . . . Each has very different discharge risks. . . Households are smaller. More people live alone. Families are dispersed.”
The Demographics: “In research I conducted earlier this year with 118 healthcare board and C-suite leaders, 38% said demographics were formally incorporated into strategic planning, and another 41% considered them informally. Yet only 28% said demographics were regularly incorporated into workforce planning.”
Coughlin continues, “A CEO sees a staffing shortage. A CFO sees reimbursement pressure. A discharge planner sees a patient with no one at home. Same transformational force, demographic change, but different symptoms, too often addressed incrementally without recognizing the larger source of change.”
The Questions: “This is not just a healthcare issue. Financial services may still assume a relatively predictable life course, with a transition from work to retirement and family available to help. Higher education remains heavily invested in concentrating education into four years near the beginning of adult life, even as careers require learning and reinvention across decades. Much of our housing stock was designed around household and family structures that increasingly describe fewer of the people who will occupy it.”
The Strategic Questions: “Are we planning and investing for a changing population — or for a population that no longer exists? And perhaps the more difficult question: What assumptions about how people live are still embedded in your organization’s operations, investments, and long-term strategy?”
*** A Data Infrastructure for Measuring the Care Economy, new book-length Consensus Study Report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, from The National Academies Press (PDF download free, if you register): “How can better data help the United States understand the full scope of the care economy, as well as the needs of those who provide and require care? . . . Data sources often capture paid and unpaid care separately and leave important gaps in understanding care needs, caregiving arrangements, and unmet needs.”
The website highlights, “The National Academies’ report recommends expanding existing data collections to better capture care across a range of care needs . . . The report also identifies opportunities for combining data sources and highlights how a new survey focused on care could comprehensively address data gaps.”
*** “Can AI Help Older Adults Age Well? Benefits, Risks, and What Families Should Know,” by Debra Berlyn,National Council on Aging (Aug. 5, 2026): Berlyn, executive director of Project to Get Older Adults onLine (Project GOAL) and board member of the National Consumers League, addresses: “How can AI support healthy aging?” Brief segments ask, “AI for companionship and caregiving,” “What are some potential problems with AI use?” and “What safeguards are important for AI use?” She includes footnoted “Sources.”
*** “Older Americans who vote live longer than those who don’t – new research,” by Sara Konrath, director, Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research (www.iPEARlab.org), associate professor, Indiana University, and Femida Handy, professor, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, in The Conversation (April 27, 2026):
The Lede: “In 2022, the American Medical Association, . . . noted that voting could potentially have health benefits. So we conducted a study that directly tested this idea: We examined whether older Americans – people who are 65 and up – who vote live longer than nonvoters. Older adults vote at a higher rate than younger adults in the United States.”
Some Stats: “We used data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a study which has followed a randomly selected sample of Wisconsin high school graduates since 1957. We compared the long-term health of older adults who voted in the 2008 presidential election to those who did not vote in that election.”
The state, “Using objectively verified voting records from Catalist, which tracks Americans’ voting behavior, along with official National Death Index records, we found that voters were 45% less likely to die within five years after the 2008 election, 37% less likely to die 10 years after the election, and 29% less likely to die 15 years later.”
Key Findings: “It’s easier to vote when you’re healthy than when you’re not, but . . . voters still had a lower risk of dying when we controlled for demographic factors such as gender, marital status and income, other forms of civic engagement such as volunteering, and a voter’s health status prior to voting. We also found that those in poorer health to begin with benefited more from voting 15 years later than those who had been healthier before they voted.”
Additionally, they found, “It also did not matter whether a voter’s preferred candidate won. We found that although it can be stressful when the candidate you support loses, the people we studied experienced similar long-term health benefits of voting regardless of their political affiliation.”
But Why?: “Although the exact explanations aren’t known, studies consistently show a link between volunteering and a lower mortality risk, which suggests that participating in civic life – even something as simple as casting a ballot – may be good for your health, like going for a run or eating vegetables.”
5. MORE STORYBOARD
Following are recent “Storyboard” entries from 2026 Journalists in Aging Fellows:
*** “Fentanyl poses rising threat to older adults,” by Mark Woolsey, Rough Draft Atlanta (Aug. 22, 2026): The Issue— “Older adult usage and abuse of the drug is getting far less attention than usage and abuse by younger adults and teens, a disadvantage to those who are 55 plus.”
A Quote: “Dr. Tommie Richardson, a psychiatrist specializing in drug and alcohol addiction treatment in Smyrna, GA, said the growth in the supply of fentanyl from China and Mexico has fundamentally changed the nature of the opioid crisis when compared to 10 or 15 years ago. ‘It’s more potent, more unpredictable, and far more lethal particularly for elderly adults,’ he said.”
The Stats: “The National Center for Drug Statistics shows that Fentanyl/stimulants is the cause of 69.3% of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. and that nearly 73,000 such deaths were recorded in 2023. Putting it another way, the center says that fentanyl overdoses are 1,750% higher than those for heroin. Despite that, both research and treatment programs frequently don’t puy older adults at the front of the line.”
The Disparity Disadvantage: “Dr. Dan Ciccarone, . . . [of] the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF, . . . senses that not many studies are being done on fentanyl, its prevalence among seniors and ways of mitigating the issue. . . . ‘Sorry to get political, but you couldn’t put in [for such] a study right now. It would not pass political filter,” Ciccarone said, noting that any drug studies surrounding the disparity wouldn’t get funded. ‘The mortality and morbidity of drug-using older people needs further investigating because of the stimulant angle.’” He and others working in the field said the illicit fentanyl/stimulant combination puts tremendous strain on the heart and circulatory system, particularly in older adults whose bodies are much less equipped to handle such substances than, say, a 25-year-old.”
Grim Fentanyl Tales: “The statistics are grim: the study on fentanyl and older adults presented at last year’s anesthesiologist conference painted a 9,000 percent increase in older adult deaths linked to the fentanyl and stimulant combinations between 2015 and 2023. But on a more hopeful note, “We are getting some increased attention,” saidDr. Bethea (Annie) Kleykamp, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland.“ But it’s still shockingly absent from the literature.”
*** “Opioid settlement funds could support programs for older adults raising grandchildren,” by Ellen Eldridgeand Katie Scarlett Brandt*, Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB, July 8, 2026): The Crisis: over “Three hundred thousand grandparents nationwide . . . are raising their grandchildren, saving the child welfare system $10.5 billion annually. Increasingly, families have found themselves in this position due to the opioid epidemic. From 2011 to 2021, 321,566 children in the U.S. lost a parent to drug overdose, report researchers in a 2024 study in JAMA Psychiatry.”
“The crisis began nearly three decades ago, when pharmaceutical companies started pushing prescription opioids as safe and non-addictive. Pharmaceutical company emails revealed that executives mocked people in Appalachia as ‘pillbillies From there, people easily transitioned to fentanyl and heroin use. Some 70,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses in 2025, down 14% from 2024. As grandparents raising their grandchildren navigate the grief of losing their own children, they’re often dealing with the practicalities of having a grandchild (or grandchildren) in school and trying to address everyone’s mental and physical health.”
Silent First Responders: “This is a community that has a lot of shame, a lot of guilt,” says Laura Brazan, who is raising her granddaughter and grandson in Louisiana. She also hosts the “Grandparents Raising Grandchildren” podcast. Grandparents are the silent first responders of the opioid epidemic, she adds.”
The Cuts: “Each state receives a different amount of the opioid settlement funds, depending on the number of people impacted in that state. Georgia’s share of the opioid settlement is $636 million, distributed over 18 years through the state’s opioid abatement fund. Regional advisory councils make initial decisions on grant applications, but there is no formal process for allocating funds to affected grandfamilies.”
Patricia Lawrence . . . , director of Project Healthy Grandparents [PHG], . . . in the metro Atlanta area since 1995, . . . each year provides more than 500 registered nurse visits, 370 case management sessions and more than 540 referrals for critical needs, legal counsel and childcare. As state and federal funding dwindles, Lawrence says one of the state contracts funding PHG was cut by 40% in the past year, but she says she plans to apply for a grant through the opioid abatement trust ‘because a percentage of our grandchildren do end up with their grandparents because of opioids.’”
Five States: “Many states prohibit direct payments of opioid settlement funds to victims. But a few states have approved plans that open up funds to grandparents raising their grandchildren. In others, individual groups are submitting proposals or politicians are trying to pass laws to support kinship caregivers. Here’s a mid-2026 snapshot of how they’re handling it.” Summaries follow of programs in Alabama, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
*Katie Scarlett Brandt, editor-in-chief of Chicago Health and Caregiving, collaborated on this report with GPB senior health care reporter Ellen Eldridge.
*** “Dementia, cognitive decline, and why your bank may be unprepared to deal with an aging population,” by Taayoo Murray, Amsterdam News (June 25, 2026):
The Lede: “In December 2025, Gregory Johnson visited a local bank branch in New Brunswick, N.J. Everything was going fine until he was ready to leave. He became agitated and confused. The bank contacted his daughter, Shakira, telling her he had no way of getting home. ‘My dad was worked up. He says he called an Uber, it hasn’t come, and he’s cold,’ said Johnson. She discovered that her father’s cellphone was dead and asked the bank employee to charge her dad’s phone. That’s when things went wrong. . . He’s like, “Our manager said we can’t help him. If he wants his phone charged, he has to ask a customer.”’ The situation escalated from there with the bank employee eventually hanging up on Johnson, and her father leaving the bank premises in a confused and agitated state. What the bank staff didn’t immediately recognize was that Johnson, 70, had dementia and was experiencing an episode.
The Crux: “Incidents like this are becoming more common in the United States, with six in 10 people living with dementia wandering at least once, becoming lost or confused about their location. With the population aging rapidly and cognitive decline increasingly intersecting with everyday institutions, workers are encountering situations that they were never trained or meant to manage. Among the most unexpected places this crisis is playing out is the local bank branch. Across the country, tellers and branch managers are finding themselves on the front lines of a public health issue they were never trained to handle.”
The Banking Link: “For many people experiencing cognitive decline, the bank remains one of the few institutions where they still conduct important business in person. . . Customers may forget recent transactions, repeatedly withdraw money, accuse staff of theft, or become distressed when security procedures slow them down. Financial confusion is often one of the earliest signs of cognitive impairment, but bank employees are rarely trained to interpret those signs. . . . Traditionally, bank tellers are trained to detect fraud and verify identity. Increasingly, they are also being asked to identify warning signs of elder financial exploitation, a growing concern among regulators and consumer advocates.”
However: “Suspicious online activity caused by fraud looks very similar to confusion caused by cognitive decline. The major difference is evaluating the intent and awareness of the client. Without training, staff can misinterpret the situation. A confused customer might be treated as disruptive. A frightened person might be seen as aggressive. In some cases, police are called when the real issue is a medical condition. The result can be humiliating for families and frightening — or even dangerous — for the customer.”
A Quote “ ‘It’s really important to recognize that even if there’s suspected cognitive impairment, that does not mean that someone automatically does not have financial capacity to make their own decisions,’ said J. Audie Black, PhD, ABN, founder and chief neuropsychologist at Idaho Neuropsychology. ‘When we talk about financial capacity, we’re talking about the thinking and judgment ability to execute their own transactions. Many individuals with mild cognitive impairment, for instance, can still make their own financial decisions, but they are more vulnerable to undue influence.’”
Training Gap: “AARP . . . has developed training programs designed to help frontline employees, including bank staff, recognize signs of cognitive decline and respond more appropriately. A popular program they use is called BankSafe. ‘The objective is a couple of different things,’ said Jilenne Gunther, director of BankSafe. . . . AARP also provides the Dementia Hub, which. . . , built on BankSafe’s existing model, brings together resources from across the world that financial institutions can use to treat clients who are facing cognitive decline.”
These resources are key because bank employees cannot diagnose cognitive decline. “It’s looking for the signs that someone may be experiencing cognitive decline. How do I interact with that person so that you can have a better path to communication?” said Gunther.
Our Fellowship program greatly appreciates our nonprofit support from the Silver Century Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, The John A. Hartford Foundation, and National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM), as well as a donation from gerontologist John Migliaccio, PhD. –
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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