What The Heck Is A Geriatric Care Manager?
As the number of elderly Americans soars over the next couple of decades, millions of baby boomers will wind up providing care for parents and relatives who have grown ill or require help with activities of daily living.

Contrary to the widespread belief that today's families are turning their backs on aging relatives, it's estimated that family members still provide more than 70 percent of all long-term care received by older Americans. According to one study from 2005, more than 13 million boomers already serve as caregivers for elderly parents. Click here to read full article

Advanced Directives Clarify End-Of-Life Medical Preferences, Ease Family Stress
What kind of medical care would you want if you became incapacitated due to injury or illness and were unable to express your wishes? One way you can maintain control in a situation like this is to record your preferences for medical care while you are still healthy and to share these decisions with your family and physician.

Advance directives are legal documents that describe the end-of-life medical care you want doctors and other healthcare professionals to provide in the event you become unable to make or to state decisions (if you are comatose or have a dementing illness, for example). In addition to communicating your medical preferences, advance directives can spare your loved ones the confusion and stress of making decisions about your care while you are sick. Click here to read full article

Institute On Aging Helps Older Adults Live Independently
Joan-Marie Shelley has enjoyed writing ever since she was in elementary school. So when her assisted living residence began offering a creative writing class in 2004, Shelley jumped on board.

The class and its related writing assignments "keep me intellectually stimulated," says Shelley, 72, who taught a range of subjects, including English and French, for nearly 30 years at San Francisco's Lincoln and Lowell high schools. She also spent 12 years as president of the United Educators of San Francisco, a union representing public school teachers. "We're writing verse now, and I'm really enjoying the freedom it provides. It's about letting the spirit move you, and you don't have to be so logical." Click here to read full article

Lakeside: A One of a Kind Medical Resource for Older Adults
Since opening in 1988, Lakeside Senior Medical Center has carved a reputation as one of San Francisco's leading healthcare providers for people aged 65 and older. In fact, the UCSF-managed clinic may be the ONLY resource of its kind in the Bay Area. Lakeside "is the only free-standing primary care practice I'm aware of that specializes in patients over the age of 65," says Verne Doxey, a San Francisco geriatric care manager. "Aside from maybe the [Veterans Administration] Medical Center, there's no other place in San Francisco that provides the same combination of geriatric medicine and case management services." Click here to read full article

Swindells Adult Day Care Program Provides Relief for Families
Every morning before work, Martha Young drops her 83 year-old mother at the Irene Swindells Center for Adult Day Services, a facility operated by California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and Institute on Aging (IOA). Without the day care facility, "I don't know what I'd do," says Young, a full-time director of a San Francisco bank. "I probably wouldn't be able to work."

Before she began coming to Swindells two years ago, Young's mother, who has early-stage Alzheimer's, "would not go out of the house, and she had stopped doing most of the things that had always given her pleasure," says Young. "My sisters and I were very worried and felt that she was kind of slipping away from us. We had no idea what to do." Click here to read full article

New Program Helps Seniors
Helen, a 77-year-old widow, lives alone in San Francisco's Richmond District. Her three adult children, who live in New York and Southern California, are increasingly concerned about their mother's social isolation and frail health. "What the children need is professional help, someone who can step in and develop a care plan that increases the safety and well-being of their mother," says Beth MacLeod, program director of the Community Health Resource Center's new Senior Care Program. Click here to read full article

A Conversation with Lee Cutler
Each year, millions of older men and women around the world are disabled, sometimes permanently, by falls that result in broken bones. For information about things people can do to reduce their risk of falling, Bay Area Summit spoke with Lee Cutler, community relations director of Bay Area Vital-Link and a member of Marin County's Older Adult Fall Prevention Task Force. Click here to read full article

Hip Protectors Show Success in Preventing Fractures
In addition to taking steps to strengthen bones and avoid falls, men and women with osteoporosis and/or a history of falls should consider wearing hip protectors. These external devices are designed to prevent hip fractures by reducing the impact of falls when they occur. Most hip protectors are worn under clothing and consist of plastic shields or foam pads that are held in place at the hips with specially designed underwear. Click here to read full article

SF Doctors Group Goes Back to the Future
Wouldn't it be great if doctors still made house calls, the way they did in the old days? Some still do.
For the physicians of San Francisco On Call Medical Group, house calls are a regular part of each workday. Armed with a 21st century doctor's bag containing modern diagnostic equipment and a range of pharmaceuticals, the group's physicians are available around the clock, seven days a week to visit patients in their homes around the Bay Area. Click here to read full article

East Bay Exercise for the 50-Plus Crowd
If you're 50 or older and searching the East Bay for classes in yoga, tai chi, qigong or even ballroom dancing, you might want to look into U.C. Berkeley's 50+ Fitness program. Run by the university's Department of Recreational Sports, the five-year-old program offers classes in a wide range of exercise activities, from aerobics, pilates and strength training to tennis, swimming and sea kayaking. Click here to read full article

A Conversation with Kun Xiang, O.M.D., L.Ac.
Acupuncture and other forms of traditional Chinese medicine are gaining wider acceptance and use in the United States and other Western countries. For perspective on these ancient healing techniques, and their effectiveness in treating physical ailments common among middle aged and elderly people, Bay Area Summit spoke with Dr. Kun Xiang, a physician who has practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine in San Francisco for 15 years. Click here to read full article

A Conversation with Doug McKee
Health clubs, gyms and other fitness centers throughout the Bay Area are experiencing a surge in members over the age of 50. To assess the benefits of exercise and fitness for older adults, Bay Area Summit spoke with Doug McKee, a personal trainer at the San Francisco Bay Club who specializes in working with midlife and elderly clients. Click here to read full article

A Conversation with Judith Levine, R.D., M.S.
From low-carbohydrate diets to new guidelines for daily salt consumption, topics related to diet and nutrition have never been more in the news than they are today. For perspective on these issues, Bay Area Summit spoke in March 2004 with Judith Levine, a registered dietician and consulting nutritionist with the American Heart Association in San Francisco. Click here to read full article

At Last! A Gym Geared for Older Adults
Walk into most gyms and chances are you will encounter loud rock or rap music, a staff that offers little assistance or instruction (unless you pay extra for a physical trainer) and throngs of people competing for exercise equipment and space while hurrying to complete their workouts. Enter Montclair's Phytness Connection, however, and you're in for a very different experience. "Our facility was specifically designed to be a comfortable, pleasant environment for older adults to work out and stay in shape," says owner Laura VanHarn. Click here to read full article