Engaging While Aging: What's Good for the Brain is Good for the Soul

Staying socially connected is one of those behaviors, like regular exercise and good diets, that can help older people lead healthier, and perhaps longer, lives.

That’s the finding of several recent studies. In 2007, for example, researchers from Western Oregon University found that older adults who increase or maintain their social networks are more likely than those who don’t to report enhanced cognitive functioning, decreased depression and improved quality of life.

And in the 1990s, Harvard researchers found that people age 65+ who report frequent contact with relatives and friends or participation in regular social activities are about half as likely to experience cognitive decline as those with no regular social ties. Click here to read full article

A New Concept: Home-Based Assisted Living

As the number of Americans seeking to grow old in their own homes rises, the array of solutions aimed at helping them achieve this goal continues to widen.

One innovative new approach is to bring traditional assisted living offerings – including health and safety monitoring, personal care support services and opportunities for socialization – directly into the homes of older adults. The idea is to help seniors who may be experiencing physical or cognitive problems remain living independently without having to leave home.

This model is now available in parts of the Bay Area, pioneered by a Mill Valley-based venture called Living Well Assisted Living At Home. Founded in 2009 by two local leaders in the field of geriatric care, Doris Bersing and Tessa ten Tusscher, Living Well currently serves San Francisco and southern Marin County, with plans to expand into other regions of the Bay Area and Southern California. Click here to read full article

Housing Development For LGBT Seniors Moves Forward In SF

A residential complex that will include affordable housing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors is moving closer toward reality in San Francisco.

The new housing facility, a project of openhouse, will include at least 88 rental units welcoming to LGBT persons ages 55 and older who qualify for below market-rate housing. The development plan includes independent living studio and one-bedroom apartments. Click here to read full article

Senior Cohousing: A New Kind Of Housing For Aging Americans Starts To Catch On

To be honest, Kirk Davis “wasn’t really interested at all” a couple of years ago when he first heard about the new cohousing community being planned near his Nevada City home in the Sierra foothills.

“My wife and I bought 11 acres after I retired and started building a rock cottage, and I thought I’d spend the rest if my life there,” said Davis, 59, who sold his Pleasant Hill dental lab in 1999. “But my wife decided she didn’t want to be so isolated, and we started going to some of the cohousing meetings. I began to see that the home we’d been planning was total isolation and that that wasn’t very healthy. And I started to realize that it would be nice to have other people to share things with, like the first snow of winter.” Click here to read full article

Senior Center Without Walls Builds Community Over The Phone

Would you like to learn more about technology or storytelling? Do you enjoy jokes or bingo or mysteries? Think it would be fun to talk with others about food or current events or health issues?

An innovative program called Senior Center Without Walls connects older adults from around Northern California – including many who are homebound or find it difficult to get to a community senior center – entirely by phone. Click here to read full article

Transition Network Supports Women Facing Midlife Challenges

Like many women, Marilyn Abedin has faced a series of life-stage transitions as she entered midlife. Over the past decade, the Saratoga resident has divorced her first husband and married another man, watched her youngest child leave home for college and launched a new career as a mortgage broker, after 35 years of hospital-related work.

Abedin, now 62, has embraced these changes, which she describes as "mostly exciting and liberating." But, for many people, the transitions that often occur in their 50s and 60s - in areas such as work, family, romance, housing, health and finance - can prove daunting and stressful. Click here to read full article

Free Clinic Taps Retired Doctors

When Dr. Jerrold Kaplan retired from his full-time cardiology practice in 2000, he quickly discovered that a life focused on leisure wasn’t his cup of tea. So after a few months of golfing and traveling, Kaplan signed up with the Samaritan House Free Clinic of San Mateo, where he now spends half a day each week treating patients.

Kaplan, 66, is one of about 35 physicians who donate their time and services to the Samaritan House Free Clinic of San Mateo, which provides primary and specialty medical care to low-income San Mateo County residents. Nearly all of the clinic’s volunteers – the nurses, translators and office staff, as well as the doctors – are over 60, and most are retired or semi-retired from full-time careers. Click here to read full article

Exercise Puts the Strut Back in Aging Bodies
When Neva Holland of San Francisco recently ran into an old friend she hadn't seen for a few years, her friend was surprised at how much healthier Holland looked.

"I can't even believe it's you," the friend told Holland, who has lost about 15 pounds and dramatically improved her strength and stamina since she began dancing and working out regularly about three years ago. "My friends and my daughter are amazed at what this [exercise] has done for me. I've had numerous people come up to me and ask how they can" achieve similar results. Click here to read full article

On Top of His Game at 93
After 93 years in the fast lane, Robert Cameron has no time for retirement. Not now, not ever.

"Working is what keeps me alive," says Cameron, an aerial photographer best known for the "Above" series of books, which capture many of the world's great cities and landscapes from a helicopter's perspective. "I’ve seen what retirement has done to many of my peers. They get fat and lazy and before long they’re dead. Who needs that action?" Click here to read full article

Preserving History with Storyzon
When Jürgen Möllers told his parents he wanted to record their life stories, his father was resistant. "He thought it was a stupid idea," laughs Möllers. "But once we got started, he really got into it. After awhile he was following me around the house telling me stories. He couldn't turn it off."

That's par for the course. "Many people think their lives are not special and not worth talking about,"” says Möllers, the founder and president of Storyzon, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in recording personal histories. "But once they get over their initial shyness, they get excited. It's a great joy for most people to talk about their lives. People are often surprised by what they remember." Click here to read full article

Keeping Personal History Alive
Capturing family histories before they are lost and forgotten is Elizabeth Wright's business.

"I help people put together their life stories so they can be passed along to future generations," says Wright, who has operated an oral history business called History in Progress for the past 20 years. Click here to read full article