Seniors’ Economic Struggles Continue This Holiday;

Be a Santa to a Senior^®, the popular program that has delivered gifts to thousands of local needy seniors is being planned again this holiday season as older adults continue to struggle during tough economic times. Home Instead Senior Care has joined with local organizations and merchants to provide gifts and holiday cheer to seniors who otherwise might not receive either this holiday season.

“Many older adults continue to face a difficult economic climate, particularly those who live alone with no family nearby to help provide resources,” said Bob Vielee, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care in Clarks Summit. Seniors have faced a trying year amid the threat of Social Security payment delays as part of the debt-ceiling debate. What’s more, seniors have lost almost one-third (32 percent) of their buying power since 2000, according to the Annual Survey of Senior Costs from The Senior Citizens League (TSCL).

That’s where Be a Santa to a Senior can help. Before the holiday season, the participating local organizations, such as Meals on Wheels and Serving Seniors, Inc., identified needy and isolated seniors in the community and provided those names to Home Instead Senior Care. Christmas trees, which are up now through December 12^th, will feature ornaments with the first names of seniors and their gift requests. Trees will be located at:

· Abington Community Library, Clarks Summit

· Fitze’s Department Store, Tunkhannock

· Marshalls, Dickson City

· Peebles, Carbondale

· The Mall at Steamtown, Scranton

· Walgreen’s, S. Main Street, Scranton

Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy items on the list and return them unwrapped to the store, along with the ornament attached. “We hope holiday shoppers will open their hearts to those seniors who have given so much to make our community a better place,” Vielee said.

On Wednesday, December 14^th beginning at 10 a.m., Keystone College will host the annual Be a Santa to a Senior Gift Wrapping Party being held in Evans Hall on the college campus in La Plume. Community volunteers of all ages are invited to attend and help wrap gifts as well. Gifts will be delivered to each senior during the week of December 19^th.

For more information about the program, visit www.beasantatoasenior.com or contact Jessica Engel at 570-687-4755.

Better Communication with Medical Professionals Is the First Step to Improved Care

“People are making life-and-death decisions that may affect their survival, and they need to know what they’re getting themselves into,” says Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher.

Fagerlin and her colleagues have published a commentary in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that outlines 10 things health-care professionals can do to improve the way they communicate information about treatment risks to patients. Here are some of them:

Insist on plain language. If you don’t understand something your doctor says, ask him or her to explain it better. Doctors don’t know when patients don’t understand them, and they welcome questions.

Focus on the absolute risk. The most important statistic to consider is the chance that something will happen to you. Using relative risk makes both patients and doctors more likely to favor a treatment, because they believe it to be more beneficial than it actually may be.

Focus on the additional risk. You may be told the risk of a certain side effect occurring is 7 percent. But if you didn’t take the drug, is there a chance you’d still experience that? Ask what the additional or incremental risk of a treatment is.

The order of information matters. Studies have shown that the last thing you hear is most likely to stick. When making a treatment decision, don’t forget to consider all of the information and statistics you’ve learned.

Write it down. You may be presented with a lot of information. At the end of the discussion, ask your doctor if a written summary of the risks and benefits is available. Or ask your doctor to help you summarize.

Go to www.SeniorEmergencyKit.com for more tips on how to be better prepared for medical appointments. One way is to take someone with you to help you ask questions and understand the information. If a family member is not available, a CAREGiver^SM from the local Home Instead Senior Care^® office could help. CAREGivers can be there if others can’t.

For more about the study, view

http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/19/jnci.djr318.abstract.

Laughter Might Be the Best Medicine for Seniors

Trying to cope with an agitated dementia patient? Ask a doctor about humor therapy, which is as effective as widely used antipsychotic drugs in managing agitation in patients with dementia – and avoids serious drug side effects, according to a new Australian study.

The first major study of the impact of humor therapy on mood, agitation, behavioral disturbances and social engagement in dementia patients found both short-term and persisting decrease in agitation, according to lead researcher Dr. Lee-Fay Low, a Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales's School of Psychiatry. 

The “SMILE” study across 36 Australian care facilities involved the training of a staff member to act as a “Laughter Boss” who worked with a humor practitioner with comedic and improvisation skills. Jean-Paul Bell, the key humor therapist in the SMILE study, has set up the Arts Health Institute to train humor practitioners and care staff. The institute’s core program, Play Up, provides a playful relationship with residents and staff in elder care, focusing particularly on people with dementia.

Between 70 and 80 percent of people suffering from dementia are troubled by agitation, a problem for both patients with the disease and their caregivers.

The SMILE study found a 20 percent reduction in agitation using humor therapy, an improvement comparable with the use of anti-psychotic drugs. In the SMILE study, agitation decreased not only during the 12-week humor therapy program but remained lower at 26-week follow-up. Happiness and positive behaviors rose during the 12 weeks of the program, however, dropped as soon as humor practitioner visits ceased. 

For more about the study, visit www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2011/sep/SMILE.html.