Numerous resources are available online and in print for information about elder care, aging, homes for older Americans, etc. We would like simply to touch on a few that we think are quite valuable, and which we hope you will as well. We would love to hear from you if you have some favorites that are not yet on our radar as well.
We begin with a few online networks, blogs, and resources. The first is the LifeSpan Network based in Columbia, Maryland. The network consists of over 300 affiliated organizations, nursing homes, and health-care providers in the Maryland/DC/Northern Virginia region. The website offers information on products and services (including reviews), a jobs-posting page focusing on work in the health/elder-care economy, and on numerous conferences and events as well. The network has its own annual conference coming up this October 30 – November 2 in Ocean City, MD, for those who want to hear directly from the good people who are a part of it.
But wait, there’s more.
LifeSpan has its own YouTube channel with regular video podcasts open to the public. The latest ones include information that we have also mentioned over the last week or so about how investors are growing wary of government plans to cut Medicare support to nursing homes and CCRCs. Each is about seven minutes long.
Another great resource on changing our perceptions about aging is The Eden Alternative out of Rochester, NY. The mission of the organization is to adjust the ways we perceive caring for the elderly: “We must teach ourselves to see places where Elders live as habitats for human beings rather than facilities for the frail and elderly. … The bulk of our work to date has been in de-institutionalizing the culture and environment of today’s nursing homes and other long term care institutions.” The geographical scope of the organization is national, and it too has an annual conference – the next one being May 30-June 1 in Grand Rapids, MI.
The focus here is on training of medical and nursing(-home) staff and on educating those making the difficult choices of moving themselves or loved ones into elder care environments.
On the cutting edge of social-media technology, Changing Aging offers individuals and institutions opportunity to ‘join the blog stream’ that contributes to some of the richest ideas about aging out there. One (an individual, an association, or a provider) can follow the many bloggers there, and/or develop one’s own blog there. The project is the brainchild of Dr. Bill Thomas, “an international expert on elderhood and geriatric medicine. He is the founder of the Eden Alternative and Green House Project.”
If reading or writing blogs is not your level of commitment yet, Changing Aging can be followed via Twitter, Facebook, RSS Feed, and its YouTube channel, where individual contributors and professional associations have posted materials across a broad range of topics and experiences. Unlike the other sites, institutions must subscribe to gain access to customization features that could prove valuable in branding their contributions and their connections to others at ChangingAging.org.
Finally, a few Twitter accounts that are especially active and informative are @LeadingAge, the tweetstream of Joseph Coughlin, Director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab, and @TheNewOldAge, Jane Gross’s blog at The New York Times.
We hope you have found this brief roundup helpful to get yourself connected to some of the great resources out there. Again, we’d love to hear from you if you have other blogs or points-of-interest to share.
