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[the grumpy old men] 08/5/2018 06:14

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[maywillow] 08/1/2018 15:08

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Pensioners miss out on state benefits entitlement
January 8, 2018 - 2:34pm - Marina Gerner
42 per cent of pensioners entitled to state benefits are failing to claim them.

Four in 10 pensioners who are eligible for state support are failing to claim any benefit and miss out £1,013 on average as a result, according to financial services provider Just Group. In a survey of 217 of their clients, the company also found that a further two in 10 are claiming but not receiving their full entitlement.

Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just, says: ‘At a time when many pensioners are struggling for income and inflation is rising, we have once again found far too many are missing out on state help.’

The research further reveals that in 2017 the average value of benefits underclaimed rose to £1,013, from £610 in 2016.

Guarantee pension credit – which is an income-related benefit that can top up a pensioner’s weekly income if it’s below £159.35 (for single people) or £243.25 (for couples) – accounted for the biggest unclaimed sums.
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‘One in three of those eligible for guarantee pension credit failed to claim, with an average loss of £3,431. All of those not claiming this benefit were missing at least £1,000 a year and in one case the loss was £8,060 a year.

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Lowe adds: ‘Council tax reduction is another area of concern where fewer than half of those eligible are claiming, and the average amount being lost is £491 a year.’

In the UK, about 88 per cent of pensioner couples and 63 per cent of single pensioners own their own homes, according to the Office for National Statistics. Lowe argues that as a consequence it is ‘possible that homeowners in particular may think limited support is available, although owning a property does not necessarily mean you have adequate income in retirement.’

Claire Trott, head of pensions strategy at Technical Connection, part of St James’s Place, comments: ‘This research shows again how complex retirement is, when life should be getting simpler. State benefits that have been earned over many years working life should be easy and simple to access for those who need them, and help should be available to navigate the system.

‘The levels of missed benefits quoted would make a significant difference to those in need and it is those in need who generally haven’t had the advice they need to know what they are missing out on. Providing easy and trusted guidance can only be a good thing for those who need it.’

Lowe concludes that the figures on missed benefits ‘strengthen the case for making free guidance the default option for all those heading into retirement – unless they specifically opt out – and that guidance should include information about entitlements to state help.’

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[maywillow] 07/12/2017 07:24

Large care home chain faces administration
Wed, 06 Dec 2017
By Eilis Jordan

The care home chain Four Seasons Health Care, which houses around 17,000 vulnerable residents, teeters on the brink as backers say it could collapse into administration within the next week unless a £26m payment is made.

The owner of the company and its partners are yet to agree on a rescue deal as the deadline for their next interest payment looms.

The crisis comes amid concern over lack of funding across the care home sector as well as spiralling staff costs, and some are worried that the situation could see a repeat of the collapse of Southern Cross in 2011 which put 31,000 people at risk. 100 of their homes were subsequently taken over by Four Seasons.

As well as its residents across 360 homes, Four Seasons has 25,000 employees and hundreds of agency staff.

Former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann said: 'It's a deeply, deeply troubling time for everyone who is living in a Four Seasons home. It is really quite shocking that thousands of people's lives and well being are in the balance.'

City power broker Guy Hands, the head of equity firm Terra Firma, bought Four Seasons care home chain in April 2012 for up to £825m.

[grupo guitarlumber] 02/8/2017 11:42

More than 100,000 terminally ill patients denied hospice care

An ageing population and funding cuts or freezes are piling pressure on hospices across the country, Sky News finds.

10:06, UK, Wednesday 02 August 2017
An ageing population is piling pressure on the social care system
Image: Britain’s 200 hospices treat around 200,000 people every year

By Paul Kelso, Health Correspondent

One in four terminally ill people who need expert end-of-life care are not receiving it because of funding pressures, the hospice movement has told Sky News.

Hospice UK said as many as 118,000 people in the UK with terminal or life-limiting conditions are not able to access palliative care from its members.

Britain's 200 hospices treat around 200,000 people every year but, with an ageing population, demand for their services is growing.

Hospices offer palliative care to improve the quality of life of those dying, as well as emotional and psychological support to families facing bereavement.

On average, hospices most of which are charities, receive just one-third of their funding from the NHS and rely on donations, shops, bequests and investments for the rest.

Hospice UK said two-thirds of hospices had their NHS funding cut or frozen last year.

It argues that with more certain funding it could treat many more people, significantly easing the pressure on NHS hospitals.

Around 500,000 people die in England and Wales every year, half of them in hospitals despite many of them having no clinical need to be there.

:: Hospice strives for quality of life in shadow of death
Staff at St Luke's Hospice
Image: Staff at St Luke's Hospice begin their day with a meeting

"What we really want to see is more stability and sustainability in funding," Jonathan Ellis, head of advocacy at Hospice UK, told Sky News.

"If we just look at last year, two-thirds of hospices had their funding cut or frozen, adding more pressure to hospices at precisely the time demand is growing and more people need the care hospices provide.

"At the moment the NHS is spending an awful lot of money and very often not meeting the needs of those at the end of life very effectively. Half of people will die in a hospital bed when they don't have a clinical need to be there, and hospitals are the most expensive bit of the system, and the part that is under the most pressure."

Sky News was given exclusive access to St Luke's Hospice in Sheffield and spoke to staff, patients and families about the impact hospice care can have on the terminally ill and their loved ones.

We visited patients at home with a rapid response team of palliative care nurses who treat the most seriously ill, as well as interviewing in-patients and their families.

Most spoke openly and with remarkable honesty about their conditions and their attitude to death. Many praised the hospice for helping them prepare for death, and the support given to their families.

Jean Knight, who had multiple cancers, told us how she refused to become negative despite her terminal diagnosis and grave condition. She was treated at home and was determined to stay there with her husband Richard.

"You have got two choices," she told us. "Quality or quantity. What would you like? Quality. If you've got quality of life, you've got everything you need.

"You get your dignity [from hospice care]. If you ask something, they give it to you. If you ask for pain relief it's there straight away. They don't make you wait for anything."

She added: "They're so much on the ball. They're an absolutely fantastic place. I couldn't fault them."
St Luke's hospice in Sheffield
Image: St Luke's hospice in Sheffield is a modern building that looks like a private hospital

A month after we first interviewed Mrs Knight she died, surrounded by her family.

St Luke's chief executive Peter Hartland said it receives just 25% of its funding from the NHS, and has to raise £6m every year from public donations and a chain of charity shops.

He said that charitable status allows the hospice more discretion about how it spends its money - for example they run a high-quality kitchen making food to order - but said a doubling of NHS funding for hospices could have a huge impact on care across Sheffield.

"If you took a poll of my peers across the country there would be consensus that we want better funding for hospice and palliative care," he said.

"We are after a more level playing field for what would be seen as essential services in our city, and without them the whole of the healthcare sector in Sheffield would be worse off."

Last year the Government made a commitment to improve end of life care across the country, which includes offering every patient a chance to discuss plans for their death with doctors and carers.

[ariane] 29/12/2011 09:46

source: mailonline

Care cuts spark crisis for elderly - 900,000 will miss out on support next yearBy Jenny Hope

Last updated at 7:54 AM on 29th December 2011

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Cuts to social care services mean that Britain's elderly are facing an 'absolute crisis', according to the head of a leading charity.
Age UK's director Michelle Mitchell said increasing numbers of older people with considerable care needs were 'getting absolutely no support at all, or poor quality and limited support' as a result of cuts to local authority provision.
She said research by the King's Fund health charity showed that the number of older people who need significant care support but receive no assistance will reach almost 900,000 in 2012, rising to one million by 2015.
Support: But many of the older generation have lost help at home and that figure is expected to grow in the new year
'This means people will deteriorate more quickly and go into hospital,' she warned.

'We have seen the rates of admissions to hospital increase over the last few months which, apart from anything else, is very expensive – to have someone admitted through A&E and then kept in hospital.
'Care is in crisis and it is getting worse. We have evidence to show that local authorities have cut care for older people by 4.5 per cent this year – and this at a time when social care is chronically underfunded anyway.'


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A report from the Department of Health earlier this month showed that the number of older people given help to live decently in their own homes dropped by 120,000 last year.

Some were told they no longer qualified for help, while thousands were simply told that their social workers no longer provided the service.
Council chiefs have been withdrawing home help over the past five years, with the rate of cutbacks rapidly speeding up, the report on community care statistics said.

Mrs Mitchell said some older people who are unable to un-dress themselves are being put to bed at 5pm – because it is the only time that care workers can fit them in – and left there until 10am the next day.
The squeeze on care services comes as older people are being forced to 'eke out' an existence on the edge of poverty due to rising fuel and food prices, she added.

Figures from Age UK suggest that as many as 1.8million pensioners live beneath the poverty line, with one million in 'severe poverty'.

'One of the biggest worries, whether you are in poverty or whether you are managing on a very, very low income, is that the cost of living is increasing very rapidly,' she said.

'This is a story about breadline Britain and the eking out of an existence for millions of pensioners.'
The Local Government Association has called for urgent reform to a system that is 'not fit for purpose', with councils facing the triple pressures of insufficient funding, growing demand and escalating costs.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has said cuts to local social care budgets amount to a 'dementia tax'.
The Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said the Government had provided an extra £7.2billion over four years to local councils to protect services for vulnerable people, and invested £300,000 in a Local Government Association scheme to support councils and 'improve productivity'.
'The evidence is clear,' he said in a statement. 'The most innovative councils are protecting access to elderly care services and getting better outcomes.

'They are doing it by listening to carers and service users to develop new ways of working.'



Read more:

[grupo guitarlumber] 01/11/2009 11:28

Preparing for an elderly population
Connexion edition: October 2009
ONE in five people in France is over 60 - a proportion set to rise to one in three by 2050. Minister Nora Berra is in charge of facing up to this ageing demographic and tackling the fallout from the country's ageing population.

How will France cope with an ageing population?

It is true that the population is ageing - in France there are 12.6 million people aged 60 or more [one in five] and the population will continue to age. It is estimated that more than one in three will be aged over 60 in 2050; so elderly people are a very important factor in current society and will also be very important in the society of tomorrow.

To respond to this demographic challenge the government is developing resources for elderly people - the creation of my secrétariat d'état dedicated to elderly people is an example of this. To face up to this ageing of our population and to promote the well-being of elderly people the number of healthcare staff in retirement homes has been reinforced with 20,000 extra jobs over 2008 and 2009 [prior to that the 100,000 workforce was increased by 40,000 posts between 2001-2007]. What's more, the creation of new places in retirement homes has increased in a year from 7,500 to 12,500 and 6,000 new places for home nursing care were created in 2009, thanks to the government's relaunch plan. Efforts will continue to take up these challenges.

You have said you want to make it easier for elderly people with low means to have access to retirement homes. How will you do that and will the measures help people who are not French? How will you make sure conditions are good in the homes?

There are already means to get access to retirement homes with funding from aide sociale [benefit money from departmental councils].

Where the patient or their family cannot pay, aide sociale pays for their accommodation in those homes which are accredited to accept this method of payment.

In France 450,000 places are available in homes that are either state-run or run by non-profit-making charities and 120,000 people in them can benefit from aide sociale at present. I will be continuing with this aim of helping make places in homes accessible. Aide sociale is aimed at anyone who is a permanent resident in France.

As for our policies for improving living conditions, they are based notably on increasing staffing - hence the extra jobs created in 2008 and 2009 - but it is also important to continue to develop policies such as the plan métiers [a partnership with local authorities on better recruitment and training of staff who work with the elderly], to evaluate services offered and above all to focus on bientraitance (good treatment).

Looking at the big picture we also have to think about how the retirement homes of tomorrow can become real service hubs which can offer both help at home (nurses' visits, home-delivery of meals, alarm and surveillance systems etc.) and on and off forms of accommodation like day or night care, gardes itinérantes [someone who calls in to check on a person's well-being and to help with daily tasks] either for the daytime or at night, and temporary accommodation.

What will you do to help people stay in their homes as long as possible? At present, social charges only go towards illness, work accidents, old age and costs of having children. People who need help to remain independent can only get some help from local councils.

Can you explain government plans to bring this under the national social charges regime (the "fifth social security risk")?

Helping people to stay at home is clearly something most of our elderly people want as only 10% of those aged over 75 and 24% of over-85s live in retirement homes according to the latest figures.

With the development and diversification of home care services we are able to respond in an effective way to the needs of our elderly people and we can give some respite to their families. The government is fully committed to this. In 2009 we are financing more than 3,000 new daycare and temporary shelter places [this will bring the total to more than 9,000]. This is aimed mainly at looking after Alzheimer's patients for the day or for short periods to give their carers some respite.

By 2012 we plan to triple the number of these places.

As a complement to this I want to continue to develop training for family carers to help them to adapt to the behaviour of their loved-one when they are suffering from Alzheimer's.

As for the "fifth risk," this is a pledge by President Sarkozy on which we have been working for a long time and we are still considering it. Nothing in this area will be done without consultation.

Do you have any ideas for how to improve elderly people's access to healthcare? For example, in the UK OAPs get free medicines.

We are trialling an idea which would mean that from 2011 residents of retirement homes could have all their medicines free.

At the moment the cost of medicine per resident, per day, is an average of €4.12. State health insurance covers 85.4% of this and the rest is paid for by the elderly person or their top-up health insurance.

The idea we are considering would mean that eventually retirement home residents would not have anything left to pay on medicine - which we think is fair.

Don't forget also that all people who have a recognised affection de longue durée [certain long-term medical conditions], including a lot of elderly people, get their healthcare associated with it free of charge.

You have said we must put the elderly back at the heart of our society and build better links between generations - how will you do this?

You're right, this is one of my priorities because I am truly convinced that elderly people are the backbone of our society. Putting them back at the centre of our society also means reinforcing solidarity between the generations and favouring social cohesion. This idea of a social bond also brings us back to the need to value the role of elderly people and their dignity.

As a community we must ask ourselves the question - what future and what place do we want for our elderly people? This exchange could take place during a debate that I want to organise before the end of the year.

Let's ask ourselves the right questions so as to act together and develop initiatives in the heart of the family sphere and the network of associations. Whatever the initiatives, small and larges, they should aim at maintaining the social bond and allowing homes to remain open to their surrounding communities and to show we value the quality of their teams' work. It's for all of these reasons that I am very much in favour of communication between the generations.

source; the Connexion

[ariane] 03/10/2009 09:49

Tories launch care home guarantee
A "home protection scheme" to prevent older people having to sell their properties to fund long-term care has been unveiled by the Conservatives.

In England, residential care costs must be met by the individual if they have assets of more than £23,000.

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said the party would invite people to pay a one-off fee of £8,000 at age 65 to waive residential fees for life.

Ministers have dismissed the voluntary scheme as "flawed and hasty".

The government put forward its own proposals on elderly care at the Labour Party conference.

Gordon Brown outlined plans for a "National Care Service" so those with "the highest needs" could be cared for in their own home.

'Weight of worry'

The Conservatives say that their scheme could be operated by existing insurers using branded products, with the government setting out basic rules and safeguards to ensure it remained financially viable over the long term.

They insist the voluntary scheme would be self-financing as only 20% of those paying in would get ill enough to have to draw on the scheme, and say no public money would be needed to operate it.

The party says 45,000 people are forced to sell their homes each year to pay for residential care, with a typical two-year stay costing £52,000.


" I think what that indicates is that at long last this issue is at last central to the political debate "
Patrick South, Age Concern and Help the Aged
Mr Lansley added: "This scheme is a genuinely huge step forward for England's care system and will lift a major weight of worry from the shoulders of all older people and their families.

"In 12 years, Labour have failed to offer older people any hope of a way out of the forced home sales crisis.

"A vote for the Conservatives is now a vote for a real, affordable alternative to losing your home if you need to enter residential care."

Ideas welcomed

Writing in the Daily Mail, shadow chancellor George Osborne said it was an injustice that people were forced to sell their houses to fund the cost of going into a care home.

But Care Services Minister Phil Hope called it a "flawed and hasty" idea.

He said: "£8,000 would not be enough to cover the cost of residential care. So where do they propose the rest of the money comes from?

"Few people choose to pay into voluntary schemes. And it's hard to see how it would prevent people from having to sell their homes. How many pensioners have £8,000 lying around? Or £16,000 if you're married?"

Patrick South from Age Concern said he welcomed ideas from all the political parties.

He said: "Last week we had the prime minister making his announcement on homecare for people with critical needs for care in the home and this weekend we're getting a proposal about residential care.

"I think what that indicates is that at long last this issue is at last central to the political debate."

Richard Humphries, from the King's Fund, the health think-tank, said: "I think the big challenge will be persuading enough people to join the scheme so the figures do add up.

"The more people join, the better it is, because there's more money going in. The crucial thing is will people be persuaded that this is something which is right for them and something they can afford."

Story from BBC NEWS:

[waldron] 30/8/2009 09:06

Elderly skin 'raises cancer risk'
Older people are more at risk of skin cancer and infection because their skin is unable to mobilise the immune system to defend itself, UK research suggests.

It contradicts previous thinking that defects in a type of immune cell called a T cell were responsible for waning immunity with age.

In fact, it is the inability of the skin to attract T cells to where they are needed that seems to be at fault.

The findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Study leader, Professor Arne Akbar from University College London, said reduced immunity in older people is well known, but why and how it happens is not.

" Going in to intervene may have consequences that we don't realise and that's where we need to do more research "
Professor Arne Akbar, study leader
A number of volunteers - one group of 40-year-olds and one group aged over 70 - were injected with an antigen to stimulate an immune response from T cells.

As expected, the immune response in the older group was much less than that in the younger volunteers.

But when the researchers looked at the T cells there was nothing wrong with them.

What had declined in the older group was the ability of the skin to attract T cells - effectively the signals to direct them to the right place were missing.

Reversible

Further experiments with skin samples in a test tube showed that the skin was still able to send the appropriate signals when pushed, suggesting the problem is reversible.

"At the outset we thought it would be the cells responsible for combating infections that might be at fault, but the surprising thing was the T cells were fine but they couldn't get into the skin - the signals were missing," Mr Akbar said.

He said it raised the possibility of ways to boost the immune system in older people to give them a better chance of fighting infection and reducing the risk of skin cancer.

"The question that it raises is what survival advantage there is to this, is there a negative reason for having too much immunity in the skin when you get older?

"Going in to intervene may have consequences that we don't realise and that's where we need to do more research."

He added that the same immune problems may be apparent in other tissues in the body.

Steve Visscher, deputy executive at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, which funded the research, said knowing more about the ageing process was vital as people increasingly live longer.

"The more knowledge we have about healthy ageing, the better we get at preventing, managing and treating diseases that are simply a factor of an ageing body."

Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/08/29 23:01:04 GMT

[waldron] 14/8/2009 15:56

Village fate
By Lauren Hardy

Elderly people who can't cope on their own have traditionally opted to see out their years in care homes. But a new alternative is sprouting up in the UK - retirement villages.

Many of us will one day face "going into a home". It can be a terrifying prospect - the loss of independence in exchange for life inside an institution. But a new kind of communal accommodation for the elderly is proving an increasingly popular alternative - retirement villages.

Lovat Fields outside Milton Keynes is one of over 60 retirement villages in the UK, each designed to give their residents the advantages of residential care along with - health-permitting - the lifestyle opportunities of life in the community.


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It looks like a normal residential development - a complex of one- and two-bedroom apartments with car parks and pedestrian walkways. But there are also communal areas and facilities such as a bar, restaurant, hairdressers and gym.

It is also home to extensive medical facilities and there is 24-hour nursing care for those who require it. But residents also have their own front doors and are free to come and go whenever they wish.

Elderly people who can no longer cope in their own house have traditionally faced one of two options - move in with one of their grown-up children, or go into a care home. Care homes, also known as residential homes, come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but can be thought of as hotels for the elderly - providing each resident with a rented room, usually en-suite, with communal meals and activities and 24-hour support care.

But the loss of independence can be hard to come to terms with - which is where retirement villages are seeking to plug a gap.

Retirement villages tend to draw people for a variety of reasons. Some want a smaller home after the death of a spouse, some move in as couples because they know they can stay together regardless of the level of care each of them may need.

Finding love

Generally people are planning for old age and when they're less independent. And, like care homes, life in a community appeals more than life alone.

"A retirement village appealed because we were getting older," says Rosie, a resident of Lovat Fields. "We found it hard with the stairs in the house we were living in. When you get older you find that you can't cope like you did when you were younger."

She had been planning to move in with husband Bill. But he died back in 2005 and, when the village opened in 2007 she decided to take the plunge in anyway.

Since then she has found a new friend, 90-year-old Bert - another resident.

"I'd been on my own for the 12 years since my wife died. I hadn't looked at anyone else but, when I moved into the village, Rosie was there - I saw her walking up and down and that was it."


Lovat Fields is a joint initiative by the council, health trust and charities. Other schemes are private sector or a mixture of both. Potential residents can buy or rent within the development and must also pay service charges. The accommodation also brings some luxury facilities such as a spa pool and technology suite.

But a glossy brochure is bound to sound alarm bells for many elderly people, for whom budget is top of the concerns. On the face of it, retirement villages can appear to be a cheaper option - but that's because of the greater flexibility they offer. But unlike care homes, where food and utility bills tend to be included, residents are left to cover their own costs.

'Home for life'

Many elderly people who end up in long term care residential care are forced to sell their homes to meet those expenses as state support is means tested and available only to those with very limited savings or assets. Retirement villages allow residents to keep their homes while getting the care they need.

Currently there are almost 400,000 elderly people in some form of residential care. And that is expected to rise in coming years. Last year pensioners outnumbered children in the UK for the first time. The fastest growing age group in the UK is the over 80s.

A recent government report looked at how these rising costs should be met and suggested future policy should be based on individuals paying for their own accommodation and upkeep but that the additional costs of health care should be shared between the individual and the state.

Retirement villages aim to be a "home for life", catering for those still active and independent, to those needing some assistance or care.

"If you're living in extra care and break your hip, you can upgrade your level of care, and then step it down again as you get better," says Sheila Peace, professor of gerontology with The Open University. "Before, if an elderly person broke their hip and went into residential care, they would have little chance of coming out again."

But there are concerns about how desirable it is to segregate people simply by age.

"It would be very disappointing if more older people were pushed into segregated communities because of a lack of basic requirements," says Help the Aged.

Letting go

"Good housing support services - such as neighbourhood wardens, level pavements, effective street lighting, storage for mobility vehicles, local shops, access to health care, good transport links, social networking and leisure activities - many of the features retirement villages offer should be part of all communities serving the majority of older people."

Despite the flexibility, a majority of retirees prefer to stay in their own homes, buying in care services if needed.

There's a sense among many elderly people that any loss of independence tends to take its toll. Brenda, 92, and a keen dancer, believes she has slowed down since moving into the retirement village:

"I've gone down hill a lot. My memory's been awful. That has knocked me for six, that has worried me," she says. "I'm not ready to lean over yet. I expect what will happen to me is that I'll die in my sleep doing the rumba."

And the village setting isn't always suitable for people with advanced mental illness, who need greater support.

The first retirement villages came to the UK about five years ago and there are only about 25,000 older people living in purpose-built communities in the UK, but the number is growing. Lovat Fields restricts applications to those who live in or have strong links to Milton Keynes. But demand is strong and over 2,500 people have already registered their interest in a second village planned for Milton Keynes.

With her new partner Bert, Rosie has no doubts about the benefits.

"We probably wouldn't have found each other if it wasn't for us both moving into the retirement village."

Take part in an

about the funding of care and accommodation for the elderly.
Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/08/12 14:23:23 GMT

[grupo guitarlumber] 08/8/2009 08:05

People 'get happier as they age'
Most people get happier as they grow older, studies on people aged up to their mid-90s suggest.

Despite worries about ill health, income, changes in social status and bereavements, later life tends to be a golden age, according to psychologists.

They found older adults generally make the best of the time they have left and have learned to avoid situations that make them feel sad or stressed.

The young should do the same, they told the American Psychological Association.

Ageing society

The UK is an ageing nation - in less than 25 years, one in four people in the UK will be over 65 and the number of over-85s will have doubled.

And it is expected there will be 30,000 people aged over 100 by the year 2030.

" For many people, older age and later life is often looked upon with dread and worry "
Andrew Harrop Head of public policy at Age Concern and Help the Aged
According to University of California psychologist Dr Susan Turk Charles, this should make the UK a happier society.

By reviewing the available studies on emotions and ageing she found that mental wellbeing generally improved with age, except for people with dementia-related ill health.

Work carried out by Dr Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University, suggested why this might be the case.

Dr Carstensen asked volunteers ranging in age from 18 to mid-90s to take part in various experiments and keep diaries of their emotional state.

She found the older people were far less likely than the younger to experience persistent negative moods and were more resilient to hearing personal criticism.

They were also much better at controlling and balancing their emotions - a skill that appeared to improve the older they became.

TIPS FOR A HAPPY OLD AGE

Envisage ways to thoroughly enjoy the years ahead and imagine living to a healthy and happy 100
Design your life and daily routines to reinforce this goal
Don't put all your "social" eggs in one basket - invest time outside of your family and career too
Dr Charles explained: "Based on work by Carstensen and her colleagues, we know that older people are increasingly aware that the time they have left in life is growing shorter.

"They want to make the best of it so they avoid engaging in situations that will make them unhappy.

"They have also had more time to learn and understand the intentions of others which helps them to avoid these stressful situations."

Dr Carstensen said the young would do well to start preparing for their old age now.

This includes adopting a healthy daily routine and ensuring some social investment is spent outside of the workplace and family home.

Andrew Harrop, head of public policy at Age Concern and Help the Aged, said the findings were encouraging.

"For many people, older age and later life is often looked upon with dread and worry.

"Far too many younger people assume that getting older is a process that will inevitably mean sickness, frailty and lack of mobility and greater dependence. However, this is far from the truth in very many cases.

"Many older people lead active, healthy lives enriched by experience and learning.

"This positive advantage can be brought to bear across so many aspects of daily life which - in turn - hugely benefits our ageing society.

"It's vital that there is growing acceptance that just because someone is getting older, it doesn't mean they no longer have a significant contribution to make.

"This study is one of many which shows that later life can be a enormously positive experience."

Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/08/07 23:06:22 GMT

[grupo guitarlumber] 09/6/2009 13:49

Oily fish 'can halt eye disease'
People with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) should eat oily fish at least twice a week to keep their eye disease at bay, say scientists.

Omega-3 fatty acids found in abundance in fish like mackerel and salmon appear to slow or even halt the progress of both early and late stage disease.

The researchers base their findings on almost 3,000 people taking part in a trial of vitamins and supplements.

The findings are published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

An estimated 500,000 people in the UK suffer from AMD, which destroys central vision.

Protective

Experts have already suggested omega-3 may cut the risk of getting AMD by a third, and now this latest work suggests these fats also benefit patients who already have the disease.

" These findings appear to be consistent with previous research that has shown that eating omega 3 poly-unsaturated fats as part of a balanced diet may help prevent the development of age-related macular degeneration "
A spokeswoman from RNIB
Progression to both dry and wet forms of advanced AMD disease was 25% less likely among those eating a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

People with advanced AMD who also consumed a low-GI diet, eating of foods that release their sugar more slowly, and who took supplemental antioxidant vitamins and minerals like vitamin C and zinc appeared to reduce their risk of disease progression by even more - by up to 50%.

Substituting five slices of wholegrain bread for white bread every day out of a total intake of 250g of carbohydrate might cut out almost 8% of advanced age related macular degeneration over five years, say the authors.

Surprisingly, however, the supplements were counterproductive for those with early AMD, negating the benefits of omega-3 fats, and even appeared to increase the risk of disease progression.

Those who took all the antioxidant vitamins plus zinc, and who a high daily intake of beta carotene - found in yellow and green vegetables - were 50% more likely to progress to advanced disease.

The researchers at Tufts University, Boston, believe omega-3 fatty acids offer protection against AMD by altering fat levels in the blood after a meal that can be damaging to the body.

'Moderation'

But they say it is not clear whether patients should also consider taking supplements as well as omega-3 because of their mixed findings.

They suggest that eating two to three servings of fatty fish, such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, shellfish, and herring every week, would achieve the recommended daily intake (650mg) of omega-3, substantially cutting the risk of both early and late stage AMD.

The UK's Food Standards Agency says people should eat at least two portions of fish a week including one of oily fish.

But they caution that too much oily fish is bad because it can contain low levels of pollutants that can build up in the body.

Most people can safely eat up to four portions a week, but girls and women who might have a baby and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding should limit their intake to two portions a week.

A spokeswoman from RNIB said good nutrition was very important for both general and eye health.

"These findings appear to be consistent with previous research that has shown that eating omega-3 poly-unsaturated fats as part of a balanced diet may help prevent the development of age-related macular degeneration, the main cause of severe sight loss in the UK.

"RNIB hopes that this will further highlight why looking after your eyes should be a key motivation in maintaining a healthy lifestyle," she said.

Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/06/08 22:59:51 GMT