Life's choices, living life longer and enjoying it! The right choices are critical today. Aging is something to look forward to instread of something to dread. Aging can be enjoyed, not just endured. Your attitude as a caregiver or care-receiver can make a big difference today with the senior quality of life.
The fundamnetal mission of our program, "The Senior Advantage" is like that of the Society of Certified Senior Advisors, which train professionals in the correct ways to better understand the health, financial, and social issues that seniors face today. Through this training the professional advisor is able to assist caregivers and care-receivers to provide a better quality of life for our aging population. Our seniors deserve nothing less today. Let's look at some important issues that face senior today.
1. Interest rate bankruptcy: This is a rather new phonomenon that no one know how long will last. A person accumulated a nest egg to sustain them when they moved into a nursing home or retired, the interest received and their Social Security sustained them until recently. Then the interest rates dropped, the market fell and their security which they beilieved was there melted away before their very eyes. These retired people are soon depleting their principle and then find themselves facted with bankruptcy. Between 1991 and 2001, the bankruptcies of people age 65 and older increased by 244% making that age bracket the fastest-growing age group in bankruptcy. An annual review of your financial plans is critical today to meet the challenges or our fast-paced and ever-changing culture.
2. One out of seven marriages in the United States today is a third marriage. Many of those are older adults over age 65. Many times a spouse dies and the other marries many times with in twelve months, with a divorce rate toping 85%. Great care is necessary as one approaches this decision, even though seniors many times feel ready for a new relationship, it is good to ask those closest to them that know them, their thoughts. With those thoughts in mind a senior should give the new relationship time to develop rather then moving ahead to fill the seeming crater in their life left by the spouse that has died. It is suggested that three years should be considered even before the start of a new relationship, or the rose colored glasses of need will not allow the senior to make wise choices. The senior is not ready to be looking at other relationships until they can look at things from the perspective of what they can give to a relationship, not at what they need to fill craters of their life. The senior will and can justify most anything in their mind and soul, adding more pain and depression to their life that can be compounded by the other issues they may be facing, if the proper time for healing is not allow to develop.
3. Many seniors face isolation. Sometimes they are isolated by society sometimes by their own family. The problem compounds this as people live longer. The highest suicide rate in the United States is among white males age 75 and older. With this important information in mind is is necessary that choices are carefully reviewed and reviewed from the perspective of the caregiver as well as the care-receiver.
4. As people age the greater the chances they will face depression which is not just for persons living alone. Many times these are married couples who don't talk to each other for one reason or another. According to the Society of Certified Senior Advisors over half of men age 65 and older have some form of depression. This is usually brought on two forces in their life. The first is developed by life experiences which affect our attitudes. It happens like this, one bad experience layers upon anothers until the person see things as hopeless and that they can take no more and just quite. The attitude becomes a self-fulling prophecy as things compound and they come to expect bad things will happen. The second is developed by the attitudes of others about them and the quality of the relationship they manifest with them. This again affects the senior attitude as they do their best to cope with the issues they face.
5. Here are the current demographic trend for our aging population. By year 2020, the over-50 segment will have grown by 74% while the under 50 segment will have only grown by 1%. We will fewer and fewer persons to assist these aging persons. What plans have you put in place to deal with this as a caregiver or care-receiver?
6. Today we have re-wound the aging clock so that the average person age 65 will live about another 20 years. Two out of five will reach age 90, and advances in medical research promise that many of us will live much longer. Have you prepared for this?
7. Seniors today are concerned about outliving their assets. They wonder about what will happen to them financially, and they have reason to have concern today.
8. Seniors today are concerned about maintaining their independence which is related somewhat to the financial above. They review transportation, housing, entertainment, financial committments, and the relationships of their life.
9. Seniors today are concerned about their health and safety, which can be related to the above two. They often wonder about security of their life, possessions, car, etc.....
10. Seniors today hold two-thirds of the country's assets and yet experience the highest bankruptcy rate of any group.
11. Seniors today are in a paradox where they seek love and companionship to defeat isolation and yet if seniors remarry after a loss of a spouse, they have a five in six chance of getting divorced.
12. Seniors today are in a paradox where they want to live longer and productive lives, and yet have the highest suicide rate in the country for males over age 75.
In 1961, Dr. Leonard Hayflick discovered that the cells of the human body will split approximately fifty times before they die. This has been found to be the real aging clock. What he did not know at the time was, that inside the cells there were activities by the telomeres that control this. The telomeres are on the tips of your chromosomes which shrink alittle bit every time the cell splits. It is therefore, thought by science that if we can stop the shrinking by the telomeres it will stop the aging process. Recently this has been done and in the lab cells have be seen to split over 400 times about eight times what we currently know as a life span. So the fact is we will be living longer, but will we be enjoying is less or more? What science is finding is that calorie restriction can add ten to fifteen year of life today. Certain food groups have also an effect on life span it has been found.
* Exerupts of this information in part, are provided by Edwin J. Pittock, President of the Society of Certified Senior Advisors, by a speach he did, before the Abilene Business & Estate Planning Council, Abilene, Texas on January 14, 2004.
I completed my certification several years ago and currently am a member in good standing with the society. I believe the society's mission is very important and relative for today. We are here to assist you with these important issues and will offer you some real solutions, if you are a caregiver or a care-reviever today. There are two important sides to the equation for seniors, with neither being more important than the other, caregiver and care-reciever. Contact us today for the assistance that is necessary to help seniors live longer and enjoy it more.