Eden Alternative Training this Oct 2010 in India: Ten-Principle Philosophy to improving quality of life for Elders

Silver Inning Foundation through Ms.Reis Woollen brings Eden Alternative Training to India.

Its 1st time in India and South East Asia that Eden Alternative Training is happening.

Eden at Home (EAH) applies our Ten-Principle Philosophy to improving quality of life for Elders living at home and their care partners. A community-based approach to person-centered care, EAH focuses on building collaborative care partner teams that include the active participation of the Elder herself. Working together, empowered care partner teams help to ensure the independence, dignity, and continued growth and development of our Elder care partners and each other.

What does attending this workshop provide?

After training, you will inspire care partners, both within their organization and out in the community, to:

* Reframe perceptions of aging and disability
* Work together to reduce stress & burnout
* Build strategies on strengths, rather than limitations
* Develop meaningful connections with each other
* Create opportunities for all to give as well as receive
* Communicate effectively & thoughtfully
* Share joy, hope, wisdom, spontaneity, & respect
* Prevent loneliness, helplessness, & boredom for all on the care partner team

Date: Oct. 30-31, 2010

Time: 9.30am to 4.30pm

Programme:
Eden Alternative Training
www.edenalt.org

Host:

Eden Educator:
Reis Woollen ,Silver Inning Foundation

Venue:
10 Golf Links, Krishna Apartment 4th floor
Union Park, Khar west, Mumbai,India.

Please note this 1st training is already full.

So does this interests you , please do write to us for holding Eden Alternative Training in your organization/city in India or your country at : silverinnings@gmail.com

About:

The Eden Alternative: The Eden Alternative is a small not-for-profit organization making a big difference in the world. Based on the core belief that aging should be a continued stage of development and growth, rather than a period of decline.The Eden Alternative 10 Principles is seeking to remake the experience of aging around the world. The core concept of The Eden Alternative is strikingly simple. Dr. William Thomas, his wife Judy, the Eden home office staff, 50 Eden Educators, 60 mentors and more than 15,000 associates teach that where elders live must be habitats for human beings, not sterile medical institutions. They are dedicated to eliminating the plagues of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom that make life intolerable in most of today’s long-term care facilities.

Silver Inning Foundation: Silver Inning Foundation is registered NGO dedicated for the cause of Senior Citizens. It is part of social enterprise Silver Innings which hosts one of the most comprehensive and dedicated website for elderly &their family www.silverinnigs.com . The vision, mission and goals of SIF are centered on creating and implementing services and programmes that are holistic in nature and address the need to acknowledge the much needed supportive environment that the elderly deserve. It looks at reintegrating the elderly into mainstream society and lives with dignity. Silver Innings is working towards creating Elder Friendly World where Ageing becomes a Positive and Rewarding Experience.

Reis Woollen: Ms.Reis Woollen (RN-BC, BSN/BSc, CRRN) who is trained Geriatric Nurse from California has successfully completed The Eden Alternative Associates and Eden Educator training. Reis is currently working with Silver Inning Foundation as Director-Eldercare Education.

Posted on 29^th Oct 2010 by Sailesh Mishra , Founder President, Silver Inning Foundation

Lifelong learning in later life

This month, educators all over the world are celebrating the increasing presence of older people in lifelong learning activities. October 1 has been designated by the United Nations as the International Day of Older Persons.

Reflecting international trends, Malta’s population structure has evolved out of a traditional pyramidal shape to an even-shaped block distribution of equal numbers at each age cohort, except at the top.

While in 1985 the 60+ and 75+ cohorts measured 14.3 per cent and 3.8 per cent, in 2009 these figures reached 22.2 and 6.4 per cent respectively. This occurred as the birth rate declined to 1.3 per family, while the expectation of life at birth for men and women increased from 70.8 and 76.0 years in 1985 to 77.7 and 81.4 years in 2005 respectively.

The presence of older people in Maltese formal education is a vibrant one. Older people are approaching their learning objectives with extraordinary passion, and although there is a distinct preference for subjects in the arts and humanities, the range of subjects followed is remarkable.

The upward trend in participation is impressive, with the Directorate for Lifelong Learning (Ministry of Education) and University of Malta boasting some 62 and 1,962 older students respectively.

Last June, the University of the Third Age incorporated a healthy student body of 643.

By participating in learning activities, older people become better able to understand financial and legal matters, make more informed consumer choices, live independently, develop new skills and interests, understand social, political and technological change and enjoy a more fulfilling life.

Adult education also helps people overcome social exclusion and isolation, and further their active citizenship, while bringing benefits in areas such as housing, crime and safety, and arts and culture.

Learning activities also promote older people’s mental and physical health, well-being and social life. Local research found that a majority of learners reported that engaging in educational activities had a positive impact in ways such as increased self-confidence, enjoyment of life and coping with events.

Yet there is no doubt that the situation needs to improve if Malta is to reach the benchmarks adopted by the United Nations’ Second World Assembly on Ageing held in Madrid in 2002. Educational policies must be set in place so that more older learners enroll in higher education, not just at the University but also at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology and the Institute of Tourism Studies.

Non-formal learning avenues – ranging from state-sponsored bodies such as local councils, and the Employment and Training Corporation, to voluntary bodies such as trade unions and cultural organisations – must also be empowered, both financially and in expertise, to plan and organise educational courses that meet the specific learning needs of older people.

There is a need for public policies that facilitate the increasing participation of older adults in informal learning which occurs in a wide range of locations, ranging from libraries to dance clubs, and generally through self-directed strategies.

Malta must work towards ensuring that access to lifelong learning is perceived as a human right, while strongly guaranteeing that adequate learning opportunities in later life becomes a central objective in government policy. Two broad priorities emerge from such a goal.

First, it is opportune to grapple and solve the common barriers that preclude older people from participating in learning activities.

Affirmative action must be deployed to counter the fact that many older people left school at a relatively early age largely due to socio-economic imperatives, experienced a lack of opportunity to pursue continuing education, and, especially in the case of women, encountered cultural mores that envisioned the role of women as one of domesticity.

Moreover, it is unfortunate that higher and further education institutions are not passionate about late-life learning and opening their doors to older learners. The education of older people does not bring in grants or offer much career training paths in vocational centres, so it tends to be ignored and not given any priority in marketing exercises.

There is also a need for a national policy framework on lifelong learning that includes a sound emphasis on later life. This framework must be guided by a rationality that reinstates lifelong learning in the values of social levelling, social cohesion, and social justice.

Local authorities must be awarded an explicit role and responsibility in the planning, coordination and financing of age-related services, including adult and late-life learning.

In partnership with third sector agencies and formal education providers, local councils must take the role of learning hubs that bring all the providers (public, private, and voluntary) together, to coordinate resour­ces, consult older people, and promote learning among older people.

Moreover, a national policy framework on lifelong learning will only be successful as long as it meets the needs of providing citizens with learning initiatives that help them plan for retirement, and offers learning initiatives to relatives and volunteers involved in the care of older people, as well as frail older people themselves, whether still residing in their home or in residential/nursing complexes.

These are some of the issues I believe adult educators need to grapple with in the coming years.

While it is not too difficult to conceptualise what good practice in the education and training of older people ought to mean, we have still long way to go to achieve sustainable and empowering forms of lifelong learning.

Hopefully, the research conducted at the European Centre of Gerontology is a step in the right direction.

Dr Formosa is a lecturer at the European Centre of Gerontology, University of Malta.

Source: timesofmalta.com - Lifelong learning in later life

Can the world's ageing population benefit Africa?

The African continent has an unprecedented opportunity in the fact that, as of 2050, only five percent of its population will be 65 or older. By then the developed world, China included, will have aged to the extent that its own workforces no longer seem young and plentiful. For Africa to take advantage of this demographic boon, it should probably learn some lessons from the People’s Republic.

By KEVIN BLOOM.

The Oxford Institute of Ageing, which published the seminal Global Ageing Survey in 2008, argues that fundamental shifts in the demographic structures of society will affect the geopolitical order of the 21st century. The OIA makes a few other points – like that the general ageing of the world’s population will change the way we live and work, our healthcare and education systems, our patterns of saving and consumption, the provision of housing and transport – but somehow it’s the part about the new geopolitical order that sticks out. Structural changes in countries are one thing, and no doubt they’re going to be tough to deal with in themselves. A shift in the geopolitical order? That’s something else entirely.

On the surface, the forces that will be driving this geopolitical shift as we move further into the 21st century are simple enough to understand. For countries to age, people must have fewer children; in the developed world, people aren’t having enough children to keep their populations from getting older. Which means: the developing world will soon have much younger people in the workforce, and therefore a more energetic workforce, and therefore an inherent advantage over the developed world.

Of course, the reality is a little more complicated. An article published in the New York Times Magazine on 17 October explains why: “Today, many of the places that are growing old the fastest are in the developing world, largely because that’s where urbanization is most rapid. It is hard to conjure a situation in which people move back to the countryside and again have larger families. Instead, if past is prelude, today’s young countries like China will be the countries that in the not-distant future go shopping for younger workers in younger places. Those places will be transformed by satisfying an older China’s needs, and the cycle will repeat itself: when the world finds its next young place, that country may well age even more quickly than the formerly young countries that preceded it.”

The theory, taken from a forthcoming book by Ted C. Fishman entitled “Shock of Gray: The Ageing of the World’s Population and How It Pits Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival and Nation Against Nation,” (a mouthful, but then so are the problems to which it refers) is predicated on the notion that urban women wait longer to have babies. Bringing up children in the city is more expensive than it is in the countryside, and so, according to Fishman’s data, urbanised women will wait until they’re established in their jobs.

As far as Africa is concerned, this may or may not be good news in the medium-term. According to the Population Reference Bureau, a United States research and data analysis body, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo will replace Russia and Japan on the list of the 10 most populous nations on Earth by 2050. By that time, the population of Africa is expected to be more than double its current figure – as per the bureau, the continent will then be home to 2.1 billion people, as opposed to China’s 1.48 billion (up marginally from its current 1.3 billion). The implication in these predictions is that China is ageing much faster than Africa, and may well “go shopping for younger workers” on the continent, which could in turn benefit the economies of the countries from where the African workers have come. The flipside, needless to say, is that if China and other economic powerhouses take too many of Africa’s young, African countries suffer.

Again, however the scenario plays out, the reality is going to be a lot more complicated than the options presented above. For starters, Africa has so far seen little or no direct benefit from its hundreds of thousands of young who’ve already emigrated to Europe to secure for themselves a better life. Western Europe may have a significant percentage of the countries with the world’s oldest populations, but as of 2010 these countries are not looking to Africa to buttress their ageing workforces – if anything, they’re putting more policies in place to stem the flow of African immigrants. Will the picture change as we head closer to 2050, when the median age in Western Europe will have climbed from just over 40 to around 50? Maybe. But by then advances in medical science and nanotechnology could mean that Europe’s own workforces are able to work well beyond the current retirement age.

Clearly, the unknown variables are almost too numerous to render today’s scenario predictions meaningful. What is beyond question, though, is that there’s an unprecedented opportunity for the African continent in the fact that only five percent of its population is projected to be 65 or older in 2050. Comparatively, 16 percent of the world’s population will be 65 or older by mid-century, with Europe being the grayest continent at 29 percent.

As the West’s “baby boomer” and China’s “Red Guard” generations age without the children to provide for them, the strains on the world’s most powerful nations will start to be felt. In large measure, Western Europe, America and China have all built and sustained their economies on the youthful vigour of their populations. If a young Africa shows the same foresight that a young China has shown for the last 30 years – and there’s no reason Africa shouldn’t, given the close ties that have developed between the two since the turn of the millennium – the upside for African nations could be huge.

Fishman writes: “China has gained new financial clout in relation to advanced industrial nations because it has grown rich enough as the youthful factory of the world to act as the developed countries’ banker.” A few lines later he notes that China is now caught in the irreversible dynamic of ageing, and that its “demographic denouement is coming”. Unsurprisingly, what Fishman neglects to mention is Africa – and its hundreds of millions of poor but energetic young.


Source: http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-10-18-can-the-worlds-ageing-population-benefit-africa

THE DEMENTIA INDIA REPORT 2010 : First in Developing country

THE DEMENTIA INDIA REPORT 2010 : Prevalence, impact, costs and services for dementia - AN EYE OPENER


• In 2010, there are 3.7 million Indians with dementia and the total societal costs is about 14,700 crore
• While the numbers are expected to double by 2030, costs would increase three times
• Families are the main carers and they need support


Meeting the challenge of dementia in India

It is estimated that over 3.7 million people are affected by dementia in our country. This is expected to double by 2030. It is estimated that the cost of taking care of a person with dementia is about 43,000 annually; much of which is met by the families. The financial burden will only increase in the coming years. The challenge posed by dementia as a health and social issue is of a scale we can no longer ignore. Despite the magnitude, there is gross ignorance, neglect and scarce services for people with dementia and their families. We know that dementia is not part of aging and is caused by a variety of diseases. We now have a range of options to treat the symptoms of dementia and offer practical help to those affected.

Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI) the national voluntary organization dedicated to the care, support and research of dementia has been in the forefront to improve the situation since 1992. ARDSI is committed to developing a society which is dementia friendly and literate. This could only happen if we have the political commitment at all levels to provide a range of solutions that deliver a life with dignity and honour for people with dementia.

The ‘Dementia India Report’ is an ambitious visionary document calling for government and policy makers to recognize dementia as a health and social welfare priority by developing a National Dementia Strategy. The report has been put together after a series of consultations across the country from January 2009 to March 2010. The editors have used these consultations and the data available from the findings of the 10/66 Dementia Research Group worldwide, the ADI’s World Alzheimer Report 2009and from other research in India.

This is a significant step forward in dementia care movement in our country. Many countries like Australia, England, France, Norway, Netherlands, and South Korea have already recognised the problem and have devised national dementia strategies and have made dementia a national health priority. It is coincidental the Ministry of Health is about to launch the National Health care programme for the elderly. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has undertaken the revision of the national policy for older persons. This could be used as an advantage for promoting better dementia care in the country. It is our fervent hope that this report will prompt the government for setting up memory clinics and other care services at the district levels and a National Alzheimer’s Centre at the capital. We sincerely hope that the government will consider the recommendations seriously and include dementia care in the primary healthcare system.

Recommendations:
1 Make dementia a national priority
2 Increase funding for dementia research
3 Increase awareness about dementia
4 Improve dementia identification and care skills
5 Develop community support
6 Guarantee carer support packages
7 Develop comprehensive dementia care models
8 Develop new National Policies and Legislation for PwD


We are facing a public health and social care emergency and immediate action is
needed!


Alzheimer's Disease International’s :Global Alzheimer's Disease Charter

Six principles to make Alzheimer's disease and other dementias a global priority:

1. Promote awareness and understanding of the disease.
2. Respect the human rights of people with the disease.
3. Recognize the key role of families and carers.
4. Provide access to health and social care.
5. Stress the importance of optimal treatment after diagnosis.
6. Take action to prevent the disease, through improvements in public health.

I would like to congratulate the editorial and scientific team for producing this brilliant report, which is the first of its kind from a developing country. We hope that this will stimulate the government, policy makers, health care professionals, family members and other associations to action and collaboration.

CONSULTATIVE GROUP
The authors would like to thank the participants who took part in the meetings across the country for their inputs and suggestions:
Dr.Suvarna Alladi, Dr. Mathew Abraham, Mrs. Rukshana Ansari, Dr. Shelley P Bhaskara, Dr.Shirin Barodawala, Dr. K Chandrasekhar, Dr.Vijay Chandra, Dr. Mathew Cherian, Dr. V P Gopinathen (Rtd.), Dr. S D Gokhale, Dr. S A Hafiz,Prof. Ejaz Hussain,Dr. K V John,Dr. Mathew Kanamala,Mr. S N Kuckereja,Dr. Ninan Kurien,Dr. VinodKumar,Dr.P S Mathuranath,Dr. Radha Murthy,Mrs.Nilanjana Maulik,Mr. Sailesh Mishra,Mr. Deepak Naik,Sqn. Ldr. KAR Nair (Rtd.),Dr. Mini Nair,Mrs. Shobha R Nair ,Mrs. Nirmala Narula,Dr. Dilip Panikar,Dr. Subhangi Parkar,Ms. Jasmin Pawri,Dr.Charles Pinto,Mr. T.K. Radhamonie,Mrs. Indirani Rajadurai,Dr. K S Rajani,Prof. S Siva Raju,Prof. Prasun Roy,Mr. M M Sabharwal,Mr. Ravi Samuel,Dr. N N Sarangi,Dr. R Sathianathan,Dr. K Selvaraj,Dr. Bela Shah,Mrs. Urvashi Shah, Dr. Yogesh Shah,Dr. S Shaji,Dr. Mala Kapur Shankardass,Mr. Brahmanand Singh,Dr. Mathew S Thomas,Dr. Manjari Tripathi,Mrs. Seita Vaidialingam,Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan,Dr. N.H. Wadia


Special thanks to:
Dr Neela Patel,Dr A.B. Dey and Dr E S Krishnamurthy;Mr Michael Splaine, Director, State Affairs, Alzheimer's Association, US;Ms Florence Lustman, Inspector general des Finances Chargée du plan Alzheimer,France; Mr Andrew ketteringham, Director External Affairs, Alzheimer’s Society, UK ; Mr Marc Wortmann, Executive Director,Alzheimer’s Disease International; Ms Daisy Acosta, Chairman, Alzheimer’s Disease International;

The report and related initiative was possible because of the generous funding support from Dr Raghunandan Gaind.


ARDSI acknowledges the financial assistance and support of:
• NISD, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India
• World Health Organisation
• Alzheimer’s Disease International
• HelpAge India
• Eisai India Ltd


With a new case of dementia in the world every seven seconds , THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE.


Dr. K. Jacob Roy
National Chairman.
Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI)
Website: http://www.ardsi.org/index.html

Read complete Dementia India Report 2010: http://www.ardsi.org/assets/dementia.pdf

Read Summary - Dementia India Report 2010 :
http://www.ardsi.org/assets/report_summary.pdf



World Alzheimer Report 2010:http://www.alz.org/documents/national/World_Alzheimer_Report_2010_Summary%281%29.pdf



Silver Inning Foundation requests all the organization working for senior citizens, family members , care givers , social activist, youngsters , NGO’s, Government authorities ,UN and World Government to take serious note of this Dementia Report 2010 and support us to Fight Against Dementia.Let’s all of us come together and give New dimension to Dementia Care.

Sailesh Mishra
Founder President - Silver Inning Foundation
Founder – ARDSI Greater Mumbai Chapter
Website: www.silverinnings.com

The challenges of old age in India : GERON 2010

The recently concluded GERON 2010 held in Mumbai brought forth a lot of challenges that the elderly in our country face. Not only were stereotypes challenged during the process of this 2-day long 6th annual conference of the Indian Association for Geriatric Mental Health (IAMGH), the statistics shared by experts from all over the country revealed the plight of the elderly that they face on a day to day basis.

The theme of the conference, ‘Healthy Ageing: From Concept to Reality’, aimed to provide hope for the elder and experts spoke on various psychological, social and spiritual strategies to combat the disorders of ageing like depression and anxiety, and how to enhance wellness so as to ensure healthy ageing. Legal and policy measures were discussed to ensure this and the role of NGOs and media in the advocacy of this was highlighted with the conference ending on a positive note that health and ageing was indeed possible and is something that the elderly could look forward to in the future.


Facts of the day

The brewing crisis will eventually become hard to ignore. Today, one in every 10 persons is 60 years or older. By 2050, the United Nations projects that one in every five persons will be 60 years and older. In India, there were 76 million elderly individuals in 2001 and that number is expected to swell to 327 million by 2010. Also, 4/5ths of the elderly live in rural India.


The challenges of old age

Mind
Old age introduces people to a lot of changes to their lives, beginning with retirement, loss of a social network, and changes in familial roles. With nuclear families, quite often, elderly couples of individuals end up living alone. The other factor that plays on the elderly person’s mind is the closeness to death. As they get older, they have to face the death of friends, siblings and at times, the death of a spouse. This leads to loneliness.

These conditions make them vulnerable to developing mental illnesses, of which depression is the most common. There is a high risk of suicide associated with depression in the elderly and anxiety disorders, sleep disorders and addictions are also seen. About 20 per cent of medically ill patients show some psychiatric illness of which an escalating problem is dementia. About 6 per cent in the age group of 60-65 develop dementia, which goes up to 20 per cent by 80 years of age.

Body
Problems like joint pain can severely inhibit movement and that can take a toll on the over all fitness of an elderly person. This in turn triggers a cycle, where the drop in fitness makes movement more difficult. Another problem highlighted is that of malnutrition in the elderly, as explained by Prof Khursheed Mistry. According to her, water should form the base of the food pyramid for the elderly. Also, the elderly need to be careful of their protein intake. The other challenge faced is electrolyte balance, which can be difficult to maintain in case the person is on a low salt diet.

Society
While tales from our country depict the elderly as wise people, studies today show that it’s not the case. The elderly are often looked down upon and are not even considered in the family decision-making process as highlighted by Prof S Siva Raju, chairperson, Centre for Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Many times, the elderly are left to fend for themselves as their children migrate away. In the case of rural India, children move to the cities, and in the case of urban India, children move abroad.

How is dementia identified?

Whenever one talks of dementia, the most common symptom that people know about is forgetfulness. At what point does a person stop thinking of forgetfulness as a part of ageing and start considering it to be dementia? Dr Charles Pinto, President, IAGMH and Prof Emeritus, dept of Psychiatry, Nair Hospital explains, “Most people are not aware of the symptoms of dementia and quite often, people come with other complains that in turn points to the underlying cause, dementia. For example, people might overlook memory loss, but when behavioural changes occur in the elderly, people bring them to a psychiatrist.”

“Quite often, dementia goes unnoticed in the early years due to the brain’s ability to compensate. Abroad, it is mostly identified and diagnosed right after a holiday wherein when an elderly person gets disoriented in an unknown surrounding, something that will not happen if they are at home. The other situation is the death of the spouse, where in the spouse was compensating for the loss of function in the partner. It may also be identified when a person visits a doctor or a hospital for another medical problem,” elaborates Dr Norman Relkin, Director, Cornell Memory Disorders Centre and Director, Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Centre.

Is dementia a recent phenomenon or has it always been there?

“Over the years, not only has the average life span of a person gone up, it’s also the quality of life that has improved. As people have begun living longer than before, age-related diseases like dementia are being identified in people. As the number of ageing people increases, so will the incidence and this might attain crisis proportions if we do not prepare for it,” cautions Dr Relkin.

Sailesh Mishra, Founder President, Silver Inning Foundation and Founder, ARDSI, Greater Mumbai Chapter adds, “There is an urgent need for caregivers in the country. In most cases, the task of care giving to the elderly falls on the family and at times, even on one person in the family. Constant care giving can lead to caregiver burnout. For this purpose, we train ‘replacement or relief’ caregivers who allow the regular caregiver to take some time out for himself or herself. The other urgent need is day care centres, of which there is a serious shortage. While we provide special training and classes for caregivers, there is still an shortage of people who can take up the task and this will only get worse with time as the aging population increases.”

By Elton Pinto

Courtesy: The challenges of old age, News,Times Wellness Online