GeroCare Services provides solutions and support around the Bay for older adults and their families. Their goal is to assist older adults in continuing to live a meaningful life and make choices about their activities, care and companionship.

They complete a comprehensive assessment, which provides information about the older adult's psycho-social, medical, financial and housing needs. From the assessment a care plan is created that lists the care recommendations, as well as specific services and facilities that best meet the older adult's needs.

Following implementation of the care plan solutions, they can monitor these on a regular basis. They provide care coordination, scheduling, supervision and advocacy for their clients. They periodically reassess the care needs, and when appropriate, recommend adjustments to the care plan.

GeroCare Services supports the older adult and family members by answering questions, listening to needs, recommending alternatives and providing resources. They are liaisons between the client, family, physician(s), attorney, service providers and the community...and stay in touch by phone, email and fax.

GeroCare Services

www.gerocareservices.com  

650-716-6087

Many Americans aged 65 and older are not receiving potentially lifesaving preventive health services, says a new report by several U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies. Too few seniors, especially minority seniors, are getting recommended vaccinations for influenza and pneumococcal disease, including bloodstream infections, meningitis and pneumonia; help with quitting smoking; or screenings for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol and osteoporosis.

The report suggested that many older adults may not be aware of the preventive services recommended for their age group or may not know that many of the services are covered by Medicare.

Read more here. 

Many recent studies have touted music's power to calm or to provide energy. Results also show that music can revive memories even when dementia or Alzheimer's has set in, making those memories hidden most times. A new study suggests that music may also assist people with a dementia or Alzheimer's to actually retain new information. This is a finding that holds promise for those living with Alzheimer's.

Brandon Ally, a School of Medicine assistant professor of neurology, based at the Alzheimer's Disease Center facility at the VA Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., performed a small study that demonstrated that Alzheimer's patients learned more lyrics when set to music than when simply spoken. Hopefully, the results could lead to using new ways to help Alzheimer's patients remember.

Brandon noted, "While the parts of the brain where we make memories - the medial temporal lobes like the hippocampus - are the first parts to be ravaged as Alzheimer's develops, music pulls from the cortical and subcortical areas, which aren't as damaged by the disease."

Read more here. 

Here is a PDF in Google docs that includes the full article published in the journal Neuropsychologia.

The elderly population of the world is growing at its fastest rate ever. By 2050, there will be more than 2 billion people aged 60 or over. Check out this visualization of the changing aging population in various countries.

Learn more here. 

Dr. Chrono is a new iPad app that promises to be a safe and reliable portal for medical professionals to connect to all of their patients' information.

Have a look here. 

Good-for-You Strawberries

Ingredients:

• 1 cup strawberries, diced or sliced
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp lemon