Aged Care Latest News

'Dr Death' backs beliefs

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Right-to-die campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke believes elderly people who are denied the freedom to end their lives peacefully will likely meet a “grim” end.

“I don’t think we should be denying this group access to vital information about taking their own lives – if we do, they will go to desperate measures such as hanging themselves – which remains older Australians choice of preference,” Dr Nitschke tells DPS News.

“Every year the statistics are grim and horrible, and show people in total desperation who cannot obtain information – and I believe people are generally happier when they have choices,” he adds.

Despite Dr Nitschke’s controversial and unconventional approach placing him in the firing line numerous times, he continues his work and is now holding workshops across the country to teach people – generally the elderly – how to end their lives without involving family or friends.

Speaking to DPS News after his Brisbane workshop, Dr Nitschke claims his work is motivated by “compassion and love”.

“(Elderly people) may find themselves in a situation where if they don't prepare, if they sit on their hands ... they can become so sick that they might have to beg someone to help them,” he says.

“As soon as you move across that line and get someone else to help you ... you're looking at breaching Queensland law,” he adds, stating laws carrying a maximum life imprisonment penalty are “out-dated and harsh”.

He says his workshops, which he reports as “good medical practice” are dominated by people aged in their late 70s to early 80s who are particularly healthy but are interested in finding out information on their choices if they become “seriously ill”.

“They have the right to know how to go about ending lives peacefully and in a reliable way,” he claims.

Dr Nitschke’s workshops detail information on specific drugs proven “reliable” in achieving a peaceful death and outlines the “mistakes” some people may make when taking their own life.

“It’s very specific material which strikes a cord at the end of these workshops, making it very clear to the person about information which they have been waiting a long time for – and this gives them great comfort,” he claims.

However, critics refute DrNitschke’s “hard” approach, with Australian Medical Association president, Dr Steve Hambleton, telling DPS News the association does not support euthanasia.

“We support appropriate palliative care and appropriate pain relief using a holistic approach support. Both psychological and spiritual support is encouraged to ensure people are assisted at that difficult time,” he says.

He encourages people to take advantage of Advanced Directive Health plans, which will help to “respect” the person’s wishes and provide “comfort” for relatives.

Similarly, Palliative Care Australia tells DPS News: “Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide is not part of palliative care practice. We believe every Australian at the end of life should have timely and equitable access to quality, needs based and evidence based care.”

Dr Nitschke will hold Melbourne workshops next week.

Do you support Dr Nitschke’s ‘unconventional’ approach or are you against it? Share your thoughts on his work by commenting in the box below.

V-Day secrets at St Paul's

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Queensland’s 101-year-old Hugh and 95-year-old Joyce Mitchell know the “secret ingredients” to a happy marriage.

The couple, who celebrate their 67^th wedding anniversary this Valentine’s Day, says “good communication, team work and mutual care” has made them last the test of time.

“We understand each other and always talk matters over and work as a team,” Mr Mitchell says.

Residing at St Paul’s Lutheran Aged Care Village, Mr Mitchell remains at the facility’s high-care suite while Mrs Mitchell is in low-care.

Despite brief moments of time apart, the love birds will attend a Valentine’s Day Ball, where about 60 residents from other local aged care services will dance the night away.

The couple met in England when Mr Mitchell served in the 464^th squadron, where he flew in a Mosquito in bombing raids over Germany in World War II. Mrs Mitchell worked as a women’s Auxiliary Force clerk at the airbase.

After surviving the depression and leaving England, the war bride needed to adapt to isolated conditions in Normanton, a small cattle town in Northwest Queensland’s Gulf Country where she baked her own bread and waded across the flooded Norman River to reach the hospital to give birth to her first child.

St Paul’s Lutheran Aged Care executive director of nursing, Maggie Hepple, says the facility has many couples on site, like Mr and Mrs Mitchell, who still remain together after many years, and believes it is “vital” to cater for these couples “in line with their changing health needs”.

So, with a love stronger than ever, the couple has some wise words of advice for young and old lovers alike.

“You can’t have your own way all the time. You should try to do the right thing between you as a couple and be supportive,” they say.

Don't help elderly Victorians, council says

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Elderly people will be left to fend for themselves on Melbourne streets after the city’s council has banned parking officers from helping them with non-parking matters.

The new set of strict guidelines restricts officers from advising elderly people, as well as those with mobility problems and vision-impaired, on places to eat or drink.

Officers have been reportedly ordered to spend 95% of their time detecting and issuing parking fine and just 5% on customer service, including answering questions about new parking technology in the city and directing people to Melbourne attractions and locations.

Victoria’s Council on the Ageing chief executive, Sue Hendy, tells DPS News she hopes the officer would “use their discretion in making the right choice to assist if needed”.

“Clearly there is a job to be done, but if someone, old or not, needs assistance…it would be outrageous if someone was really in need and they were not assisted. That would be a very backward step in our society,” she says.

“While I can understand that they can’t answer all general questions, as they would not then be parking officers, but if someone really needed help, I hope they would not just walk past orand? ignore them.

“If they are constantly being asked information questions, then maybe it points to more ‘Red Information people’ being out and about,” she suggests.

The Age reports parking officers are being “threatened” with counselling if they do not produce an average of six to eight parking infringements an hour.

However, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle reportedly told the newspaper he supports 99% of the new rules, acknowledging he cannot defend the ban on helping elderly, mobility and vision impaired people.

‘‘I think you’ve got to use some common sense and be reasonable,’’ told radio station 3AW last week.

‘‘Reading it myself ... it does look pretty blunt and bald and pretty heartless to me but I don’t think that’s the intention,’’ he says.

There are reportedly 500 volunteers in the city helping people with directions and customer service, and 65 parking officers, including part-time officers.

Post-menopausal women required

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Testosterone could provide a “preventative measure” against the onset of Alzheimer’s disease after a new Monash University pilot study showed “promising results”.

The Women’s Health Research study evaluated post-menopausal women aged 55 to 70 years and found improvement in verbal learning, memory and visual learning in these participants.

Lead researcher Professor Susan Davis tells DPS News the team is now recruiting participants for its next phase which will involve determining whether testosterone does in fact have an effect in preventing Alzheimer's disease.

"We are seeking to understand whether taking testosterone after menopause improves brain function. If it does, then it may play a role in delaying cognitive delcine and delay the development of dementia, which will be a huge benefit for older people," she says.

Professor Davis hopes the "small-scale" study leads to larger studies, looking at the effects of testosterone in healthy women.

If the next phase of the study proves successful, Professor Davis claims more money should be spent on researching testosterone and how it can prevent women developing Alzheimer’s.

Post-menopausal women interested in taking part in the study can call the Women’s Health Research Program on (03) 9903 0820.

Older travellers on the rise

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

The number of older Australians exploring the world has reportedly trebled over the past decade.

Australians over the age of 60 years are going on more overseas trips, with the number increasing from 383,000 to almost 1.2 million.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports Australians made a record 7.8 million trips overseas last year, which is 10% more than in 2010 and well over double the 3.4 million trips taken in 2001.

The “biggest growth” is seen among those aged 55 to 74 years, as retirees and families increasingly embark on overseas trips.

New Zealand remains the top destination for older Australian tourists, who made 1.1 million trips to the Shaky Isles last year. However, Indonesia is reportedly the fastest-growing destination with the number of Australians visiting increasing from 195,000 to 878,000 in the past five years.

America is listed as the third biggest destination with 798,000 older Australians visiting, Thailand comes in at fourth with 552,500 Australians making the trip over and Britain follows with 488,000. China and Fiji are also on older Australian’s itineraries.

Are you an older Australian and enjoy exploring the world? Share some your travelling experiences with us by commenting in the box below.

How ageing brains cope with emotion

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Have you ever wondered what exactly triggers why we become sad, disappointed or angry? Scientists at the University in Reading in Britain are determined to answer this question.

The university has been awarded funding to examine how our brains deal with emotion as we age, with the results hopefully helping to “breakdown misunderstandings” about mental health and ageing.

Lead researcher, Dr Carien van Reekum, adds he hopes the research will teach governments how to “maintain levels of wellbeing among an ageing population”.

“The issue of later life wellbeing is key to lessen the burden on long-term health care, lower the impact of later-life depression and promote continued involvement in society by the elderly.

“While we know a great deal about how our brains ‘shrink' as we get older - affecting abilities such as memory, attention, planning and movement - little is known about how they impact our emotional wellbeing,” he says.

Researchers will use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of volunteers aged 55 to 85 years, as well as a control group of younger people, while measuring their physiological and behavioural responses to emotion regulation tasks.

Researchers will then analyse the data to see how individuals whose brains have deteriorated with age compensate by activating their brains differently when regulating emotion, and examine how people’s ability to regulate emotion, even in the face of decline in cognitive ability and brain matter, affects people's stress levels and wellbeing.

Struggling older South Aussies

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

More than half of older South Australians do not have enough money to live comfortably in their retirement years, a survey has found.

Adelaide’s The Sunday Mail newspaper reader survey revealed 56.5% of respondents aged over 55 years are struggling to cover basic living expenses.

About 2,019 people were surveyed across the state, with electricity and water bills topping the list of financial pressures.

Conducted over 24 days and comprising 50 questions, the survey revealed almost three in four older residents from the northern suburbs believed they did not have enough money to live comfortably compared with 64% in the western suburbs, 60% in the southern suburbs, 39% in the east and 53% in rural areas.

While more than 40% of respondents listed failing health as their greatest fear of growing older, a quarter of retirees reportedly left the workforce due to health reasons.

Some older South Australians also allegedly face hardship while shopping, with more than 40% stating they are treated worse than younger people by staff.

Council on the Ageing chief executive, Ian Yates, told the newspaper “quality of life was slipping” as a result of rising utility costs, adding the pension was “too low” and needed to be increased to prevent pensioners from “cutting back” on depriving themselves from enjoying basic social activities.

“It's of grave concern to us that these essential services are increasing at such a rate with no compensation in terms of concessions,” he said.

Are you an older Australian who believes this issue is occurring across the nation? Share your thoughts by commenting in the box below.

Seniors cruising the waters

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Cruising the oceans is like being in “another world” for Queensland retirees Brian and Dianne Lamb.

The couple have had their fair share of luxury living having cruised from New York to Bermuda and even around the Caribbean Islands.

“It’s like a five-star hotel – cocktails before departure surrounded by happy smiling faces full of excitement. There’s also free lunch, dinner, karaoke shows, dancing, swimming, competitions, educational lectures, resting, sunbathing, duty free drinks,” Mrs Lamb says.

As life expectancy increases and more workers retire at an earlier age, the number of baby boomers, retirees and senior travellers enjoying a cruise holiday is on the rise.

Over the past five years, the Australian cruise industry has reportedly experienced double-digit growth year-on-year, with the expanding number of holidaymakers aged 55 years and over helping to fuel that growth.

One of Australia’s biggest cruise liners, P&O Cruises, informs DPS News about a third of its passengers are aged over 55 years.

Sister cruise line Princess Cruises, which operates two ships full time in Australia, has also reported a surge in first-time cruisers aged over 55 years on both its round Australia and New Zealand cruises.

Statistics last year show senior traveller numbers are particularly strong on cruises in the cooler months, generally during April through to October.

P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises report its liners cater for older passengers with a range of traditional activities such as dancing and art classes, as well as entertainment including soloists and jazz musicians.

As the number of senior cruisers rises with the ageing population, Mr and Mrs Lamb are not wasting any valuable cruising time. Ready to ‘hook, line and sinker’, the couple has already booked their next cruise where they will again hit the Caribbean waters in a few weeks.

Are you a senior cruiser or have you just returned to 'dry land'? Share your cruising experiences by commenting in the box below.

Train your brain

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

A daily mental ‘work-out’ has given a group of over 50s the brain performance of people several years younger, a Swinburne University of Technology clinical trial has shown.

The study sheds light on brain training and its effects on mental processing speed.

Thirty-four Australians aged 53 to 75 years achieved significant increases in mental processing speed – which underpins efficient daily decision-making and learning – after completing a popular US online brain-training program, Melbourne’s Swinburne Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Con Stough, said.

Professor Stough presented today (Tuesday 7 February) and yesterday at the Brain Health and Natural Medicine conference.

The participants played My Brain Trainer, which is described as the “world's first and best mental gymnasium” - for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, over 21 days, and were compared to a control group that played the card game Solitaire.

The computerised training consisted of reaction time, inspection time, short-term memory for words, executive function, visual spatial acuity, arithmetic, visual spatial memory, visual scanning/discrimination and working memory, with tasks becoming increasingly more challenging.

Participants were tested at baseline, post-training and at a three-week follow-up.

“We found an improvement in simple reaction time of about 10% compared to the control group, which is quite a lot. The intervention improved speed of processing which translates to younger brain performance,” Professor Stough said, admitting the study’s findings needed to be “replicated” by other researchers on a larger scale.

“A major societal health issue for an ageing population is not only the greater incidence of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, but also the impact of normal age-related cognitive decline. Up to 50% of adults aged 64 years and over have reported difficulties with their memory.

“We want them to be as active as possible as they get older and continue to enjoy the world and continue to engage in our community. So, people are looking at these brain training programs - which are growing in number - but which have been subject to little research,” he said.

If you want to test your cognitive abilities, click here to play the My Brain Trainer.

Youth say it's 'okay' to torment elderly

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Parents need to teach their children about respect when it comes to elderly people, according to Queensland’s Redcliffe Superintendent David Tucker.

“Everyone has elderly relatives and I'm sure they don't want them to be disrespected. It's a bit concerning that young people think it's quite okay to torment the elderly,” he told Quest Newspapers, adding local police officers have been involved, numerous times, in managing situations where youth harass the elderly.

Experts say more than 30,000 elderly Queenslanders are physically, emotionally or financially abused every year.

A new publication aimed at educating people about elder abuse has been launched as the concerning issue comes to a head.

The Australian Pensioners and Superannuants League (QLD) and the Public Trustee’s publication – ‘Let’s talk About Elder Abuse’ – features real-life stories and a list of resources where people can seek help and information.

The Aged Rights Advocacy Service (ARAS) will hold its World Elder Abuse Awareness Day conference in Adelaide on Thursday, 14 June 2012. This year's theme is the important role organisations and individuals play in preventing abuse and upholding the rights of older people.

Register your interest by calling ARAS on (08) 8232 5377 or email dianeb@agedrights.asn.au. Cost: $250 (plus GST). Group bookings of five participants or more attracts a 10% discount. Students receive a 50% discount.