Columns

The next Senior Power column (June 18, 2015 Berkeley Daily Planet) will be devoted to an unusual aging in place project being undertaken jointly by several agencies -- the Area Agency on Aging (AAA), Alameda County Public Health, City Slicker Farms and Satellite Affordable Housing (SAHA.) Low-income senior citizen residents in five Berkeley and Oakland Section 8 housing projects will have the opportunity to participate in gardening and nutrition workshops. I will focus on Berkeley’s Lawrence Moore Manor’s grant-enabled group and individual roof gardening and nutrition workshops. 

Novella Carpenter grew up in rural Idaho and Washington State. She majored in biology and English at the University of Washington, and also attended UC, B's Graduate School of Journalism. She is the author of the 2009 memoir, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, published by Penguin and available in public libraries in book, CD and e-book forms. 

In it, she describes her garden in a run-down neighborhood about a mile from downtown Oakland, California. The Essential Urban Farmer, her how-to guide for urban farmers, co-authored with Willow Rosenthal, was also published by Penguin. She started her farm in the city with a few chickens, then some bees, until she had a full-blown farm.  

In 2011, the City informed her that she would have to close her ghost town farm because she was selling excess produce without a permit. Following an extensive debate that prompted officials' to review of city policies regarding urban farming, she was granted a Conditional Use Permit for her 4,500-square-foot urban residential plot, allowing her to keep more than 40 animals, including ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigs, and goats as well as vegetables and fruit. 

Across the country, the rate of food insecurity -- the academic term for a disruption in the ability to maintain a basic, nutritious diet -- among seniors has more than doubled since 2001, and it is projected to climb even further as the Baby Boom generation gets older.  

While the U.S. economy adds jobs and the financial markets steadily improve, a growing number of seniors are having trouble keeping food on the table. Seniors are going hungry, writes Sarah Varney (Kaiser Health News via CNN Money, May 27, 2015). In 2013, 9.6 million Americans over the age of 60 -- one of every 6 older men and women -- could not reliably buy or access food for at least part of the year. The country was doing a worse-than-in-the past job in trying to end senior hunger in America. The number of seniors who "face the threat of hunger has increased every single year since research began on this.  

Experts on aging have declared that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is discriminatory, ageist. (American Association for the Advancement of Science May 29, 2015). One of the main health targets proposed by SDG is to reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases such as cancer, stroke and dementia. The goals for 2016-2030 define premature mortality as deaths occurring among people aged 69 years old or younger.  

The proposed SDG target sends an unambiguous statement to UN member states that health provision for younger groups must be prioritized at the expense of people aged 70 or more, according to the international group of signatories of the letter published in The Lancet. The implication for all countries, the U K included, is that resources allocated to conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease should be diverted from older people in order to comply with this global target. 

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CALIFORNIA NEWS 

The average length of physician-patient interaction is just over 10 minutes. (As reported and documented in Compassion & Choices Spring 2015 Magazine.) Only 48% of patients said they were always involved in decisions about their treatment.  

"California physicians end opposition to aid-in-dying bill," by Patrick McGreevy (Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2015). 

"Mishap leaves home-care workers waiting weeks for paychecks," by Chris Megerian (Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2015). 

World ELDER ABUSE Awareness Day is Monday, June 15, 2015 :  

"The growing danger to elderly Americans," by Bob Sullivan (CBS News News, January 28, 2015). 

"How to protect elderly loved ones from financial ruin," by Anne Tergesen (MarketWatch, January 28, 2015). 

"Despite Improvements, Ohio Advocates Say Anti-Elder Abuse Funds Fall Short," by Encarnacion Pyle (New America Media, March 30, 2015). 

"Focus on protecting elderly from fraud and fleecing," by Stacy Burling (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7, 2015). 

"Reports of elder abuse rising in Sonoma County," by Martin Espinoza (Press Democrat - Santa Rosa, California], May 25, 2015). 

"Elder abuse a 'huge, expensive and lethal' problem for states," by Rita Beamish (Stateline.org via Alaska Dispatch News, May 27, 2015). 

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