We found this interesting post in the Department of Aging and Adult Services’ New Blog at sfconnected.org… 

A Framework for Understanding Technologies that Support Older Adults in Aging in Place

We are at the dawning of “Connected Aging” in which the growing array of Internet-based technologies and mobile devices increasingly will support older adults to age in place. Emerging technologies will enable both older adults and their caregivers to address a comprehensive range of health, social, and functional needs. Technology-based solutions that connect older adults to friends, family, and community are becoming more viable; older adults and their caregivers are growing increasingly tech savvy; technology usability is improving; and price points are descending.

This issue brief is intended to help decision makers in the health care, aging-services, and policy communities understand the emerging range of technologies that can empower older adults to remain independent and improve the capacity of formal and informal caregivers. To assist in better understanding the landscape, the issue brief describes a framework that organizes connected aging technologies into four main categories: body, home environment, community, and caregiving. It also identifies key emerging technologies, how the new era of connected aging is unfolding, and key challenges that face older adults and providers in maximizing the benefits of technology. –Center for Technology and Aging

Read the Center for Technology and Aging’s new issue brief, “The New Era of Connected Aging: A Framework for Understanding Technologies that Support Older Adults in Aging in Place.”

See other interesting highlights from the SF Connected blog at sfconnected.org.

Districts 1 & 4 with Supervisors Eric Mar & Katy Tang - Saturday, April 20, 2013 (10:00 – 11:30 a.m.), George Washington High School, 600 32nd Ave. 

Districts 10 & 11 with Supervisors Malia Cohen & John Avalos — Monday, April 22, 2013 (6:00 – 7:30 p.m.), Southeast Community Facility, 1800 Oakdale Avenue

Districts 8 & 9 with Supervisors Scott Wiener & David Campos — Saturday, May 4, 2013 (9 – 10:30 a.m.), Cesar Chavez Elementary School, 825 Shotwell Street

Districts 4 & 7 with Supervisors Katy Tang & Norman Yee, Saturday, May 11, 2013 (10 – 11:30 a.m.), Location TBA

Districts 5 & 6 with Supervisors London Breed & Jane Kim, Monday, May 13, 2013 (6:00 – 7:30 p.m.), Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin

Districts 2 & 3 with Supervisors Mark Farrell & David Chiu, Saturday, May 18, 2013 (10 – 11:30 a.m.), Location TBA

Want to better understand what a few of those lies are?  Take a minute to read exerpts from a March 8th column by Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times. 

Social Security and Medicare are big issues, and not everyone is telling the truth about them.

Everybody loves lists.  Most of those you see in the papers or online tend toward the inconsequential (The Six Best “Fast & Furious” Movies).

So here’s a list with a bit more gravitas: The five biggest lies you’re being told about entitlement programs.

Never mind that the very word “entitlement” is a lie.  Social Security and Medicare got that name because workers became “entitled” to those benefits by paying into the system. In recent years, however, the term has become distorted to signify benefits people are entitled to without earning them.

Leaving that whopper aside, here are the top five.

Lie No. 1: The payroll tax hike is killing the retail economy.

As with all great lies, there’s a nugget of truth buried inside this one. Evidence exists that the lower paychecks most American consumers started seeing at the beginning of the year took a bite out of consumer spending. A slew of low-end retailers and merchants, including Wal-Mart, contend that the Jan. 1 change in the Social Security payroll tax, which lowered the average household income by about $80 a month, came out of their hides.

Blaming the payroll tax, however, ignores the whole story. First, on Jan. 1 the tax wasn’t hiked; it was restored to its 2010 level, after a two-year “holiday” that reduced the withholding to 4.2% of employees wages (up to wages of $101,800 in 2011 and $110,100 last year) from the 6.2% level in effect since 1990.

The idea was to deliver stimulus dollars to middle– and working-class families. But the holiday was always a wretched idea, in part because of what everyone knew would happen when the old rate reappeared —people treated it as a pay cut.

The worse flaw was that it was a lousy way to deliver targeted working-class relief. The change replaced the Obama administration’s previous Making Work Pay tax credit, which delivered up to $800 to families earning $12,900 to $150,000.

The payroll tax break, by contrast, went only to those who pay into Social Security. So it left out 5.7 million state and local workers (mostly teachers). On the plus side, it fattened the paychecks even of the nation’s top earners by a much-needed $2,100 or so.

Lie No. 2: “Entitlement” benefits for millionaires and billionaires are a costly problem.

This is a favorite of people like hedge fund billionaire Peter G. Peterson, a sworn enemy of Social Security and Medicare. The theme is: Look how wasteful Social Security is — why it even goes to people like me! The goal is to “means test” these benefits so they go only to people who “need them,” as Peterson says.

The lie here is the assertion that a significant portion of benefits goes to multimillionaires. In fact, their share of benefits is minuscule. That’s because there aren’t very many of them, and they don’t get more than the maximum old-age benefit, which was $30,156 last year. According to the IRS, only 47,732 households reported income of more than $1 million, including Social Security benefits, in 2010. Their total take was about $1 billion, after paying income tax on their Social Security checks. They account for about 14 hundredths of one percent of all Social Security outlays.

By contrast, more than 75% of benefits go to recipients with $20,000 or less in non-Social Security income and more than 90% to people with incomes below $50,000, as economists Dean Baker and Hye Jin Rho of the Center for Economic and Policy Research showed in March 2011.

To reduce program costs by even a couple of percentage points, you have to start cutting benefits for people earning as little as $40,000 in non-Social Security income. So when Pete Peterson starts bemoaning how his Social Security check is cutting into his granddaughter’s future, it’s the working class that should bolt the door.

Lie No. 3: Social Security and Medicare are $60 trillion in the hole.

As efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare gather steam in the budget wrangling in Washington, you’ll hear these mega-trillions being thrown around more and more. Beware. They’re numbers designed to terrify, not edify.

The assertion comes from something called the “infinite horizon” projection. It’s a calculation of funding gaps projected out to the limitless future and then converted to present value — meaning what the cost would be if we had to pay it all today. For Social Security, the figure was $20.5 trillion, as reported in the program trustees’ latest report. For Medicare, the number comes to about $42.7 trillion.

Even professional actuaries say this calculation is bogus. In 2003, when it was first inserted into Social Security’s annual report, the American Academy of Actuaries warned the trustees that the infinite projection provides “little if any useful information” and is “likely to mislead anyone lacking technical expertise … into believing that the program is in far worse financial condition than is actually indicated.”

A big part of the lie is that these projections aren’t applied to the other side of the ledger — the programs’ revenues and growth in the U.S. economy projected out to infinity. The latter, the trustees calculate, would be about $1.5 quadrillion. (How’s that for a big number?) For Social Security, the infinite gap accounts for only 1.3% of infinite GDP, which would bring it about to the level we spend today on defense and veterans affairs.

Lie No. 4: You’re paying too much (or too little) for your benefits.

This is a double-barreled lie, based on the misconception that Social Security and Medicare are retirement funds. They’re not; they’re insurance programs. What you recover depends on your personal circumstances, but the point is they’re there when you need them.

The idea that the social insurance programs will impoverish today’s children while their grandparents make out like bandits was recently rehashed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed by former hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller and two colleagues. “A typical third-grader will get back (in present value terms) only 75 cents for every dollar he contributes to Social Security over his lifetime,” they wrote. “Meanwhile, many seniors with greater means nearing retirement age will pocket a handsome profit.”

That isn’t true, according to C. Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane of the Urban Institute, whose 2011 calculations are the basis for most such assertions. They computed that a couple retiring in 2010 with annual earnings of $113,000 would have paid about $750,000 in 2011 dollars into Social Security over their working lives, and collect (on average) $665,000 in lifetime benefits. (The tax computation includes both the employee’s and employer’s share, and is adjusted for inflation and a small investment gain; the benefit calculation is also discounted for future inflation.)

Not exactly a “handsome profit,” but that’s how insurance works. Some people will die two years into retirement, others will live to 100. Some families will be sustained by Social Security, some will collect disability pay, some will receive dependent benefits, some won’t need any of those payments. But no other public or commercial insurer provides all those potential benefits at Social Security’s low cost.

What skews the calculations is Medicare, which leads us to:

Lie No. 5: Medicare, Social Security — it’s all the same.

Not at all. Medicare is in big trouble, almost exclusively because of rising healthcare costs. Social Security can be financially tweaked by changing its tax or benefit structure, or both. That won’t work with Medicare, which is the prisoner of this big external factor. Steuerle’s and Rennane’s calculations show how these costs outstrip individual contributions — our high-income couple retiring in 2010 will have paid $149,000 in taxes, yet receive $351,000 in lifetime benefits. The imbalance increases for future retirees.

The lesson is that it’s misleading to lump these two programs together as if they have the same issues amenable to the same solutions. But that’s what you usually hear: “Social Security is mostly OK, Medicare is in big trouble, so entitlement programs are in big trouble and we should cut Social Security.”

See how much trouble a lie can make?

Michael Hiltzik’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, read past columns at latimes.com/hiltzik, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.

Interested in being an Agent for Change, too?   Sign up for the CARA Leadership Academy.  The next session will be held in San Francisco February 27 and 28th. For more information, visit http://www.californiaalliance.org or download a 2013 CLC leadership academy flyer .

Linda Silver and Marcia Peterzell came up with a creative solution.  Use a Native American talking stick, a simple way to designate who has a turn to speak.  To the one pictured, Linda has added a microphone and transmitter to  assisted listening devices.  Voila!   No special magic really, just a reminder of what works to help those with hearing loss more fully participate.

This idea fits the first and last tip in this summary of communication tips for those with hearing loss.

• Take turns speaking and avoid interrupting other speakers.
• Do repeat yourself. Or rephrase until you’re understood.
• Don’t shout. This distorts your mouth, making you harder to understand. Speak clearly and at a normal speed.
• Face the hearing impaired person directly, on the same level and in good light whenever possible. Position yourself so that the light is shining on the speaker’s face, not in the eyes of the listener.
• Speak clearly, slowly, distinctly, but naturally, without shouting or exaggerating mouth movements. Shouting distorts the sound of speech and may make speech reading more difficult.
• Avoid talking too rapidly or using sentences that are too complex. Slow down a little, pause between sentences or phrases, and wait to make sure you have been understood before going on.
• Keep your hands away from your face while talking. If you are eating, chewing, smoking, etc. while talking, your speech will be more difficult to understand. Beards and moustaches can also interfere with the ability of the hearing impaired to speech read.
• Be aware of possible distortion of sounds for the hearing impaired person. They may hear your voice, but still may have difficulty understanding some words.
• Try to minimize extraneous noise when talking. Most hearing impaired people have greater difficulty understanding speech when there is background noise.
• If the hearing impaired person has difficulty understanding a particular phrase or word, try to find a different way of saying the same thing, rather than repeating the original words over and over.
• Acquaint the listener with the general topic of the conversation. Avoid sudden changes of topic. If the subject is changed, tell the hearing impaired person what you are talking about now. In a group setting, repeat questions or key facts before continuing with the discussion.
• Whenever possible, provide pertinent information in writing, such as directions, schedules, work assignments, handouts on the topics.
• Don’t avoid conversation. Deafness can be isolating. Always involve people who are deaf in group conversations.
• Ask how else you can help.
• Relax, be patient, and have a good sense of humor.

A recent fact sheet prepared by FCA  offers an introduction to some of the tools — both hardware and software - currently available to help manage caregiving responsibilities and other tasks.

Computers and technology offer practical solutions for caregivers seeking to solve a problem, learn new skills and get support.  Where else but online can you find a peer group of caregivers to talk to when you need it at 1:00 in the morning?  How convenient it is to post an electronic schedule that allows friends and family to sign up for tasks like bringing by a meal, driving your loved one to a doctor’s appointment or giving you respite from caregiving.

You can view and download their recent factsheet at Digital Technology for Family Caregivers.

LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networking tools are fine, but they don’t do the work for you.

To put real value in your network (and stay connected to people who are not online) you also need to think about your network in the real world.

Getting Comfortable

I am an introvert.  People are often surprised by that because I regularly get up on stages to speak, and I am loud and expressive and Italian.  But, I’m also an introvert.  One hazard of being an introvert is that we are not natural networkers — especially in the real world. I went through most of my career thinking that I was the only one who was bad at networking.

Over time, I have learned a few important things that make networking more doable and comfortable (even for introverts).

• Most people consider themselves bad at networking - so if you are struggling, know you are not alone.
• You can get good at networking if you are not good at it today. But you get good at it by doing it, not by reading about it. It gets easier and gets more comfortable with practice. The more you do it, the more sense it makes and the more valuable it gets.
• You can build a network without going to uncomfortable networking events and eating cheese cubes and collecting stacks of business cards. You can do it by meeting a few people you genuinely like each year — and then staying in touch with them.
• You build your network by giving genuine value and kindness to others. The more you do this, you will experience gratitude, fun, and benefits. People who are skeptical about reaching out to people for no other reason than to say hello or express kindness are always telling me how glad they are they tried it — and how surprised they are at the great response.
• Be the one to make the effort to stay in touch. Maintaining contact is a key form of giving to your network.

Your network only has as much value as you put into it.

As always, my two rules of authentic networking apply: “Give when you don’t need anything,” and, “Always give more than you take.”

To take some of the mystery out of this, here are 10 examples of what I mean by “giving” to your network. These are real, valuable, and kind things you can give that builds value into your network in the real world.

10 Things You Can Give Your Network

1. Hello, news: Giving can be as easy as saying hello. It can be an email, a phone call, or a handwritten note. You be the one to stay in touch. When you hear from someone you haven’t connected with in years and they are just saying, “Hi, I was thinking about you,” it makes you smile. Saying hello is a “give.” You are not asking for anything. You are just being thoughtful and kind.
2. Remember things: Listen. Remember things people tell you about their life. If you don’t have a great memory, note them in your contact database (I do this). Mention their details when you connect again. Did your son get his black belt? Did you buy the Porsche? How is your daughter doing in New York? It feels good when someone remembers your details. Do this on purpose for others.
3. Offer to help: Actually be helpful! Ask them, “What is your challenge right now? How I can help you?” Do something that helps, then don’t keep score. The payback may not be immediate or direct, but the value you give will come back to you in ways that will surprise you.
4. Positive feedback: How many emails do you get that say, “Thank you for doing such a great thing, I was really impressed?” When you notice something good, or value something someone did, say “I was really impressed with [that article, that talk, something you did]… it really made a difference to me. Thank you.”
5. Say, “Thank you.” I can’t tell you how many people I only hear from when they need a reference, and then after I let them know I did it, I never hear from them again. Saying thank you is a big deal in your network. Thank people a lot and often. Thanking people puts value back into your network.
6. Follow up: When you ask someone in your network for something and they give it (like a reference, advice, an introduction) let them know what happened! People like to know that their help helped. Otherwise they just feed help into a black hole and it feels unappreciated. Did you get the job? Did the idea work? It amazes me that most people don’t do this. I had a recruiter once call and thank me for a referral that resulted in a placement – I almost drove off the road! I do all kinds of things people request of me, and almost never hear back about what happened. A good story about this: one time after a job search, the person sent out a thank you email to every single person who was involved with, or they talked to during their search, thanking them and letting them know what happened, and offering to return the favor. This made such an impression on me because it was the one and only time I saw this done!
7. Make an introduction: Be astute about helpful introductions you can make. You have then given two people a value without asking for anything in return. Be careful though. Sometimes the introduction is a gift for one person and a favor from the other. Keep your giving and thanking clear when you use your network for introductions.
8. A point of interest or enjoyment: If you remember what is important to people and what they like, it gives you an opportunity to point them to great stuff that you run across. Always be thinking of sharing information, resources, and fun things that you come across. Sharing food also works.
9. Photos: Photos are such a powerful way of networking. Photos are a great way to keep in touch, and open doors. Share photos of things you saw and did, or of things you are interested in. It is a real, personal touch that’s easy for the receiver to deal with — they don’t even need to read anything! It’s instant. I always look at photos people send me. When I do something interesting or unusual, I send photos out to people to connect with them again. It makes an impression.
10. Video Mail: Video mail is like a super-duper photo. It’s an excellent way to make a contact. It really stands out. It’s very personal. People really appreciate it. And it’s so easy. Just google “free video mail”, pick a service, and say hello to someone “live” with a video. The service will record and store your video and send your recipient a video snapshot with a play button and a link. I use a service called Eyejot.

The more value and effort you put into your network, the more value you will get out of it. Practice. Pick a list of people to stay in touch with. See what happens.

This was originally published on Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. Her latest book is Rise: How to be Really Successful at Work and LIKE Your Life.

Any tips you would like to add?