This time of year could try any senior’s soul. Between Oct. 15 and Dec. 7, adults 65 and up who are eligible for Medicare can switch from one health plan to another without penalty.
During this open enrollment period, seniors are deluged by TV ads, letter campaigns and e-mail messages encouraging them to switch medical plans.

The reason? During this time, if you are not completely satisfied with your current plan—or if your health needs have changed—you can look for a plan that better meets your needs. This also is also the time when you can switch from one prescription drug plan to another without complications.
Below are a few explanations that may clarify some of these terms:

Medicare. This is a federal program that pays for certain health care expenses for people aged 65 or older, and for some younger people who meet special criteria. Medicare Part A covers hospitalization and nursing home care. Medicare Part B covers doctor visits, outpatient medical procedures, and some medical tests. The special enrollment period allows you to change your type B coverage, although your decision could impact your hospital or nursing homes coverage as well.

Medicare Part B. This is also referred to as Original Medicare. This program requires you to pay a monthly premium of $104.90, and an annual deductible of $147. After these costs are met, Medicare B will cover 80 percent of most medical exams and procedures; you or yet another health plan must pay the rest. Part B coverage includes most preventative-care services, annual physicals, depression screening, HIV screening, mammograms, prostate cancer screening, flu shots and diabetes tests.

Medicare Part B also covers most medical equipment, home health care, outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy, outpatient mental care services and emergency transportation.
It is important to note that Medicare Part B does NOT cover most dental care, eye exams, hearing aids, alternative medicine and cosmetic surgery. It also does not cover prescription drugs. Many of these services can be added to your care by applying for a Medicare Supplemental Insurance plan, often called a Medigap plan.

Medigap plans. These are private health insurance plans designed to supplement Medicare. They cover such costs as copayments, coinsurance and annual deductibles. The names of some Medigap plans are: AARP Medical Supplement, Humana Medical Supplement and Emblem Health Medical Supplement. Their costs and coverage vary, depending on what they offer, but enrolling in one of these plans will provide you with the 20 percent payment not covered by Medicare—and may also provide additional coverage of such services as vision, hearing and dental care. Every Medigap policy must be clearly identified as “Medicare Supplement Insurance.”

Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) plans. These plans are administered by private companies that are approved and regulated by the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The emphasis here is on “private.” They are plans that the government contracts; they offer policies that cover doctor visits, hospitalization and, sometimes, prescription medication. Medicare Advantage plans must offer benefits on par with traditional Medicare, but many providers include more as a way to attract customers. Some of these services may include vision, hearing and dental care. The most common types of Medicare Advantage include Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) and Private Fee-For-Service (PFFS) plans.

Medicare Advantage plans require you to pay the same monthly premium you would pay for Medicare Part B. Many include additional services under this fee, while other plans offer “tiers” of service at varying cost levels. Some even include gym or health club memberships. In exchange for these extra benefits, these plans may require that you adhere to a limited “network” of providers. If you decide to purchase a Medicare Advantage Plan, find out what additional services are actually included before signing up. A plan that includes vision care, for example, may only reimburse an annual eye exam, but not glasses. Remember that you will rarely get more from a similarly priced program without giving up other benefits.

Medicare Part D. This is the prescription drug program. Private pharmaceutical companies approved and regulated by the federal government provide Medicare Part D plans. These programs require payment of monthly premiums ranging from $15 to $165, plus small co-payments for each drug. People who enroll in traditional Medicare must also select a Medicare Part D prescription program. Many Medicare Advantage plans include a drug plan or plans. If not, you must select one as well.

Before you switch plans, it’s important to evaluate your needs.

8 Questions to ask before changing health plans

How much will I have to pay for premiums, deductibles, doctor visits or hospital stays?

Are all the services I need covered under this plan? If not, is there a way to obtain coverage without paying large additional amounts?

Are my doctors in this plan? If not, can I continue to see an “out of network doctor” even if it costs a bit more?

What services will I give up if I switch plans?

Will I have to choose my hospital and health care providers from a limited network?

Are the hospitals/nursing facilities in my network convenient to me? Do they have good ratings?

Will I need physician referrals to visit specialists?

Are my prescription drugs on the plan’s formulary? What is my prescription medication copayment?

Does the plan I selected have a good quality rating?

Joanna Leefer is an eldercare advisor with 10 years experience working with aging issues. She was the primary caregiver for her parents for over seven years and worked for FRIA Inc. (Friends and Relatives of Institutionalized Aged) an advocacy organization for the elderly. For more information on her services, log onto www.joannaleefer.com. Her book Eldercare Basics will be available in spring 2013.

Don’t let the title scare, you, folks. I’m not presenting a “system” here. Personally, I’ve never seen a chart or graph designed to help me organize my life that I didn’t intentionally ignore. “Systems” designed by experts never seems to consider my life or personality. They seemed like cardboard cutouts, made for some dream life. Textbook examples often don’t take real life into account. My response to most “systems” would be a quiet, internal “You are not me.”

That being said, tips and thoughts from people whose lives have closely mirrored mine, in at least some aspects, have been generally welcome. I like stories. I like knowing how people make their lives work. If ideas are presented to me that way, I feel the flexibility of personalities and lifestyles blending, and that makes suggestions sound less like demands that I “shape up” and act like other people. I can then assimilate the story, take what works for me and ignore the rest—guilt free.

So, please take my suggestions in that manner. I’ve discussed some ideas with other caregivers, including those who care for elders and one man who cares for a child with disabilities. Our time management techniques aren’t that different. When we care for vulnerable people, we are all much alike.

Expect the Unexpected 

For me, the need to be prepared for anything is mandatory. During my heaviest caregiving years, I cared for two children, one with multiple health problems, plus multiple elders. During their last years, several of my elders lived in a nearby nursing home, while I worked full time, so that care was a blessing. I could visit daily, but still know they were cared for while I worked at my “real world” job.

However, a call to my work phone could mean that I needed to leave work to meet one of my elders at the emergency room, or that my son was very ill. It could mean something as simple as one more errand to run for one of my elders, or that it was time to plan hospice care for an elder. I must say a ringing phone can still, at times, be a scary thing for me, triggering a reaction much like the old days when people thought a telegram meant only one thing: someone had died. Knowing I was somewhat prepared for an emergency did have a calming effect to some degree. It still does. Here’s a little sample of my “plan.” Improvise to figure out what works for you.

My employer allowed me to take vacation by the hour, so I hoarded vacation hours for emergencies and for medical appointments for my care receivers.

I shopped as though I was preparing for a disaster, buying multiples of everything any of my care receivers could possibly want, because they always seemed to want what they wanted immediately, and something inside of me made me think I had to deliver. When my mother died, I threw out three—yes three—bottles of the makeup she liked. Shall we say I was a bit excessive about this?

I kept food around that my son could make for himself, should I be called away to tend to one of the elders, which happened frequently. Again, I often threw out my over-stocked food items, but having all needs met for each individual made me feel better prepared, which meant I felt less frantic.

I filled prescriptions as soon as the insurance companies allowed, knowing that a day could come when one person needed a prescription filled and I was too tied up with the needs of another to run to the store and get that errand done.

Many of us have a to-do list that is so long we feel overwhelmed. That is sometimes called analysis paralysis. Say, your mom wants you to go through her closet and get things organized, but your kids need a school project finished and only you can help. Your employer wants you to get rolling on a “fresh, new idea,” while the Medicaid papers for your dad are sitting on your desk at home. All of the projects are important. Where do you start?

Prioritize

That may seem obvious, but it does help. Make a list, yes, but don’t worry about perfection. Make the list flexible. But do write things down. That helps. I find that crossing off just one thing—even something as simple as getting the special shampoo dad needed—crossed off my list, made my day seem a little easier.

Bite off chunks

Realize that everything you do doesn’t have to be done completely or perfectly. The Medicaid forms need to be filled out accurately, but you don’t have to do it all in one day. The closet cleaning can be done imperfectly. Just do enough to make your mom feel that you are tending to her needs. Let the rest go.

Learn that good enough is good enough. Each and every thing you attempt doesn’t have to be perfect. Expecting myself to do everything perfectly can be my biggest time waster, as I can’t get started if I think I have to do it all to perfection.

Lower your standards

Yes, your mom kept a spotless house. Well, maybe that’s what she did during the day. You are working for several people here. Give yourself a break. Rarely has dusty furniture killed anyone.

Find shortcuts that make you feel better

A quick neatening up, even if it means tossing stuff in a closet, can help some people de-clutter their minds. That can bring some peace. Let the true de-cluttering wait until your life is a little smoother.

Less is more

Try to help others learn this, too. Getting rid of “stuff” and not replacing it can be freeing. I know this is a hard concept to pass on to someone who can’t let go of anything, especially an elder who is now forced to give up so much. But if you live your life with that philosophy, without trying to impose it on others, you may find some of that mentality gets absorbed through osmosis.

Taking Care of Yourself 

In a way, time management is a way of taking care of ourselves. Efficiency in “doing for others” may actually leave us a little time for ourselves. Frankly, for most of us, if we don’t do anything to take care of ourselves, even if it’s finding 20 minutes to take a nap, we’ll become less efficient with everything else, and that can cause a downward spiral. Perhaps, taking care of ourselves should be first on our “time management” list. I thought of that, actually. But I figured everyone would laugh and quit reading.

Do try it, however. Most of us are better people, and better caregivers, if we have a little time to do something we enjoy. Our burning out won’t help anyone. If we look at our priority list, we can surely find something that we can put lower on the list, and scoot up our own health care or mental health break a few notches. If we do that, the other time eaters may fall into place, or get so low on the list we can let them drop off, like dust when we shake a rug.

Good luck with your own list and please let us know if you have other time-saving ideas.

Article courtesy of AgingCare.com, a leading website that connects people caring for elderly parents to other caregivers, personalized information and local resources. AgingCare.com has become the trusted resource for exchanging ideas, sharing conversations and finding credible information for those seeking elder care solutions.

Always a lot to talk about, and though I do the talking here, thankfully some of you email a response. (Response is so important!) And, much as I wish cyberspace hadn’t been invented (TV was bad enough), I worry that many in the 70-plus age group are being left out of society’s mainstream even more because they don’t have access to the internet.

Overcoming “being left out” takes a whole lot of doing, so let’s do some immediate good and help prevent a whole lot of falling. I’ve just learned www.icanwalk.com or 1-888-667-4046 can tell you about the revolutionary Sure Step cane that strangers stop me on the street to ask about, as I myself use it.

When I was waiting to get into the Vince Giordano Jam Session at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, Jane Russo of the American Heart and Stroke Association stopped to ask about the cane, remarking that a family member could use the extra stability.

So check it out, and—oh, how good for the heart and whatever ails us (especially those allergic to post-swing-era music) are the Sidney Bechet Society concerts? Special guest, music legend George Wein, now 82, needed a helping hand getting to the piano at the Giordano Jam Session, but not in getting his moving musical message across. Songs about elderhood are also needed; about family, friendship, love and even the “blues.” (Such liberating themes also belong in 85-year-old Barbara Cooke’s repertoire.) Check out www.sidneybechet.org for information about the November 5 “Sidney Bechet and the New Orleans Trumpet Greats” concert.

Here’s to making this happy pre-rock-era music part of election campaigns’ musical mix, along with bipartisan promises to get it back on the charts. And here’s to making elder people visible on those campaign trails and platforms—especially those needing canes and walkers and wheelchairs. But where is that first grandmother who takes such incomparable care of the first daughters? And where are the challenger’s elders? They must exist, since Mormons are known for leading healthy lives.

But critical elder problems are woefully missing from mainstream view; how many Yankee fans knew Joe Girardi’s dad suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for many years before his recent departure from this life? And this only made the news because his son, “with a heavy heart,” managed the first game of the ALS playoffs only 24 hours later.

And here’s to mainstreaming this grieving son’s tribute to Joe senior for teaching him “the value of hard work and making a living, and being a good husband and father.” He added, “If I could be half the father and husband he was, then I’m doing something right.”

That’s all-important, but now this son must teach the world about being, yes, a good offspring, but above all, describe the suffering, like no other, caused by this dreaded disorder, with no known cause or cure or truly effective treatment. And protest how it’s often hidden with even a stigma attached! Is this why so little was said about the late George Steinbrenner’s failing brain power? Attention must be paid.

With Halloween upon us, we might also pay attention to the spiritual elements of the holiday. There’s comfort and hope in this passage from the Litany of Commemoration that Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church used to print in its All Saints Day Sunday bulletin: “For dear friends and kindred ministering in the spiritual world; whose faces we see no more but whose love is with us forever … for every hallowed memory and our abiding hope that where they are, we shall be also.”

dewingbetter@aol.com

By Roy Herndon Smith, Ph.D.

Many older people live alone. Even when they are healthy and able, the cumulative effects of losses—of friends, family members and familiar stores and institutions in their neighborhood—can lead them to withdraw from others and to lose confidence in their abilities; sometimes their sense of who they are begins to dissolve.

A geriatric care manager can help such a person reconnect with their abilities and with others.

For example, a social worker at an agency referred Mr. J, aged 90, to me. He was a successful artist. He was also a brilliant art teacher, who had, for over 40 years, taught private classes at his studio. Most of his students had been other working artists who found that Mr. J created a culture that nurtured their individual creativity. Many of his students had been with him for decades. A few students had started coming to his classes with their parents when they were teenagers. He had written a book about his teaching method that was, for a time, a popular text in art schools.

A series of losses—of his wife of over 50 years and of two close friends—had led Mr. J to feel, at age 85, that he needed to move in a new direction. He stopped teaching and doing much painting. At the time that I began working with him, he was feeling lost, alone and anxious. He was full of ideas for new projects and ventures, which he worked on, but none of them was “it”—what he wanted to “spend the next decade doing”—and none of them provided him with the intense, in-depth interactions with others that he missed.
I began visiting Mr. J, for an hour at a time, every three weeks, in his apartment, which was also his studio. At first, I focused primarily on helping him secure the benefits to which he was entitled and understanding the sources of his loneliness and anxiety. I became convinced that he needed to resume teaching, but he insisted that he was done with that part of his life.

During a visit after about six months, toward the end the hour, he asked me if I would mind drawing something for him. I said that, while I had taken some art classes decades ago, I hadn’t done any art for years. He said that was okay; he just wanted to see what I would do. He gave me a pad of paper and a drawing pencil and suggested an exercise.
At each meeting after this one, Mr. J and I would spend the last 15 minutes of our hour together with him giving me a drawing lesson. I was amazed at how freeing these lessons were. Our conversations during the rest of our meetings deepened as we focused on his philosophy of teaching and art.

During this time, Mr. J began to write poetry. For a few months, he attended a writing class taught by a poet. He had me read his poems, which were moving and colorful—something like his art.

After about another six months, during which we continued to meet, Mr. J arranged with some of his former students to teach a workshop in which the students both wrote poems and did drawings. The workshop was a success.

After the workshop, a number of his former students, who had been asking Mr. J if he would please resume teaching art, asked him again. He said yes, but he also said that the classes would be different, that he would be trying out new ideas with them. With the help of his students, he set up a weekly class, which he has continued to teach, now for over two years.

While he still acutely misses those he has lost, Mr. J no longer talks about being lonely or not knowing what he is going to be doing for the next 10 years; he’s doing it.
Sometimes effective geriatric care management involves encouraging older people to try out and practice new ways of exercising their skills and wisdom. When they regain confidence in their abilities, they are often also able to reach out and reconnect with others who appreciate and gain a great deal from what they have to give.

Roy Herndon Smith works for Community Geriatric Care Management (a wholly owned subsidiary of Foremost Home Care)communitygeriatriccare@gmail.com

Benefits of Eating Well
Eating well is vital for everyone at all ages. Whatever your age, your daily food choices can make an important difference in your health and in how you look and feel.

Eating Well Promotes Health
Eating a well-planned, balanced mix of foods every day has many health benefits. For instance, eating well may reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, bone loss, some kinds of cancer and anemia. If you already have one or more of these chronic diseases, eating well and being physically active may help you better manage them. Healthy eating may also help you reduce high blood pressure, lower high cholesterol and manage diabetes.

Eating well gives you the nutrients needed to keep your muscles, bones, organs and other parts of your body healthy throughout your life. These nutrients include vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fats and water.

Eating Well Promotes Energy
Eating well helps keep up your energy level, too. By consuming enough calories—a way to measure the energy you get from food—you give your body the fuel it needs throughout the day. The number of calories needed depends on how old you are, whether you’re a man or woman, your height and weight, and how active you are.

Food Choices Can Affect Weight
Consuming the right number of calories for your level of physical activity helps you control your weight, too. Extra weight is a concern for older adults because it can increase the risk for diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease and can increase joint problems. Eating more calories than your body needs for your activity level will lead to extra pounds.

If you become less physically active as you age, you will probably need fewer calories to stay at the same weight. Choosing mostly nutrient-dense foods—foods which have a lot of nutrients but relatively few calories—can give you the nutrients you need while keeping down calorie intake.

Food Choices Affect Digestion
Your food choices also affect your digestion. For instance, not getting enough fiber or fluids may cause constipation. Eating more whole-grain foods with fiber, fruits and vegetables or drinking more water may help with constipation.

Make One Change at a Time
Eating well isn’t just a “diet” or “program” that’s here today and gone tomorrow. It is part of a healthy lifestyle that you can adopt now and stay with in the years to come.
To eat healthier, you can begin by taking small steps, making one change at a time. For instance, you might:
Take the salt shaker off your table. Decreasing your salt intake slowly will allow you to adjust.
Switch to whole-grain bread, seafood or more vegetables and fruits when you shop.
These changes may be easier than you think. They’re possible even if you need help with shopping or cooking, or if you have a limited budget.

Checking With Your Doctor
If you have a specific medical condition, be sure to check with your doctor or registered dietitian about foods you should include or avoid.

You Can Start Today
Whatever your age, you can start making positive lifestyle changes today. Eating well can help you stay healthy and independent—and look and feel good—in the years to come.
For more information visit nihseniorhealth.gov

Now 39, Levi has been the director of community life activities at Jewish Home Lifecare, which provides health care services for seniors on the Upper West Side.

She recalls moving to New York from Southfield, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, when she was only 20.

“I love the city, with all its many resources at your fingertips. You can go to the theater, parks or museums; really anything you want,” Levi said. “I think the accessibility of the city is really great.”

Some of Levi’s key responsibilities at the Jewish Home include overseeing recreational activities for more than 500 seniors in addition to helping organize a virtual army of 250-plus annual volunteers from community service groups, such as synagogues and churches.

“I’ve loved working with seniors since being a kid—I love being able to enrich their lives in a meaningful way and then to figure out the things seniors like to do and then find ways to make those things happen,” said Levi, who holds a master’s degree in health care management.

Discussing the role of volunteers, Levi recalls her own early volunteer experiences as a teen back in Michigan. “I started volunteering at a local Jewish nursing home in Southfield when I was only 15 and I found it very rewarding,” she says.

Recent examples of corporate volunteer groups included employees from Turner Broadcasting and UJA who came to donate their time to either help residents with tasks such as writing letters or using computers to send messages to relatives and loved ones.

“Our elders really benefit from these volunteer experiences,” Levis said. “The coordination of all the volunteer groups is a mutually beneficial arrangement because not only do our seniors benefit from the engagement and interaction with people, but the volunteers themselves learn a great deal and also gain tremendous satisfaction from helping people in their community.”

Further, Levi also serves as co-chair of a combined committee of union and staff members working to transition the home toward a new building on 96th Street in a few years in addition to a new type of self-directed care for elders dubbed “Green House.”

“I’ve worked hard with many different people to help manage this somewhat major transition,” Levi says.

Judith Nicholson, an administrator with Jewish Home Lifecare, counts herself lucky to have Levi as a colleague. “Miriam truly understands … how to brighten the lives of our elders while providing rich volunteer opportunities for our neighbors and surrounding community,” Nicholson said.

“I have had the pleasure of working with Miriam for many years and must tell you that I don’t know where she gets the time or energy to do it all—but I am certainly very, very grateful that she is here.”

Levi says that health care is forever changing.

“One of my biggest concerns,” she said, “is that we don’t forget about the elderly. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing today.”

She relates how the home has been working to make better use of technology to keep its residents connected.

“We recently purchased iPads and have been working with college/school groups to teach our seniors how to use the iPads to send email and search the Internet,” Levi says. “We want our residents to do the same things everyone else is doing online.”

In 1971, James Davis, then about to graduate from City College of New York, was headed to a job on Wall Street when it fell through. When he went to the chair of his economics department, the idea came to study hospital administration, instead.

Through the 1970s, Davis worked at Roosevelt Island’s Coler-Goldwater Hospital and the Westchester Medical Center. Now, more 40 years later, Davis, 62, is president and CEO of Amsterdam Continuing Care Health System, which manages Amsterdam Nursing Home and two Long Island spin-offs.

“To be honest, I kind of fell into it, and I’m very grateful that I did,” he said.

Most of the nursing home’s 409 residents come from the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights and Harlem. The nursing home also offers an adult day health-care center for seniors to get meals, medical checkups and other services.

The nursing home, which faces the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, has a long history. The 140-year-old organization, originally the Home for Old Men and Aged Couples, moved uptown in 1896 and was rechristened Amsterdam Nursing Home in the 1970s alongside a major expansion. One of Davis’ first tasks in 1988 was to expand the original building and convert it into a health-care center to meet the needs of more frail or sick seniors.

“They come here because they need us,” he said.

But all is not quiet for Davis, because the nursing home is being hit with cuts to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, which he said make up more than 90 percent of Amsterdam’s revenue. He calls dealing with this part of his job “daunting.”

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the quality that we want to provide as a mission-driven not-for-profit in this environment,” he said. “It really is becoming a challenge.”

To meet some of that challenge, Davis is looking into cutting costs and sharing services with other nonprofits. But the main driver of Amsterdam House’s bottom line is a move to diversify into private-market retirement homes.

Davis said their original plan to build the second retirement community in Upper Manhattan was ended by the reality of skyrocketing real estate prices and luxury developers making it too expensive to expand.

Instead, he looked to Long Island. The retirement community Amsterdam at Harborside opened in 2010 in Nassau County, and they’re building a second facility in Suffolk with help from a state grant. Profits go back into the Manhattan facility.

“There’s no question business as usual isn’t going to work anymore,” he said.

State Sen. Tom Duane, who represents much of Manhattan’s West Side, met Davis in the late 1990s. He said he has friends and relatives at Amsterdam Nursing Home.
“If I won the lottery, I would buy some place in Manhattan where he could open up a continuing care retirement community in New York, because I have the same peace of mind that I have about his facilities— that’s the same trust I have in his ability to make things happen,” said Duane.

In 2008, Davis and his wife moved to the Upper West Side from Westchester. He said he enjoys the neighborhood’s diversity and community, especially walking to work. He’s also an avid golfer, when he doesn’t work.

Still, much of his time is divided between Amsterdam Home, checking up on the progress of the new communities in Long Island and going to Albany to “hammer away on reimbursement.”

“The bottom line is, it’s an enormous responsibility to take care of a lot of people and to take care of the employees who take care of them—and that challenge is what keeps me going,” he said.

When most people think about activities for senior citizens, they think shuffleboard, bingo—maybe mahjong.

Karen Fuller’s mind goes elsewhere: gong therapy, laughter yoga, massage tai chi.

For the past 20 years, Karen Fuller has been enriching the lives of seniors through a wellness program at Dorot, an organization that alleviates social isolation among the elderly in the Jewish and wider community. Far from your average slate of senior pastimes, the program taps holistic medicine, alternative therapy and creative arts to keep Dorot’s clients happy and healthy.

Though Fuller herself built the program from the ground up, she is still surprised at times by how well the activities go over with clients.
“They seem amazingly open,” said Fuller. “They like things I never would have anticipated.”

Past classes have immersed Dorot clients in subjects such as sound therapy to smooth out stress, Shakespeare readings to aid memory and olfactory treatments that use flowers, herbs and essential oils. Speakers visit Dorot’s 85th Street location to give lessons on topics like cooking, flower arranging and yoga.

Fuller believes the program has shown that seniors are too often mislabeled as close-minded. Still, her co-workers know her way with people has helped Dorot clients take the leap from weight training to holistic healing.

“They really trust Karen, and although these ideas may be new to them, where she leads, they will follow. Because they know she’s genuinely interested in their well-being,” said Judy Ribnick, director of community services at Dorot.

Dorot seeks to help seniors live independently in their communitieswith quality of life. The organization works toward that mission through social services, including kosher meal delivery, and volunteer programs that bridge generations and provide the opportunity to make new friends.

Fuller found her way to Dorot after studying naturopathic medicine at Oregon’s National College of Natural Medicine and completing a master’s in social work at Columbia University. She worked in psychotherapy for eight years, including at Dorot, but she eventually made senior wellness her life’s work.

Inspired by Miriam Nelson’s book Strong Women Stay Young, Fuller created a program oriented for people 80 and older, who often face physical obstacles to staying fit. An initial class on prevention grew into Dorot’s senior wellness program, which now attracts seniors of all ages, varies for physical and cognitive ability and—perhaps most importantly—changes constantly.

“It’s very important to keep trying new things and getting introduced to opportunities to do something different,” said Fuller.

Fuller credits two women for instilling this mindset in her: her grandmother, whom she describes as a wonderful and open-minded person, and her mother, whose volunteerism imparted upon her a sense of service early on.

As a full-time staffer at Dorot, Fuller has created a career in community building. She sees the wellness program as a door to Dorot’s larger mission.

“It’s an opportunity to get connected, stay connected to community, to really grow and learn and have a good time,” said Fuller.

Irene Zola wants the world to know about people like Dolores Saborido.

In her nineties, Saborido had outlived nearly all of her relatives. Her hired caregiver did not speak enough English, Zola says, and Saborido was socially isolated. Eventually, Saborido phoned Zola’s organization, Lifeforce in Later Years (LiLY), which matched her with several volunteers who visited daily to keep her company.

Zola still keeps a thank-you voicemail from Saborido, who passed away last year, on her cellphone. It’s a testament to the impact of the human connections she strives to foster. A college writing instructor and longtime Morningside Heights resident, Zola, 66, founded LiLY in 2009 to do something “life-affirming” after her mother passed away.

“My eyes were open to the dire challenges old people face,” she said. Dissatisfied with the care her mother had received in a nursing home, Zola says she decided to make other people happy.

More than 85 volunteers have since joined LiLy’s Morningside Village program, which supports seniors aging in their own homes. The program organizes home visits to more than 70 seniors in the area bounded by West 106th and 118th streets, Riverside Drive and Morningside Drive/Columbus Avenue. Volunteers help connect elders with health care and social services, assist with everyday tasks like shopping and provide one-on-one social attention. Most of the seniors are in their eighties and nineties. All services are free.
These Upper West Side seniors are not the only ones who benefit. Some Morningside Village volunteers are new to the neighborhood and looking to make friends. Others hope to find a grandparent figure for their own children. Whatever motivates them to get involved, volunteers build close relationships with one other and the seniors they visit.
“I would spend two hours with her, and it was like being with a girlfriend,” LiLY’s director of recruitment Erin Broad said of Saborido.

As if leading an entirely volunteer-run organization and teaching part-time at John Jay College weren’t enough to keep her busy, this year Zola took on a new project to raise awareness of seniors. Her group approached Mayor Bloomberg’s office, resulting in his proclamation of New York’s first Love an Elder Day on Oct. 1. Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell also presented LiLY with a New York State Assembly proclamation recognizing the event, which fell on the same day as the UN’s International Day of Older Persons. The Love an Elder Day celebrations included an advertising campaign in Morningside Heights with posters, street art and greeting cards to combat what Zola calls the “invisibility of seniors” in the media and in the family.

Ten million seniors are living alone in the U.S., she said, and may go through a personal crisis when their voices are weakest. “Sometimes they can hardly be heard, literally,” Zola said. She hopes to expand LiLY’s awareness campaign across New York City and eventually, the nation. Zola says she believes greater visibility of seniors will inspire others to act, translating into more compassion and care for older Americans.

Assembly Member O’Donnell, who nominated Zola for the Westy Community Builder award, praised her initiative in addressing elder isolation. “She saw that need, decided to step into the void, and produced a result, which is extraordinary,” he said.

Like many successful companies, WAHVE (Work at Home Vintage Employees) was a business created to solve a specific problem. Founder and CEO Sharon Emek had been mulling over the conundrum her industry, insurance, had been facing for years: the imminent loss of a huge segment of the workforce through retirement. Fifty percent of workers in the insurance industry are baby boomers.

“There had been many articles written over the last number of years, saying that the industry is going to face a big crisis with all our baby boomers retiring, that we’re going to lose all this institutional knowledge,” Emek said. “We did not have young people come into the industry over the last 10 years. They went to Wall Street or elsewhere. No one sees the insurance industry as a very sexy industry.”

Emek, an Upper East Sider, has a long and distinguished career in insurance and knows the industry inside and out. She had been the chair of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York and started her own firm in 1988. She regularly spoke at industry events and networked with other agents and brokers, and saw firsthand that everyone was facing the same hurdle.

“We’re all fighting over the same qualified people,” she said. “I woke up with the idea one day.”

The idea—to utilize newly retired professionals at a lower cost by having them work remotely—became WAHVE, a company that Emek believes can help not only the insurance industry but the seniors it employs. The company only hires people with 25 or more years of experience—no exceptions. Emek said that she settled on calling them “vintage employees,” evoking the category of fine wines or cool cars, after tossing out other names that just pointed to old age.

“We’re vintage. We’re not retiring, we just want more life-work balance and to work in a different way,” Emek said. “I’ve always been very technologically advanced in my industry. I’d already been working remotely at home for 10 years.”

The company hires contract employees, most of whom have been working in the industry for their entire career and want to either return to work after retiring or who are transitioning from full-time office work. They get matched with insurance companies on assignments of varying lengths, full time or part time, and work from home or wherever they want to set up. Emek said that they’ve developed software that matches employees with clients based on very specific criteria, not unlike a dating service system.

“It’s unbelievably simple,” said Frank Sentner, the company’s chief operating officer. “The hardest thing is to get it through the heads of the business people that there’s really no difference between managing personnel in your office or managing personnel who you’ve never met who work remotely.”

When he talks to potential clients, Sentner focuses on the cost benefits of hiring virtual vintage employees through WAHVE.

“It costs about 40 to 50 percent less. [Employers save on] office space, heat, light, electricity, computer systems, bandwidth. Pretty much every cost in an insurance firm is directly related to personnel, to headcount,” Sentner said. “Our people are all of a certain age, they are working to supplement a retirement income, so they’re willing to take less because they’re working from home.”

Emek said that many of their employees are happy to trade the higher salaries for the flexibility to live near family and take on the amount of work they want to at any given time. She also said that many of the clients, forced to cut costs somehow, are thrilled to be able to hire older Americans.

“Brokers win because they get amazing talent at a lower price and they don’t have to outsource overseas—a lot of them feel terrible in this economy outsourcing overseas,” she said. “The retiree feels wonderful because instead of having to work in a local hardware store, they’re actually a real insurance professional. Many of them have designations and licenses, and so they feel that they’re still important, they’re still involved in the industry, they’re supplementing their retirement income.”

Statistics show Emek’s observations are right on the nose. This summer, AARP and the Society for Human Resource Management conducted a survey of workers over age 50 to find out what they’re looking for in potential employment. The survey found 78 percent of respondents plan to continue working for financial reasons, like money and health insurance, as opposed to working solely for enjoyment or the desire to remain productive. The survey also found that 52 percent of those who are currently unemployed would prefer to find a job in their professional field instead of changing careers or starting their own business. In addition, 62 percent of workers rated alternative work arrangements as “very important” in considering jobs, and 44 percent rated telecommuting as “important.”

Emek hopes that WAHVE will soon be expanding into other white-collar industries, like law and accounting, and she’s committed to the model of sticking with vintage employees. For one thing, she said, hiring people with over 25 years of experience means that they don’t need extensive training. She’s also convinced that every industry needs to take another look at how they define and utilize older workers.

“The word isn’t ‘retirement.’ People say, ‘I don’t see myself as sitting on my porch in a rocking chair,’” Emek said. “We need a new lexicon to define what’s happening. Because we’re living longer, the definition of work is changing. I don’t know what will replace retirement. That’s why I’m using the word ‘vintage.’”