Tag Archives: SB Independent special section

Healthy People, Healthy Trails

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Healthy People Healthy Trails, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

Healthy People Healthy Trails, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

BROAD COLLABORATION IS TAKING SENIORS INTO NATURE

Even during pandemic times, hitting the sidewalks and trails of Santa Barbara is a surefire way to stay fit.

“Many doctors and other health professionals cite moderate physical activity, including walking, as a ‘magic pill’ for excellent health,” said Margaret Weiss, director of health education for Sansum Clinic. “It can maintain the body’s systems in good condition and reduce the risk of chronic illness.”

Plus, getting outside is free, requires no special equipment, and can relieve stress. With this in mind, a broad group of organizations — including CenCal Health, City of Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department, Cottage Health, Sansum Clinic, Healthy Lompoc Coalition, Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, and Santa Barbara County Trails Council — developed Healthy People Healthy Trails to motivate people to embrace an active lifestyle and connect to the outdoors. The website offers maps to easy and enjoyable walks around Santa Barbara County.

Walking is a particularly good activity for older adults, as it can be done year-round by people of all ages and abilities. “Walking serves many purposes — exercise, fun, and transportation,” said Weiss. “And in challenging times, such as the pandemic, walking is an  effective stress reliever and provides a distraction from everyday worries.”

To maintain good health, experts suggest 30 minutes of activity on most days, 60 minutes for youth. But not even these moderate goals are being achieved, said Weiss, explaining, “Less than 25 percent of adults and less than 50 percent of youth get the recommended amount of activity.”

For older adults, such activity is known to extend lifespans, reduce the risk of falls, improve balance and agility, prevent osteoporosis and muscle loss, and delay the onset of cognitive decline. And evidence suggests that when the exercise is done outdoors, nature enhances the health benefits.

“Recent studies compared people who walked in a forest with people who walked in a city,” said Weiss. “Consistently, even when the groups switched locations, those who were in nature had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, lower blood pressure, and lower pulse rates.”

At a time when we are all advised to stay home as much as possible, especially seniors, walking around your neighborhood or in a nearby park can be the safest, easiest choice. For those just starting a walking program, Weiss suggested finding somewhere flat and firm, but also somewhere that is interesting. “Walking is great for health, and it is even better when you get a glimpse of the mountains, the ocean, or a beautiful tree in your neighborhood,” she said.

Healthy People Healthy Trails: healthypeoplehealthytrails.org/easy-hikes

Active Aging 2020: Our Annual Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens; Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

 

Originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent on July 30, 2020. To view the Active Aging Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens, click here.

Introduction to Active Aging

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Introduction to Active Aging, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

Introduction to Active Aging, Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

We’re living in a strange time for seniors. Old people have never been so powerful — or so vulnerable.

We’ve got a 74-year-old in the White House, put there in part by a cable news network controlled by a mega-wealthy 89-year-old. Then we’ve got a 77-year-old presidential nominee, who won the Democratic nomination over a 78-year-old Senator preferred by many, if not most, young people in the primaries. And don’t get me started about the future of some of our most crucial rights that may rest on the survival of an 87-year-old Supreme Court Justice.

At the same time, almost 80 percent of those who have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. were 65 or older. That’s left many seniors staying close to home, feeling uncharacteristically vulnerable and uncomfortably dependent on the benevolence of family, neighbors, and Good Samaritans.

If you’re fortunate enough, as I am, to have your parents still around, part of the challenge of middle-aging is watching your own parents age. We’re tiptoeing onto that sensitive tightrope of still being their children, while slowly becoming their caregivers.

As Bette Davis famously said, “Getting old ain’t for sissies.” But staying active, engaged, and prepared for the future with solid plans in place will certainly make all of our golden years shine a lot brighter.

With that in mind, this promotional section was developed from a combination of editorial ideas and suggestions from the special issue’s sponsors about people, projects, and trends that they’re excited about. From that list, we selected stories that represent a wide variety of “active aging” ideas in Santa Barbara and developed the editorial content independently.

Cheers to strong and vibrant finish!

—Leslie Dinaberg

PANDEMIC RESOURCES FOR SENIORS

Accessing information about community resources for seniors is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the Family Service Agency is collaborating with many other nonprofits to provide a one stop gateway to critical resources for the health and well being of the seniors in our community. See fsacares.org/senior-resources.

Active Aging 2020: Our Annual Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens; Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

 

Originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent on July 30, 2020. To view the Active Aging Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens, click here.

The Shift to Telemedicine

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The Shift to Telemedicine, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

The Shift to Telemedicine, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

DR. WILLIAM GALLIVAN’S ORTHOPEDIC INSTITUTE LEADS THE NEW WAY

All it took was a pandemic and a government-mandated shutdown, but it looks like telemedicine — the modern version of the house call — is here to stay.

Dr. William Gallivan and his team at Orthopedic Institute of Santa Barbara were using telemedicine on a limited basis for years before COVID-19, primarily for out-of-town patients who wanted to discuss possible surgical procedures and for short, post-surgical follow-up appointments. So when the pandemic mandated physicians to digitize their health-care process in March — while lifting some privacy restrictions to allow virtual exams — his office was better prepared than most. Even with restrictions now eased, the Orthopedic Institute is managing more than one-third of patient visits via telehealth.

In order to train seniors and other non-digital natives in the process, Gallivan is a “heavy utilizer of scribes,” enlisting tech-savvy, pre-med students to work with patients in advance of their appointments to set up remote communication. There’s a learning curve. “Sometimes it’s three or four calls to connect,” said Gallivan. “And with the outliers, it takes me two days of calling them to actually get a connection to do the telehealth. But most of them, more than 90 percent now, are set up and engaged with the telemedicine portal.”

How does this work for orthopedic exams, say, for a bad knee? “If it’s not a post-op, the patient actually can do a self-examination as we instruct them how to do it,” he said. “If we can see their range of motion, assess the swelling a little bit, and they can point out where it’s tender, we have a reasonable way to assess the problem and make recommendations.”

He plans to continue with telehealth as a bigger part of the practice even when the pandemic is over. Of course, he can’t replace the first post-op visit, when sutures are removed — “at least it would be a bit more of a challenge,” he said — but telemedicine works well for the six-week checkups.

“We can really be quite effective,” he said. “The communication has been excellent. Actually, some of it may even be better than the in-person stuff, because you are looking at the screen, instead of staring at a knee most of the time, you’ve got the patient’s face right there. The nonverbal communication is important, and I think we get that with telemedicine pretty well.”

He’s been happily surprised with how well it works, leaving visits confident that he provided a good service and not a second-rate one just because it is remote.

“It’s certainly not perfect, and I’m a big fan of in-person communication,” he said. “But the efficiency of not having sick people that have to travel for a meeting, and being able to get stuff done and having direct communication, is enhanced.”

Orthopedic Institute of Santa Barbara: gallivanmd.com

Active Aging 2020: Our Annual Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens; Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

 

Originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent on July 30, 2020. To view the Active Aging Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens, click here.

Aging With Grace and Humor

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Aging With Grace and Humor, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

Aging With Grace and Humor, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

Etta “Honey” Miller Celebrates 105th Birthday

Even over the phone (an unfortunate pandemic restriction), Ettna Miller is full of vim and vigor. In early July, she celebrated her 105th birthday with a small gathering at Vista del Monte, where she has resided in her own apartment for the past year.

Her “baby brother” Dr. Dean Vogel, a longtime Santa Barbara resident, also lives there and moved “Honey” to the facility after she broke her back at home in Indiana.

When she’s not entertaining her caregivers and fellow residents with tales of her storied life, Honey receives a variety of rehabilitative therapies through VNA Health’s home health-care services. A physical therapist, occupational therapist, and case manager bring therapies directly to her home, working with her to improve her strength through various activities and fall-prevention strategies.

Here are some highlights from a recent chat with Honey and her caregiver, Carolina Navarro. Their responses have been briefly edited for clarity.

Happy Birthday, Honey. Do you have a favorite birthday memory?

Ettna “Honey” Miller: My 100th birthday. There were well over 100 people at that birthday party. I don’t know if I ever greeted all of them or not. Everybody was running around with a camera. There were a lot of little kids there and everybody wanted to get pictures for show-and-tell.

How was your 105th birthday?

EHM: That was really a lovely affair. My brother Dean did the arranging. Of course, we were all quarantined, so there were limits. They arranged a new area with outdoor seating, and they had beautiful umbrellas. They had tables that seat nine, and they seated three people per table. We were only allowed to have 10 people at the luncheon. It was really lovely. We had dinner and we had birthday cake.

Carolina Navarro: For her 105th birthday, Honey received well over 50 birthday cards in the mail. She was still getting greeting cards yesterday in the mail.

EHM: It was amazing, people sent cards that I hadn’t talked to for years. People I hadn’t even thought about. One lady said she knew a friend of hers that went to high school when I did, and so she said that she wanted to send a card. I’m amazed at these people, how nice that it is to hear from them.

It’s very special to live to 105. You’ve seen things that most of us haven’t.

EHM: I’ve been blessed in so many ways.

Are you the oldest person you know?

EHM: I don’t know anyone older than me.

How old is your brother?

EHM: He is 87; let’s see, he was born in 1933. I was graduating high school when Dean was born. I didn’t even know my mother was pregnant. I said, “Well, that’s keeping a girl pretty dumb, isn’t it?”

Did you have other brothers and sisters?

EHM: There were nine of us, five boys and four girls. We had two older sisters that were bit by rattlesnakes and one of them died, and the other one, Vera, they were able to get her to a doctor and she survived and lived to be 90 years old. We lived in a prairie, in the rural area of South Dakota, a place called Lemmon [current population 1,227].

Where did you live after Lemmon?

EHM: Well, my father was born in Germany, and he came to the United States when he was about 16, and his mother wanted to keep him out of the German army. Then she wanted him to come over to Germany again and learn the cheese manufacturing business.

We only had a three-month visa, so we had to come back to the states. We went over in 1926 and came back in 1926. The big ocean liners were something great back then.

Aging With Grace and Humor, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

That sounds very exciting.

EHM: There was a shipwreck. Our ship, the Berlin, when we were coming back from Germany to the U.S., received an SOS that an English freighter was in distress, and we were to return and assist them.

Turning around in the ocean was fierce. The waves were 30 to 40 feet high, and you’d look out the window and you would see them 100 feet up above you and then the next instant they were down below you. When our ship turned around, the waves were so high they broke down the main door to the entrance to our ship, so we had water pouring down our stairways.

I didn’t go to the cabin like I was supposed to. My dad had his hands full, keeping everybody in line. I was behind some drapes in the dining room where there was a porthole and I could see out. I watched them put everybody they could into a lifeboat and lower it. But when they lowered it, the ropes broke, and it tipped over and dumped them in the ocean.

They were all drowned because there was just no way of getting out of that with the high waves and the boat falling and everything. That crew was lost, but the captain stayed with the ship.

And you witnessed all of this at 10 years old?

EHM: Yes. I remember that when we got back to New York, it was early morning when we came by the Statue of Liberty, and everybody got down and was kissing the deck thanking god that we were safe.

Wow. Can you talk a little bit about your typical day now?

EHM: Well, mostly every day is similar. They wake you up fairly early.

CN: There are a lot of us that come in here to visit, and we want to chat with Honey. She has a very close relationship with the Vista del Monte staff.

How’s your back now?

EHM: I really don’t feel bad or sick. A lot of people have a sickness or a sore place that hurts all the time. I’ve never had that in my whole life. I didn’t know what a headache was or aspirin until I was old. I just didn’t hurt even when I was in the hospital; the only thing that hurt was my tailbone. I couldn’t get a cushion that would relieve the pressure on that bone. It still gets sore.

CN: Honey has always been very active. She likes to swim, and if you see her physically, she’s very fit and very light on her feet. When she stands up, she’s very light, and she looks like she’s floating.

EHM: I love to dance, too; I’ve always danced. I took ballroom dancing when I was 100 years old.

What are some of your other favorite things to do?

EHM: I like to knit and crochet and sew. I can make things.

Can you share some advice for people who want to live a long, active life?

EHM: I think if you take every day as it comes, do what you have to do, and if there’s something coming up, try not to put off tomorrow, that would be the best thing I could think of. Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today. Whoever thought that up thought up something good.

Everybody has a story that’s interesting. I can make a story out of almost everything. Give me the salt and pepper, and I can make a story out of salt and pepper.

VNA Health: vna.health     Vista del Monte: vistadelmonte.org

Active Aging 2020: Our Annual Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens; Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

 

Originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent on July 30, 2020. To view the Active Aging Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens, click here.

Providing Healthy Food for Healthier Lives

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Healthy Food, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

Providing Healthy Food for Healthier Lives, from Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

We’ve heard a lot about the vulnerable senior population during the COVID-19 pandemic. But even prior to that, a study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that in California, one in five adults over the age of 65 lives in “an economic no-man’s land, unable to afford basic needs but often ineligible for government assistance.”

Santa Barbara’s Community Action Commission (cacsb.org) is attacking this challenge head-on.

“CAC’s Senior Nutrition program provides a daily nutritious meal to this vulnerable population in Santa Barbara County, where the need is compounded by the area’s high cost of living, primarily due to a lack of affordable housing,” said CEO Patricia Keelean. She explained that these “invisible poor” receive inadequate social security to cover their basic needs and yet do not qualify for government safety-net programs, such as SSI and SNAP.

“The low-income seniors that we serve are being squeezed financially, forced to choose between housing, medicine, and food,” she explained. “Because they can’t afford all three, a healthy meal usually becomes their lowest priority. This was the status for the past few years—and then along comes COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place directive! So there is a lot of work to do now.”

The countywide program is free, with no qualififications or proof of age, income, or citizenship required. Participants simply sign up for either the home-delivery option or to eat with others at community centers, though those are currently to-go meals because of COVID-19.

“Many of the regular guests to community sites changed to home delivery once the lockdown occurred,” said Keelean. “But there was still a need to feed people without homes or with an inconsistent address or other delivery issues, so this distribution still goes on, and demand here has also grown.”

Requests have increased during the pandemic more than 50 percent, so the CAC now provides meals to more than 700 seniors on a daily basis. When the CAC put out a call for volunteers to help with increased demand in April, about two dozen contacted the commission, and most were over the age of 55, said development director Linda Rosso. Their first project was organizing personal care packages that were delivered to homebound seniors with one of their daily meals.

“With a robust program of trained volunteers, Senior Nutrition can meet the needs of our growing list of enrollees without incurring the additional expense of paid delivery drivers and on-site meal hosts,” said Rosso, who could always use more help. “Using volunteers as drivers and site hosts, we can put the dollars saved on paid staff back into food procurement.”

That means the CAC can feed even more seniors.

“By expanding the number of drivers and site hosts through volunteerism,” added Rosso, “we can also give more time to individual seniors, supporting socialization and safety checks.”

CAC Senior Nutrition Program: cacsb.org/low-income-assistance/senior-nutrition. To volunteer, call (805) 964-8857 x1105 or email lrosso@cacsb.com.

Active Aging 2020: Our Annual Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens; Santa Barbara Independent, Active Aging Special Section, July 30, 2020.

 

Originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent on July 30, 2020. To view the Active Aging Guide to Senior Life, Seen Through a Pandemic Lens, click here.