Geriatric Mental Health Alliance News - Week of February 19, 2007

Geriatric Mental Health Alliance News

A weekly email to brief you on issues important to geriatric mental health

February 19, 2007 - Vol 1, Issue 7

125+ Organizations Support Expansion of Geriatric Mental Health Services in NYS

Over 125 organizations have signed-on to our one-pager asking the legislature for an additional $3 million for expanded geriatric mental health services and for training and workforce development. Click here to view the current list of organizations.

Has Your Organization Signed On?: If your organization can sign-on to the request and has not yet, please contact us with your organization's name as you would like it to appear on the list.

Thank you for your support!

Don’t Forget: If you haven’t already, please send letters to the Governor, key legislators that supported the Geriatric Mental Health Act, and your local Assemblymember and Senator. Click the links below for sample letters. And please let us know when you have sent your letters.

For a:
Sample Letter to Governor Eliot Spitzer
Sample Letter to Assemblymember Peter Rivera
Sample Letter to Assemblymember Steven Englebright
Sample Letter to Senator Martin J. Golden
Sample Letter to Senator Thomas P. Morahan
Sample Letter to Your Local Assemblymember
Sample Letter to Your Local Senator

To find the address of your local legislator you can search by zipcode. For your Assemblymember, click here. For your Senator, click here.

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Geriatric Mental Health Alliance Upcoming Events

May 31, 2007 - Save the Date: 1st Annual Geriatric Mental Health Alliance Conference. Please join fellow Alliance members from around the state for our first annual conference entitled “Geriatric Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities Across the Horizon” on May 31, 2007 from 10:00-4:00pm at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Steve Bartels, MD, MS, Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Bartels served as a consultant to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's Subcommittee on Older Adults, and he is a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. More details to follow.

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Upcoming Events

March 8, 2007 – Symposium on The Comprehensive Approach to Dementia The Montefiore Medical Center is sponsoring their 11th annual dementia symposium entitled “The Comprehensive Approach to Dementia: A Practical Update for Practitioners in Mental Health, Primary Care and Long Term Care Settings” on March 8, 2007 at The New York Academy of Medicine. GMHA members may attend for a reduced fee of $25 Please click here for more information.

April 18, 2007 – Save the Date: Conference on Advanced Dementia The Schervier Center for Research in Geriatric Care is sponsoring a conference entitled “Advanced Dementia as a Terminal Illness: Translating Theory into Everyday Practice” on April 18, 2007. The keynote speaker is Ladislav Volicer, an expert in dementia care. Please click here for more information.

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Cut to Geriatric Mental Health SAMHSA Grants

President Bush is proposing a $159 million cut for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) including a full cut to the current $4.9 million for geriatric mental health grants. The grants are part of Programs of Regional and National Significance (PRNS) at CMHS. PRNS are largely demonstration, targeted capacity expansion and other discretionary activities at the agency. Look for action alerts/sample letters around this issue.

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Call for Presentations

The Geriatric Mental Health Alliance is seeking proposals to present at our first annual conference in New York City on May 31, 2007. We are looking for presentations on evidence based and other state of the art practices, promising practices, and innovative service models. We hope you will share your expertise by submitting a proposal. The deadline for submission is March 1, 2007. For more information and the proposal form, please click here.

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In the News

Medicare Part B Premiums Could Increase by $15.90 Per Month in 2008, Report Finds
From the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report

Medicare Part B premiums in 2008 could increase by 17%, or $15.90, to $109.40 monthly, according to a report released on Tuesday by the TREA Senior Citizens League, the Palm Beach Post reports. The federal government covers about 75% of the cost of Medicare Part B -- which pays for outpatient care such as physician services, durable medical equipment, home health visits and preventive services -- and beneficiaries cover about 25% through premiums. Individuals with annual incomes that exceed $80,000 and married couples with annual incomes that exceed $160,000 pay higher premiums. According to the Post, the estimates in the report are "based on the rapidly growing deficit between what the program was expected to cost and the actual costs." For example, although Medicare trustees must include a scheduled 10% reduction in physician reimbursements in estimates of Part B premiums for 2008, the report assumes that Congress will reverse the scheduled reduction. Medicare Part B premiums have increased by 60% over the past five years, compared with 14% for Social Security COLA.

Comments
TREA Chair Ralph McCutchen said, "For years, we've been sounding the alarm bell that America's seniors are falling further and further behind, but we've never seen anything quite like these projections. If our annual Social Security increases get eaten up by just one part of Medicare, how are we supposed to keep up with the rising costs of everything from prescription drugs to home heating to groceries?" However, CMS spokesperson Jeff Nelligan said, "We believe a brief examination of the relevant data leads us to conclude that the situation for 2008 is not nearly so dire as portrayed in the TREA study" (Lipman, Palm Beach Post, 2/13). The report is available online.

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Expert Panel Formed on Solving Caregiving Crisis

Panel Will Participate in Consensus Conference Examining National Caregiver Training Standards From PRNewswire
February 12, 2007

The Caregiving Project for Older Americans announced the formation of a panel of national experts to develop new solutions for the growing crisis in caring for older adults. The project is a joint collaboration of the International Longevity Center-USA (ILC-USA) and the Schmieding Center for Senior Health & Education (SCSHE).

Growing numbers of people are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain affordable, quality care. At the same time as the available pool of family caregivers is shrinking, the caregiving industry is experiencing a severe, and worsening, shortage of paid professional caregivers. Low wages, few fringe benefits, unpleasant working conditions, emotional and physical burdens of the job and the lack of a real possibility for career development all contribute to the critical shortage of paid caregivers in the United States.

The expert panel, convened and led by co-project directors Dr. Robert Butler and Dr. Larry Wright, will consider what is known about the current state of affairs of professional and family home caregiving, particularly the preparedness and training of the caregivers; the growing need for more and better quality home-based care now and in the future; and the gaps between the available professional caregiver workforce and future needs.

The Caregiving Project for Older Americans has brought together representatives from a variety of fields including caregiving, geriatric medicine, nursing, health policy and social work to serve on the expert panel. Panel member Gail Gibson Hunt, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving, also serves as Senior Advisor on the project.

~ Dr. Marie A. Bernard, Chairman, Donald W. Reynolds Department of
~ Dr. Claudia Beverly, Director, University of Arkansas for Medical
~ Dr. Jeremy Boal, Director, Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program
~ Dr. John Crews, Lead Scientist, Disability and Health Team, National
~ Steven L. Dawson, President, Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
~ Dr. Linda Emanuel, Director, Buehler Center on Aging, Northwestern
~ Lynn Friss Feinberg, Deputy Director, National Center on Caregiving,
~ Claudia Fine, Chief Professional Officer, SeniorBridge Family Companies
~ Mary Jo Gibson, Senior Policy Advisor, AARP Public Policy Institute
~ Rick Greene, Aging Program Specialist, U.S. Department of Health and
~ Gail Gibson Hunt, President and CEO, National Alliance for Caregiving; Senior Advisor to The Caregiving Project for Older Americans
~ Dr. Robert Kane, Professor and Minnesota Chair in Long-Term Care and Aging, Health Policy & Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
~ Carole Levine, Director, United Hospital Fund, Families and Health Care Project
~ Dr. Diane E. Meier, Director, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, Mount Sinai Medical Center
~ Dr. Jeanette Takamura, Dean, Columbia University School of Social Work
~ Dr. Sandra Timmermann, Director, MetLife Mature Market Institute

"The knowledge and experience of this stellar group of experts will contribute immeasurably to the effort to improve caregiving for older adults," said Dr. Robert Butler, president and CEO of the ILC-USA and co-director of the project. "Each member's expertise will inform the projects consideration of legislation, regulations, and practices that will shape the future of caregiving in America."

A consensus conference, to be held in late March, will be the first official gathering of the group. The one-day conference will examine existing caregiver training programs and explore the development of national training standards for in- home caregiver, both family and paid professionals.

"There is an urgent need for the professional training of family, volunteer, and in-home paid caregivers," says Dr. Larry Wright, director of the SCSHE and co-director of the project. "At present, there is no nationally accepted caregiver curriculum- this an impediment to ensuring an adequate supply of quality care in the United States."

The Caregiving Project for Older Americans is sponsored by the generous support of Schmieding Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Amgen Foundation and Pfizer, Inc.

About The Caregiving for Older Americans Project

The Caregiving Project for Older Americans is an action-oriented collaboration that aims to improve the nation's caregiving work force through training, the establishment of standards, and the creation of a career ladder. A joint venture of the International Longevity Center-USA (ILC-USA) and the Schmieding Center for Senior Health & Education (SCSHE), the effort combines the talents of a policy research center with a clinical outpatient and health education program. To learn more about the project visit http://www.ilcusa.org/prj/caregiving.htm.

About the International Longevity Center- USA

The International Longevity Center-USA (ILC- USA) is a research policy organization in New York City and has sister centers in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Led by Dr. Robert N. Butler, a world renowned physician specializing in geriatrics, the Center is a non-for-profit, non-partisan organization with a staff of economists, medical and health researchers, demographers and others who study the impact of population aging on society. The ILC-USA focuses on combating ageism, healthy aging, productive engagement and the financing of old age. The ILC- USA is an independent affiliate of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is incorporated as a tax-exempt 501(c) (3) entity. More information on the ILC-USA can be found at http://www.ilcusa.org

About the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education of Northwest Arkansas

The Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education of Northwest Arkansas (SCSHE), located in Springdale, Arkansas, provides older adults and their families with education, healthcare, information resources and other services for more positive aging. Education services include unique in-home caregiver training programs, public programs on positive aging, and professional programs to improve the geriatric expertise of healthcare professionals and students. Healthcare services include comprehensive clinical care and rehabilitation by an interdisciplinary team of geriatric professionals. The Schmieding Center is a partnership of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, the Area Health Education Center-Northwest, and Northwest Health System. More information on SCSHE is available at http://www.schmiedingcenter.org.

SOURCE: The Caregiving Project for Older Americans