By Thomas Goldsmith North Carolina’s senior centers have for decades offered havens of company, support and education for older people but had to adapt most of those roles during the pandemic that hit the over-65 population especially hard. As the state’s more than 160 centers reopen this year with the ongoing COVID-19 disease still a […]
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Posted inAging
NC senior centers use holidays to reunite the lonely, combat continuing peril of COVID
By Thomas Goldsmith In January, staff and volunteers at a Wendell senior center were already making plans for this December’s holiday fest for members, one that would make up for a COVID-canceled event last Christmas. It still took 30 volunteers and two staff people the better part of a year to assemble and present this […]
Posted inMedicare
More than 2 million NC enrollees face crucial choices for 2023 Medicare coverage
By Thomas Goldsmith With a Dec. 7 deadline approaching, North Carolinians older than 65 are dealing with choices for 2023 between health insurance coverage under traditional Medicare or for one of 150 options on a growing list of privately run Medicare Advantage plans statewide. Readers whose minds reel just from reading those terms likely have […]
Posted inAging
Declining tech literacy among older adults can put them at a disadvantage
By Thomas Goldsmith As tech-literate adults age, older people in North Carolina and elsewhere are feeling more at home with computers these days. But as technology becomes increasingly complex, these same people often run into problems using smartphones, according to national numbers and leaders of Tar Heel senior centers. Nationally, about three in four people […]
Posted inAging
Health Care Half Hour – The future of nursing homes
by Thomas Goldsmith As the long term care system emerges from COVID will we see better care in these facilities? What are the cracks that the COVID pandemic revealed in the U.S.’ system of care for the most vulnerable and what steps can be taken to improve the system? This spring, the National Academies of […]
Posted inAging
After hit from Covid-19, NC’s adult day care centers push state for long-sought equal treatment in rates
By Thomas Goldsmith A retiree at 75, Melvin P. often rises in the morning to find the adult daughter he lives with has already left for work. Jamaica-born Winston-Salem resident Melvin understands why he’s left alone by his daughter’s need to meet her needs as well as his. But the situation makes him appreciate his […]
