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 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
To prevent senior deaths from falls, NC providers turn to exercise and home-proofing
By Thomas Goldsmith The family tragedy often unfolds something like this — Cousin Lily, who’s 88, falls at home in August and enters the hospital with a broken hip. By Thanksgiving, Lily is gone; dead following complications. People sometimes don’t realize that Lily could still be living and that older people, in general, can increase […]
Posted inDisabilities
Getting vaccine to homebound North Carolinians takes extra logistics, effort
By Rose Hoban A few days ago, Jay Smith and his wife, Yolanda, loaded up his wheelchair in the car and went down to the state Division of Motor Vehicles office near his Raleigh home to surrender his license. “You can’t do it by mail, you have to go there,” Jay Smith said. “It’s like […]
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 […]
