THE WORCESTER SENIOR CENTER
INVITES YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR

OSTEOPOROSIS PREVENTION
EXERCISE & NUTRITION PROGRAM

Register Now for Classes Starting February 24, 2012

Tuesday’s 1 -2:00 and Friday’s 11:00 – 1:00
(12-week session -you must attend both days)

This program can help to prevent and
may even reverse Osteoporosis by:

• Building Bone Density
• Improve Balance
• Strengthen & Improve Posture
• Enhance Energy & Well-being

A Certified Exercise Trainer will teach specific weight bearing exercise &
a Registered Nutritionist will guide and educate you in proper diet and supplements.

Please call 508-799-8062 for information and registration

The Program is funded in part by Title III of the Older Americans Act via the Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs.

I am happy to announce that The Senior Focus, the show I host, can be heard not only on the radio but also seen on television. The simulcast of The Senior Focus will allow the listening audience to tune in every Saturday morning at 11:00 AM on WTAG – True Talk Radio -- 580 AM or 94.9 FM and it will also allow viewers to watch The Senior Focus every Saturday morning at 11:00 AM on Charter TV3. These shows are aired live and listeners and viewers are encouraged to call their comments or questions into the show at 508-755-0058.

As the name implies, the show focuses on issues that are of concern to the senior population, their families, and their caregivers. Every Saturday morning, we are glad to provide helpful information that helps people in various areas of their lives. If someone in the listening or watching audience calls into the show, that caller will get free advice that they might be otherwise be forced to pay for. It is a rare Saturday when a caller simply can’t get through to the show because there are too many callers waiting to ask a question. But there have been times during the week when I have received a telephone call, a letter, or an e-mail and told that they simply couldn’t get through. The Senior Focus, sponsored by UMass Memorial Health Care, provides a wonderful community service and offers a tremendous resource to those who are willing to take advantage of it. The telephones at the station should be ringing off the hook every Saturday morning by an audience that takes advantage of this tremendous resource.

Almost every week, the show features an interesting guest that provides helpful information. Whether you have a question or concern about VA Benefits, MassHealth Benefits, Health Care issues, Nursing Homes, Assisted Living facilities, Basic Estate Planning (like Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, Health Care Proxies and Living Wills), Trusts, Social Security, Competency issues (including Guardianship and Conservatorship), housing issues and managing a move to downsized accommodations, you can be assured that The Senior Focus has covered such topics – and more.

Be Organized – Be Prepared kits are made available at no cost. The activities of many Central Massachusetts Senior Centers and Councils on Aging have been featured, as have various state agencies, Home Health Care Agencies, and Hospice Agencies. Physicians from UMass Memorial Medical Center are regularly featured as guests on The Senior Focus and they are happy to answer your questions as best as they can.

I encourage you to take advantage of The Senior Focus. It is free and airs at a convenient time - every Saturday morning at 11:00 AM. Elder & Disability Law Advocates is committed to serving the needs of the senior population, individuals with disabilities, their love ones and their caregivers. The topics covered on The Senior Focus are diverse and are aimed to accomplish just that, serve the needs of the senior population, individuals with disabilities, their love ones and their caregivers. Won’t you take advantage of this community service?

Please feel free to call Attorney Kaltsas in Worcester at 508-755-6525. Or listen to The Senior Focus and call your comments or questions into the show at 508-755-0058.

Presented by: ORIOL HEALTH CARE

Join our free and fun fitness program for seniors! Oriol Senior Fitness is a one-hour class providing exercise and education for any level participant! The goal of the class is heart and circulation health, strong flexible muscles, improved balance and yoga bliss! Oriol Health Care pays the cost of class instruction and materials to promote wellness and fitness for our community seniors! You will enjoy this experience and leave with a smile! Local classes have grown in popularity so come and join us and make a move towards wellness with Marty!

Class Schedule ~ Fall 2011
Day classes 10:00-11:00am
At the following COA offices:
Mondays ~ Sterling COA
Tuesdays ~ Princeton COA
Thursdays ~ Paxton COA
Fridays ~ Rutland COA

*NEW*
Evening Class 6:00-7:00pm
Wednesdays ~ West Boylston

Beginning 11-02-2011
All Oriol Senior Fitness Classes are free and open to the Senior Public.
Drop-ins welcome, Space may be limited

For more information:
Debby Westerback
Director of Community Relations
Oriol Health Care
Our Family Taking Care of Yours
508-829-1213 office 508-450-0900 mobile

Dodge Park Rest Home would like to invite you, the spouse, and/or the caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease to take part of our monthly support groups. The spousal support group is meeting on the first Tuesday of each month, and the children support group is meeting on the second Tuesday of each month. The meeting is taking place at Dodge Park Rest Home which is located at 101 Randolph Road, Worcester, MA between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Both support groups are FREE and open to the public.

Participation in a support group can be an empowering experience. The groups are designed to help members feel better prepared to cope with their unique situation. Support group members report feeling less alone, more able to confront their daily problems, and more hopeful about their future.

The Support Groups are facilitated by Elaine Kapperman LICSW, a trained professional and community member.

For more information, please contact Dodge Park Rest Home at (508)853-8180 or visit our web site at www.DodgePark.com.

Storytellers Katie Green and Bob Reiser celebrate heroes, heroines, scoundrels and the everyday folk who worked and traveled on America's railroads in the show, Hear that Whistle Blow: Stories of Steam and Steel. This performance appeals to any and all who are interested in trains.

These stories about America's railroads encourage listeners to tell stories of their own railroad experiences. “This program completely captivated our Briarwood residents,” says activity director Jane Johnston of Briarwood Continuing Care Retirement Community in Worcester, Massachusetts. “We talked about the stories and our own train rides for weeks afterwards. It was fantastic.”

Hear that Whistle Blow is perfect entertainment for railroad enthusiasts. Presented at the Railroad Hobby Show at the Eastern States Exposition in 2010, the show promises to delight historical societies, senior citizens and intergenerational audiences.

Katie Green, from Princeton, Massachusetts, is a national award winning storyteller. She has presented performances and workshops at the National Storytelling Conference and many storytelling festivals. Bob Reiser lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts. He tells stories throughout the United States and has appeared at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee.

This program was created with funding by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Funding for this program may be available through your Local Cultural Council.

Grab your hat and join us! ALLLLLLLLLLLLL Aboard!!!

Congressional Budget Cuts Force Reduced Public Hours

Effective August 15, 2011, the Social Security Offices in Massachusetts will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. - a reduction of 30 minutes each weekday.

While agency employees will continue to work their regular hours, this shorter public window will allow them to complete face-to-face service with the visiting public without incurring the cost of overtime. Congress provided Social Security with nearly $1 billion less than the President requested for the budget this fiscal year, which makes it impossible for the agency to provide the amount of overtime needed to handle service to the public as they have in the past.

Most Social Security services do not require a visit to an office. For example, anyone wishing to apply for benefits, sign up for direct deposit, replace a Medicare card, obtain a proof of income letter or inform them of a change of address or telephone number may do so at http://www.socialsecurity.gov or by dialing the toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may call the TTY number, 1-800-325-0778.

It is illegal to refuse to rent to someone because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability and family status.

If you have been denied an apartment or discouraged from looking at an apartment that you wanted to see, you may be experiencing housing discrimination.

For more information about your rights, please call:

Ines Beron Phone: 508/799-8486
Human Rights Outreach Office
Room 101, City Hall, 455 Main Street

Bringing the Book Group into Your Home Audio Journal is pleased to announce the first broadcast of “Speaking Volumes”, a book discussion program, bringing the fun and companionship of a reading group into the homes of Worcester County residents who are blind or vision-impaired. Every first Tuesday of the month, starting April 5th, “Speaking Volumes” will be broadcast from 8-9 p.m. and can be heard on special radios supplied by the agency, on cable access TV in 21 towns or streamed live on the Internet at audiojournal.net.

April’s book is “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. May’s title is “Remarkable Creatures” by Tracy Chevalier. Both books can be reserved for patrons of the Talking Book Library. Volunteers will discuss the book in Audio Journal’s studio and listeners can call in to the live program with their comments and opinions of the book. For more information about listening to the program please call Audio Journal 508-797-1117. Although broadcast primarily for a vision-impaired audience, this program will be appreciated by anyone who loves books and enjoys discussing them.

Since 1985 the Alzheimer's Association has worked with local service providers and family members to support the creation of local Partnerships. Each Partnership is a self sufficient task oriented alliance of health care and human service professionals, family members and other concerned individuals all working to increase and improve the availability of, and access to, local services through: education, coordination, development of new services, and advocacy. Each Partnership works closely with the Alzheimer's Association, helping the Association to be more responsive to local needs and in turn helping the Association with fundraising, advocacy efforts, etc.

The Greater Worcester Alzheimer’s Partnership meets every other month on the 4th Tuesday. Meetings begin promptly at noon and those wishing to network beforehand can arrive at 11:45am. Each meeting has a featured speaker and lunch is provided. The speaker presents for about 45 minutes and we allocate 15 minutes for information sharing at the end of the meeting. All meetings are held at the Worcester Senior Center, located at 128 Providence Street.

2011 Meeting Dates & Featured Speakers:

For more information about the Partnership, or if you are interested in sponsoring lunch for one of the meetings, please call the Alzheimer's Association at (508) 799-2386.

Date: September 21, 2010
To: Interested Parties
From: Timothy Burgers, Associate Director
RE: Home Care Agency Accreditation Upon careful review of their application, we have determined that Home Instead Senior Care Hearthside, Inc., of Northborough and Natick, MA, is in full compliance with all applicable standards and has been awarded Home Care Agency Accreditation by the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, Inc., for the period from August 10, 2010, to August 10, 2011.

Since the Commonwealth of Massachusetts does not have a Licensure regulation specific to private pay home health care agencies as such, the Home Care Alliance has created a Home Care Agency Accreditation program to establish operational and quality standards that are the equivalent of licensure in most other states. (The MA Division of Occupational Safety requires home care agencies to be licensed as Employment Agencies, albeit with special provisions, despite the fact that these agencies directly employ their workers.) The Home Care Alliance’s Accreditation program includes fourteen specific standards relating to:

• client rights
• client privacy and complaint procedures
• protections against abuse
• fair employment practices
• caregiver criminal background screening
• competency, training and supervision
• insurance coverage
• compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws.

If you have any questions about the Accreditation standards, we are confident that a representative from Home Instead Senior Care Hearthside will be able to assist you.

Please join Dodge Park Rest Home FREE Monthly Alzheimer's/dementia Support Group with Elaine Kapperman, LICSW on the second Tuesday of each month from 6pm-8pm. Refreshments will be provided. Our next support group meeting will take place on November 9, and every second Tuesday of the month thereafter.

The support group is FREE open to the public. Activity and supervision for the memory impaired individuals will be provided for free by The Day Club at Dodge Park personnel during the meeting. If you need this service please let us know at the time of your reservation.

Please RSVP to Debbie Williams or Judy Martin at (508) 853-8180. For more information visit Dodge Park web site at www.DodgePark.com

The LGBT Bereavement Support Group is the first state wide initiative to address loss in the LGBT community. The program is funded by the Department of Public Health and it is facilitated by Ethos, and elder service agency in Jamaica Plain and The LGBT Aging Project.

This initiative consists of six free LGBT Bereavement Groups each in different parts of the state. Each group will run for six consecutive weeks and will be led by a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in bereavement issues in the LGBT Community. The free group is open to any lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals who have experienced the loss of a loved one (family member, friend, partner/spouse).

Three agencies – Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging, Elder Services of Worcester Area Inc. and the Worcester Senior Center – have teamed up to create the Worcester LGBT Elder Network (WLEN). The Boston-based LGBT Aging Project gave the network the benefit of its many years in the LGBT aging field. WLEN was funded in part by a grant from the Greater Worcester Community Foundation’s GLBT Partnership Fund.

Why an LGBT elder network?

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender elders tend to age in isolation for a variety of reasons:

• Many LGBT elders who were previously out, think that when they need services they have to go back into the closet to be eligible for them.
• Many of them are estranged from their families of origin because of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression and have no one to help them in old age.
• Many gay men, especially, are alone because they have lost their families of choice (partners and networks of supportive friends) to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
• Like other elders, many single LGBT people have outlived their contemporaries, but unlike their straight counterparts they may be hesitant or afraid to ask others for help.

The current generation of elders experienced virulent discrimination as younger adults that required them to hide their orientation or gender identity or risk violence or loss of employment. Despite the myth about gay people having large disposable incomes, many LGBT seniors were unemployed or underemployed during their working years and have small or no savings to fall back on.

Partnered gay people, even if they were married here in Massachusetts, do not qualify for survivor benefits from Social Security because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The mainstream elder community has not typically welcomed people who are LGBT to programs at senior centers or meals sites. The same is true for long-term care facilities. Many agencies and institutions that work with elders are unprepared to incorporate LGBT seniors into their client base because of lack of training or lingering prejudice on the parts of administrators and staffs.

By contrast, the next generation of LGBT retirees, part of the so-called baby boom generation, is more accustomed to acceptance and to advocating for themselves. They have a different sense of entitlement than the generations who preceded them. At 80 million strong, the population of baby boomers is estimated to have from 1.6 million to 8 million LGBT people. Gay “boomers” are not as reticent about their sexual orientation or gender identity and expect social acceptance and respect in old age.

Same-sex marriage is now or will soon be allowed in five states: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. A sixth, Maine, passed a law allowing gay marriage, but voters will consider a challenge to it next month. A few other states and municipalities have laws that allow gay people to register their long-term partnerships through civil unions or domestic partnerships. LGBT elders whose relationships have been legally recognized in these ways expect them to be respected by providers of aging services.

14 October, 2004
West Boylston, MA

Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging (CMAA) is pleased to announce that Ashdown Technologies, Inc. (www.AshdownTech.com), SeniorConnection.org web manager and host, has offered to temporarily underwrite an expanded Connection for Caregivers. This generous offer came as CMAA was prepared to downsize the website due to lack of funding. According to a statement from Ashdown,

"Ashdown Technologies, Inc. is a web design and hosting company that has been working closely with CMAA since 1998. The Connection for Caregivers website, including it’s interactive components, was developed with personnel from both organizations working hand-in-hand to offer a unique tool that met the needs of caregivers and the people they so courageously support.

Because of the effort and time invested in this project, we were very sad when we learned earlier this year that funding had run out for the site. Knowing the unique benefits of the site and not wanting to see it disappear, we began discussing how we could help. We quickly decided that offering our capabilities at no-charge was the right thing to do. To that end, as of September 1st, Ashdown Technologies began donating the necessary Internet services to keep the Connection for Caregivers website moving forward in its entirety. It is our great pleasure to be able to help CMAA and the community that they serve so well."

The Board and Staff of Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging would like to thank Ashdown Technologies, Inc. for its generous support of this important effort to educate and assist caregivers of elders.

Your help, however, is still needed to keep the Connection for Caregivers going. For more information on how you can help, go to www.SeniorConnection.org, or call Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging at 508-852-5539V/TDD or 1-800-244-3032V/TDD.