Protecting Against Telemarketing Schemes and Other Fraud
Senior citizens are commonly targeted by con artists and other fraud schemers. To help combat this problem, the FBI offers many tips for seniors to protect against telemarketing fraud, Medicare scams and other common schemes. Below is FBI material on senior fraud—to find out more, visit www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/seniors. Read more
An Age-Old Problem, Alcoholism, Also Hits the Aged
By Fred Cicetti
Q. My wife and I recently moved into a retirement community. I’ve noticed a lot of people I’d call alcoholics in this community. Do seniors drink more in these places?
Mostly Fun & Games for Seniors
By Linnea Covington
Sometimes you want to go where everyone knows your name—even if that place has nothing to do with drinking. Since its inception 10 years ago, the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side has offered beverages to the dozens of seniors who come on Mondays and Tuesdays to play a variety of games, but the Pepsi, seltzer and ginger ale aren’t why people come.
“I like the games and the people,” said 86-year-old Harry as he placed an “R” on the plastic board in front of him. “And other places don’t have Scrabble.”
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Get Wise to Scams Targeting Seniors
A few years ago, one of the residents of a West Side senior center began to sell their neighbors an alternative to Con Edison.
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Up With Seniors
City pushes to make the Upper East Side the place to be for seniors
The baby boom generation is about to get a new label: senior citizen. Over the next 20 years, New York City will experience a surge in residents over age 65. The city hopes to attract retirees and keep residents in place as they age, even as it battles budget constraints to care for the elderly population it already has. In the following pages, we look at the city’s plan for its older adults, talk to experts about the city’s successes and missteps in caring for seniors and learn what leading voices in the aging field think must happen if Gotham is going to be ready for its own graying residents.
New Ideas as Upper East Side Grows Older
The Upper East Side is home to a large and growing population of older New Yorkers. According to a profile that the Department for the Aging released in February of last year, 44,443 people over the age of 60 live within the boundaries of Community District 8, with 13,899 of them age 75 and older. That population accounts for over 20 percent of the entire community district, the highest percentage in Manhattan. In nearby East Harlem, there are 17,742 residents over age 60, about 15 percent of the population, and the neighborhood has been designated one of three Aging Improvement Districts in the city (the other neighborhoods are the Upper West Side and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn) as part of a pilot program of Age-Friendly NYC, sponsored by the mayor’s office, the City Council and the New York Academy of Medicine.
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Education on a Phone Wire
Twenty-two years ago, Myrna Shapiro opened up her local Long Island newspaper and discovered an ad for classes she could take at home over the phone. Since Shapiro was confined to a wheelchair, she immediately decided to try it.
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Hearts Aflutter
By Fred Cicetti
Q. Whenever I drink a little too much wine, I find that I wake up at night and my heart seems to race for a while. Can wine do that?
A. The short answer is yes. But first, it sounds as if you haven’t told a doctor about this. You should—immediately. What you’re describing could be atrial fibrillation. The risk of atrial fibrillation increases with age, particularly after 60.
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Where to Beat the Heat
Places to cool off when the temperature rises
New York City in the summer can actually be a wonderful place to be. People head out of town on vacation, the lines are shorter, the days are longer—the frantic pace seems to slow down a notch. There are outdoor programs, activities and spaces to enjoy. But with the season comes, at times, unforgiving heat that can be dangerous to the health of senior citizens.
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Help Even if You Haven’t ‘Fallen & Can’t Get Up’
New monitors offer medication reminders and help seniors monitor diseases
By Alan Krawitz
For Manhattan resident Tammy Lawrence, her health monitor is much more than a good idea; it provides her genuine peace of mind.
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