by Carol Leish, MA

On August 18, 2022, Ventura County’s Area Agency on Aging hosted one of their monthly seminars through Zoom reflecting upon Brain Health & Wellness. Today’s seminar, Caregiver Resources, focused on what is offered within Ventura County to assist caregivers.

Moderator, Maureen Hodge, LCSW, High Risk Program Manager for Care Connections (Community Memorial Health System), said that, “Caregivers are the backbone of our community.”

Blair Barker, Care Services Director at the Camarillo Health Care District said that, “Over 20% of the population here in Ventura County are caregivers. Most are women. And, many are caregivers for older adults. 36% of caregivers within the county say that being a caregiver is at least slightly stressful for them.”

“Senior Concerns in Thousand Oaks offers many services for caregivers,” according to Martha Shapiro, Director of Programs. “Our caregiver support groups help caregivers to get rid of their feeling of being alone. With others they realize that tears are permitted and humor is encouraged.

“Besides offering support groups,” Shapiro said, “we also offer legal and financial aid for free. We have an Adult Day Care Center on site. We mainly serve the east county: Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and Westlake. We are here to help people throughout Ventura County.” For further information from Senior Concerns, contact Martha Shapiro at: (805) 497-0189 or, [email protected].

“The Camarillo Health Care District serves Camarillo, unincorporated Camarillo, and Somis, along with other cities within Ventura County that request help,” according to, Barker. “We also offer support groups for caregivers. We have a resource library to help out people. The legal and financial aid that we offer helps caregivers with assistance of doing a Durable Power of Attorney; Advanced Health Care Directive, and Estate Planning. We also offer screening of caregivers for depression & caregivers well-being.” For further information from the Camarillo Health Care District, contact Blair Barker at: (805) 388-1952 or, [email protected].

“The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging (VC AAA) offers, TCARE (Tailored Caregiver Assistance & Referral),” according to, Haleh Hashemzadeh, Clinical Program Operations Manager. “We also offer a variety of support for caregivers who are helping people who are older or who are disabled. Assessing the caregivers’ needs enables us to better assist them” For more information from the VC AAA, contact Haleh Hashemzadeh at: (805) 477-7300 or, [email protected].

Dementia Friendly Ventura County will be presenting: ‘Living Well, Caring Well’ on September 7^th, 2022 from 10am-12pm at the Camarillo Healthcare District which is located at 3639 E. Las Posas Rd. in Camarillo. The event, which will be a one-stop shop for people living with dementia-related disease and their caregivers will be in back of building F. Important local resources will be displayed, along with the opportunity to speak to industry professionals in person. You’ll be able to learn about services provided at various places: Adult Day Centers; Adult Protective Services; Alzheimer’s Association; Financial Resources; Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy; Legal/Advanced Planning; Long Term Care Ombudsman; and, Public Benefit Programs (Medi-CAL & Cal Fresh).

For more information about the upcoming Living Well, Caring Well event, call: (800) 272-3900 or look at the Dementia Friendly Ventura County website at: vcaaa.org/dfvc.

Ventura County Parkinson’s Support Group gets together every month with skilled, experienced professionals who present significant breakthroughs, strategies and related issues surrounding Parkinson’s. The group’s mission is for participants to better understand and talk about how this information impacts their own lives and affects immediate family members. In addition to those diagnosed with PD, caregivers, family members and friends are all welcome to attend free of charge. Next meeting: Tuesday, August 16.

More than just a meeting, all discussions/presentations offer interactive, compassionate, relevant education on PD. Topics range from “How to get up off the floor when you’ve fallen,” to “Nutrition and Parkinson’s” to “The benefits of deep brain stimulation and assessing if you’re a good candidate for DBS.”

Jon Everhart, retired accountant, US Marine and regular group attendee said, “It’s nice comparing treatments, symptoms, and the challenges we all face living with Parkinson’s.” This caring group empowers people like Jon to be more proactive and to participate in deciding the direction of his treatment, complemented by his team of doctors’ suggestions.

This unique group gives everyone a great opportunity to learn more about current PD research, to gain more awareness about local help and resources, to share relevant experiences with others — and to have fun along the way.

The Ventura County Parkinson’s Support Group was recently resurrected (post-Covid) by Dr. Vanessa White, owner of Ventura County Neurofitness (a local fitness program designed specifically for those with Parkinson’s and other neurological degenerative diseases). The impetus for her assuming this responsibility was after her mother-in-law, Toy White, was diagnosed several years ago with PD. This important, special group was born upon her passing.

This month, Joe Richardson, Vietnam Marine Veteran, will be presenting information regarding Veterans’ benefits and local resources available to veterans and their families.

Meetings are held monthly on the Third Tuesday, 10-11am, at Crosspointe Church (5415 Ralston).

by Patricia Schallert

There are many seniors among us who have lived and continue to live lives that can be considered “success stories”…. Let’s meet Royce Hill , a retired teacher from LAUSD and see how she sees it.

After twenty years with the Los Angeles Unified School District, Royce, a young 69 years old, retired before moving to Ventura six years later. Royce had spent 30 years visiting friends in Ventura before deciding that it would be a good place to retire. Born in Taft, California, growing up in San Fernando Valley, after high school Royce traveled the world and lived in Italy for fourteen years.

Upon returning to the States, Royce went back to school at Pierce College and then California State University, Northridge, where she received first a degree in graphic design and then a visual art teaching credential.

As Royce’s career in the classroom flourished, she found herself moving from Classroom Art Teacher to an Assistant Principal at secondary schools in Los Angeles.

After twenty years in education it was time to hit the beach! So, Royce and her husband John moved to their little beach house in Ventura and traded the freeways for flip flops! Royce’s favorite part about retirement is “lingering over coffee in the morning” and “not dashing out of the house” before the classroom bells ring. She enjoys the “endless summers’ that retirement offers and keeps busy with her Etsy shop Two Vintage Hens. www.etsy.com/shop/TwovintageHens.

Some of the major values or principles that Royce sees now as a retired person are to “always treat others as you would like to be treated”

Editor: If you are a senior, or know of one, who would like to share their retirement, or job, with us let us know at [email protected].

Aging BiologyClinical ResearchFrailtyPhysical Activity

Some people perform incredible feats of strength and endurance well into their retirement years. The great news is: You don’t have to bench press 300 pounds or run a marathon to show off the benefits of strength training.

NIA-supported researchers have been studying the effects of strength training for more than 40 years and have identified multiple ways it can benefit older adults, including maintaining muscle mass, improving mobility, and increasing the healthy years of life.

Age-related mobility limitations are a fact of life for many older adults. Studies have shown that about 30% of adults over age 70 have trouble with walking, getting up out of a chair, or climbing stairs. In addition to making everyday tasks difficult, mobility limitations are also linked to higher rates of falls, chronic disease, nursing home admission, and mortality.

A big culprit for losing our physical abilities as we grow older is the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, which is called sarcopenia. Typically, muscle mass and strength increase steadily from birth and reach their peak at around 30 to 35 years of age. After that, muscle power and performance decline slowly and linearly at first, and then faster after age 65 for women and 70 for men. Those findings come from NIA’s Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) — the longest-running study of human aging — which pioneered a series of simple tests decades ago, known as the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), to track mobility and muscle performance. The SPPB measures an individual’s balance, walking speed, and ability to get out of a chair five times, and then rates that person on a scale of zero to four.

However, such average decline of strength and power with aging can be substantially slowed down by maintaining an active lifestyle. While there is no way to fully “stop the clock,” it’s possible for many older adults to increase muscle strength with exercise, which can help maintain mobility and independence into later life.

NIA scientist Eric Shiroma, Sc.D., has studied the science of exercise for years and is an advocate of activities that add an extra challenge in our daily routines, such as turning a walk into “rucking,” which means wearing a weighted vest or backpack while exercising. He notes that a big key to understanding the range of responses to exercise is knowing how and why our bodies change with age and, perhaps more importantly, how and why these changes can vary from person to person.

“As we get older, there are inevitable functional and biological limitations that can cap exercise endurance, maximum strength, and fitness,” said Shiroma. “Some of these limitations can be slowed down through an active lifestyle that includes strength training. However, it is difficult to study these limits in normal day-to-day life. Studies such as the BLSA are special because scientists can test these limits in the clinic. For example, to test strength and endurance, study participants may be asked to walk or run on a treadmill, or climb stairs, for as long as they can comfortably continue. There are also genetic and environmental components to how people respond to physical challenges and exercise.”

By studying people’s limits and variability, researchers aim to provide older adults with evidence-based advice on how regularly moving and challenging their muscles may help increase their years of optimal health.

Imagine being able to look inside the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease and see the changes that are interfering with that person’s thinking, memory, and other important brain functions. Scientists working in the field of neuropathology are doing just that. Neuropathology is the study of diseases of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves through analyzing tissues removed during autopsy or biopsy. This analysis is central to research on Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

To understand more about the causes of Alzheimer’s and related dementias, NIA-funded researchers across the country are making connections between what happens while a person is alive and what can be seen in their brain after death. One such effort is the Religious Orders Study (ROS) and Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP), referred to collectively as ROSMAP. For more than 25 years, ROSMAP has collected a combination of lifestyle and autopsy information that makes it a powerful resource for researchers around the world to study aging and dementia risk and progression.

ROSMAP researchers are discovering important clues about factors that may offer some protection from cognitive decline and dementia. According to ROSMAP autopsy data, nearly one third of older adults in the study who died have the amyloid plaques and tau tangles associated with Alzheimer’s but did not have any signs of cognitive decline. The ROSMAP study also found that eating the MIND diet — which focuses on plant-based foods and limits red meat, sweets, and saturated fats — helps to preserve cognition even in the presence of some Alzheimer’s pathology. Building on these results, researchers continue to study diet and other lifestyle factors that may help lower the risk or slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

Good drivers are alert, think clearly, and make good decisions. When people with Alzheimer’s disease are not able to do these things, they should stop driving. But some people may not want to stop driving or even think there is a problem.

As the caregiver, you must talk with the person about the need to stop driving. Do this in a caring way. Understand how unhappy the person may be to admit that he or she has reached this new stage.

Safety First

People with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease should never get behind the wheel. People with very mild Alzheimer’s may be able to drive safely in certain conditions. But as memory and decision-making skills worsen, they need to stop because a driver with dementia may not be able to react quickly when faced with a surprise on the road. Someone could get hurt or killed. If the person’s reaction time or ability to focus slows, you must stop the person from driving.

Signs that the person should stop driving include:

• New dents and scratches on the car
• Taking a long time to do a simple errand and not being able to explain why, which may indicate the person got lost
• Two or more traffic tickets or increased car insurance premiums
• Comments from friends and neighbors about driving
• Speeding or sudden lane changes
• Confusing the brake and gas pedals
• Recommendations from a doctor to modify driving habits
• Other health issues that may affect driving ability, such as changes in vision, hearing, or mobility.
• Driving safety infographic icon
• Read and share this infographic if you are worried about a loved one’s safety on the road.
• Some people with memory problems decide on their own not to drive, while others may deny they have a problem.

State laws vary regarding when a person with Alzheimer’s should stop driving. In some States, doctors are required to report to the State’s Department of Motor Vehicles whether a person has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia. In others, anyone can report a potentially unsafe driver to the State. Check with your State’s Department of Motor Vehicles for more information. You may need to notify the person’s car insurance company, too.

It is a good idea to have the person’s driving skills assessed regularly by a professional. The American Occupational Therapy Association maintains a national database of driving specialists, or you can ask your State’s Department of Motor Vehicles or the person’s doctor to recommend someone who can test the person’s driving skills. Note that there may be fees associated with these types of assessments.