The Ventura Townehouse hosted a “Bling” Bingo Scholarship Fund Raiser event for Philanthropic Education Organization (P.E.O.) to benefit Ventura’s graduating senior high school girls. They packed the “House” with residents and was open to the public showering them with gifts, baskets, cash and a grand prize for most bling. This fun event raised over $2,000.00 for a Ventura area high school student. www.venturatownehouse.com

In collaboration with the Ventura County Adult Abuse Prevention Council (VCAAPC), Cypress Place Senior Living in Ventura presented a fun, free and educational program on avoiding senior scams.

The Stop Senior Scams (SM) Acting Program used theater to dramatize senior scams. Members of the troupe, ranging in age from 60 – 97 years-old, write and perform skits based on their own personal experiences. It is a memorable way to equip those who are vulnerable with the knowledge they need to protect themselves.

​Using popular songs like the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, “Getting to Know You “, from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “The King and I”, Abba’s “Money, Money, Money”, and the Supremes “Stop in the Name of Love”, the troupe brings theatricality, laughter and excitement to a commonly frightening and frustrating topic.

The program was founded in 1997 by director Adrienne Omansky who was a teacher of older adults and adults with disabilities.  The Stop Senior Scams (SM) Acting Program has been recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives and the California State Assembly, according to Nancy Cole, an eldercare manager and board member of VCAAPC.

Omansky stated “ On March 7 , I testified  for the U.S Special Committee on Aging about the effectiveness of this Peer to Peer Education Program.  The program started nine years ago and comments from seniors have been collected and reported in my testimony. I learned that

anyone can be a victim regardless of education, race, gender, national origin, or social economic background.  Seniors are more likely to tell their peers they have been scammed than family members including their spouses.  I have learned that seniors often do not know where to report scams to. I have learned the senior scams are grossly under reported.  I learned that residents in Assisted Living Facilities are specially vulnerable to scams.”

Also on hand during the event were vendors who provide a variety of services to the senior population. Attendees asked questions and received materials from these corporate sponsors.

The Ventura County Adult Abuse Prevention Council is a not-for-profit service organization dedicated to the prevention of elder and dependent adult abuse. To learn more about VCAAPC please visit their web site at vcaapc.org.

This program took place on October 11, from 1:30p.m. to 3:30p.m. at Cypress Place Senior Living , located at 1200 Cypress Point Lane.

by Jennifer Tipton

Joan Lucas has worked hard all her life, she managed a training program for many years with Budget Rental Car and at 64, she started her own business. She worked 7 days/week taking only one Monday off per month to “sleep and recover – I am not a deadbeat!” she said. Collecting social security at 65, she continued working. And by age 68, “I was making money hand over fist!” But in 2007, she suffered severe injuries inflicted by her mentally ill son that required extensive hospitalization and rehabilitation.

In 2008, “the economy went to pieces, but I continued to work through the year and I broke even”. It was obvious to her that the next year would be worse, so she “folded”. Joan says that sixteen years ago, the amount of social security she received was enough to live on but, “prices kept climbing!” She tells me she did get a 3% increase in her social security, but her bills went up by 5% – three years in a row. “My income has not kept up with the economy”, she simply stated, “I’ve outlived my friends of 50-60 years and I’ve outlived my money”.

Joan was recently renting a room here in Ventura and reports, “I think this must have been the first time this woman rented a room in her home because it came as a surprise to her that I might want a little space in the refrigerator or to do some light cooking”. She adds, she was not allowed to “drag her oxygen around”. Joan has COPD(Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). She wasn’t allowed to bathe everyday either and her landlord was angry because the oxygen made the electric bill go up.

Joan had until October 3rd to find a new place to live. Her registered service dog, Jackie has been her companion for ten years, but potential landlords only hear “dog”. Affordable Housing requires a minimal income and she didn’t meet the criteria… Joan confessed, “I was hugely terrified!”

Just one day before Joan and Jackie would have ended up on the street, she found Cindy Wilson with Gabriel’s House in Oxnard. Residents there are from 3 months to 81 years of age and the program is like our City Center Transitional Living in Ventura. Cindy shares, “Joan had a cool journey to find us, she is as much an asset to the house as we are for her”. Gabriel’s House has a fundraiser coming up on October 26th called “Operation Hope”, it is an event to end the cycle of homelessness. For more information on Gabriel’s House and the Operation Hope event visit: Gabriels-House.org

Joan confides, “I see all of this as a way to make us aware that homeless people are not necessarily who we perceive them to be”.

Joan Lucas has also written a children’s book, “Jackie: A Dog’s Tale” available on Amazon.

An important message on Medicare Annual Election Period (AE) or known as Medicare Open Enrollment for Plan Year 2019 Medicare: Open Enrollment/One Stop Shops is from October 15 – December 7, 2018.

Stay with your current plan if it meets your needs. You can look for a new one with better coverage, higher quality and lower cost. Fill-out a Worksheet for a Comparison of Prescription Drug Plan for Medicare, Medi-Cal and Medicare Advantages. Please add name, dosage and how many times a day you take the prescription drug as it needs to be on the back of the form.

You can mail to 646 County Square Drive, #100, Ventura, 93003 or fax the form to HICAP, (805) 477-7341. Registered HICAP volunteers will select the top three plans with the least expensive cost. After the comparison is completed, you will get a phone call saying it is ready for you to walk into a location of your choice if needed. For more information, please call HICAP: 800-434-0222, 805-477-7310 or the Spanish line 805-477-7351.

The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging’s LIVEWell resource guide earned recognition from the 27th annual National Mature Media Awards, which honors the nation’s best marketing, communications, educational materials, and programs produced for older adults.

LIVEWell was established in 2017 to serve as the premiere resource guide for the more than 175,000 Ventura County residents 60 and over, individuals with disabilities, and their caregivers. A redesign of the former Eldercare guide, LIVEWell provides information through feature stories, resource listings, and news shorts that focus on important topics that range from insurance fraud, to financial wellness, balanced nutrition, caregiver support, legal information, and methods of maintaining an active lifestyle.

LIVEWell was selected for a Merit award for design and content by a distinguished panel of judges from across the United States.

The 2018-19 issue of LIVEWell will be available in October and is fully integrated to include content in both English and Spanish.

“The VCAAA is honored to receive this recognition and is proud of the impact LIVEWell has made on the community,” said Victoria Jump, Director of the VCAAA. “The VCAAA is dedicated to providing a thoroughly vetted and easily accessible tool that addresses the needs of the growing and diverse population served by the Agency. Having a guide that meets the needs of both the English and Spanish-speaking populations sets a new standard for how we communicate with our clients.”

For more information, or to receive a copy of LIVEWell, call (805) 477-7300 or visit www.vcaaa.org.

The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, an agency of the County of Ventura, is the principal agency in Ventura County charged with the responsibility to promote the development and implementation of a comprehensive coordinated system of care that enables older individuals, individuals with disabilities, and their caregivers to live in a community-based setting and to advocate for the needs of those 60 years of age and older in the county, providing leadership and promoting citizen involvement in the planning process as well as in the delivery of services.

by Jayson Cohen American Legacy Solutions

Achieving a high income and net worth is half the battle in the quest for financial security. The other half is trying to keep and grow your assets once you have them. While this latter half is perhaps a nice problem to have, it has been the cause of many a headache.

One problem some people make is the proverbial “putting all of their eggs in one basket.”  In the investing world, even just putting too many eggs in too few baskets can be enough to sink a financial battleship. Too often, people make this mistake in a misguided effort to go all in on chasing maximum returns.

Conventional wisdom does indeed hold that you have to accept higher risk in order to get higher returns and, accordingly, have to accept lower returns in order to lower your risk. However, there are a couple of quite serious problems with this logic, common though it may be. For starters, it is almost impossible to predict with certainty which investments will flourish in the future and which ones will tank.

It is not as though anyone ever sets out to have their financial goals torpedoed by a bad investment, but, no matter how sound a plan may seem at the outset, there is always at least some chance that it could go awry. If a particular investment makes up even as little as 20 percent of your portfolio and crashes, it can take your financial goals and security down with it. Fortunately enough, this reality does not have to doom investors to rolling the Wall Street dice as best they can and then sweating out results over numerous sleepless nights.

The concept of financial diversification is actually old enough to have been referenced in a Shakespeare play, “The Merchant of Venice,” four centuries ago. In the 1950s, Harry Markowitz, an academic researcher, articulated modern portfolio theory. His research uncovered the insight that putting together a portfolio of investments that did not all correlate with each other had the effect of reducing the variability (risk) of the portfolio without giving up returns.

In other words, as long as all of your investments do not tend to rise and fall in value at the same time, your portfolio could be effectively insulated from catastrophic losses while still set up for strong long-term gains. Accordingly, diversifying your investments across numerous (thousands) of companies prevents you from having to worry about whether one or even several of them will collapse. Even though it could happen, it could be on a small enough scale that it will not hurt you.

Undoubtedly, these realizations explain much about why it is so difficult for even professional investors to beat the returns of broad indexes like the S&P 500.  Diversification is sometimes described as the only free lunch in finance.  Accordingly, as simple as it sounds, the best approach, by far, that you can take once you have otherwise reached a high income or net worth is to put your investment money in broadly diversified funds and leave the anxiety to those prone to over-thinking things.

Allow us to take a look at your retirement plan and assess the amount of risk you currently have.  You should be confident your plan will make it through any potentially volatile years to come.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/27/diversification-the-oldest-trick-in-the-investment-book.html

If you have a choice of where to get your groceries, pick a store that is clean and well supplied. If it is also busy, the stock is probably more likely to turn over quickly.

Many people say a successful trip to the grocery store starts with a shopping list. Throughout the week, try to keep a list of food and supplies you need. Keeping to a list helps you follow a budget because you will be less likely to buy on impulse. A prepared grocery list will help you choose healthy types of foods.

When making your shopping list, check your staples. Staples are nice to have around if you can’t go grocery shopping.

A trip to the grocery store can be a chore for anyone, but as you get older, you might have some new reasons for not going. For example, getting around a big food store might be difficult. What can you do?

Some stores have motorized carts, which you can use.

Ask if there is an employee who can help you reach things or push your cart.

If your store has a pharmacy department, you might find a seat there if you get tired.

Plan to shop at a time of day when you are rested.

If it’s a busy grocery store, try to pick a time when it might not be so crowded; that way you won’t have to stand in a long check-out line.

If you don’t have enough energy to walk around a shop looking for the ingredients for your meal then you can get the food delivered to your door. All you have to do is cook it! Check out this Sun Basket Review & $100 Promo Code if it’s something you would be interested in.

Check with your local Area Agency on Aging to see if there are volunteers in your area who can help.

If you can find a farmers’ market or vegetable stand nearby during the growing season, fruits and vegetables might cost less than in the grocery store. Local Harvest can also direct you to farmers’ markets in your area.

You might also be able to get some help from the federal government to pay for vegetables and fruits from farmers’ markets through the Seniors F armers’ Market Nutrition Program. They provide coupons you can use at farmers’ markets and roadside stands.

For More Information on Shopping for Healthy Foods

Local Harvest
www.localharvest.org

National Association of Area Agencies on Aging
1-202-872-0888
[email protected]
www.n4a.org

National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs
1-202-682-6899
www.nanasp.org

Eldercare Locator
1-800-677-1116 (toll-free)
https://eldercare.acl.gov

Fall is in full swing, meaning colorful foliage, delicious pumpkin treats, and—perhaps best of all—cooler weather! While you may be celebrating the end of an unbearable summer, it’s important to remember that cooler weather can also mean greater risk of getting sick.

Here’s a list of four vaccines that Medicare helps pay for and that you should talk with your doctor about to help protect yourself from illness this winter and beyond.

Influenza Vaccine:Why is it important for older adults to get the flu shot? Older adults—even if you are healthy—are at higher risk when it comes to the flu due to age-related weakening of our immune systems, making it more difficult for us to fight off disease.

The flu vaccine is a once a year, cost-free Medicare Part B benefit. For Original Medicare, you must use a physician or healthcare provider who accepts Medicare, and for Medicare Advantage, you may have to use an in-network doctor or pharmacy.

Shingles Vaccine: Shingles is a painful skin rash that’s caused by the same virus responsible for chickenpox. Shingles is less contagious than chickenpox, and can only be passed on to another person up until the point when the infected person’s blisters begin to scab. Even after shingles passes, long-term pain can linger.

Researchers believe that the age-related weakening of our immune systems can trigger the “reawakening” of the dormant chickenpox virus.

All Medicare Part D drug plans, or Medicare Advantage plans that include prescription coverage, typically cover the shingles vaccine.

Pneumococcal Vaccine: Pneumococcal disease causes severe infections throughout the bloodstream and/or key organs. While you may not have heard of pneumococcal disease, you have probably heard of the conditions that result from this disease, including pneumonia and meningitis.

The pneumococcal vaccine is a cost-free benefit covered by Medicare Part B. For Original Medicare, you must use a physician or healthcare provider who accepts Medicare, and for Medicare Advantage, you may have to use an in-network doctor or pharmacy.

Hepatitis B Vaccine: What is the hepatitis B virus? Hepatitis B (or hep B) is a contagious virus that infects the liver. Acute hep B, which usually lasts a few weeks, often mimics symptoms similar to the flu, like fever and nausea. Chronic hep B is long-term, often has no symptoms at all, and can cause liver damage or death.

Why is it important for older adults to get the hepatitis B vaccine? The liver and its function change as you age, making hep B more prevalent among older adults. Your risk of contracting hepatitis B increases if you have hemophilia, end-stage renal disease (ESRD), diabetes, or other conditions that lower resistance to infection. Acute hep B is particularly dangerous for older adults because there is no specific treatment for the symptoms.

Make a plan to get vaccinated today!

Getting these vaccines is an important part of healthy aging, and they also help ensure the health of your friends and family. Call your doctor today to see if these vaccines are right for your health, and then check with your Medicare provider about where you can get them. If you know someone who may not be vaccinated, share this information with them so they can take the next step toward protecting themselves.

Want to help your community while also helping yourself? Then consider becoming one of RSVP’s trained, certified Tai Chi: Moving for Better Balance instructors.

Training for new volunteer instructors is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, October 12 and 13. The program provides active retirees a way to serve their community through teaching the free classes while also improving their own balance and staying fit.

The two-day training, led by the Master Trainer, will be held in Camarillo, but volunteers can teach in any of Oxnard RSVP’s 12-week classes in the four west county cities served (Oxnard, Camarillo, Ventura and Pt. Hueneme).

After training, volunteers must practice at least 30 hours before being certified to teach; often those trained practice together for support. Attendance at quarterly in-services will be required of volunteers.

No experience is necessary, but volunteers must be age 55 or older and make a six-month commitment to teach three hours per week. Since instructors work as teams, time away for illness or short vacations is possible.

For more information on the instructor training or to make an appointment to be interviewed for the position, please call 805-385-8023. There are currently three Ventura classes and two each in Oxnard and Camarillo.

A federal grant received by the City of Oxnard and its RSVP program funds the free exercise classes, which follow curriculum developed at the Oregon Research Institute (in Oregon) where studies showed improved strength and balance, increased mobility and reduced incidence of falls among seniors who participated in the classes.

Classes consist of a core eight-form routine of Yang-style Tai Chi with built-in exercise variations. It teaches participants balance skills and good body alignment by using coordinated and flowing movements. The classes are intended for adults age 60 and older who can walk easily with or without assistive devices.

RSVP is a volunteer recruitment and placement program, helping people 55 and older find volunteer positions that match their interests, talent and available time.  The Oxnard RSVP has almost 575 members and is sponsored by the City of Oxnard.  To learn more about being an RSVP member or to discuss other volunteer opportunities, call 805-385-8023.