Experts advise children of aging parents who are reluctant to accept their help amid increasing infirmity to prioritize maintaining trust and a loving relationship, reports Kaiser Health New s. A 2018 Northwestern University study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society surveyed 68 older adults in eight focus groups and found various motivations for resisting help, including fear of losing independence, placing a burden on loved ones, being exploited, and losing control over their lives. Respondents favored "interdependence" — acknowledging that people need one another from childhood to older age — and perceived that "by accepting help, they were in turn helping the person providing the help." Experts recommend children practice patience and give parents time to adjust to the caregiving dynamic. Also essential is firmly establishing that they are on their parents' side, and to stop expecting that their parents will be as they used to be.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down a central provision of the Affordable Care Act, ruling that the requirement that people have health insurance was unconstitutional, reports the New York Times (Dec. 19, Goodnough). But the appeals panel did not invalidate the rest of the law, instead sending the case back to a federal district judge in Texas to "conduct a more searching inquiry" into which of the law's many parts could survive without the mandate. The 2-1 decision, by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, left the fate of the nearly decade-old health law in limbo. Republican state attorneys general from Texas and 17 other conservative-leaning states brought the latest court challenge to the healthcare law, and the Trump administration joined in. California and a group of Democratic-led states stepped in to defend the law. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said he would ask the Supreme Court to take up the case without waiting for further proceedings in order to "get clarity and certainty" on the healthcare law. For now, the ruling leaves intact access to health care for millions of Americans, who face the loss of coverage if the law is wiped out entirely. By leaving the law in limbo, the appeals court's decision will stoke further political debate.

A study of older adults published in BMJ Open suggests caring for grandchildren can stave off isolation, reports United Press International . More than 1,100 of roughly 3,900 polled grandparents cared for a grandchild, and those with grandchildren to care for had lower scores on loneliness and social isolation tests, and a bigger social network than those who did not care for grandchildren. Grandparents who did not care for a grandchild had higher loneliness scores and came into regular contact with fewer people important to them. Accounting for marital status, domestic arrangements, household income, self-rated health, physical activity levels, and depressive symptoms did not change these findings. "Assisting their families to balance work and family by providing supplementary grandchild care may boost grandparents' self-esteem, and may also facilitate ongoing positive relationships with their children and grandchildren," said the researchers. "Moreover, caring for grandchildren may also expand the social circle of grandparents and allow for further opportunities to establish relationships with other parents or grandparents."

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine are trying to expand and diversify participation in Alzheimer's studies by reaching out to minority communities, reports National Public Radio . They are setting up information resources at events like the recent Walk to End Alzheimer's. "We are looking for people to help us figure out the genetic link to memory loss," says Case Western's Sara Kennedy. Nearly 50 percent of Cleveland's population is African American, a group that is twice as likely as whites to develop Alzheimer's. Case Western's effort is part of a national program funded by the U.S. National Institute on Aging, with scientists noting Alzheimer's is more likely to affect black and Hispanic people, and may progress differently. "We actually need to have thousands and thousands of individuals participate in these studies to really understand the genetics of Alzheimer's disease," says Case Western Professor Jonathan Haines. He adds that trust, including trust in doctors, medical institutions, and researchers, is a key issue to gaining minority participants.

Smart devices, appliances, and other technologies that are connected and communicate with each other could pose a serious danger to aging loved ones, reports Forbes . Such solutions make up the so called Internet-of-Things, and some caregivers are getting systems that enable round-the-clock monitoring to ensure their loved ones are safe and secure. However, hackers could exploit these systems to invade privacy, or wreak havoc by making various technologies malfunction. Examples include lights turning on and off randomly, TVs switching channels for no reason, or smart fridges ordering items that the user does not want. More potentially threatening exploitation can include ransomware infections that withhold critical medications, or hijack implantable glucose monitoring systems to dispatch too much insulin. With dangers such as these, it is increasingly necessary to ensure the highest level of possible security to protect these systems, and our loved ones, from cyberthreats. Device manufacturers and providers need to be prepared to demonstrate and compete on the superior security of their systems and services.

Leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have allocated an extra $350 million per year for research into Alzheimer's and dementia, making annual appropriations $2.8 billion in total, reports Being Patient . "We are incredibly grateful to congressional champions for their support and we are proud of the relationships our advocates have built with all members of Congress to demonstrate the need for research and the impact it will have on their families and future generations," stated the Alzheimer's Association's Robert Egge. According to Eliezer Masliah at the National Institute on Aging's Division of Neuroscience, growing congressional support opens many new possibilities for research into treatment and a cure for dementia. He said the increase in funding marks a "golden era" for studying Alzheimer's, although the research community has a long road ahead of it. Last month the Alzheimer's Association announced Bill Gates' pledge of $10 million to Alzheimer's research as another major milestone, which will lead to $60 million in funding for special research. This research is designed to fast-track potential therapies from the laboratory to clinical trials. The association said the new funds would be channeled into investigations into how brain cells use energy and fuel, how they purge waste and debris to avoid protein clumping, and how blood supply in the brain is maintained.

Hundreds of thousands of professionals in Massachusetts have had to juggle their career demands with caring for aging parents, and employers are starting to take these pressures into consideration amid labor shortages, reports the Boston Globe . With the state's unemployment rate falling below 3 percent, many employers are looking to accommodate working caregivers through more family-friendly leave perks and additional flexibility about when and where employees work. In November, business leaders joined with their healthcare, education, and government peers to roll out a Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition to better support employees in this regard. The working caregiver population is growing partly because the over-65 populace is living longer than generations past. In addition, families are more spread out, and more workers are having children later.

CHAI Creative Director Kewal Kapoor writes in Entrepreneur that minor modifications to smartphone settings can help seniors more easily access an intuitive user experience. "While boosting the size of the text does improve readability, make sure you also increase the contrast so that the colors are rendered more distinct," he recommends. Kapoor also suggests reskinning the smartphone interface with a launcher, as some launchers are designed to simplify the browser experience for seniors by streamlining the options and menus, enlarging text, and brightening colors for easy readability. He also advises turning on voice control and text to speech features. "Once you have made the smartphone easier to navigate, you can further use the device to improve accessibility in the real world as well," Kapoor adds. "For example, you can teach them how to use the flashlight to illuminate dark spaces and text in dimly lit environments. Better still, you can install a text magnifying app, which will make it easier to read the fine print, menus, books, and other documents." Kapoor's final suggestion is to install the TeamViewer app, which facilitates remote smartphone access so others can help seniors when they encounter problems with the device.

Researchers at the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging in Cleveland say people should involve individuals with early-stage dementia in care planning activities as soon as possible, reports Next Avenue . "People tend to wait until something happens, until there is a crisis, to take action," notes institute analyst Silvia Orsulic-Jeras. As program manager for Benjamin Rose's Support, Health, Activities, Resources, and Education (SHARE) program, Orsulic-Jeras recommends participation in the program. SHARE teaches people with early-stage dementia and their loved ones about dementia, and helps them plan for the kind of care and support they will require. Benjamin Rose's Carol Whitlatch says shame and embarrassment associated with dementia often prevent individuals with the disease and their families from openly discussing the subject and planning for future needs. "In the early stages especially, people are often fully aware of the meaning of their diagnosis and able to communicate care choices and preferences," she explains. "And they not only want to be actively involved in making decisions about future care, they also place a high level of importance on not being a burden and being as helpful to their family caregivers as possible." In SHARE sessions, the person with dementia and their caregiver work with a trained counselor to develop a future care plan.

The U.S. government's 2.1 million employees will get paid parental leave for the first time, thanks to a new policy that could fuel broader changes, reports PBS NewsHour . The policy entitles federal employees to 12 weeks of paid leave for taking care of newborns, newly adopted children, or foster children, as part of a defense bill expected to get final congressional approval on Dec. 17. The benefit could set a high standard for other companies, both due to the length of time offered and because the policy would be applicable to all new parents. This marks the first major benefit expansion for federal employees since the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Workers will qualify for the benefit starting next October if they have worked for the government at least 12 months; they are required to return to work for at least 12 weeks after taking the leave, though the government can waive that mandate for medical reasons. The policy does not supply paid time off to care for sick adult relatives or for employees' own medical issues, and the benefit's projected federal cost is roughly $3.3 billion over five years. "We are optimistic that this momentum will result in a strong, inclusive paid family and medical leave policy that covers all working people," said National Partnership for Women & Families President Debra Ness.