A British study published in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems found virtual reality (VR) can improve the quality of life for people with dementia, reports CBS Boston . Eight participants with dementia wore VR headsets to visit one of five virtual settings, including a cathedral, a forest, a sandy beach, a rocky beach, and a rural environment. Over the course of 16 VR sessions, each participant's memory recall appeared to improve. The experiment also seemed to comfort the subjects and enhance their mood, while caregivers gained more knowledge about their lives. This, in turn, improved social interaction. The researchers suggested virtual environments could eventually be customized to individual users, featuring their current home or a favorite location.

A survey by the Nationwide Retirement Institute found 44 percent of 1,315 older Americans who are retired or plan to retire within a decade consider Social Security their main source of retirement income, reports USA Today . Nationwide Financial's Tina Ambrozy says last year's survey estimated that 55 percent had complete faith in Social Security. A strong market has probably fortified older Americans' retirement accounts, making dependence on Social Security less necessary for some. However, although people planning to retire within 10 years expect to receive an average $1,805 monthly in Social Security benefits, current retirees are getting 28 percent less ($1,408 a month, on average). One factor is retirees tapping benefits early, giving them a lower monthly payout. Seventy percent of respondents think they qualify for full benefits before they actually do, while 26 percent believe claiming early will make their benefits automatically increase when they reach full retirement age. The reality is retirees can only receive partial benefits starting at 62, and once they do, the amount is fixed. Ambrozy adds that 66 percent of future retirees are concerned about the depletion of Social Security funding in their lifetime, which also motivates them to draw on their benefits early.

Administration for Community Living (ACL) Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging Lance Robertson testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging Wednesday. The hearing was titled "The Older Americans Act: Protecting and Supporting Seniors as they Age." Access the video of the testimony at the Senate Hearings page.

Tucson, Ariz., has approved an action plan to make the city more age-friendly, reports KGUN9.com . A task force from the City of Tucson, the Pima Council on Aging, the Elder Alliance, and AARP spent more than two years brainstorming a five-year plan to improve areas vital to older adults. Such areas include outdoor space and buildings, safe and convenient transportation options, affordable housing appropriate for those with disabilities, communication and information customized for seniors, culturally-based social activities, and employment via age-friendly business practices and volunteerism. "If you make a city livable for someone who is eight years old and 80 years old, you're going to make it livable for people in between," says the Pima Council on Aging's Maddy Bynes. "So a lot of things that we look at are things that people who are younger also want."

Working on intergenerational teams is a challenge for older employees, reports Forbes . Building trust on such teams can be accomplished in a number of ways, starting with intentionally nurturing relationships between team members in settings offering universal comfort. "Done right, employee socializing leads to understanding between ages, cultures, genders, and all the rest," says Twitter's Karen Wickre. In view of disparities between members of intergenerational teams, regular check-in times should be scheduled to guard against disruptions and disconnects. Another strategy is to set clear expectations and deliverables, because not all members on an intergenerational team are likely to define success the same way. The feedback loop also needs to be reframed to prevent the erosion of trust on the team. This can be done by holding open dialogue about how much feedback workers require to maximize their productivity. Finally, there must be an intentional drive to foster trust based on differences in intergenerational teams.

A study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found wisdom, loneliness, income, and sleep quality affect the physical and mental health of older men and women in senior care communities, reports ScienceDaily . The researchers specified a significant association between cognitive function and physical mobility, wisdom, and satisfaction with life. Physical health correlated with mental well-being, resilience, and younger age, while mental health was connected to optimism, self-compassion, and reduced levels of loneliness and disrupted sleep. "Psychological traits like optimism, resilience, wisdom and self-compassion were found to be protective, while loneliness seemed to be a risk factor," noted University of California, San Diego Professor Dilip Jeste. "An 85-year-old can be functioning better than a 65-year-old due to protective and risk factors." A common model of supported senior housing offers a continuum of care, from independent living to assisted living to full-time care for physical and cognitive impairment. Most continuing care communities face rising costs as residents move to greater levels of assisted living. "Delaying these transitions through facilitating longer independent living should be an important healthcare goal," argued Jeste.

A study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association found a specific class of molecules may help with Alzheimer's diagnosis, reports ScienceDaily . The researchers discovered the level of sleep-inducing fatty molecules in blood were higher in participants with amyloid in the brain. Amyloid coheres into plaques that destroy neurons, and their accrual is believed to start years before the manifestation of Alzheimer's symptoms such as memory loss. "A much-needed pre-requisite for new treatments for Alzheimer's disease is a reliable diagnostic test that could be used to identify people at risk," said King's College London's Cristina Legido-Quigley. "A blood test would be cheaper than measuring amyloid in the brain and easier to do than a spinal tap. There is more work to be done. So far, we have measured these molecules in nearly 600 participants, and hope to expand to the thousands to establish if a new diagnostic test in blood is indeed possible."

Senior care in the United States would not be as effective as it is without immigrant caregivers, reports WRAL-TV . "When people think of immigrant caregivers obviously they think, with all of the news media, people coming from Mexico and places like that," notes Right At Home CEO Tom Arnold. "But the immigrants in the United States that are caregivers come from 124 different countries and speak 157 languages." The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that roughly 8 million new direct-care workers will be needed by 2026, making it the fastest-growing low-skilled profession in the country. Arnold says "a lot of people leave the industry to go into higher-paying jobs," which is why immigrants are so vital. The BLS calculates that about one in four direct-care workers are immigrants, and many find the work fulfilling and plan to keep at it. "When we get a caregiver who is an immigrant, they probably came from a country where they put a lot of value on taking care of their older family members," Arnold adds.

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) has released Connect, the initial step in its three-part theme — Connect, Create, Contribute — for this year's Older Americans Month. The May celebration offers opportunities for people of all ages to connect and take part in a larger dialogue about aging in the United States. Connection can include one-on-one contacts between neighbors, as well as social and educational community programs. Communities can reach out to older members with information about critical services and personal enrichment opportunities. The Eldercare Locator from ACL's Administration on Aging is an excellent starting point, linking users to diverse local services for seniors and their families. Informal connection activities can include intergenerational meals and/or encouraging older adults to share their experiences via storytelling. Those interested in participating can access acl.gov/oam/2019/resources .

Trends point to a decline in U.S. teenagers getting summer employment over the years, with 60 percent of teens working in 1978 versus 35 percent in the summer of 2018, according to Delaware 105.9 FM . One factor is the emergence of older Americans and new immigrants vying for work that teens would usually take during the summer months. Another factor is teens' increasing immersion in summer sports, classes, and camos. Also having a significant effect is the redundancy and even elimination of many traditional summer jobs, like pumping gasoline, delivering newspapers, and mowing lawns that were more prevalent in 1978.