Posts related to Hunger

Medicare Advantage Plans Cleared To Go Beyond Medical Coverage — Even Groceries

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by Susan Jaffe. This article originally appeared on Kaiser Health News.

Air conditioners for people with asthma, healthy groceries, rides to medical appointments and home-delivered meals may be among the new benefits offered to Medicare beneficiaries who choose private sector health plans, when new federal rules take effect next year.

On April 3, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded how it defines the “primarily health-related” benefits that private insurers are allowed to include in their Medicare Advantage policies. And insurers would include these extras on top of providing the benefits traditional Medicare provides.

“Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will have more supplemental benefits, making it easier for them to lead healthier, more independent lives,” said CMS.... Read More

             

When Food Stamps Pass As Tickets To Better Health

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By Courtney Perkes. This article originally appeared on Kaiser Health News.

Rebeca Gonzalez grew up eating artichokes from her grandmother’s farm in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala. But for years after emigrating to the U.S., she did not feed them to her own kids because the spiky, fibrous vegetables were too expensive on this side of the border.

When she prepared meals at her family’s home in Garden Grove, Calif., Gonzalez would also omit avocados, a staple of Mexican cuisine that is often costly here.

“I saw the prices and I said, ‘No, never mind,’” said Gonzalez,.... Read More

             

Breaking stigmas, creating awareness, and increasing age-sensitive education are three key elements to improve the lives Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers

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This post originally appeared on the NHCOA blog.

The National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA) continues its work by looking for strategies that amplify the voices of thousands of families facing Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, so their specific needs can be included in the decision-making process across public health.

Latinos face a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias because they are not only living longer (2.5 years longer than whites and 8 years longer than blacks), but they also face severe health disparities, including high levels of hunger, higher rates of type 2 diabetes incidence and complication rates, and lack of access to health insurance.

Around 18% of Hispanic.... Read More

             

Healthy Eating, Healthy Aging

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Funded by Walmart Foundation, the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA) has partnered with 19 Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) focused community-based organizations across 16 cities from across the nation to deliver our “Healthy Eating Healthy Aging” program to educate limited English speaking AAPI seniors 55 years and older.

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Each of the partner organizations established a target for the number of AAPI participants to serve among the multiple ethnic groups, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Samoan, Filipino, Cambodian, Japanese, and English. The project team collaborated with the American Heart Association to develop a workshop curriculum that.... Read More

             

NHCOA Regional Conferences: Promoting Communities of Success

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This post originally appeared on the NHCOA blog. You can still register for NHCOA’s Los Angeles Open Forum on August 29th by calling 202-347-9733 or emailing events@nhcoa.org.

When we analyze the current state of Hispanic older adults in the United States the results paint a horrifying scenario; a scenario in which Hispanic elders are living in poverty, suffering hunger and dealing with inadequate access to healthcare. There is much improvement needed in the policies and programs that serve this aging segment of the population, in order to lessen the hardships that they currently face.

The numbers speak for themselves:

At 20%, Hispanic older adults have the highest level of poverty of any senior.... Read More
             

NHCOA Promotes Leadership, Advocacy and Community-Driven Solutions at Miami Open Forum

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NHCOA

This post originally appeared on the NHCOA blog.

The National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA) brought together more than 100 elected officials, social advocates and service providers along with members of the older adult population in an open forum in the Miami-Dade College InterAmerican Campus on June 9th. This safe space gave those present the opportunity to discuss solutions to issues such as economic insecurity, hunger and unaffordable housing.

I am really excited about our forum as this is an important year. It is not only an election year, but it is also a.... Read More

             

The Beginning of Healthy Aging: Take Action

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Older adults in the U.S. face many challenges to healthy aging, including getting adequate nutrition and exercise. Today, over 13% of the total population in the United States is 65 years and older. Older adults in the U.S. have the greatest limitations of any group in terms of exercise and are at higher risk of malnutrition and undernourishment. Hispanic older adults face even greater challenges than the larger older adult population in terms of fitness and nutrition. They often live in communities that do not have spaces fit to exercise in and have lower fixed monthly incomes than the larger population..... Read More

             

Hispanic Older Adults Face Food Insecurity and Hunger at Unacceptable Levels

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An older adult at the National Hispanic Council on Aging’s (NHCOA’s) community forum in Miami was frustrated at the difficulty of her life and those of peers. “Why,” she exclaimed, “in the richest country in the world can we not eat three meals a day?” It was a direct statement of the plight of Hispanic older adults that NHCOA heard over and over again as the organization spoke with seniors and their caregivers across the country. Hispanic seniors, they heard, were simply not able to make ends meet. Their low fixed incomes simply did not cover the monthly expenses of rent, food and medical needs. Seniors were deferring medications to cover meals and not eating meals to cover.... Read More

             

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

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November 14-22 marks National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, an opportunity to reflect on the immense number of people in this country who do not have safe, affordable housing or reliable access to healthy meals – many of them diverse elders.

The Diverse Elders Coalition and its member organizations promote and prioritize the health and well-being – especially as it relates to having a safe place to live and nutritious food to eat – of our communities of color, American Indian/Alaska Native communities, and LGBTQ communities. In our 2012 report “Securing Our Future: Advancing Economic Security for Diverse Elders,” we shared some shocking statistics about the economic insecurity of our communities, many of which still ring true today:

Nearly.... Read More