Public health officials in California are recommending that senior and nursing care communities limit social visits to residents and close contact with others amid the coronavirus epidemic, reports the Sacramento Bee . California had at least two deaths and 167 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections as of March 10. Sacramento County's Department of Health Services last week encouraged care communities to "consider re-evaluating visitation policies," and said any visitor with symptoms of a respiratory illness should be barred from visiting residents while just two visitors at a time should meet with particularly vulnerable loved ones. About 370,000 people reside in California nursing communities, while many more over-65 Californians are active and mobile. "We want to do everything we can to keep our residents safe from exposure from any illnesses," said Pioneer House Executive Director Robert Godfrey. "This is right in the middle of a normal flu season. This added illness that is now nationwide and global is just one more thing."

A new survey published in the Alzheimer's Association 2020 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report estimated that 50 percent of primary care physicians (PCPs) doubt the healthcare profession is sufficiently prepared to meet future demand for dementia care, reports WBIW . Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they are "never" or only "sometimes comfortable" with diagnosing Alzheimer's or other dementias, while 27 percent are "never" or only "sometimes comfortable" answering their care recipients' questions about the disease. Moreover, 22 percent of polled PCPs lacked residency training in dementia diagnosis and care, while 65 percent of the 78 percent who were trained noted that they received "very little" training. The survey includes a state-by-state analysis of the number of geriatricians required to meet future demand, and while Indiana had 65 practicing geriatricians in 2019, 299 are needed to meet future dementia care needs of state seniors in 2050. Meanwhile, 32 percent of PCPs said they refer persons with dementia to specialists at least once a month, yet 55 percent cited a lack of specialists in their area to meet demand — a problem more frequent in rural areas. "We are engaged in outreach with health systems and physicians across the Chapter to ensure the medical profession is prepared," said Alzheimer's Association Greater Indiana Chapter Executive Natalie Sutton.

The Whitney Senior Center in St. Cloud, Minn., has launched a new program to give seniors a glimpse into the work of police officers, reports WJON . The eight-week Senior Citizens Police Academy will showcase key aspects of police work specifically tailored to older citizens, including patrol procedures, use of force, canine officers, ethics, and more. "We sat down a few months ago with the folks at Whitney and asked, 'What if we did something specifically directed toward the aging population?'" noted St. Cloud Police Sergeant Tad Hoeschen. "We'll do it here at Whitney, and do more lecture-based, informative sessions where they can view some demonstrations and participate in discussions, but not necessarily do anything physical." The Whitney's Director of Aging Services Laura Hood added that crime and safety are issues for many people she sees daily — and seniors, a population often victimized by financial scammers, might not necessarily know when and how to contact police when they should. "A really large goal of this program is to teach them how to report, and introduce them to the officers who might show up at their doors when they do," she said. Hood also explained that the program will seek to demystify crime statistics and help seniors gain more realistic perspectives on how safe they are in the community.

President Trump and Vice President Pence met with health insurance company representatives yesterday to discuss the coronavirus and the insurance industry's response, reports 8 News NOW . Pence later detailed that the insurers, which cover nearly 240 million Americans, have consented to waive co-pays for coronavirus testing and surprise billing for coronavirus treatment. He added that Medicare and Medicaid have agreed to cover telemedicine to protect U.S. seniors during the crisis.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advising older Americans on what to do to prevent infection as the coronavirus epidemic escalates, reports CBS News . The agency identifies older adults and those with serious chronic medical conditions like heart disease, diabetes, or lung disease as a "higher risk" group for infection, with the most serious risk of illness and death from the virus among persons older than 80. On the CDC website, officials recommend that such individuals maintain a supply of regular medications in the event of an outbreak in their community that requires staying home for a long period of time. They should therefore inquire about securing extra medications from healthcare providers or use a mail-order service. The agency adds that older Americans should ensure a sufficient supply of over-the-counter medicines also, along with medical supplies and household items like tissues. "Have enough household items and groceries on hand so that you will be prepared to stay at home for a period of time," the CDC urges.

Florida's state House of Representatives has unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to advance state efforts to address Alzheimer's disease, reports News4JAX . The bill, sponsored by Reps. Matt Willhite (D) and Scott Plakon (R), would establish the position of dementia director within the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. According to Plakon, whose first wife suffered from Alzheimer's, this new position will boost the visibility of the disease within state government. The Senate version of the proposal has passed committees and is ready for full Senate consideration.

State health officials in Oregon this week announced restrictions for visitors to 670 senior care communities in an effort to contain the coronavirus, reports the Salem Reporter . Their recommendations affect approximately 30,000 long-term care community residents. Seniors still living on their own or with family have been advised not to leave home. Oregon Department of Human Services Director Fariborz Pakseresht and Oregon Health Authority Director Pat Allen added that operators of the state's 1,700 adult foster care homes and anyone caring for a senior Oregonian at home should comply with this guidance as well. Only "essential individuals" will be admitted to care communities under the new regulations, including staff and vendors, state ombudsman and personnel, family and friends attending to an end-of-life circumstance, and those "essential" to the "emotional well-being and care" of residents. Pakseresht said individual communities would decide about who is "essential" to visit, as well as how to inform residents about the new restrictions. Oregon health authorities also instructed community operators to limit community outings and arrange "virtual visits" for residents. The new restrictions will be in effect indefinitely.

Journalist and author Maria Shriver founded the Women's Alzheimer's Movement (WAM) to raise awareness that women are at greater risk of Alzheimer's disease and to finance women-based research for the disorder, which seriously lags men's research, according to U.S. News & World Report . "We can't close the knowledge gap unless we do the research," she stressed at a recent WAM luncheon. "And we can't help women on the front lines of this disease without that research." In partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, Shriver authored The Shriver Report , confirming that females received Alzheimer's diagnoses more frequently than males and that women's longer lifespan was not the only contributing factor. WAM has allocated grants to projects that are exploring the gut microbiome's role in Alzheimer's, gender-based genetic analysis, and a possible connection between the disease and sudden hormonal changes. "While we don't have a cure, we do know so much more today about our brain health and what we can do to slow, if not prevent, Alzheimer's disease in the future," Shriver said.

A study in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology observed that adults 65 and older are underrepresented in clinical cancer trials, reports Medical Xpress . This trend is compounded by underreporting of the treatment efficacy and negative effects specific to older adults. The researchers reviewed a year's worth of medical literature, and initial analysis found that more than 600 of 929 articles failed to meet the study group's inclusion criteria, while another 116 were duplicates. "When we finally finished analyzing all of the articles, we found the evidence on how you treat older adults with cancer is terrible," said the University of Cincinnati's Karlynn BrintzenhofeSzoc. "There's no evidence-based guidelines, which goes against the current focus on precision and evidence-based medicine to help treat older adults with cancer." BrintzenhofeSzoc said her team hopes to get researchers to partition different aged groups of people in trials and define their differences in terms of effectiveness, side effects, or adverse events. This would enable the medical community to implement treatment protocols that account for evidence-based research outcomes in people with different types of cancer and of younger and older individuals.

Three writing groups for seniors meet once a week at the Janet Goeske Senior Center in Riverside, Calif., with many participants getting published as a result, writes creative writing teacher CelenaDiana Bumpus in the Press-Enterprise . She says most of her students are not first-time writers, as "many have written poetry in the past, some have kept journals, some have written and published books of their own, while some have written magazine articles, scientific papers, dissertations, or even law enforcement and court reports." Bumpus notes that some students come with clear writing goals, while others "are exploring the many facets of creative writing and hoping to find a way to express their unique voices and multifaceted histories." Bumpus has a professional background in social work and individual and group counseling, which means she applies different teaching methods to her students. "First and foremost, I encourage my students to tap into imaginations by providing them with an appealing quote and asking them to write freely on the prompt for approximately 12 minutes," she says. Students can take those notes home and produce a piece of creative writing from them. "They have the complete freedom to craft whatever they want from their notes," Bumpus writes. "As a result, I have had poets create beautiful essays, short stories, short creative nonfiction, and short memoirs, and, conversely, I have had prose writers create beautiful poems."