A study from the University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry assessed older adults living independently in a senior continuing care community, and observed a correlation between physical health and both cognitive function and mental health, reports Psych Central . The researchers found substantial linkage between cognitive function and physical mobility, wisdom, and satisfaction with life. Physical health was tied to mental well-being, resilience, and youth, while mental health was associated with optimism, self-compassion, income, less loneliness, and fewer sleep disruptions. "Psychological traits like optimism, resilience, wisdom, and self-compassion were found to be protective, while loneliness seemed to be a risk factor," said UC San Diego School of Medicine Professor Dilip Jeste. "An 85-year-old can be functioning better than a 65-year-old due to protective and risk factors." Jeste stressed the need for further research to learn if psychosocial and other forces are potential risks or protective factors. "The eventual goal would be to develop new health-focused interventions based on such research," he noted.

The U.S. Senate recently held a hearing for the Retirement Security and Savings Act, which would allow people with little savings to catch up, while also helping small businesses provide retirement plans to employees, reports MarketWatch . Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on the Senate Finance Committee also unveiled legislation that would match a worker's student loan repayments to be fed into their employer-sponsored retirement account. "There's certainly momentum on this issue," said Kathleen Coulombe with the American Council of Life Insurers. The House is expected to vote on the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act by the end of the month. The measure would expand auto-enrollment features, link small businesses together to offer retirement accounts, and define a fiduciary responsibility. Meanwhile, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act also is waiting for a House vote.

A poll from the Legal & General Group estimated that more than 1 million U.S. parents and grandparents have offered $41 billion in financial support to next-generation homeowners, with 54 percent of that total coming from retirement savings, reports Mortgage Professional America . The survey found 29 percent of "Bank of Mom and Dad" lenders financially assisted younger homebuyers, but 15 percent reported being in worse financial straits as a consequence and 14 percent felt their future is less financially secure. "The generosity and support many people choose to provide family members is compromising their own quality of life," declared Legal & General Group Chief Executive Nigel Wilson. "This generation is helping kids and grandkids purchase property throughout the country, but it would appear that many don't really have sufficient wealth to do so without impacting their own retirement plans. It's disturbing to see that some moms and dads have even had to postpone retirement in order to help."

The Florida Department of Elder Affairs' Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders (SHINE) program offers seniors, disabled adults, and their caregivers free advice on Medicare and health insurance issues, reports the Florida Times-Union . SHINE volunteers undergo intensive training to help inform seniors' decisions about health insurance coverage via in-person or phone counseling. ElderSource Chief Executive Linda Levin says there are 47 SHINE volunteers throughout the service area of Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, St. Johns, and Volusia counties. In addition to counseling about Medicare, volunteers assist with claims and appeals and advise seniors on how to avoid Medicare fraud. "This program . . . has helped many folks find the best plan to meet their individual needs," Levin notes. "It has reduced confusion and stress for people and has provided them with an advocate."

Oregon Health & Science University's (OHSU) Layton Aging & Alzheimer's Disease Center is conducting a study called I-CONECT, to investigate whether engaged conversations can delay dementia, reports KATU . The researchers chat with study subjects, concentrating on facts, episodic memory, executive function, thinking through problems, and generating new thoughts. "We have a topic for every day, and our staff have kind of a cheat sheet, you might say, of a lot of questions that we took a lot of time working on that she can ask for each memory type," notes OSHU's Jacob Lindsley. "They are provocative, they're interesting, usually they're something you wouldn't ask in a casual conversation." Lindsley says the researchers hope that taxing participants' memories will yield broad benefits. "Even just delaying dementia for a couple of years can have a tremendous impact, fiscally and in terms of healthcare costs, but also in someone's quality of life," he stresses.

A report from the Michigan Dementia Coalition found the state's dementia burden has reached crisis levels, according to the Detroit Free Press . The report estimated that dementia care will cost up to $1.42 billion in 2019 alone to Medicaid in Michigan for people 65 and older. This will likely climb to $1.72 billion annually by 2025, as more people are diagnosed with dementia. "More than half a million Michigan family members are caring for a loved one with dementia, and they bear the greatest responsibility," stated Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. "But this impact is also felt by our employers, our healthcare systems, our state resources and economy, and every community in the state." The coalition is developing strategies to help the state better cope with the expanding dementia population and improve the quality of both their lives and those of their caregivers. Its goals include boosting access to caregiver training, education, and support and raising job satisfaction for healthcare and dementia service workers. Other priorities include early detection and diagnosis and more opportunities for people with dementia to participate in clinical research, as well as providing affordable and reliable transportation services.

Senior advocacy groups, state regulators, and the senior-care industry in Minnesota have finalized an agreement to revamp the state's system for protecting older adults from abuse and neglect, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune . The deal would for the first time license assisted living communities, and mandate they maintain minimum standards of care. The state Legislature is expected to pass the bill into law, which would bring Minnesota's regulatory oversight of the long-term care sector more in line with the rest of the United States. A broad coalition of consumer advocacy and industry groups warned that failure to pass elder-care legislation "would be catastrophic for thousands of vulnerable adults" in the state. Minnesota's regulations date back to the 1980s, when assisted living was in its infancy and thought to need less regulation because residents were typically younger and required less care than people in nursing homes. Over the years, however, assisted living centers have expanded in size and opened specialized memory care units for people with dementia, which often resemble skilled nursing homes. "With the population aging and growing, and more providers coming into the market, there was a real urgency toward creating a more comprehensive and clear framework," said state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm.

Several Democratic moderates in the House of Representatives are trying to reach agreement with progressives on legislation to increase the minimum wage. Politico reports Rep. Tom O'Halleran (D-Ariz.) is leading an effort to make changes that could help deliver at least a half-dozen moderates onto the $15-an-hour wage bill without losing many on the left. The moderates' plan would still offer a path to doubling the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over five years, but would come with a requirement that the Government Accountability Office conduct a study on the policy's economic effects after roughly two years. The House Education and Labor Committee would then have a chance to recommend what action House leadership should take. The amendment, which is still being drafted, has not yet been publicly released. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that some changes are being considered, which he said would make sure the bill is "fair," but did not elaborate on details.

The American College of Surgeons Coalition for Quality in Geriatric Surgery said proposed quality standards for improving surgical care of older adults received feedback from a sample of North American hospitals, and those considered most practically deployable are undergoing pilot testing prior to a national launch, reports Newswise . The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has published the feasibility study's findings . "The aim of the Coalition is to ensure as much as possible that surgical care for older adults is evidence-based and standardized, has optimal outcomes with low complication rates, and that the outcomes are those that are important to recipients," said University of California, Los Angeles Professor Clifford Y. Ko. "The Coalition helped to identify topic areas for hospital-level standards, including the resources, infrastructure, and clinical processes that must be put in place in order to obtain optimal outcomes for geriatric surgical recipients." The study determined 28 of 108 standards were duplicative, 35 were too hard to implement, and 45 had high potential. Most of the duplicative and difficult standards were eliminated; the approximately 30 standards remaining are undergoing pilot testing at eight hospitals.

A study published in Stroke found the occurrence of strokes in the United States has declined 53 percent for adults older than 55 in the last 40 years, reports United Press International . Middle-aged U.S. adults between 35 and 55 became about 39 percent less likely to suffer strokes over the same period. "Most strokes at midlife were due to diseases of the arteries caused by a clot migrating from the heart," said Boston University Professor Hugo J. Aparicio. "We also looked at vascular risk factors, such as hypertension and smoking, which have been declining among both age groups over time." Aparicio stressed the need for "continued preventative efforts . . . to be made to reduce the occurrence of stroke among middle-aged adults. Namely, we emphasize a focus on public health education and controlling vascular risk factors such as blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking." The team suggested preventative technology like magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography has yielded subtler insights to doctors about less common stroke symptoms, especially for young adults who are not concerned about stroke risk. "Physicians should continue to emphasize . . . that stroke can occur at any age," Aparicio advised.