The "Dementia Friends" initiative is the centerpiece of a grass-roots effort by 35 organizations across the U.S. to educate people about Alzheimer's disease and other kinds of dementia to improve public understanding, reports Kaiser Health News . Participating in Dementia Friends entails attending an hour-long presentation focused on several themes, including disease versus typical aging, the scope of symptoms, quality of life, and maintaining identity and respect. "If we can change the way people look at dementia and talk about it, we can make a big difference in people's lives," says Philippa Tree, who leads a Dementia Friends program in England and Wales that has licensed its model to the U.S. Dementia Friends USA Project Lead Meredith Hanley notes the program is "about increasing awareness and empathy so that if you encounter someone in the community who needs some help, you have some basic skills." Becoming a Dementia Friend demands that a person commit a tangible action to help people with dementia. "This is a social action movement," says Emily Farah-Miller, executive lead for Minnesota's ACT on Alzheimer's.

Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on Thursday introduced the bipartisan Concentrating on High-Value Alzheimer's Needs to Get to an End (CHANGE) Act, a bill encouraging early assessment and diagnosis of Alzheimer's to relieve the burden on caregivers and expedite progress to disease-modifying treatments. Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) are original co-sponsors of the bill, and Reps. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) have proposed companion legislation in the House. "Our bill helps encourage early diagnosis, relieves the burden on caregivers, and improves care for care recipients," Stabenow said. "We have strong partners in the fight against Alzheimer's in the House and Senate and I will continue working across the aisle to move this bill forward." The CHANGE Act mandates that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services identify a uniform, reliable cognitive impairment detection tool or set of tools to incentivize clinicians to detect, refer, and diagnose Alzheimer's and related dementias in their earliest stages. It also establishes a coverage and payment model to offer family caregivers evidence-based training and certification specific to dementia care. In addition, the bill tests a comprehensive continuum of care via Medicaid modeled after the Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. "By taking the lead to introduce the CHANGE Act, Senator Capito continues to be a champion for the millions of individuals living with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers here in West Virginia and across the country," said Women Against Alzheimer's co-founder Helen Matheny.

John Ring, the Trump administration's nominee for the last remaining seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), will have a committee vote on Feb. 14, according to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), reports the Washington Examiner . "Last year, our committee worked to confirm two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board with the hope of restoring it to the neutral umpire it was intended to be," Alexander said. "We have seen a return to balance in labor law through the Board's recent decisions to overturn the Obama-era 'joint-employer' standard and micro-union rule, and confirming John Ring will continue that trend." A former attorney with Morgan Lewis, Ring would assume the seat of former NLRB Chairman Philip Miscimarra, who resigned in December. Ring's confirmation would return the NLRB to a 3 to 2 Republican majority. In 2017, the Senate confirmed three other Trump choices to the NLRB, including former GOP House staffer Marvin Kaplan to an open seat, business attorney Bill Emanuel to another open seat, and private-sector lawyer Peter Robb as general council. Trump also appointed Kaplan board chairman following Miscimarra's resignation. In the Obama years the NLRB was reputed for pro-union activism, which the Trump administration and congressional GOP have been keen to reverse.

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcased assistive gadgets designed for seniors, including personal-assistant robots such as the ElliQ, reports the Chicago Tribune . ElliQ features a movable smart speaker and a tablet screen, and the speaker moves by itself when communicating with a user to convey body language and illuminates during certain actions to signal it is paying attention. The tablet will show music, send messages to ride-hailing apps, and deliver closed captioning responses so users who are hard of hearing can read what ElliQ says. "The reason the social robots struck me as something for the senior-care market is that I see them as something like smartphones," says retired computer programmer Barry Sardis. "Smartphones are multi-functional, and there is a broad range of requirements and desires from the senior community." AARP's Connect2Affect says more than 8 million Americans older than 50 are affected by isolation, which is a "growing health epidemic." Gerontologists say many tech startups, run by young entrepreneurs eager to serve a demographic often overlooked by the industry, do not always understand older adults' true needs. "The devices are generally designed by younger folks, and many of the devices are very complicated to use," notes University of California San Francisco Professor Carla Perissinotto. "Unless they are going to be designed by or with older folks, there is a high chance for failure."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns flu activity is widespread in 48 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, and is responsible for 53 pediatric fatalities so far and high influenza-like illness activity levels in 42 states. The agency says it is continuing to recommend flu vaccination at this time, given there are still weeks of flu activity to come this season and more than one virus is in circulation. The CDC notes state and local health departments and partners can help raise awareness about the importance of flu vaccinations with a free digital campaign toolkit, which includes infographics, public service announcements, print materials, videos, and other free resources.

Some scientists believe we should start treating aging itself as a disease, and they are exploring ways to slow and even stop the aging process, reports BBC News . Animal studies have demonstrated it is possible to significantly extend the lifespan of certain species, giving hope that it also could be applicable to human beings. The Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence Research Foundation's Aubrey De Grey says his group aims to develop a suite of therapies for middle-aged and older people that will leave them physically and mentally equivalent to someone younger than 30, "without wiping their memories." De Grey cites seven biological factors responsible for cellular damage that accompanies aging and underlies aging-related diseases, including when tissue cells are not renewed quickly enough, when cells replicate uncontrollably, when cells do not die when they should, damage to the DNA of mitochondria, internal cellular buildup of waste products, external waste product buildup, and stiffening of the extra-cellular matrix. Although De Grey doubts corrective measures to these problems will halt aging altogether, he believes they could extend life by about 30 years. He envisions "rejuvenation technologies" administered to seniors to revert their cells to what they were like when they were in their youth.

A study published in PLOS Medicine suggests daily talks with people with dementia about their interests or family could help improve their quality of life, reports BBC News . A nine-month trial in 69 U.K. care communities involved more than 800 people, with staff trained to learn about residents' interests and abilities and ask them and their families questions about the care they received. This led to more personalized care that incorporated an hour a week of social interaction. The researchers found improvements in quality of life, agitation, and neuropsychiatric symptoms, with the greatest benefits for those with moderately severe dementia. "What this is suggesting is that actually relatively simple things, if implemented robustly, can actually make a real difference to people's quality of life," says University of Exeter Professor Clive Ballard. He notes in many care communities residents receive as little as two minutes of daily social interaction, and social activities are performed in groups that often leave a number of residents unengaged. Ballard also says there are currently 170 caregiver training manuals available, but only four were based on evidence that really worked, with manuals often used due to cost instead of effectiveness. "This study shows that training to provide this type of individualized care, activities, and social interactions can have a significant impact on the well-being of people living with dementia in care communities," says Alzheimer's Society Research Director Dr. Doug Brown.

Recent research indicates better data privacy and security employee training programs will help healthcare organizations as they work to keep pace against cyberthreats, reports HealthIT Security. MediaPro's 2017 State of Privacy and Security Awareness Report found 70 percent of employees in numerous industries lack awareness to stop preventable cyberattacks, while 78 percent of healthcare employees exhibited a lack of readiness with common privacy and security threat scenarios. About 25 percent of physicians and other types of direct healthcare providers were unaware of phishing email, as were 8 percent of non-provider employees. In addition, 24 percent of healthcare employees had difficulty identifying common signs of malware. "Beyond training geared toward HIPAA compliance, healthcare employees need a comprehensive approach to awareness education that includes security and privacy awareness," say the MediaPro researchers. "Keeping within HIPAA regulations, while vital, does not educate users on how to spot a phishing attack, for example. Additionally, mere compliance does not equate to a fully security-aware culture." Healthcare employees also were found to be more unaware than the general population in terms of physical security, with 33 percent of healthcare workers taking unnecessary risks in scenarios related to permitting others access to their office buildings. "Organizations of all types are best served when their whole employee population knows the importance of sound security principles," the researchers note. "Such a state comes from multifaceted and integrated awareness programs, not just training."

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found many highly active older adults experienced back pain associated with poorer perceived and observed walking endurance, reports Medical Xpress . "Older adults are living longer and healthier active lives, so paying attention to conditions that may threaten independent function is increasingly important," says Dr. Eleanor Simonsick with the National Institute on Aging. "In this study, we found that back pain affected nearly half of well-functioning, highly active older adults. We also found that back pain was linked to less energy efficient walking and poorer endurance, which can lead to walking difficulties. These findings suggest that better back pain management may help older adults remain active and free of mobility limitation." The researchers note the importance of studying whether back pain may serve as a trigger for future loss of mobility in active older individuals.

A Japanese study published in BMJ Open suggests socially active older women in particular can benefit from flu shots, reports Reuters Health . The study determined unvaccinated women older than 65 who regularly participated in two or more social activities were twice as likely to report a flu infection than those who did not, while women who were vaccinated had no additional risk. The researchers analyzed data for more than 12,200 men and 14,000 women older than 65, examining the link between flu infection and social participation in volunteer groups, sports groups, leisure activity groups, senior clubs, neighborhood associations, cultural groups, nursing care or health promotion groups, local events, and grandchild-rearing support. The team found vaccines may help reduce the spread of infection among social groups, and when no vaccine is available, non-pharmaceutical precautions such as respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette also could help. "Social participation has been linked to healthy aging and the maintenance of functional independence in older individuals," says Dr. Yukinobu Ichida of the Doctoral Institute for Evidence Based Policy in Japan.