Seeing the cathedral through the coronavirus – Christine Vanlandingham – April 19, 2020
There is a classic fable about a man who approaches three laborers who are busy breaking and shaping rocks. The man asks the first laborer what he is doing. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m smashing rocks,” the laborer replies. The man asks the second laborer what he is doing and he responds […]
COVID-19 causes Medicare rule changes and waivers – Sara Duris – April 15, 2020
Q. What sort of changes have taken place with Medicare to help address the COVID-19 virus? A. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have instituted a number of rule changes and temporary regulatory waivers to respond to the healthcare needs caused by the pandemic. In an effort to put “Patients Before Paperwork” CMS […]
Earth Day and the Power of Unity – Lynn Kellogg – April 4, 2020
As times get harder, the continuing cooperation and sense of unity across the country to fight and contain COVID-19 is impressive. It inspires additional thinking. We’ve seemed such a divided nation recently; the power of working together during crisis restores faith in our ability to muster collective action. Just in time. National unity had profound […]
In it Together – Lynn Kellogg -March 28, 2020
Talk about change in a short amount of time – wow! The community-wide, statewide, nationwide, worldwide attention to combatting and controlling COVID-19 is the first time in my lifetime I’ve seen such mass cohesion towards a goal. Watching the news with a friend aged mid-eighties, the comment was made, “I haven’t seen or felt anything […]
How I’m reacting to the COVID-19 Pandemic – Pat Arter – March 22, 2020
Whenever I hear a siren, my first thought is, “where are my family members?” That started when I was a young mom. It continues to this day and now includes three grandchildren. Lately, it feels like sirens are going off 24/7. Not the real police and fire sirens, but the sirens alerting us to moment-to-moment […]
A stepping stone to employment for older adults – Christine Vanlandingham – March 14, 2020
Older workers are an under-tapped labor force and represent a vast community resource that is largely sitting on the sidelines. Many older job seekers would love to enter or re-enter the workforce but face large obstacles. Imagine the difficulty of finding a job if you don’t have the necessary skills, you’ve been out of the […]
How can we get the Social Security scammers to stop calling? – Sara Duris – March 7, 2020
Q. My grandmother keeps getting calls claiming to be from Social Security. I tell her these are scams to get information from her. Is there anything that can be done? A. Social Security and its Office of the Inspector General (OIG) continue to receive reports about fraudulent phone calls from people falsely claiming to be […]
Time is ticking to get your Real ID – Lynn Kellogg – March 1, 2020
Have you heard of the REAL ID? Information is starting to show up in mailboxes, online newsletters, social media and emails. Don’t dismiss it. It’s something you’ll want to look at if you haven’t already. In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act, a federal law in the wake of 9/11 which changed national security […]
How to give input as Michigan tries to become an ‘age-friendly’ state – Lynn Kellogg – February 22, 2020
A friend recently expressed personal amazement at the thought of soon turning sixty. She admitted being somewhat distressed when she’d turned forty and now her child was about to turn forty. How did that happen? I assured her the sixties were pretty good. Somehow the reflection that at any age, our past will feel young […]
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren program offers help – Pat Arter – February 15
Grandparenting is maybe the best thing that ever happened to me. I am so crazy in love with my three grandchildren. Any moment I have with any of them is a treasure I hold very dear. The youngest is 4, and the oldest is 12, so the activities we choose to do with each of […]