LA city councilmember bill rosendahl calls HIV/AIDS elder advocacy summit & new media training feb 12 (0131)

February 4, 2010
Contact: Nate Kaplan-(213) 473-7011, Richard Kearns-(310) 488-1328

ROSENDAHL CALLS LOS ANGELES HIV/AIDS ELDER ADVOCACY SUMMIT & NEW MEDIA TRAINING
Forum Open to the Public

Los Angeles – Los Angeles City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl is co-costing an “HIV/AIDS Advocacy Summit and New Media Training Conference” with the City’s AIDS Coordinator’s Office, and a coalition of Los Angeles grassroots advocacy organizations led by activist Richard Kearns.

The conference will be held on the 27^th Floor of City Hall in the Tom Bradley Tower on Friday, February 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The program will offer instruction on:

• building a website from scratch
• practicing posting videos & text
• meeting with city councilmembers and their staff
• empowering adult activists and their allies with new media and networking skills

“This is a great opportunity for people living with HIV and AIDS to learn how to use the Internet to communicate with each other and the world,” said Rosendahl.  “This day-long training session will educate and empower individuals to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other online sources to network and express themself through the powerful medium of the Internet.”

Kearns, a 58 year-old gay man living with AIDS in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, is a member of the growing group of long-term survivors.  He is a community-based Internet advocate, an AIDS activist, and publisher of two blogs. His has become a familiar face at LA City Council meetings, where he speaks regularly on issues that affect people living with HIV in Los Angeles, such as aging, the assisted healthcare system, and medical cannabis.

“Everyone treats us as liabilities when in fact, we are resources – both to ourselves and to our community,” said Kearns. “However, as a group, I’d also characterize elder people living with HIV and AIDS as ‘internet reluctant,’ and ‘technology resistant.’ The question becomes this: Why should we let ourselves be intimidated by something a nine-year-old can master in a single sitting?”

Anyone interested in attending the free conference should contact Richard Kearns at rk@aids-write.org or call 310-488-1328.

www.councilmanrosendahl.com
City Hall (213) 473-7011 West LA (310) 575-8461 Westchester (310) 568-8772



miguel gomez et al, AIDS.gov: peer-generated new media in the fight against AIDS — a call to action (0130)

New Year’s Messages from AIDS.gov and Colleagues

chers—

this is an excellent 5-minute introduction to advocates using the new media for HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, treatment & survival education.

namaste

—rk

New Year’s Messages from AIDS.gov and colleagues highlighting voices and new media lessons learned.

alicia williams et al, AARP: volunteers over 50 now serve more hours more often (0129)

Connecting and Giving: A Report on How Mid-life and Older Americans Spend Their Time, Make Connections and Build Communities
By: Alicia Williams, John Fries, Jean Koppen and Robert Prisuta; AARP Knowledge Management
January 2010

prnewswire report here

Americans 45+ adding informal service to their work with established organizations; African Americans extremely active and engaged in communities and volunteering

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Though volunteering through organizations has remained stable in the last several years, a new report from AARP finds that informal service work among baby boomers and others 45+ is on the rise.

According to the report, the number of boomers and older Americans engaged in self-directed volunteering—volunteering on their own, outside of a formal organization—increased from 34 percent in 2003 to 57 percent in 2009. Additionally, seven in 10 boomers reported they are engaged in volunteering either on their own or through an organization, which is a 20 percent increase over the number of people who say they volunteer through an organization alone.

“We have long known that baby boomers stand ready to serve, but this data gives us new information about how they are serving,” said Thomas C. Nelson, AARP Chief Operating Officer. “As AARP works to activate Boomers and older Americans, we continue to track these trends so that collectively, the service community can better meet the needs of everyone interested in giving back.” . . .

. . . Additional study highlights include:

• The frequency of charitable giving among 45+ adults has increased over last year from 55 percent in 2008 to 72 percent in 2009. Volunteers were more likely than non-volunteers to donate to charitable or religious organizations.  Among those with higher incomes, donating was a fairly common practice—reported by more than 8 in 10 survey respondents.
• The nature of civic engagement is changing, becoming more personal and more secular. Boomers and older Americans are less likely to join organizations. Although membership in religious organizations remains a relatively popular activity, involvement in these organizations has declined.
• Volunteers have many motivations for giving their time in service, but their chief motivation is feeling a personal responsibility to help others when they need it. This reason was reported by 68 percent of volunteers overall; and rated as very important by half of all volunteers. Other top motivations cited included giving back to others, making their own lives more satisfying, and helping their own neighborhood or community.
• While the rate of traditional volunteering has held steady, the amount of time volunteers spend in service has declined as volunteering becomes more episodic. In 2003 and 2009, 51 percent of survey respondents reported volunteering in the prior year. While volunteers in the 2003 study reported spending an average of 15 hours a month in volunteer service, in 2009, volunteers report spending an average of six to 10 hours per month in service—a decline of five to nine hours per month over the six-year time period.

USDA report (in americaBLOG): 81% more seniors living alone rely on foodbanks (0128)

The Obama failure: senior citizens increasingly relying on food pantries
by Chris in Paris
11/28/2009

chers—

the text about this US department of agriculture (USDA) report is excerpted in a 11/28/2009 post on americaBLOG. i have put the report first and the 2 paragraphs of commentary after, reversing the order of the original post.

namaste

—rk

The number of seniors living alone who seek help from food pantries in the U.S. increased 81 percent to 408,000 in 2008, compared to 225,000 in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Overall, 4.7 million households used American food pantries in 2008, compared to about 3.7 million in 2006.

“Seniors thought they were OK, but they’re not OK,” said Virginia Skinner, director of Development at The Association of Arizona Food Banks in Phoenix, citing the downturn in the area’s housing market.

Catholic Charities USA, which has 170 agencies across the country helping the needy, issued a 2009 third-quarter report that found a 54 percent increase in requests for food and services from seniors nationwide compared to the same period last year.

allan brett, journal watch: increased copays disproportionately “dissuade” elders from seeking timely & necessary medical care resulting in more hospitalizations (0127)

Consequences of Increasing Co-Payments for Ambulatory Care
by Allan S. Brett, MD
January 28, 2010

Even small increases in cost-sharing were associated with fewer outpatient visits and more inpatient admissions among elders.

kathleen blanchard, EmaxHealth: elder HIVers experience premature brain aging (0126)

HIV infection or treatments causing premature brain aging
by Kathleen Blanchard RN
Jan 23rd, 2010
The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2010;201:336–340

Individuals with HIV are  found to suffer from premature aging of the brain, either from the infection or from the treatments. Scientists say the findings of concerning, given the present statistics that 14 to 18 percent of HIV infections in the US are among the over 50 age group. Cognitive decline and memory loss are being reported by individuals with HIV. Researchers say brain aging associated with HIV is a public health concern that needs more study.

hivandhepatitisdotcom, cme & newsletter: non-AIDS-defining illnesses in the mature patient (part iii of iii in “the graying of an empidemic: clinical considerations of HIV and aging”) (0125)

chers—

this is a link to the pdf for part iii on an excellent series called “the graying of an epidemic: clinical considerations of HIV and Aging,” available as a cme from hivandhepatitis.com. the other two parts are below.

namaste

—rk

hivandhepatitisdotcom, cme & newsleetter: HIV and cardiovascular disease in the mature patient (part ii of iii in “the graying of an epidemic: clinical considerations of HIV and aging”) (0124)

chers—

this is a link to the pdf for part ii on an excellent series called “the graying of an epidemic: clinical considerations of HIV and Aging,” available as a cme from hivandhepatitis.com. the other two parts are above & belowe.

namaste

—rk

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/cme/2010/healthmatters/cardio/images/Cardiovascular.pdf

hivandhepatitisdotcom: cme & newsletter: managing HIV infection in the mature patient (part i of iii in the graying of an epidemic) (0123)

chers—

this is a link to the pdf for part i on an excellent sereis called “the graying of an epidemic: clinical considerations of HIV and Aging,” available as a cme from hivandhepatitis.com. the other two parts follow above.

namaste—rk

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/cme/2010/healthmatters/aging/images/Graying.pdf

nielsenwire: “global” use averages 5.5 hours daily on web social media in 2009, up 82% in 12 months (0122)

Led by Facebook, Twitter, Global Time Spent on Social Media Sites up 82% Year over Year
January 22, 2010

According to The Nielsen Company, global* consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year when users were spending just over three hours on social networking sites. In addition, the overall traffic to social networking sites has grown over the last three years.

chers—

below is the [*]footnote from all the way at the end. also, compare this with the nielson article on the growth of the senior segment of the internet market.

“*Global data takes into account the following countries: U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy”

read on & namaste

—rk