Elderly People

Dear Mr. Azrael, What are the steps in adding a name to a deed on a home? I know an elderly lady, recently disabled, who wants to add one to her deed. Robert Scherer Baltimore Dear Mr. Scherer, When elderly people add another person's name to a property deed, it's usually because they want that person to own the property when the older person dies. There are several ways to add another person's name to a deed. Each method has different legal consequences, so it's important to do it correctly.

At her chiropractic office in Randallstown, Dr. Marlene N. Mahipat typically sees 100 patients a week. But each day, she makes time for charity. Mahipat has established two nonprofit foundations in the last five years. One assists children, and the other cares for animals. She has volunteered for Meals on Wheels for longer than she can remember. Twice a month, she turns her waiting room into a production line so she and her assistant can put together bag lunches for delivery to the homeless.

Partners in Care offers help to elderly, disabledPartners in Care Inc., a service exchange program, provides occasional volunteer assistance such as transportation to medical appointments or grocery shopping for elderly people and disabled adults.The volunteers get credit for their hours and may exchange them for services they need or donate them to others.Partners in Care operates a satellite office at Brooklyn Park Health Center in the 300 block of Hammonds Lane.Information: 553-8054.Pub Date: 7/29/96

Carrying signs and raising their voices in protest, about 120 elderly people rallied Friday afternoon at City Hall, hoping to save senior recreation programs proposed to be cut in the mayor's draft budget. "We need them to know we are valuable," rally organizer Annette Butler said, as men and women stepped gingerly off three yellow buses that had pulled up on Fayette Street after the brief ride from Clarence Du Burns Arena. Some walked with canes. Others used walkers. Together, they represented 94 programs and clubs facing elimination in the $2.2 billion spending plan Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake has proposed to close a $121 million budget deficit.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's health policy advisers have been developing plans to incorporate Medicare into a new health care system, even as they have assured elderly people that no major changes in Medicare were imminent.Although they know they risk creating a political outcry from elderly people who fear major changes in a crucial safety net, administration officials say it will be difficult to control health costs if people 65 and older remain outside the new system. Officials also hope to offer additional benefits, such as lower co-payments, to elderly people in the new system, making the change more attractive.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's health-policy advisers have been developing plans to incorporate Medicare into a new health care system, even as they have assured elderly people that no major changes in Medicare were imminent.Although they know they risk creating a political outcry from elderly people who fear major changes in a crucial safety net, administration officials say it will be difficult to control health costs if people 65 and older remain outside the new system. Officials also hope to offer additional benefits, such as lower co-payments, to elderly people in the new system, making the change more attractive.

A controversial Catonsville home for the elderly has overcome strong neighborhood opposition and won long-sought zoning approval to house up to 15 people.However, the battle is not over. Those opposed to the home have appealed a separate county development approval won by Brenda Walker, the home's owner. Neighborhood residents say that the home, located in the 2200 block of Pleasant Villa Ave., is a commercial venture and that traffic congestion will result from increasing the number of residents.

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans offered a $16 billion plan to provide health care for uninsured children yesterday, but they said they could not completely fulfill their promise to set aside $1.5 billion to help low-income elderly people pay health insurance premiums.The Republicans said they had been unable to find all the money needed to keep that promise, which is part of the bipartisan budget agreement reached last month by President Clinton and congressional leaders.The agreement said that Congress would provide $1.5 billion in the next five years "to ease the impact of increasing Medicare premiums on low-income beneficiaries."

A task force looking into the intractable issue of how to make the city's problem-plagued, high-rise public housing developments more livable has come up with a solution that has great promise: Move families with children to non-high-rise public housing units around the city.In effect the group has gone on record as saying that public high-rises are no place to raise children. Turning them into apartments for the elderly is a one alternative that has worked well in places where it has been tried, including Baltimore.

Abuse and neglect are the dark secrets of the elderly. In nursing homes, assisted living facilities and private homes, senior citizens are beaten, robbed and left without proper food or medication, say advocates for the elderly. As a result, the Baltimore County Department of Aging has begun a yearlong campaign to urge more people to report crimes against the elderly and to teach how such acts can be prevented. The campaign - "Elder Abuse Is A Crying Shame" - began this month. The department has publicized it with billboards in Essex and Catonsville and in a brochure with a cover showing a shattered pair of eyeglasses.

Ethel Legrand had put on her silky black beret for the occasion, and sat in her wheelchair cradling a blue-eyed baby doll in both her arms, pressing her chin into its head, rubbing one of its feet with her left hand. She had already named the doll "Betty Jean" and meant to keep it close to her, "right on my bed," she said. She'd had a few dolls in her day - "Ooh, brother, I had a whole lot of dolls" - but now she is 88 years old and was tuning in and out of the morning's proceedings in the chapel at Summit Park Health & Rehabilitation Center in Catonsville.

Ethel Legrand had put on her silky black beret for the occasion, and sat in her wheelchair cradling a blue-eyed baby doll in both her arms, pressing her chin into its head, rubbing one of its feet with her left hand. She had already named the doll "Betty Jean" and meant to keep it close to her, "right on my bed," she said. She'd had a few dolls in her day - "Ooh, brother, I had a whole lot of dolls" - but now she is 88 years old and was tuning in and out of the morning's proceedings in the chapel at Summit Park Health & Rehabilitation Center in Catonsville.

Scams targeting the elderly have become so pervasive that officials in Baltimore County are boosting efforts to prevent them. But with older people living longer, the swindles are multiplying faster than anyone can track. "We're struggling to keep up," county Police Chief James W. Johnson said during a meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council yesterday in Towson. He estimated that he soon will need eight to 10 more officers just to deal with the problem. "We're seeing a significant increase in fraud cases involving elderly victims," Johnson said, citing statistics that show there were 184 reported fraud crimes against elderly people in the county in the first nine months of last year, compared with 149 during the same period in 2007.

Nancy Carver pushed her newborn grandson in a carriage through the packed Carroll County Agriculture Center, where the Bureau of Aging was running its first Seniors on the Go Expo. "He's probably the littlest one here - he's 2 1/2 weeks old - but he's on his way to being a senior," Carver said jokingly. "I'm in my 60s, but I've got a long way to go. We have to keep ourselves young." Carver was with her daughter, Joyce Carver, a social worker at Long View Nursing Home. The nursing facility was one of 83 vendors at the expo offering information on programs, services and products for seniors, their caregivers and their families.

WASHINGTON - Millions of elderly or disabled Americans who may be entitled to financial help through Medicare's new prescription drug benefit will receive applications for that assistance this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt said yesterday. About 14 million people - a third of Medicare's 43 million beneficiaries - are expected to be eligible for aid to reduce the program's premiums, deductibles and co-payments, which can amount to hundreds of dollars a year.

A Boston University researcher thinks he has found a way to reduce the falls that injure and kill thousands of elderly people each year. Vibrating insoles. James J. Collins, a professor of biomedical engineering, found that coin-sized vibrators installed in the shoes of elderly test subjects improved their sense of balance - a key to keeping them on their feet. Collins reported in a study published this fall that people in their 70s sway more than people in their 20s, but the elderly regained their balance when imperceptible random vibrations were sent shooting through the soles of their feet.

At her chiropractic office in Randallstown, Dr. Marlene N. Mahipat typically sees 100 patients a week. But each day, she makes time for charity. Mahipat has established two nonprofit foundations in the last five years. One assists children, and the other cares for animals. She has volunteered for Meals on Wheels for longer than she can remember. Twice a month, she turns her waiting room into a production line so she and her assistant can put together bag lunches for delivery to the homeless.

PHILADELPHIA - My mother is a "geezer geek." Computer geek, that is. She uses her computer to e-mail her friends in Florida and to research travel destinations, beauty products and restaurant menus. My mother (I'm sworn to Survivor-type secrecy about her precise age) is not alone, but there should be many more older people using computers. For many elderly people, computers can be a vital link to the outside world. Seniors are the fastest-growing group of Internet users in America, according to International Data Corp.

If there's an elderly person in your life, you must take extra precautions to ensure his or her well-being during hot weather. Older people are more likely to become overheated and dehydrated, says Lila Sherlock, a geriatric clinical specialist at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut. There are several reasons for this. "The older a person is, the less body water they have, a lower muscle-to-fat ratio," Sherlock says. "If there is less body water to start with, they can dehydrate easier."

Wendy and David Tracey are concerned. Their son Jacob, who has severe cerebral palsy, is 22 years old. They want him to live at home as they all get older, but preparing the house to better accommodate their needs has been difficult and frustrating. Luckily, the Traceys own a rancher. Single-floor living will help as Jacob and his parents age. Even so, seemingly normal design details become flaws, and they are magnified every day. A single step down from the back door to the patio is a challenge for Jacob's wheelchair - and the person assisting him. Jacob also needs help bathing, and his parents must lift him in and out of the tub - something they won't always be able to do. Plenty of other things would help, too: automatic door openers, low-inclined ramps and wider doorways.