It strikes me that embarrassment is a huge barrier to participation in physical activity for aging people, and it’s not even the most substantial one. Other obstacles include lack of money or transportation to attend an age-appropriate exercise class. In some cases, older adults are hobbled by arthritis or are wheelchair-bound. And sometimes taking a walk isn’t a viable option when a neighborhood doesn’t feel safe or the sidewalk is cracked and pitted.
Every year, an estimated 1 or more million patients venture from California to Mexico to obtain medical treatments and medicines, and a large contingent of these are aging people.
Cost is the main reason to make the trip for 60 to 70 percent of patients, said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
The most popular treatments among older patients who cross the border are dental services.
I’m one of many people who are increasingly living longer with or past cancer. In the 1970s, only 49 percent of patients survived five years after their illness, but that rate has risen to 70 percent. Doctors now commonly talk about cancer as a chronic disease which can be managed.
But even as older cancer patients receive the gift of extra time, greater longevity brings its own challenges.
Shari Horne spends much of her day caring for her husband Hal in their sunny apartment in Orange County’s Laguna Woods, where she was once mayor.
I’m sharing the Hornes’ story in my inaugural column for the California Health Report. Over the next year, I’ll write about health equity and aging, drawing on my personal experiences, as well as those of the people I interview.
At the South Central LA Demo Day, young men of color pitched their tech inventions after having taken part in a coding academy over the summer. Demo Day and the coding academy were offered by TXT: Teens Exploring Technology.
Having just bought a dozen or so quart-bottles of sports drinks – a riot of reds, yellows and blues wedged in the front of his shopping cart — Luis Gregorio Ruiz almost made it out of an Anaheim grocery store on a recent morning. But not quite. Maureen Villasenor, a physician in a white coat with a friendly manner, hustled over to Ruiz and introduced herself to him to chat about healthy drink choices.
Five-year-old Katherine Turcios looked skeptical as a hygienist held up a pen-sized dental instrument for the kindergartener to examine. “No pica,” she told Katherine, assuring her it wouldn’t hurt. Then she placed it in the child’s hand so she could see for herself that it wasn’t sharp.
The day begins on Crocker Street in downtown Los Angeles in a shady, fenced-in courtyard behind the Volunteers of America building. A team of health and social service workers gather with cardboard coffee cups in hand, chatting and planning for the work ahead. They form a circle, and a group leader steps forward: What are we offering today? Team members call out the services available: help for mental health problems and substance abuse, and referrals for doctor visits.
Families in which some members lack legal residency have been hesitant to enroll eligible members in the health insurance options available under the Affordable Care Act, according to enrollment specialists and civil rights organizations.
Twenty-one-year-old Albert is a self-described transient who picks up odd jobs whenever possible. On this day in mid-July, he’s waiting to be picked up for day labor in Santa Ana. Albert has a black spot on his foot that he knows could signal diabetes, an illness that runs in his family and forced his uncle to lose a leg.