The inevitable process of aging and how it affects parents, children, and the entire community will be discussed at this year's Steven A. Gelman Memorial Health Forum, to be held Sunday, April 29, at Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston.

A panel of three experts – a gerontologist, a social worker, and an author who lectures on eldercare – will speak about The Golden Years: Enjoying, Planning for, and Coping with Life with Your Elder Loved Ones.

Dr. Theresa Redling, chief of the geriatric division and hospice medical director at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, will address many of the medical issues associated with the aging process.

"Elderly patients have different needs from the average adult patient," she told NJ Jewish News. "There are normal physiological changes as we get older, and disease processes that can present in atypical ways that could be missed and have a significant impact on the quality of life."

Redling suggested that older patients receive frequent medical screenings, in part to separate treatable forms of dementia from Alzheimer's disease and what many dismiss as "normal aging."

"If someone has a vascular dementia from small strokes in the brain due to diabetes or high cholesterol, you can have a significant impression on the dementia if you treat the other diseases," she said.

Redling said that up to 47 percent of people over 85 develop cognitive impairment. "They are not necessarily demented, but they have some memory defect that will impair their ability to function independently.

"They need preventative care, a focus on maintaining hearing and vision, and an assessment of the risk of falling and his or her ability to function independently," she said. "Routine blood screenings, including thyroid, vitamin, and cholesterol levels," should be conducted on many of the elderly.

And, said Redling, more questions need to be asked: "Do they need assistive devices? Do they need psycho-social supports? Is the family challenged in accessing social services to keep someone independent at home?"

Redling said the choices made by society are as important as those made by individuals in addressing the needs of an aging population.

"For people who need additional assistance we are not really able to provide those resources to everybody," Redling said. "Medicare does not pay for many things a senior needs."

Fighting to assure that seniors receive many of those services is the task of another scheduled panelist, Karen Brand. A licensed clinical social worker, she coordinates the Elderlink program at the Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New Jersey.

Brand describes her workplace as "a one-stop shop for information and referrals for older adults, who can communicate with a live person rather than a recording."

She said half of the phone calls she handles come from adult children of seniors, the other half from older people themselves.

Her talk on April 29 will focus on "how to navigate the system for caregivers and for the aging, how to access resources and come up with a plan" for the future.

Brand said she views her work as "identifying gaps in the system," citing in particular gaps with housing and transportation, especially to and from grocery stores.

"There are people who are driving who should not be driving," she added parenthetically.

Brand said she is familiar with providing long-distance links between seniors and their adult children, connecting one generation of residents with relatives who live out of town.

"The children are concerned about aging parents being isolated or living independently and what their housing options are," she said. "Within this community there is a very big problem with affordable senior housing. There may be senior housing, but the majority of people can't afford it."

Brand is also concerned about the availability and affordability of health care and said that even the promise of providing services to naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) is hampered by rising costs.

"Older adults want to age in place, but if they are not well, as they age in place the costs can be prohibitive and the availability of appropriate services can be problematic. If home care is needed, often a nursing home becomes the least expensive option" for a needy senior, she said.

The third panelist will be newspaper columnist and lecturer Carol Abaya, who will address the competing needs of people in the "sandwich generation," those who are responsible for the care of their own children as well as that of their aging parents.

The forum will begin at 7:30 p.m.; for further information, call the temple at 973-992-3600.

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