April 24, 2012
By Farah Dosani – Looking for secrets to a long life? Just ask women living in Southwest Florida’s Collier County. They live longer – an average of 85.8 years – than women in any other county in the nation, according to a new study. The report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimated the life expectancy of each county in the United States for 2009.
April 18, 2012
By Sammy Mack – Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida’s budget Tuesday – and more than three dozen health-related programs across the state were casualties of the governor’s veto pen. Health programs represented more than a quarter of Scott’s $142 million in line-item vetoes to the $70 billion state budget. Among the cuts: medical school projects, rape crisis centers, devices for people with epilepsy and childhood vaccination programs.
November 22, 2011
[AUDIO] By Dalia Colón – If caregiving had a soundtrack, what genre would it be? Folk? Oldies? Gospel? How ’bout hip-hop with a reggae twist? That’s the feel of Perfect Harmony, a new song that celebrates caregivers. Here’s a taste:
November 21, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Almost two-thirds of LGBT seniors have been victimized three or more times, according to a government-sponsored report. The results are in from a groundbreaking national health survey of more than 2,500 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors, and it highlights the particular disparities and needs of aging LGBT communities.
November 8, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Many people are often barred from eating grapefruit or drinking its juice because it can negatively interact with their prescription drugs. However, there may be some hope for those longing for the tangy citrus. University of Florida researchers believe they can develop a new variety that would allow people to eat the fruit without any problems. It’s a hybrid between grapefruit and pummelo. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science.
September 20, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Let’s face it: talking about sex can be really awkward. Talking about sex with your grandparents? Super awkward. But also important, according to the Florida Department of Health.
September 12, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Nancy Reagan brought focus to an issue that affects one out of three seniors each year. While walking to an event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California last month, the 90-year-old former First Lady took a fall. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who was walking beside Reagan, caught her before she could hit the ground (see video). Falls are the number one cause of trauma hospitalizations and deaths in seniors. But that’s not to say these occurrences should be accepted as normal.
August 22, 2011
[VIDEO] By Farah Dosani – Each day on the job, Mae Greenberg listens to the thoughts of grief-stricken parents and lovers, cancer patients or caregivers. The mental health counselor facilitates several support groups at the Cancer Support Community Greater Miami.
August 8, 2011
[VIDEO] By Farah Dosani – Many people avoid talking about death and dying – but not Ligia Houben. The Miami-based grief counselor and life transitions coach has built her life around it. She is also a certified thanotologist, which is a person who specializes in death, dying and bereavement.
August 4, 2011
By Dalia Colón – For 2008, the cost of hospice care in Florida is estimated at $1.2 billion, according to Florida Trend magazine. That year, nearly 100,000 Medicare patients with terminal illnesses received hospice care. “Providers of hospice services grew to meet the demand,” the publication reports. What follows is a primer on the state of hospice in Florida. Whether you work in the health field or are caring for a terminally ill loved one, you may want to give it a read.
August 3, 2011
[VIDEO] By Farah Dosani – Gertrude Kaufman lives by herself in a condo in Coconut Creek, Fla. Last year, she noticed one breast was larger than the other. Her doctor thought it was cancer and wanted to take a biopsy. She refused and enrolled in home hospice. Although she has no family, the 96-year-old hardly feels like she’s dealing with it alone.
July 21, 2011
[VIDEO] By Kimberly Vlach – A new minimally invasive heart surgery for atrial fibrillation is sending people home – up and about, walking after a one-night hospital stay – on their way to being AFIB-free. About three million people suffer from AFIB which is an irregular heart beat caused by erratic electrical signals in the pulmonary vein. Clinical trials found that 70% of patients treated with the new procedure were free of AFIB after one year. The success rate jumped to 90% for those treated by physicians with more extensive experience.
June 22, 2011
By Dalia Colón – Juan Ponce de León may have gone searching for the Fountain of Youth in present-day St. Augustine, but he would’ve been better off looking in Collier County. That’s because women in the southwest Florida county live longer than anywhere else in the U.S. – an average of 86 years – according to a new study from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
June 20, 2011
[VIDEO] By Sammy Mack – Caregivers of people with dementia often deal with frustrating, inexplicable behaviors of their loved ones. But what is it like for the person with dementia? One South Florida agency is hoping to answer that question by offering virtual dementia tours.
June 8, 2011
[VIDEO] By Farah Dosani – Two months ago, Bonnie Dominguez was at her wits end as a caregiver to her mother Marie Bem, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. Bem used to stay home by herself for only a couple of hours a day – between the time Dominguez went to work and the time her daughter comes home from school. But then in February she lost consciousness twice. “That really scared me…. What am I going to do? I have to work. My daughter has to go to school. I don’t want to leave her alone,” she said.
June 6, 2011
By Sammy Mack – In Monday’s rounds, a radio host in St. Augustine hangs up on Florida state Senate president Mike Haridopolis over Ryan Medicare plan; health care suit continues Wednesday in Atlanta appeals court; Florida infant mortality rates are bad, worse for children of color; school district charges employees a smoking premium; and smoky skies in North Florida threaten respiratory health.
June 3, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Louis Frasca, 86, looks outside the window from his family room in Forest Park, a North Fort Myers mobile home community. “A lady across the street was in hospice,” he points out. “That poor thing, she passed away. The fellow up the street – the same way.” So when Frasca was referred to hospice care in 2006 after open-heart surgery, he thought that was it.
June 2, 2011
By Sammy Mack – In Thursday’s rounds, ALFs might get tighter oversight; Elton John sends a letter to Rick Scott; A map of HIV in the Southeast; a breast milk donation program launches in Jacksonville; new hope for a melanoma vaccine; and German E. coli is a new strain.
June 1, 2011
[VIDEO] By Sammy Mack – Dab Garner has been living with HIV since before there was a name for it. The 49-year-old AIDS activist was a teenager in San Francisco when the first of his friends developed Kaposi’s sarcoma – a skin disorder later associated with advanced AIDS. It was 1981. The friend entered the quarantine ward of the hospital and never left.
May 26, 2011
[VIDEO] By Farah Dosani – If you’re in the hospice industry, you may not be the most popular person in the room. “I can empty a table in five minutes – I can promise you – just telling stories of what I’ve seen on any given day,” said Holly Delia, a hospice nurse in Broward County. She thinks it’s their loss.