The Best of…Seniors to Become Computer Savvy

Published June  11, 2001, Pawtucket Times

           More than 50 years ago, Richard Walton received a Smith Corona portable typewriter from his parents for his 21st birthday.   Over the years the journalist and writer Walton, now age 73, touched typed eleven books on that bulky machine.  From his college days in the late forties until the early 1990s, he continued to use the antique typewriter.                 

         Today Walton has gone through three computers, his present system is a Compaq Presario, Model 7470.  “It pretty much has all the bells and whistles,” Walton says.  As a journalist he loves his computer because “you don’t have to retype entire pages.”  With his Smith Corona, any typos forced him to retype entire pages.   Now paragraphs can be moved around with ease, to view and change before the final draft.

         Walton gets other bennies from using new computer technology.  “I communicate with people everywhere using e-mail” he say,noting that when he needs to research topics for his articles its simple, just cruise the World Wide Web.

       Walton is one of growing number of seniors who are using the computer to keep in touch with family and friends, word processing documents, keeping the checkbook, making electronic purchases for a vast variety of items, from books, drugstore purchases to travel packages.  Seniors can also tap into this evolving technology to research and buy stocks and to do their banking and pay their bills. 

      Stacy Dieter, vice president of Business Development for SeniorNet, a nonprofit San Francisco-based company that teaches seniors to use computers and the internet, calls seniors “savvy” when it comes to operating computers.  “May be younger people are more use to maneuvering the mouse, but seniors can quickly pick up how the use the computer technology,” she says.

      Older adults are the fastest growing audience online, Dieter tells The Times.   According to Jupiter Communications, Dieter notes that by the year 2003, it is estimated that 27.3 million people over age 50 years old will be using the Internet regularly.”

       Adds Dieter, computer ownership is also slowly increasing too.   A SeniorNet and Charles Schwab & Company 1998 market research study found that 40 percent of all seniors now own a computer at home compared with 29 percent in 1995.  Meanwhile, seniors spend more time per month online (38 hours) than any other age group, with more than 83 percent making daily visits to the Internet, she says.

      Senior centers are also moving into the computer age by making computers more accessible to their older participants.   With assistance from the state’s Department of Elderly Affairs (DEA), a growing number of senior centers acrossRhode Islandare opening up computer labs. 

      With two Compaq computers provided by DEA, one donated by a Rhode Island  Dot.Com company, FindRI.Com, and one surplus City of Pawtucket computer, Joan Crawley, Director of Pawtucket’s Leon Mathius Senior Center, pieced together her equipment, bringing the computer age Pawtucket’s seniors.

        Beginning in June, a small multi-use room in the Senior Center, originally used for health promotion activities, was transformed into a computer lab.   The City of Pawtucket provided the expertise to install the computers with Internet access.

       “We’re in the organizational phase right now,”Crawley says, adding that her waiting list of seniors wanting to learn how to use computers and the Internet has grown to more than 30.

         Although Pawtucket’s Senior Center Director expects the computer lab to be up and running and courses taught by the fall, the computers are now available for use by those who are knowledgeable about their use.  Half and hour time slots will be made available to these individuals.

          Meanwhile, volunteer instructors are now being recruited to teach the basics (using computer’s key board and mouse) to learning computer software programs and how to surf the Internet.          “The perfect volunteer might be someone who has recently retired and wants to share their expertise,”Crawley says.  The more volunteers will allow the computer lab to have extended hours. .

          Why a computer lab?   “We want our seniors to use the Internet to look up information on health care, Social Security or even about Medicare. Crawley notes that a social worker will be available to assist the computer user in culling the needed information from the targeted web sites.

          Crawley adds, “Ultimately we would like to get an e-mail address so that seniors can talk to their love ones who live are far away.”  Additionally, she believes that savvy senior computer users can save money too, by not spending money for newspapers and magazine subscriptions.  They can just use the Internet to seek out information in hundreds of thousands of newspapers or magazines published around the world.

          By adding a computer lab to the Senior Center’s programming, “We’re very excited about bringing Pawtucket’s senior population into the 21st century,Crawley says gleefully.

          SeniorNet is the world’s largest trainer of adults over 50 on computer technology and the Internet with 220+ SeniorNet Learning Centers in 38 states as well as the best on-line community for older
adults at http://www.seniornet.org.

           Herbert P. Weiss is a Pawtucket Rhode Island-based writer covering aging, health and medical care  This article appeared in June 11, 2001 in the Pawtucket Times. He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com.

Study Seeks Seniors Wanting Healthier Lifestyle

Published in Pawtucket Times on June 4, 2001

A University of Rhode Island research study that is currently under way is seeking seniors looking for a healthier lifestyle. The unique East Providence-based health promotion program plans to expand into nearby Pawtucket, Seekonk, Barrington, and the East Side of Providence and seeks 300 additional senior volunteers to participate.

At the SENIOR Project, URI researchers are investigating whether physical activity and nutrition are being elixirs to better health.

According to Director Phillip Clark, Sc.D., at URI’s Program in Gerontology, the National Institute on Aging-funded study takes a look at the effectiveness of a health promotion program geared at reaching people are at different stages of readiness to change their health-related behavior. “One size fit all” describes most health promotion programs, Clark tells The Times, but the SENIOR’s Project’s 12-month health promotion approach is “highly individualized.”

Currently, more than 1,000 enrollees age 65 and over have randomly been assigned to four health promotion interventions. All enrollees received material with large-print type for ease in reading.

The first intervention group receives a 20-page manual that explains the process of changing behaviors and the importance of physical exercise.  The second group is provided with a similar manual that also explains the change process but focuses on the nutritional benefits of eating fruits and vegetables.  A third group receives both sets of informational health promotion materials while the fourth group receives a manual on fall prevention.

Based on the results of quarterly questionnaire, an individualized report is generated and provided to each enrollee about their specific attitudes and behaviors, providing them with suggestions as to what they can do to make positive health and nutritional changes.

There are 16,000 possible variations of the computer-generated reports based on how the individualized questionnaires are filled out notes, Geoffrey Greene, Ph.D. RD, LDN, a URI professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences who also staffs the URI research team.

Greene adds that quarterly telephone counseling is offered too, by trained counselors. Using individualized reports, the counselor effectively coaches each older enrollee. “The counselors might focus on either the person’s attitudes or behaviors, depending on the person’s readiness to change,” he stated.

In between the quarterly reports. Greene notes that each enrollee will receive eight newsletters. Depending on the intervention group, the senior will be mailed a newsletter focusing on either nutrition, physical exercise, or both. Those seniors receiving the manuals about fall prevention will receive no newsletter. The URI nutritionist states that one of 40 variations of newsletters could be mailed to enrollees, linked to their level of readiness to change.


What specific nutritional lessons do people learn? Seniors receiving nutritional information on fruit and vegetables learn the importance of eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables, Greene says. “It can help to reduce your high blood pressure, prevent certain types of cancers, reduce the risks of heart disease. Those who eat even more servings seem to have lower risks of diabetes, too,” Greene adds.

Greene states that seniors receiving nutritional intervention who already eat a lot of fruits and vegetables are told by the trained counselors to increase their variety. “A person is steered toward specific types of vegetables and fruits that are richer in nutrients and protective against certain types of diseases,” he adds.

As to physical fitness, Clark says that exercise is properly the most important health behavior for older adults. “It benefits body, mind and spirit,” he adds, noting that people of any age can benefit from a regular exercise program. Before beginning any exercise program, one needs to check with a physician, warns Clark.

Clark believes that “It’s never too late to begin to increase your physical activity.”

Estelle Tetreault, 78, a former public health nurse who had cardiac surgery last March, is a believer in the SENIOR Project and is pleased with her positive lifestyle changes. “The program really gets us off our butts,” she quipped, noting that her interest in health promotion influenced her to enroll.

For a while, Tetreault admits, she was a couch potato. “Exercise and nutrition have become a regular and more important part of my life,” the former Pawtucket and now East Providence resident says. “The upshot is I joined the SENIOR Project to support them but the project has become a source of support for me.

Tetreault’s longtime friend, Fran Robertson, also an East Providence resident and participant in the research study sees the tangible benefits, too. “Everyday Fran reminds herself to eat five fruits and vegetables,” Tetreault says, noting that her friend now regularly reminds herself to exercise daily.

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Cultivating a Garden, Inside and Out, Brings Satisfaction to Many Seniors

Published in the Pawtucket times on May 28, 2001

Some aging Baby Boomers squirm at the thought of turning age 50. The reality of aging often hits home when a letter arrives from the AARP urging them to become a member.

But one’s senior years could be uplifting, not a downer. Radio producer and writer Connie Goldman believes that the aging process can be viewed as a spiritual quest, not a personal crisis.

Goldman writes and produces public radio programs about seniors, from caregiving to cultivating your inner guard to talking about seniors who enjoy becoming more creative, alive and aware in their later years.

In one radio program, she talked about “Late Bloomers,” persons in their later years who choose to enjoy late life learning, climbing steep mountains and even becoming artists, dancers and writers in their later years.  But “being busy for the sake of being busy” ignores the real benefits of growing older, Goldman states, noting that the later years offer opportunities to focus on activities that are meaningful and internally enriching you.

For those age 50 and older, there are many opportunities to take advantage of and enjoy new relationships. Others begin to slowly wind down their hectic career, travel to exotic lands, assist in raising their grandchildren or contribute back to society through volunteer work. “It’s good to keep busy with something you truly enjoy,” Goldman says, but the simple act of watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset or even quietly puttering around your garden can be as stimulating as a jam-packed calendar of activities.

According to Goldman, as the outer world shrinks and we pull back into our selves, our inner personal world is given space to  grow. “This time of our lives can provide us with an opportunity to explore a different side of our selves. During the quiet times of midlife and beyond, gardening can offer us a chance for  contemplation, meditation, deep relation and inner calm,” she adds.

“Gardening provides us with a way to connect with the earth ad get in touch with the natural world,” Goldman states.

With the raves and kudos Goldman received from her recent one-hour public radio special, “The Wisdom of Gardening: Conversation with Elders and Others,” the 70-year-old writer and radio producer, and her writing colleague Richard Mahler, coauthored a book on the deeper meaning of gardening.

This 235-page book, “Tending the Earth, Mending the Spirit: The Healing Gifts of Gardening,” explores how the simple act of gardening can bring great satisfaction to gardeners, as well as to those who visit gardens. Interviewers told them how they found peace in their backyard when they were dealing with sadness and grief, relief from the stresses of the work place or feeling great joy in watching a tiny plant growing to be a big beautiful flower or ripe tomato.

“Whether you garden on a plot or in a pot, one experiences great satisfaction in being a partner in nature’s growth,” Goldman adds. So, as summer time approaches, get off the fast track of life. Dust off your gardening tools, put on your old clothing and sneakers. In the backyard vegetable patch, Goldman urges us to spend time connecting with the “natural world through gardening.” Whether admiring roses in your background patch or a neighbor’s garden, eating vegetables that you grew or simply enjoying the cool shade of trees, take time to nurture your “celestial Eden.”