Bipartisan Support Key for Passage of Aging Proposals

Published in Pawtucket Times on March 19, 2001

The operative word in national legislative circles these days in bipartisianship.

Both sides of the political aisle working together will have to be part of the picture if the long-term care field is going to see any significant legislative changes, policy sources indicate.

Why is that so? In the Senate, “there’s a 50-50 split between the two major political parties,” notes Bill Benson, President of Benson Consulting Group, a Maryland-based organization. What’s more, the division “has resulted in an unprecedented agreement between Senate Democrats and Republicans to share power,” according to Benson, a former top official with the U.S. Administration on Aging.

Democrats and Republicans alike have been following the failing health of Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, 98, of South Carolina.

If Thurmond retires or dies before the end of this term in 2002, it’s likely that his state’s Democratic governor would appoint a Democrat, a move that would shift the majority in the Senate to the Democratic Party.

Yet, Benson says that any legislative proposal would still need bipartisan support to get out of the Senate. “To get a Republican proposal enacted, you will either have to get lots of Democrats to cross party lines, or bring in Vice President Cheney to be a tie breaker,” he noted.

Meanwhile, in the House, the Republican majority holds but a razor thin margin.

“Like in the Senate, if both parties don’t work together in the House, you’re looking at legislative gridlock,” he says.

Benson notes that the Bush Administration is also moving to stall the lengthy regulatory and administrative actions taken by Clinton toward the end of his administration.

One such item that is temporarily halted is Clinton’s guidelines for managed care organizations that serve Medicare beneficiaries.

President Bush campaigned on Medicare reform and wants to bring his proposal to Congress.

His proposal provides a private sector alternative to traditional fee-for-service Medicare by offering block grants to states to help seniors pay for their pharmaceuticals.

This approach may be derailed by the Democratic Party, which added to its seats in Congress during the recent election, Benson explains.

He notes that Senator Charles Grassley (IA), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has declared that he will not push Bush’s Medicare or prescription drug plans because they lack votes for passage.

Yet, Benson also predicts that the fact that Congress is closely divided increases the chance that something will be done about providing prescription drug coverage to seniors through Medicare. Otherwise, Benson adds, Medicare reform will amount to nothing more than talk this year.

Meanwhile, Robert Greenwood, American Health Care Association for Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), says that bold, revolutionary proposals won’t be forthcoming from the nation’s evenly divided Congress.

Instead, legislators will take an incremental approach toward program development.

“A long term care agenda has not emerged yet,” Greenwood observes. “We don’t even have an administrator for the Health Care Financing Administration, the agency that manages the Medicaid program.”

Greenwood says, in the long run,” We’re hopeful that the Bush Administration will take seriously its responsibility to provide long-term care providers with the needed resources to provide quality of care and to fund a regulatory system that allows providers to do their job while still protecting vulnerable residents.”

Aging gracefully depends mostly on a positive attitude

Published in Pawtucket Times on March 2001

Years ago, my father gave ma a book, “Life’s Little Instruction Book”.  This book, listed as a best seller by the The New York Times, gave readers 511 suggestions, observations and reminders on how to live a happy, fulfilling and rewarding life.  I give you my version of the book, which can hopefully provide you with a rewarding life slanted toward how to age gracefully.

If I could offer you one tip on how to face the downside of growing older, I say practice looking on the bright side of things.  Every day you have a choice when you get up – the glass must be half-full rather than half-empty.  Attitudes become everything as you get older.

It seems that at the snap of a finger, we find ourselves past the prime of youth.   It is so easy to continually reflect on our successes and especially the bad hands we are dealt in life.  Savor your personal and professional victories but forgive yourself for your defeats.

View your past as a canceled check.  Let go of our past regrets and mistakes made in your youth and middle ages.  But also forgive yourself for your weaknesses.  Even for losing those long ago opportunities that passed right through your fingers, like sand in a clasped hand.  But don’t forget to forgive others too, those who hurt you personally or professionally.  You cannot live or end your life peacefully if you are still holding on to anger, bitterness and grudges, all tied to your past.

You must live in the present with an eye toward the future.  There is not enough time left for any one of us to live with past guilt or grudges.  Let go of the past.  Focus on the future, but live the present.

Don’t be afraid to “tell your life story.”  You have a huge reserve of untapped wisdom about living to share with others, especially the young, who can benefit from it.  Insights you have learned throughout the cyclical ups and downs of your life should be shared with your children and their children.  Younger generations will be at a serious loss if you choose to be silent and not share your knowledge.

Life is not a spectator sport.  Go for the gusto and stay as physically active as you can.  Research tells us “if you rest, you rust.”  Physical exercise elevates your mood and benefits your cardiovascular system.

Research tells us that you must also exercise your brain.  Take time to read daily newspapers, magazines or a local senior publication.  Spend your time working on a challenging crossword puzzle or even playing chess, or possibly mahjong.

Find meaningful things in your life that are bigger than you.  Engage in acts of loving kindness to others.  Research indicates that volunteer work can be a protective buffer from the curve balls that life may throw at us as we get older – or is that as we grow more mature?

Don’t be afraid of asking for help or support.  No one is an island, and we need to become more interdependent as we get older.  Research tells us the more types of relationships we have, from family members, friends, belonging to groups, the healthier you will be.  So, strive to keep up your social contact and personal connection with others.

Finally, no matter what your physical condition, there are always opportunities every day in your environment to help care for somebody.  Take advantage of every opportunity.

200 Attend Spiritualist Conference at RWU

Published in the Providence Journal on July 2, 1998

It was not the typical college course work that one  might find when browsing through Roger Williams University’s 1998  course catalogue.

For the novice students of spiritualism, the course title for the week of workshops, lectures and healing seasons might have read: Spiritualism 101: A Beginners Journey into the Spiritual Realms.

For more seasoned students, the program was more than just the basics. It provided them with sound tips on how to further enhance their mediumistic gifts – the ability to channel communication between the earthly world and world of spirits- and to sharpen their skills in giving public demonstrations.

More than 200 people, from 21 foreign countries, including New Zealand, Japen, Egypt, Israel and Finland and 12 states, came to Roger Williams last month to attend the 75th Congress Programme sponsored by the International Spiritualist Federation (ISF).  The umbrella organization, based in the United Kingdom, represents world-wide spiritualist groups with a combined membership of about 200,000 members.

Best selling book author James Van Praagh who wrote Talking to Heaven: A Medium’s Message About Life and Death, is a member of ISF. ISF held the event in Rhode Island to celebrate the 150th anniversary of spiritualism, which began in the United States.

Although the life styles and occupations of the novice and practicing mediums who came to the conference widely- including full-time practicing mediums, college students housewives, carpenters and elections, school teachers, artists, physicians, business owners and retirees – each had a common desire to experience communication between the world and the spirit world and to connect with their inner selves.

Internationally-known mediums and healers, conducted workshops, teaching techniques in healing and mediumship, according to ISF President Lionel Owen, a retired banker from the United Kingdom. Throughout the week, the 3rd generation spiritualism helped budding mediums and reminded the more experienced in his group on how to link up with their inner selves, become physically sensitive to inanimate objects and to the energy of people. On the last day, students under Owen’s supervision tested their mediumistic powers.

In a second-floor classroom in South Hall, Matthias Guddenstein, 58, bearded with long flowing black and gray-streaked hair, sat in a circle of 22 fellow students, totally fixated on his drawing.

During the two-hour session, which fellow mediums practiced giving each other messages from departed loved ones, the casually dressed primary school teacher wearing Birkenstock sandals, continued to sketch.

When finished, the six-foot-tall medium from Switzerland stood up and faced Jospeh Chishom, a 56-year-old carpenter from Wilmington, Mass, to deliver his message.

Guddenstein said that the departed relative, an older woman with white hair in a bun, wearing a string of pearls, had come through him. Chishom accepted the information telling the group that this described his mother.

“She is very outspoken and had keen insight,” stated Guddenstein, adding that the  disincarnate being gives her son encouragement and tells him to become more discipline and urges him to practice his healing. Again, a hit.  Chisholm tells his group that it seems like his mother.

Throughout the week fellow mediums, like Guddenstein in this circle gave each other messages from the spirit world at events, lectures, healing services and even at lunch breaks.

Guddenstein became interested in spiritualism more than 26 years ago when he served as a  translator  for British mediums in public seasons and private readings in Switzerland. “At first I was a skeptic.” But after listening to sitters deny facts coming through the mediums and then to later learn that they verified the messages by family made him a true believer.

“The conference is a good vehicle to meeting spiritualists from all over the world,” Guddenstein added. “It provides me with enrichment of knowledge as well as opportunity for personal growth.”

While many might not understand spiritualists and view those practices as unconventional, Mervyn Johnson, 52, a full-time healer and medium from London, who attended the conference, does not buy into this belief. “We’re basically very sound people from all walks of life,” stated the life-long spiritualist,” from solicitors, doctors to ordinary bricklayers.”

According to Johnson, spiritualists have a common belief of love, light and the existence of the human soul far beyond the physical Earth plane. “We believe in the great love of God without restrictions to that power,” he said, adding that spiritualists churches are open to all religious denominations.  Spiritualist churches, whose ministers have the  same rights and privileges under the law as ministers of other religions, are open to all religious denominations, he said.

Adds speaker Jean Holms, 52, a full-time Colorado-based practicing medium: “Spiritualists know that life continues after death.” Their beliefs can take away mankind’s fear of death and sense of abandonment when a loved one dies.

“Our loved ones and ancestors are readily available to us and can give us proof that they existed,” Holmes said. “They are around us every day and often give us thoughts of love, strength and support.”

For the novices, the intensive mediumship training and fellowship opened up new horizons revealing to them a whole new world, Owen stated. “They will never be the same,” he predicted.  But for all the ISF leader said, “attending the conference reaffirmed the main principles of the ISF that all life, not just human, comes from the same source and is linked together by the power of spirit. That the human personality survives death and can communicate with us in many difference ways.”

For more information on ISF, write to Lionel Ownes, 12 Hillswood Drive, Endon, Stoke-on-Trent., Staffs. ST9 BI, United Kingdom.  For details about the nearest spiritualist church, contact The Spiritualist Church of Brockton, 75 County St., Seekonk, Mass.