Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Weill Cornell Receives Millions to Study Mistreatment of Elders

Excerpt from: The Cornell Daily Sun (click for full article)

 

To combat elder abuse — an issue the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called a “significant public health problem” — Weill Cornell Medical College received a $13.6 million gift from a charitable foundation last month, according to Weill officials. 

The gift will be used to fund more standardized data collection on elder abuse and study effective ways to respond to such forms of abuse, according to Prof. Mark Lachs, medicine, director of the New York City Elder Abuse Center. 

According to the CDC, elder maltreatment includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment and financial abuse of people over the age of sixty.

Creating Special Trusts For Challenged Kids

Excerpt from: Barron's (click for full article)

 

The need to fund such long-term care has grown as autism rates have ballooned. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 88 children in the U.S. has autism or a related disorder. The average lifetime cost for dealing with this is around $3.2 million per individual, with 60% of the afflicted requiring adult services, the Autism Society figures.

Wealth advisors are helping clients create trusts for their autistic children. Parents don't want to saddle other children or other relatives "with the financial or emotional burden of caring for their disabled child," explains Jennifer Immel, a senior wealth planner with PNC Wealth Management.

By establishing a special-needs trust, parents can ensure that resources are available to children who need long-term care. Irrevocable trusts are often set up during the parents' lifetimes, with assets such as stocks or bonds providing a liquid income stream to be distributed as needed. These trusts can be funded upon a parent's death by the proceeds of a life-insurance policy. Until Jan. 1, a lifetime gift made by a parent to a special-needs trust falls under the $5.12 million individual-gift exemption.

Statement from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on World Polio Day

Excerpt from: HHS.gov (click for full statement)

 

As we observe World Polio Day today, we can consider that, although many Americans may think of polio as a scourge that affected children long ago, this paralyzing disease continues to threaten many children in the world.  Polio continues to kill, and those who live can face a lifetime often marked by limited mobility, employment and marriage prospects, as well as social stigma.  World Polio Day is held each year on Oct. 24 in commemoration of the birth of Dr. Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against polio.

Since 1988, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has worked as a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. HHS joins Rotary International, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the U.S. Agency for International Development, in the drive to end polio.  We are committed to eradicating polio and providing a legacy of freedom from fear of polio for future generations.

The results of the global polio eradication effort have been inspiring, and have led to the lowest number of polio cases to date. In 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio worldwide.  As of Oct. 16, there were 171 cases in 2012. Polio was once a disease of large-scale outbreaks, but the determination of polio eradication workers has led to the disease remaining endemic in only three countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.