Finding Quality Health Care from US DHHS

This booklet offers information for consumers on evaluating health care services to find quality care and make good health care decisions. It provides tips on finding and communicating with a physician, asking questions, and taking an active role in health care. From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
DHHS Guide to Health Care Quality

Project Lifesaver....Tracking Missing Persons Suffering From Alzheimer's and Other Diseases

Project Lifesaver uses modern technology to track missing persons suffering from Alzheimer's, Down Syndrome, and autism….check it out. It could save a loved one’s life.

Disappearing seniors may be found County adopts new tracking device
Hudson Reporter - Hoboken,NJ,USA
Lifesaver devices are used in all 21 counties in the state of New Jersey, with more than 26 law enforcement agencies nationwide. ...

Caregivers in NJ

This is a link to the DHSS Caregiver site (which I have posted about previously). This links right into their site map to make it easy to see what they have that may pertain to you and your situation…check it out.

CaregiverNJ - Site Map
Assistive Technology Advocacy Center (ATAC); Division of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DDHH); NJ Commission for the Blind. In-Home Caregiver Education and ...

Article from a Michigan newspaper about Caregiving

This article is actually from a Lansing, MI newspaper, but I think it bears some relevance to this blog. it strikes a cautionary tone about an aging population and caregiving becoming a bigger issue than it is now.

Help: A labor of patience and compassion
Lansing State Journal - Lansing,MI,USASo two years ago, Koons, 56, invited her mother, Marjorie Martyn, to come from New Jersey to Lansing for a short visit. As her mother’s eyesight worsened, ...

New Jersey's Kinship Care Portal

Here is a link to New Jersey's DHSS Kinship Care web page....primarily for those raising children of relatives or others.

DHS established the Kinship Navigator program to help kinship caregivers negotiate the labyrinth of government and community resources that may be available to them. This toll-free service helps kinship caregiver identify available resources and then advocates on their behalf to access those services.

http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/sp&i/Kinnav.html

Fiscal Irresponsibilty by the Government?

Here is an interesting article I found on Medical news Today. The US Comptroller was on 60 Minutes about a week agao and spoke of how fiscally irresponsible the Medicare Drug Program was.

The Medicare prescription drug benefit is "financially irresponsible," U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, said in a segment on CBS' "60 Minutes" this weekend, Reuters reports. Walker called the drug benefit "probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s ... because we promise way more than we can afford to keep." Walker said that $8 trillion would need to be invested immediately to cover the difference between what Medicare will take in and what it will owe to beneficiaries over the next 75 years.

He also mentions how overburdening it will be when the major segment of the baby boomer generation starts to retire. Sounds like a problem?

Resources for Grandparents and Others Raising Children in NJ

This link points to a pdf (Adobe Acrobat document) file that is a fact sheet providing important information and resources for the grandparents and other relatives raising children in NJ. The file appears to be dated 2005 so some info may have changed, but at least it gives a good place to start for people that need assistance who serve as caregivers for children.

The article lists resources for grandparents, foster care, public assistance programs, state laws may be helpful to grandparents and other relatives raising children, and a list of national resources (phone numbers and web addresses listed). The file is hosted by the Brookdale Foundation.

Resource Sheet at Bookdale Foundation
through Work First New Jersey. • A “child-only grant” is for the child and based only on the child’s income. • An adult caregiver may also be included in ...