Help your senior clients be health-informed
Help your senior clients be health-informed
Recent studies say that health care clients are happiest when they are active participants in their care. They want to be informed of their options and included in the decisions.The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, DC, has just made getting informed a bit easier. The HHS recently announced a new Computers for Seniors program designed to help give older Americans access to the Internet and help them make better use of Medicare, Medicaid, and other HHS programs.
HHS’ Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) in Baltimore will loan more than 500 surplus computers to the project, primarily to enable seniors to reach its Web site on Medicare and Medicaid. The computers will be located throughout the country in senior centers that are supported through HHS’ Administration on Aging (AoA). The AoA supports most of the services and programs provided at approximately 6,400 senior centers across the country through the Older Americans Act.
In addition to providing access to the HCFA Web site (www.hcfa.gov), users will be able to reach other relevant sites, including the department’s home page (www.hhs.gov), the AoA (www.aoa.dhhs.gov), the National Institute on Aging (www.nih/nia/), the "healthfinder" site (www.healthfinder.gov), and more.
"HHS is committed to using Internet technology to serve all Americans better," says HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala, in a press release announcing the program. "Our departmentwide Web presence now includes some 62 sites, covering the full range of HHS activities and responsibilities. Many of these HHS sites, as well as many Web sites outside of HHS, will be of special value to older Americans, and we want to help them use this resource to the fullest."
Private duty home care providers are saying this program sounds like a good idea, but the question may be how easily seniors can access the information.
"I don’t think that most people in senior centers know how to use computers, but certainly [the program] is a beginning and a wonderful opportunity," says Darien Zimmerman, RN, vice president of long-term care at Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia. "I’d like to see seniors being able to access what services are available to them."
Computer-literate baby boomer children who find out about the senior center computers can encourage their parents to look up the health care information, she adds. Some seniors, though, love to surf the Web, say executives with senior care organizations. "Studies have shown that some seniors are on the Web more than college students," says a spokesman with the American Association of Retired Persons in Washington, DC.
"Older" seniors, such as those in their 80s, can be intimidated by computers, but younger ones often are avid users, says Michael Reinemer, director of marketing and communications for the National Council on the Aging in Washington, DC.
The access through the senior centers should be beneficial to seniors who don’t have computers in their homes. "There is a tremendous amount of health information that can be downloaded. It should help older people make better informed decisions about their care, the options of care, and treatment."
Through the program, HCFA provides personal computers and basic Windows and DOS operating software to the centers. The centers, which had to apply for the computers, will be responsible for installing and maintaining the equipment, as well as providing a modem and additional phone lines, if necessary. (To find out more about the process, see related story, below.)
HCFA is said to be encouraging senior centers to work with their communities to enhance the access and ability of seniors to use the computers.
How they are doing this is still unclear. A HCFA spokesman from Region 3 in Philadelphia says HCFA has been receiving requests from companies such as CompUSA that are interested in going to the centers and providing training.
Although HCFA is talking to these companies, nothing has been decided or approved, the spokesman said. (Region 3 covers Delaware, Washington, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.)
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