Archive of posts filed under the Editorials and Commentary category.

THERAPEUTIC CASE MANAGEMENT

2 April 2010, 2:11 pm

By Jennifer Westcott MA, MFTI & Drew Ross MA, MFT

Traditional case management typically involves creating a system of care for the benefit of the individual and/or family unit, providing insight and guidance around issues of safety, transition, health and wellness. Therapeutic case management maintains this creation of a solid care system while working with clients and families from a psychological systems approach. This involves paying particular attention to individual and family dynamics, long-standing patterns of behavior, and environmental and psychological factors. It is this attention and awareness of these components that differentiates therapeutic case management from traditional case management. These components become particularly important when anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues are compounding positive progress and forward movement. This is especially true when working with the elderly population who face the inherent difficulties of aging. Continue reading ‘THERAPEUTIC CASE MANAGEMENT’ »

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CPI-U, CPI-W, CPI-E: WHAT IS ALL MEANS

25 February 2010, 12:01 pm

By Shelley Ocaña, Private Fiduciary

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative market basket of consumer goods and services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the measures of price change for population groups on an annual basis. Rents go up based on the CPI rates published in January of every year; food prices rise, transportation costs, wages, commodities and all manner of goods and services are increased based on published CPI rates.

The CPI for all urban consumers is known as CPI-U and represents 87% of the US population. CPI for wage earners and clerical workers is known as CPI-W and represents about 32% of the population.

CPI-E (E is for experimental) represents changes in costs of goods and services for a special group of Americans. In 1987 policymakers began calculating the prices of goods and services consumed by a third significant segment of the population – older Americans (62 and above). As our population ages, economic issues facing the senior community have become critical, not the least of which is a disproportionate inflation rate.

Alarmingly, over the past 25 years, the CPI rates for the elderly rose significantly higher than the other two population sectors. CPI-E rose 126.5% from 1982 to 2007 – this largely because the money spent on medical care by senior citizens far out paces the younger population groups. Medical care inflation increased far more rapidly than most other goods and services in the same period. Additionally, seniors spend more on shelter relative to the other population groups. Factor local price index increases into the equation and you have considerable economic issues drastically affecting aging citizens. (Think New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago – urban centers where goods and services are already higher than in rural American communities.) Fuel oil and heating costs have outpaced overall inflation during this time period as well. Older Americans spend a higher proportion of their income on fuel oil and heating costs than average consumers, for example.

When planning for retirement dollars needed over the average 30 years of retirement, baby boomers will have to factor in those increased rates, just for the basic costs of living. Fiduciaries budgeting trusts and estates to adequately provide for housing, medical care, care services and myriad expenses associated with retirement years for their clients will be well served to take a serious look at the long term effects of CPI-E.

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Congress Extends – and Expands – Homebuyer Tax Credit

2 December 2009, 1:51 pm

Tips for first-time and repeat homebuyers to take advantage of credit
By Rick Laws

Sonoma County homebuyers and consumers across the country received an early holiday gift this month as Congress not only extended the first-time homebuyer tax credit, but expanded it to include many existing homeowners buying another property. This is truly exciting news that will not only benefit both buyers and sellers, but should help the fragile housing market recovery continue to gain momentum.

The new bill, signed into law by President Obama, creates a new incentive for current homeowners who have owned their property for at least five years to receive tax credits of up to $6,500 when they purchase a new home. At the same time, first-time homebuyers – and those who haven’t owned in the past three years – would still get tax credits of up to $8,000.

The current homebuyer tax credit has had a very real and positive impact on the housing market this year. Economists with the National Association of Realtors estimate that the tax credit has contributed approximately $22 billion to the general economy, with approximately two million first-time home buyers taking advantage of the program to get into a home.

There are a number of requirements for the new tax credit bill, which I’ll briefly cover in this column. But most importantly, both first-time homebuyers and move-up or repeat buyers need to get moving quickly. Both groups have just until next spring – April 30 to be exact – to sign a purchase agreement and they must close escrow by June 30. It’s unlikely that Congress will extend these credits again as the economy begins to recover.

Continue reading ‘Congress Extends – and Expands – Homebuyer Tax Credit’ »

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An exerpt from: “It Makes You Want to Cry: Economy Hits Seniors Hard”

21 November 2009, 5:14 pm

seniors It Makes You Want to Cry: Economy Hits Seniors Hard

By Carl Bloice
Article first published by The Black Commentator and then by L.A. Progressive

He caught me by the elevator. “Do you know how much peanut butter costs at Safeway now as compared to two months ago?” John asked. I didn’t but I had been aware of the recent cost of berries, which were rising out of sight.

Joe wanted to know if I had, as requested, written to one of our U.S. senators about the problem. He told me that across the bay in Oakland, a senior meals program had been eliminated entirely as of this month. What brought this exchange on was a July 1 Associated Press article on the effects of rising food and fuel prices and budgetary cutbacks on older people. John and I belong to the same local senior activist group and I had emailed the story to members of the board. That’s the story quoting a woman on Social Security and her difficulty meeting the rising cost of food and utilities who said, “A lot of times I can’t even get into the kitchen.”

“Those same costs are squeezing the estimated 20,000 senior nutrition programs across the country that serve Jones and millions of elderly and frail Americans” the AP story read. “While most needs are still being met, advocates from California to New York worry that seniors will go hungry. They blame a nearly 20 percent increase in fuel and food prices over the past year, flat or reduced government funding, and an ailing economy that yields fewer donations.”

Meanwhile, USA Today has run an extensive series on the problem of seniors struggling to remain alive and healthy under the crushing weight of the cost of the things we need and for which the elderly must pay a disproportionate share of our incomes on. One of them described a busy food bank in Southern California. “The free food amounts to a lifeline for these seniors, who have seen inflation wring much of the value out of their fixed incomes,” it read. “For these retirees, the prices of essentials – notably, gas and food – have galloped beyond reach. Perhaps most of all, they’re straining under the weight of crushing medical costs.

To read the full article please follow this link.

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