UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE DIVISION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS WASHINGTON, D.C. 20402

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

more for low-income workers. Two other points he submitted, which should have great appeal for many U.S. seniors, were: (1) no deductions from pension income because of wages or other income after retirement, and (2) an automatic cost-of-living increase provision."

Nursing Homes

Professional Nursing Homes. Monthly. Miller Publishing Co., P. O. Box 67, Minneapolis, Minn. 55440. $10 a year, $1 a copy.

The December issue is the annual purchasing directory and planning guide for 1968, which also contains a calendar of relevant events, directory of associations, and statistics on occupancy, cost per patient day, staff, expansion, and new construction plans.

Thomas M. Tierney, director, Bureau of Health Insurance, Social Security Administration, contributes an article on "The Problem of Custodial Care," substituting for the column of Theodore Schuchat, the magazine's Washington correspondent who was out of the country on a reporting assignment.

American Journal of Nursing. Monthly. American Journal of Nursing Co., 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N. Y. 10019. $5 a year, 60¢ a copy.

"Care of the Confused Elderly Patient" is discussed in the December issue by Maxine Lambrecht Patrick, B. S., M. N., now in graduate study in gerontology at the University of California, Los Angeles, following nursing and teaching experience at the Universities of Colo

rado and Washington. Abstracts of papers on geriatric nursing elsewhere in the magazine discuss care of eye surgery patients, oral medications for older persons, and geriatric congestive heart failure among other subjects. Rural Aging

The Farm Index. Monthly. Economic Research Services, U. S. Department of Agriculture. $2 a year, 20¢ a copy from Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. 20402.

The December issue carries an article, "New Lives for Older Farmers," which describes programs, including that of the U.S. Administration on Aging and other Federal agencies, which can be of assistance to the more than 5 million rural residents over 65.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1968 303-305/6

the aged and directors of community and voluntary programs for older

The U.S. Administration on Aging has made two grants totaling $218,162 under title V of the Older Americans Act to universities in Oregon and Florida for training in gerontology.

The University of Oregon at Eugene received a $106,188 grant to establish an Institute for Studies in Gerontology in its new Graduate School of Community Service and Public Affairs. It also will provide undergraduate courses and training for persons now at work in facilities serving older people.

Institute on Aging to offer the new program. Courses have a wide range including biology, psychology, and sociology of aging, with supporting classes in consumer education, community planning, and leisure time activities for older people.

Other title V grants include: North Texas State University, at Denton, $88,586 to develop programs for training graduate students as career administrators of homes for

To earn an M.S. degree, students would spend two semesters on campus, a summer session and a semester internship, and a final campus semester for a 21-month total.

University of New Hampshire, Durham, $2,650 to conduct 3-day basic workshop for 25 nursing home administrators. Topics will include lectures on the aging process, effective management, and responsibilities and potentials of the nursing home in the community.

grant of $111,974, the University of Suth Florida, at Tampa, is starting Jurses making gerontology one of its major fields of emphasis, with 30 students enrolled to study for master's degrees.

The University of Oregon Institute is designed to give leadership for the area in gerontological training, provide training at both graduate and undergraduate levels, and stimulate faculty and student research, as well as to offer short-term training for persons now working in agencies serving older people. The latterpart of the university's continuing education program will include statewide and regional workshops.

A center for research in gerontology will provide research training for students, aid service agencies with operational problems, encourage basic research, and develop research information exchange. The graduate program is to fit persons for administrative positions and for teaching and research. Undergraduate courses will prepare students to work in special programs for older people.

Under a first-year $43,552 grant (Aging, Aug. '67, p. 15) the University of South Florida planned curriculum, introduced experimental gerontological courses, and prepared its

Citywide Health Screening Program

Members of the Berkeley, Calif. Senior Center have a new year-long project a multi-phasic health screening examination program open to all city residents 65 and over.

The 1-year demonstration project is expected to reach up to 1,500 older citizens under a $10,000 grant from the Berkeley Health Department and the State Bureau of Chronic Di

seases.

The municipal health department and Herrick Hospital conduct the actual free examinations, but appointments must be made through the center, at 1859 University Ave., which is operated by the city with the aid of a $15,000 first year grant from the California Commission on Aging under title III of the Older Americans Act.

In addition to making appoint ments, senior volunteers serve as receptionists and guides during the screening process, help the medical staff by measuring height and weight, and in giving vision and hearing

tests.

The volunteers also provide transportation when necessary for the examinees, who are checked for heart

and blood pressure trouble, diabetes, glaucoma, uterine cancer, and other ailments.

Dr. Geogre Keranen, physician in charge who also teaches at the University of California, says his senior aides are "having a ball" with their enthusiastic work and "many of them are easier to teach than medical students."

Objective of the program is to detect and treat ailments in older persons, who too often fail to take regular physical examinations. The first group of examinees included people "healthy as horses," Dr. Keranen said, but the program is designed to seek out and assist other older people who may have serious ailments.

Ultimately the program's age limit may be lowered from 65 to 60, he said. At present about 20 persons are being examined each day at the Herrick Hospital outpatient clinic and given chest X-rays at the Health Department. This rate may be expanded to 50 a day, Dr. Keranen said. The examinations, which started Jan. 16, are given every other Tuesday.

Older Americans are among 2.1 million beneficiaries of the Department of Agriculture food stamp program now operational in 41 States and the District of Columbia.

No estimates are available on the precise number of older persons aided by the program (Aging, Dec. '64, p. 4) which has raised nutritional standards for low-income families, because individual State welfare agencies determine qualifications of participants.

However, all participating States have plans under which authorized representatives or "proxies" of eligible persons, including the aging and handicapped, can obtain stamps if confined to their homes.

Started in 1961

was

The food stamp program launched in mid-1961 in eight economically depressed areas. Since then it has been extended-at the request of State governments-to 850 of the 3,000 counties of the United States.

Under it, participating families certified by State agencies buy food stamps, or coupons, in amounts equal to that which they normally would spend for food. They are issued enough extra coupons or stamps, free of charge, to permit them to buy food for a more nearly adequate diet.

The stamps, turned in to grocers like cash, purchase about everything except alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, and imported goods. The stamps are not good for credit. Grocers turn them in to wholesalers or banks like cash, and the Federal government redeems them through Federal Reserve banks.

The Agriculture Department cites the example of one mother of four who paid $18.50 for stamps and received $66 worth of coupons. Surveys show retail sales up 8% in areas using the stamps, mostly for nutritious goods. The program, for which Congress appropriated $185 million

for the current fiscal year, benefits consumers by raising their purchasing power for nutritious foods, farmers who produce the foods, and merchants who distribute it, the Department points out.

Pilot Areas

The initial eight pilot areas were in the city of Detroit, Franklin County, Ill., Floyd County, Ky., Virginia - Hibbings - Nashwauk area, Minn., San Miguel County, N. M., Silver Bow County, Mont., Fayette County, Pa., and McDowell County, W. Va.

Most recent additions to the list of

participating areas are Alameda, Shasta, and Lassen Counties, bringing to 11 the number of participating counties in California, and ten counties in Pennsylvania-Adams, Mon

York, Centre, Northampton, Berks, Butler, Delaware, Elk, and Cameron. Fifty of Pennsylvania's 67 counties are now participating.

State officials estimated there were over 9,100 eligible households in the Pennsylvania counties and more than 20,000 persons in the three newly added California counties.

Several methods of distributing food stamps to aging and other persons confined to their homes are in use in the various States.

The first is the proxy method, by which the head of an eligible family may authorize another family member or even someone outside the household to purchase stamps in his behalf.

In some States organizations may be authorized to make such purchases for eligible recipients.

A few State agencies authorize purchase of stamps by mail.

The Department of Agriculture advises eligible food stamp users desirous of obtaining them other than by personal appearance at the issuing office to inquire of local agencies.

Gardner Predicts
Will Aid Millions
Aging Programs

Programs under the Older Americans Act now are reaching hundreds of thousands of older people and "will affect the lives of millions more in the years to come," says John W. Gardner, retiring of Secretary Health, Education, and Welfare. Mr. Gardner devoted one chapter to older Americans in an HEW Progress Report to department employees. Programs throughout HEW are concerned with older persons, the Secretary said. He added:

"But the agency within the department that has the most comprehensive concern for the needs and problems of older people is the Administration on Aging, which we created in 1965.

"Forty-four States have established programs under the Older Americans Act, and have brought into being over 630 projects in as many communities across the Nation. These projects are conducted by local public agencies and by a diverse group of voluntary organizations working at the community level.

"The programs now reach several hundred thousand older people in the Nation, and will affect the lives of millions more in the years to come. Their great achievement to date has been to create a widespread awareness of the problems, needs, capabilities and desires of older people."

Among "gratifying results in finding new roles for older people," Mr. Gardner said, is the Foster Grandparent Program.

It also has been found, he said, that older people "represent an untapped resource for our hard-pressed school systems."

Mr. Gardner's resignation, tendered Jan. 25 to take effect Mar. 1, was accepted with "deep regret" by President Johnson. He had been HEW Secretary since August 1965.