in the news Nelson Cruikshank New Federal Council Head President Carter has announced that he will designate Nelson Cruikshank as Chairman of the Federal Council on the Aging. Mr. Cruikshank replaces Bertha Adkins, who will continue to be Council Chairwoman until the transition is complete. Mr. Cruikshank's designation was announced by Vice President Walter Mondale in a speech to the Council's biennial legislative conference on June 6. He will also be appointed counsellor to the President. Mr. Cruikshank is presently a member of the Federal Council on the Aging and president of the National Council of Senior Citizens. Mr. Cruikshank, who is 75, has had a long and distinguished career in community, labor, and public service activities. From 1930 to 1933 he directed the relief program of the Brooklyn (New York) Federation of Churches and from 1933 to 1935 served as director of the Workers Education Pro gram of the New Haven, Connecticut Central Labor Union at Yale University, and organized for the AFL in Connecticut. He directed the WPA Workers Education Program at New York University in 1935-36. Mr. Cruikshank worked in labor relations for the Farm Security Administration from 1937 to 1942, serving as director of the Migratory Labor Camp Program from 1940 to 1942. In 1943 and 1944 he was executive assistant to the labor members of the Management-Labor Advisory Committee of the War Manpower Commission, and deputy vice chairman of the Commission in charge of labor relations. From 1944 to 1950 Mr. Cruikshank was director of Social Insurance Activities for the AFL. In 1951 and 1952 he was director of the Labor Division Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris, France. He served as director of the Department of Social Security at the AFL-CIO in Washington from 1953 until his retirement in 1965. Since his retirement, Mr. Cruikshank has served as a visiting professor at Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Pennsylvania State University. He has been president of the National Council of Senior Citizens since 1969. Mr. Cruikshank has also been active in the international sphere. He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the First General Assembly of UNESCO in 1946, and served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 1946 to 1950. He was a member of the U.S. delegation Three Named Arthur F. Bouton, Dr. Isador Rossman, and Martin Janis were recently appointed members of the National Advisory Council on Aging. The Council advises, consults with, and makes recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) on programs relating to the aged and the study of aging. The NIA was established in 1974 to conduct and support biomedical, social, and behavioral research and training on the aging process and other special problems and needs of the aged. Dr. Nathan W. Shock has been appointed the first Scientific Director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA). As Scientific Director, he is responsible for the NIA intramural research program housed in the Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore, Md. Dr. Shock has been the Acting Scientific Director of NIA for the past year and has been Chief of the Gerontology Research Center since 1941, when it was a small, twoman NIH aging research unit. At the NIA facility in Baltimore, some 150 scientists and supporting staff study the biomedical, physiological, and psychological factors related to the aging process. Investigators carry out research in four branches and laboratories - clinical physiology, behavioral, cellular, and comparative physiology, and molecular aging. Dr. Shock's contributions to literature on aging number more than 300 original articles and papers dealing with age changes in kidney function, changes in the heart and circulatory system, pulmonary function in older people, and the effects of physical activity on aging processes. He has long been a national and international leader in aging, serving as President of both the Gerontological Society in 1960 and the International Association of Gerontology during 1969-1972, as well as holding local and State offices. Dr. Shock's honors include the first Gerontological Society award for meritorious contributions to aging research presented to him in 1965, and the first biomedical science and aging award presented by the University of Southern California's Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center in 1973. He received both a Superior Service Award in 1965 and a Distinguished Service Award in 1976 from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and was named one of seven American pioneers in gerontology by the University of Michigan/Wayne State University Institute on Aging in 1972. National Health Care Group To Help Fight Fraud, Abuse The American Health Care Association (AHCA), the Nation's largest nursing home and long term health care facility federation, has announced it will strengthen its own professional peer review programs to complement Federal and State efforts to combat fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid programs. AHCA First Vice-President Don L. Brewer of Dallas, Texas, told two U.S. House of Representatives subcommittees in Washington that "revelations of wrongdoing rob the large majority of honest health care providers of vitally needed public support and confidence." He called for "an effective effort directed at fraud and abuse including efficient program management, clear and concise rules and regulations, regular monitoring, swift retribution for offenders, con sistent with due process, and fair payment for quality health care services." In order to deny AHCA membership to unscrupulous providers, the Association will recommend three major steps to its membership (half of America's nursing homes): • Denial of AHCA membership to any provider or State nursing home. or health care association which does not pass peer review screening; creation of procedures to suspend any person convicted of criminal offenses from AHCA participation; ⚫ successful peer review screening by any person seeking a leadership position in AHCA or its State affiliates. Mr. Brewer added: "We anticipate that these steps will reassure the public and help protect our profession's own good name." A She Shuns Retirement; Joins Peace Corps Instead few years ago, Martha L. Daniell's employer told the Columbus, Ohio career woman that it was time to retire. "Retiring was the last thing I wanted to do," said Miss Daniell, 66, who was division manager of employee services at the Nationwide Insurance Co. Miss Daniell, 66, who also had been an educator, Red Cross official, and the only woman president of the National Industrial Recreational Association, joined the Peace Corps in 1974 and as sent to St. John won the island of Antigua in the Caribbean. "I was just thrilled to get back to the West Indies," said Miss Daniell, who once taught English in Puerto Rico and had traveled in the area. "The people are wonderful." As a curriculum development specialist under the Ministry of Education, Miss Daniel has come to know a different Antigua from the one extolled in tourist brochures. For her this former British colony is a country struggling to overcome the problems faced by many developing nations around the world: high unemployment, few resources, lack of trained manpower, and inadequate educational opportunities. Her job as a Peace Corps volunteer directly concerns the latter and grew out of an Antiguan government effort to change the country's educational system. From an office in the education ministry, Miss Daniell directs a team of three Peace Corps volunteers who are helping to revamp the academic curriculum for the island's more than 50 schools. Martha Daniell on assignment in Antigua Many of her Antiguan co-workers were skeptical after four years of trying to get curriculum development started, she said. The science supervisor said flatly that it couldn't be done. The agriculture supervisor told Miss Daniell that while he knew all about agriculture, he knew nothing about education. Replied Miss Daniell, "Well, I don't know much about agriculture, but I know about education. Let's see how we can put it together." The Peace Corps team and their Antiguan counterparts managed to complete the curriculum for Form I, the seventh grade, in just six months. It was a job which took "a lot of coordinating," said Miss Daniell, with characteristic understatement. Working six days a week, she drew up an agenda with committee chairmen, held meetings, supervised research, made constant trips to the schools and planned workshops for the teachers. "All that was needed was someone to pull it together. Our objective is to make it theirs, not ours," she observed. Indeed, her greatest satisfaction, she said, occurred when the doubting science supervisor came to her and said, "Isn't this great? We did it!" Miss Daniell is impatient with questions about her age, which she has found to be an asset outside youth-oriented America. Her health "couldn't be better" and she hasn't missed a day at work. "My age is a real plus," she remarked. "In some ways I can be more effective than the younger Peace Corps volunteers. I can get away with pushing a little bit-diplomatically, of course-where a young person couldn't. What I always say is that you start getting older the day you're born." Miss Daniell, who lives with an Antiguan family, enjoys the local lifestyle and culture. She is particularly fond of Antiguan cuisine. Of her adopted family, the Tonges, she said, "They just took me into the family. They're warm, friendly people. Living with an Antiguan family you understand the values and problems of the country. You really get to understand what the people are all about when you're with them all the time." 'We are here to prosecute the guilty, not to persecute.' The Law's a Good Neighbor tends to have deputies drop off information whenever they are near places where the elderly congregate. "We want people to realize we are here to serve and to prosecute the guilty, not to persecute," he said. Persons interested in having officers stop by their homes must request it by calling the sheriff's department, since it will not be done without permission. Elderly persons can also be enrolled in the program upon the written request of the immediate family or other responsible persons or agencies including physicians, ministers, judges of probate, or the Department of Pensions and Security. The sheriff and his deputies made the first official visit of the program to the King's Landing home of Mr. and Mrs. Earnest Smith. Amelie Smith commented that the program "is a fine thing. It's a good feeling to know a deputy will stop by now and then to find out you're alright." She and her husband are without a telephone and live 15 miles away from the city and three-quarters of a mile from their own mailbox. "It's isolated people like that we need to check on, to give them a satisfied mind," Sheriff Nichols noted. "We might go out there and find out she is sick and laid up and needs a doctor." Since rural residents often have no way to communicate except by word of mouth, the sheriff and Fleetwood Hollinger, director of the area agency on aging, hope news of the program will spread in this manner. Sheriff Nichols observes, "It is most beneficial for them and us. We think it will build up a mutual feeling of trust and confidence." projects Georgia Seeks Its Disabled Citizens "The Search" is on to identify developmentally disabled older persons living in the northern 46 counties of Georgia. It's the first program of its kind in the Nation. "The Search," otherwise known as the Research Project on Aging (RPOA), is being conducted by the Athens Unit of the Georgia Retardation Center and the University of Georgia. A $150,000 Federal grant from the Developmental Disabilities Office of HEW has been awarded to fund the three-year project. Six counties Floyd, Clarke, Fulton, Dawson, Gilmer, and Rockdale have been selected as pilot counties to represent the full 46. All but two counties are located in one of the five Area Planning and Development regions of North Georgia; Rockdale and Fulton are served by the Atlanta Regional Commission. In the first phase of the project, social workers will locate developmentally disabled persons 50 and over in the six-county area. The disabled citizens will be identified by Job Bank Lists Blacks In Field of Aging The National Center on Black Aged has initiated a Job Bank Service as a means of introducing black professionals and paraprofessionals in the field of gerontology to employers seeking qualified personnel. The Job Bank will be a repository for information about positions currently available in the field of aging, and for the qualifications and backgrounds of persons seeking employment. Applications will be screened and those which match specified job descriptions will be forwarded to employers. As a special feature, the service includes assistance in the placement of older persons seeking part-time, paid employment or volunteer positions in the field of aging. The Center has as its primary concern the socio-economic needs and welfare of aged blacks. One of its major goals is promoting the placement and advancement of black professionals and para-professionals in the field of gerontology to meet these needs. NCBA is encouraging employers and job seekers in aging and related areas to utilize the service, which is free to members of the organization. Prospective job candidates who are not members of NCBA are charged $2.00 to cover postage fees for one year from the date of registration. Further information is available from Elizabeth A. Brooks, Personnel Coordinator at NCBA. age, sex, race, marital status, and living conditions. To be developmentally disabled, a person must be 50 or older and have had mental or physical handicaps that originated before age 18. Typical handicaps include mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or other neurological impairments. In the second phase of the sixcounty pilot study, RPOA workers will assess the nature of the impairments and develop a program of therapy and activities to improve the disabled senior citizens' independence, dignity, and usefulness to society. "The problem is that no one really knows exactly how many developmentally disabled older persons are in the target area," explained Sue Hartig, project director, at a meeting of the Atlanta Regional Commission. "That's why we're having to ask groups on aging as well as private citizens to help us in the search in each of the six counties." The project group concentrated its efforts in the four non-metro counties this spring and plans to concentrate on Fulton and Rockdale counties in the summer. "We're spacing the program over three years because education of groups and individuals takes time," said Ms. Hartig. "Once the investigation is completed, service planning for future programs will become our top priority." The Research Project on Aging is housed in the Athens Unit of the Georgia Retardation Center, 850 College Station Rd., Athens, Ga., 30601. The phone number is (404) 5428970. |