Just as we know that autistic children become autistic adults, so it is also true that autistic adults become autistic seniors. Many seniors, disabled or not, need additional help and services. Here we share with you some resources that might be useful to you or someone you love.

Helping the countless nursing home residents who have suffered abuse and neglect (NursingHomesAbuse) — This is a website filled with material regarding various abuses that may occur at nursing homes. It exists to “inform families about the risks of nursing home abuse, and helps people take legal action if a loved one has been injured.”

The site offers information about the following forms of abuse:

• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Nursing home neglect
• Sexual abuse
• Financial abuse
• Abandonment

Additionally, you will learn about various injuries and their causes as well as resources for families.

If you are in charge of the care of an elderly person whether they are on the Spectrum or not, this website can give you guidence as to how to help your elderly relative who needs to be in a nursing home.

We were alerted to the article below by a young girl named Anna, who is a student at an online health program for kids.

Caring for Seniors with Autism | Senior Care – Parent Giving (parentgiving.com) — This post is a guide for caregivers of elderly people on the autism spectrum. The following important topics are addressed:

• Keeping a daily routine – individuals on the Spectrum do better if a daily routine is observed.
• A safe environment for everyone – “It is imperative to ensure that the environment is prepared according to the difficulties of each individual.”
• Sociability is a must – social interaction improves the quality of life for an autistic person.
• Family support can be life-changing – a good caring family environment helps with an autistic person’s self-esteem.
• Be kind to their sensitivities – many autistic individuals are extra sensitive to sensory stimuli than those who are not on the Spectrum.
• Watch out for non-spoken language – “Autism affects the way people communicate, especially seniors, so you will need to be extra sensitive when it comes to understanding what they need and figure out what is going on with them.”

If you are a caregiver to an elderly person with ASD, whether you are a professional or a family member, this post can give you guidence as to how to help the autistic person under your care.

Home Modifications & Accommodations for Seniors (fivestarpainting.com) – As we all know, the senior population of the country is growing due to the Boomer generation.

[T]he expected growth in demand for healthcare and housing due to the aging population means that many older adults can benefit from moving in with a family member or relative. Certain illnesses and disabilities may necessitate living with others, as might financial troubles or need for consistent long-term care. Further, if an aging family member comes to live with you, you can spend more time with your loved one and ensure they get the care and attention they need.

This blog aims to inform those living with senior or disabled family members about modifications that can be made to their home to ensure all its residents can live safely and comfortably. It also includes a list of programs and grants that can help fund more extensive remodeling projects. Here is a list of modification projects that may need to be taken on:

• Bathrooms
• Bedrooms
• Doorways, Hallways, and Stairs
• Exterior Accommodations
• Kitchen
• Livingroom
• Handles and Rails
• Lighting
• Service Animal Accommodations
• Special Equipment

Here are two informative posts from Terry Turner and Matt Mauney of Retire Guide.

What Is Medicare? (RetireGuide) — Here you will find answers to all of your questions concerning Medicare:

• Types of plans
• Who is eligible?
• How to apply
• Costs and fees
• What is not covered
• Medicare FAQs

Benefits & Discounts for Seniors (RetireGuide) — Did you know that there are a number of discounts and benefits that you can take advantage of?

There’s a long list of discounts to save you money in retirement.

State and federal agencies have programs that may help you meet your expenses that Social Security and Medicare may not.

Businesses and organizations also provide discounts that make shopping, dining and travel more affordable.

This blog post by Terry Turner and Matt Mauney have a list for you to check out:

• Health care benefits
• Tax relief
• Financial assistance
• Travel discounts
• Dining discounts
• Shopping discounts
• For veterans
• Other resources

 Senior Driving Courses and Resources (dts) – This blog provides provides a guide to help seniors find defensive driving courses (and the states that offer them) to help seniors obtain insurance discounts and improve their driving skills. It also offers additional tips and resources for keeping seniors safe behind the wheel.   

With an aging population there are more drivers over the age of 70 in America today than at any point in our history. In 2018, data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) showed that there were approximately 29 million licensed drivers aged 70 or older. Knowing this, many states have started offering auto insurance discounts for older adults who pass a senior driving course. Two of the more popular options include the AAA Senior Driving Course and the Mature Driver Improvement Course from I Drive Safely.”

Fall Prevention Facts & Tips for Prevenitng Falls (CNAfreetraining.com) Fall-related deaths for people 85-and-older increased by more than 79% berween 2007 and 2016 according to the most recent figures available from the CDC. The statistics about fall-related deaths for older Americans from ages 65 to 85 are also on the rise. The statistics for fall-related deaths for women over 65 is 54 out of 100,000. But the numbers are worse for men in the same age range: 73.2 out of 100,000.

Although these statistics are frightening, there are ways to prevent falls and consequent deaths. Some risk factors are medication, various medical conditions, household and environmental dangers, and history of falls. For details about these risk factors and other information, for instance identifying and dealing with fear of falling, fall prevention, and what to do if you do fall, please check out this informative and important post.

Financial Assistance & Funding Options for Assisted Living / Senior Living and Massachusetts Assisted Living & Home Care (Paying for Senior Care) – These pages provide links to various sites that can help with various assistance related to assisted living needs of seniors, including assisted living financial resource locator tool, developing a financial plan for assisted living, state-by-state, (and specifically Massachusetts) assisted living costs and affordability index, and top rated facilities by city.

Clinical Trial Guide for Seniors and Elderly (Policy Lab) – Typically, clinical trials are usually aimed at young individual. Seniors aged 65 and older are left out of these trials although many of the drugs and treatments have targeted them. Statistically, those over 65 make up the largest segment of the world’s population. They also consume about a third of all medications that are prescribed.

This article deals with the need to include seniors in these very critical studies. Medication affects individuals differently, especially people in different age groups. For instance, what might work for a person in their forties, may not have the desired effect for those in their sixties.

Clinical trials and the patients who participate in them play a vital role in the development and understanding of new treatments for all kinds of ailments. Since drugs and interventions can have different effects on the elderly than they might have on younger individuals, they should be properly tested on all the age groups that are likely to use them before being approved. This way, patients will be able to make fully informed decisions when the time comes to decide on a therapeutic option to manage any health condition.

It is incredible important for clinical trials to include elderly patients, since the human body changes as we age, and seniors can react to treatments in a different way that younger people do, or suffer from different side effects. Since there are certain medications which are primarily used in elderly patients, researching their effects on this group can have ample benefits on medicine and science.

The article further explains what clinical trials are, levels of commitment once enrolled, the benefits of enrollment, participation requirements, location of trials, how to find clinical trials, and how to sign up a person if you are a caregiver.

Best Walk-in Bathtubs (Retirement Living) – Every time we turn on our TVs, we are bombarded by ads about walk-in bathtubs. But who are we to believe? We and/or our elderly relatives need to to know which tubs are the best and most cost-effective. Retirement Living Information Center tested twenty-five well-known brands and came up with three that it considers to be the best.

A walk in bathtub is one of the most popular ways to bathe for seniors looking to age in place at home. Not only are they safer than regular bathtubs and walk-in showers, but they can even provide water-massaging joint relief and an easy way for seniors with mobility restrictions to safely bathe.

This is especially important for seniors, since falls are the leading cause of emergency room visits for the elderly. And the bathroom is one of the most dangerous places in the house, with roughly 235,000 people going to the emergency room each year due to injuries in the bathroom. The elderly are particularly at risk, since injuries increase with age and peak at age 85. Around 28 percent of these emergency room visits are due to bathing.

The importance of safety in the bathroom, specifically the bathtub, was well-demonstrated by John Glenn, the first astronaut to orbit the Earth. After going into space, he slipped and fell in his bathtub, sustaining considerable injury,

Keeping Seniors and Special Needs Individuals Safe Around Construction (BigRentz) – Everywhere we look we see some sort of construction going on. This article by Lior Zitzman addresses the issue of safety around construction sites. The elderly and the disabled are particularly vulnerable to injuries or worse around such sites.

The possibility of a pedestrian bystander being the victim of a construction site injury is complicated when the pedestrian is a senior citizen or an individual who has a disability such as vision or hearing loss, or a mobility issue that make navigating potentially hazardous conditions that much more difficult.

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) protects the rights of the disabled, and outlines requirements for construction sites to help keep disabled bystanders protected from injury. By following the recommendations of the ADA, as well as recommended safety protections established by national safety organizations, the risk of a pedestrian injury at a construction site can be mitigated. Also, there are safety precautions that seniors, disabled adults, and their caregivers should take anytime they are traveling in or around a construction site or roadway work zone.

Legal Resources and Considerations for Seniors and Persons with Special Needs (Just Great Lawyers) – According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 50 million people in the United States will be over 65. In just ten more years, one out of five people will fall into this category. According to the Disability Research Institute, today there are approximately 53 million people with some sort of disability. All of these people need special protection.

This article addresses the following:

• Legal Considerations and Resources for Seniors
• Legal Considerations and Resources for Those with Developmental Disabilities
• Legal Considerations for Those with Physical Disabilities and Mobility Challenges

Should They Stay or Should They Go: Home Modifications and Selling Your Home (Home City) – If you or a loved one is disabled, sooner or later the question must be asked whether or not your home fills your needs. It is this that this post attempts to answer. There are links on the page with information that pertain to your or your loved one’s needs.

How to Save on Adaptive Equipment As You Care for Disabled or Senior Loved Ones (The Real Deal) – This post provides a guide to everything people need to know about buying assistive technology in a smart way. The objective is to get the necessary assitance without overspending on needed items.

Elderly with Autism: Executive Functions and Memory (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders) – “Cognitive autism research is mainly focusing on children and young adults even though we know that autism is a life-long disorder and that healthy aging already has a strong impact on cognitive functioning,” write the authors of this article, Hilde M. Geurts and Marlies E. Vissers. “We compared the neuropsychological profile of 23 individuals with autism and 23 healthy controls (age range 51–83 years). Deficits were observed in attention, working memory, and fluency. Aging had a smaller impact on fluency in the high functioning autism (HFA) group than in the control group, while aging had a more profound effect on visual memory performance in the HFA group. Hence, we provide novel evidence that elderly with HFA have subtle neuropsychological deficits and that the developmental trajectories differ between elderly with and without HFA in particular cognitive domains.”

Special Needs Seniors – Planning for the Future of this Vulnerable Population (Retiring Wise Blog) – The goal of this blog is to “provide you with a master list of resources that you can tap into to find solutions for your [disabled] loved ones.” Even if you are a disabled person who is self-sufficient today, the advise in this blog could help you prepare for your senior years. Covered in this blog are such items as financial and medical concerns, who will make decisions for you or your loved one, and challenges with social communication and understanding.