The Seniors Count! project has released our third working paper, on the economic security of men and women 65 years of age or older in our region. In this report, we use a recently developed measure, the Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index, or Elder Index , to evaluate the economic security of Michigan residents age 65 and older. The Elder Index benchmarks the actual costs of living for older adults, taking into account expenses for housing, food, transportation, health care, and other necessities at a basic standard of living. Our analysis shows that Michigan seniors face a much more widespread risk of financial hardship than previously understood.

Seniors Count! staff continue to collect data for the Health Domain with the release of The Nursing Home County Profile Sheet, which is part of our Health Access and Utilization sub-domain. This County Profile Sheet provides data for each nursing home, rehabilitation facility and skilled nursing facility in each of our seven counties. The sheets include information about the location, program participation (i.e. Medicaid, Medicare), number of certified beds, whether the facility is privately or publicly owned as well as ratings up to five stars for their performance overall and individually for health inspection, staffing, and quality measures.

To download nursing home data for Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw, or Wayne Counties, please visit our data download center and click on the respective county.

Just a quick note to let our visitors know that work continues on Seniors Count! behind the scenes, and that we hope to have another set of county profiles related to health posted soon.  Since our primary funding has run out, Seniors Count! staff have spent all their project energy on seeking new funding.  Stay tuned!

In my research on aging demographics, I regularly stumble upon studies conducted and published by the Pew Research Center, as part of their Growing Old in America series.  This is really a wonderful set of papers, nine of them published in the last two years, that explore work, retirement, family, and household issues related to the aging of the Baby Boomers.