99 Ways to Save from the AARP
This is a list compiled by the AARP highlighting some ways you can save some money this year. Some may be relevant for you and or your loved ones. Read through - perhaps you could be on the way to putting some more money back in your pocket!
Keeping It In The Family
Looking to launch a business? Perhaps you should reach out to family and see if they can help with marketing. This is a nice story of a grandfather modeling his grandson’s clothes for photos and social media advertising. This is a great example of keeping it in the family but also recognizing that working together within the family can lead to some unique opportunities and deliver meaning across different generations.
Sleep Deprivation in Teens
The Child Mind Institute put out a newsletter yesterday calling out the likelihood that sleep deprivation in teens will likely come back into play as the school years start. They noted a few articles on their site and I wanted to call attention to this one about the Cost of Sleep Deprivation.
Some of the teenage angst can likely be attributed to sleep deprivation versus just “normal” teenage angst. They say that lack of sleep can place a teenager into a hazy state or perpetual cloud according to Dr. Mary Caskadon, a professor of psychology at Brown University.
There can be some real consequences can come when one is sleep deprived. One called out caught my attention; as much as 55% of “fall asleep crashes” in North Carolina are caused by drivers under the age of 25. Sure there are likely other factors in that, BUT sleep behavior is likely one of them. We all know that our moods and behaviors are impacted by many factors - ever heard someone say, are you “hangry” right now? Are we dealing with stress? Etc. but we rarely think about the importance of sleep in our overall well being once we get into our teens and young adulthood…we just assume that we can handle it all. But when we don’t get enough sleep, we get irritable, more stressed, eat worse, and make many other decisions that certainly don’t help improve our attitudes. We and our teens need sleep to “self-regulate.”
Some other drawbacks of sleep deprivation might also deal with self-regulation through alcohol or substance abuse or participating in riskier adolescent behavior. If you have a teen ager / young adult, this story is worth a read and the newsletter might be worth signing up for.
Dementia Treatment Through Community Initiatives
This post on Statnews.com talks about what we can do as communities [abroad and in the US] to become friendlier towards dementia as a whole since there is not any effective treatment on the immediate horizon. It’s an important conversation and highlights the opportunities that city planners and community politicians have when thinking about a community’s approach to changing needs and demographics.
This article highlights some things that communities could do including movie theaters that offer dementia friendly activities. Here in the US, there are Dementia Friendly projects opening up - locally at MOMA, there is an Alzheimer’s Project popularly known as Meet Me at MoMA. Restaurants like the one called out in the article in Huntington, WV have started Dementia Friendly nights that recognize what people may be going through as dementia caregivers and sufferers.
They also note the unfortunate realities of a system that is not currently prepared to meet or fund the needs of those who do suffer from dementia. According to the article, “out-of-pocket costs are 81% higher for dementia compared to cancer or heart disease.” All that said, I think it is easy to see, the opportunities abound when we start to think about what people in our community are going through and how we can help.
