AARP Bulletin - January 2011

Your Health ; In the News
1,406
Number of distracted drivers age 50-plus who were
involved in fatal crashes in 2009.
For 24 years, Catherine Rus- sell has kept off-Broadway
audiences guessing as leading
lady in Perfect Crime, an Agatha
Christie-style whodunit. But it’s
her new role as builder of the-
aters for off-Broadway plays
and musicals that has her in the
spotlight now. ; Russell, 55, who
created a permanent home for
Perfect Crime, is now overseeing
two more projects: a two-stage
theater in Times Square that
should open in June and another
one with three stages by year’s
end. ; When the building that
housed Perfect Crime was sold
in 2005, Russell found 20,000
square feet of unused space
nearby and worked side-by-
side with carpenters, plumbers
and electricians throughout the
renovation. Six weeks later, the show reopened in the Snapple Theater Center.
It took another year to finish a second stage, now home to The Fantasticks.
; “I can’t write or direct, but I can contribute by creating affordable spaces
in which to work,” Russell says. —Laura Daily

Creative Casting for a Theater Builder
; Actress
Catherine
Russell
; What an Outrage
A Choice Between Home and Treatment

; Marijuana
put Robert
Jones in a bind.
An ER Just for Older Patients
The surge of older patients with their special needs is
spawning “senior emergency
rooms” in hospitals. ; Park
Plaza Hospital and Medical
Center in Houston debuted its
senior emergency department
in October. Since July, Trinity
Health, which operates in seven
states, has opened eight ERs in
Michigan for patients age 65 and
over. ; Senior ERs offer quiet
private rooms, dimmable lights,
extra-padded mattresses, non-
glare floors and blanket warm-
ers. ; Doctors and nurses are
trained in geriatrics. Patients
are screened for a variety of
risk factors, and a geriatric so-
cial worker or nurse follows up
with a call after the visit. ; “In
a senior ER, we’re looking at all
the issues that a;ect the patient
as opposed to just their immedi-
ate diagnosis,” says George Wil-
liams, M.D., who helped create
Trinity Health’s new senior
ERs. —Sally Abrahms

Senior ER in Maryland
When Robert Jones, 70, was diagnosed with
cancer in 2007, he found
little relief for the pain that
came with his intensive chemotherapy treat-
ments. That is, until his doctor prescribed
medical marijuana, which not only eased the
pain, but also helped to improve his appetite
and limit anxiety. ; Today, though Jones’
cancer is in remission, he continues to use
marijuana to stem the lingering effects of
the illness. But he recently learned that the
treatment could cost him his home. ; In Oc-
tober, the Las Vegas, N. M., resident received a
letter indicating that he would no longer
be eligible for the federal housing voucher
that helps cover his $400-a-month rent. The
reason: Though Jones’ use of medical mari-
juana is permitted in New Mexico, the drug
is not legal at the federal level, wrote Gilbert
Almanza Jr., executive director of the San
Miguel County Section 8 Housing Program.
; Jones appealed the decision, saying he
didn’t know what he would do without the
voucher. He worried that he would be forced
to live in a nursing facility. ; And forgoing
the marijuana was not an option. “This is a
treatment recommended by my doctor, and
it’s not completed yet,” Jones says. ; But just
six days before the termination was to take
effect, Jones got a reprieve: The local county
commission voted to rescind the notice and
issue an apology. ; Almanza and other county
officials did not return calls requesting com-
ment. —Michelle Diament
(((

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