The Good News: Seniors having lots of sex; The Bad News:They're getting STDs

Or so says a news report a friend sent me. This story, from a West Palm Beach TV station, relies on sources from Florida. Perhaps what applies to Florida, which has a large retirement population, also applies to Walnut Creek's Rossmoor, which also has a large retirement poulation.


"The population over 60 is having a lot of sex," West Palm Beach gynecologist and sexual health expert Dr. Maureen Whelihan tells WPBF-TV.

Whelihan said may of her patients maintain active sex lives well into their 80s. some are having sex in their 90s.


"Some of the barriers to sex when you're younger are: there's not enough time, there are kids in the house, there's no privacy, you're tired. When retirement occurs, besides traveling, what else is there to do but have great sex?" said Whelihan. 


However, some of these sexually active seniors are also having lots of unprotected sex.
The result is an "alarming increase in the rate of seniors contracting herpes,gonorrhea, HIV and AIDS. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Floridians over the age of 40 have the fastest growing rate of chlamydia cases of the last 10 years. Many of those new cases are seniors. Time magazine quotes researchers at Researchers at England's West Midlands Health Protection Agency who found that  in less than a decade, STD rates had more than doubled among people ages 45 and older.

"Now that the little blue pill came out and men are functioning, those that are still alive in their 70s and 80s have 10 women to every one guy," said Whelihan.Many older men, say these Florida experts, admit they do not wear condoms and their partners are not requiring them. 

I can see one reason these men and their partners wouldn't think of using condoms. They were probably first dating, becoming sexually active and getting married in the pre-AIDS era. From what I remember of sex education just before AIDS became a national health emergency, you were mainly taught to worry about getting pregnant, not contracting an STD. We were taught about STDs, but I don't remember a heavy emphasis on using condoms to prevent them. Condoms were still associated with birth control--and they were usually dismissed as one of the least reliable methods because people often didn't use them correctly. 

Maybe these seniors are going back to their younger, pre-AIDS era dating and sex patterns, when an unwanted pregnancy was the big worry. These post-menopausal women are delighting in the freedom of not having to worry about pregnancy; their partners are enjoying her enjoying this freedom. For them, having the man use a condom doesn't make sense if it's something they used to associate with birth control. 


They haven't caught on that the sex and dating game as changed, with the advent of HIV and new awareness about the transmission and dangers of STDs. Or, they might know that HIV is a bad thing but they can't fathom how that disease would ever apply to them. 

Rossmoor home of defrocked priest searched as part of countywide sex registrant check

A Rossmoor reader told me that just before 5pm [Thursday], there was what appeared to be police activity at the Rossmoor apartment building which is home to Stephen Kiesle, the 63-year-old former priest who is now at the center of the latest round of questions over the Vatican's handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

"There were at least five police vehicles, most unmarked cars, but all working together. Those cars contained at least nine law enforcement types," the resident said. "Several police personnel went in and out of the building, emerging with what looked like computers and data in large rolling briefcases or containers,
the kind lawyers come to court with the day of trial. These containers were loaded into the police vehicles."

Walnut Creek Police Capt. Timothy Schultz confirms that law enforcement visited Kiesle's home. In fact, his was one of many homes visited by local law enforcement Thursday afternoon in what is a countywide “sex registrant check."

Kiesle, who left the church in 1987, is listed as a registrant with the state Department of Justice. Kiesle was first sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after being  convicted of tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco Bay Area church refrectory. In 2002, Kiesle was arrested and charged with 13 counts of child molestation in the 1970s. He pleaded no contest in 2004 to a felony charge for molesting a young girl in Truckee in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.

Schultz says the check was conducted as part of the S.A.F.E. (Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement) Task Force concept that law enforcement agencies in Contra Costa County have utilized for several years," he says, adding that the original idea for this concept was proposed by a Walnut Creek police detective.

Sgt. Kelly Challand, who heads the task force, said the parole search of Kiesle's home, by a coordinated multi-agency effort, found that Kiesle was in full compliance with sex offender laws: Challand said: "There was nothing indicated which would require a follow-up investigation on his part. He is on active parole and will continue to be monitored by the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections."

With the exception of Rossmoor, Walnut Creek is slacking off on the Census

I filled out our family’s U.S. Census form and mailed it back. What a good citizen I am. I guess.

I happen to be a census geek, digging around different data tables, trying different queries. The census is a  goldmine for data about the United States and local communities. It provides a picture of who we are, where we come from, and how we live. 

Cities are particularly keen on making sure the census gets accurate numbers of the people who live within their borders. There are big bucks at stake, which are especially crucial for geographic areas in these tough economic times.

“When you fill out your 2010 census form, you help determine how more than $400 billion a year is distributed to communities," the census website says. On Walnut Creek’s website it reads: “Census participation is important, especially in today's tight economic environment, because per-capita federal funding is tied to census count. Our community stands to lose about $11,450 in federal funding for each person who goes uncounted.” 

So far, on National Census Day, Walnut Creek’s participation stands at only 59 percent. We might have our very civic-minded residents of Rossmoor to thank for scoring just a bit better than the 52-percent national participation rate. According to the Contra Costa Times, more than 75 percent of households in the Walnut Creek retirement community already have mailed back their 2010 census forms, the highest rate of any Bay Area neighborhood.

The city as a whole is doing a bit better than those bigger slackers in San Ramon (52 percent); Danville (57 percent); Pleasant Hill (55 percent); Martinez (57 percent); and Concord (51 percent). But we’re not keeping up with those Lamorinda overachievers: Lafayette, 61 percent; Orinda, 61 percent; and Moraga, 63 percent. You can view this map to see how communities are doing. 

Those Lamorinda numbers are up there with the top five states in census participation rates: the Dakotas, North and South; Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Iowa. (To be snarky, one might say that there’s not a lot else to do in some parts of those states than to fill out a Census form. )You can view maps showing regions and communities and their participation rates at the U.S. Census website.

Starting in May, federal census workers will start walking the streets, visiting the homes of those who have not completed their forms.

If you didn’t receive a Census form in the mail, and want to avoid that visit and participate in this once-in-a-decade count, you can pick up forms in the City Hall lobby, 1666 North Main Street.  

  

Palestinian rights talk in Rossmoor Wednesday

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Alcohol abuse in our elderly neighbors: a hidden epidemic

I recently stopped in at the CVS in Rossmoor and found myself in line behind an elderly gentleman buying two 175-mililiter bottles of Popov vodka (on sale for $9.99 each) and an elderly woman buying a 1.5 liter bottle of Merlot (on sale for $5.99), along with thank you cards and milk. This is not at uncommon sight when I occasionally stop in at one of Rossmoor's pharmacies: an elderly person, presumably a resident at the senior community, stocking up on alcohol, usually a discount brand in large bottles.


My Rossmoor friend Gilbert Doubet agrees that what I observed is noted amongst residents themselves:

"Your comment about booze consumers at the local discount drugstores is a commonly exchanged observation in Rossmoor. In the local RiteAid/CVS checkout lines, there’s often a person ahead of me with half a shopping basket full of jumbo size whiskey bottles."

He explains the sad reasons behind his neighbors' use--or misuse--of alcohol:

"Some self-medicate due to loneliness," he writes. They’ve outlived their friends. Oddly, older people have difficulty making new ones, abandonment (by their uninterested or faraway adult children), chronic pain, boredom, an inexplicable disinterest in volunteerism, and a generational prejudice against more benign alternatives like marijuana. Many mix alcohol with meds, then drive around under the influence of both. A surprising proportion drive without licenses."

Doubet says though that "Rossmoor drinking is not as bad as it was 15 years ago when I moved here as a juvenile delinquent."

Google "alcohol abuse and elderly" and you'll come up with a number of articles about what is described as a "hidden" or "unreported epidemic." In this article from the famed Hazeldon addiction treatment center in Minnesota, you can read about a woman in her late 70s who was a teetotoler most of her life, enjoying only an infrequent sip of wine on special occasions. "But after her children moved away and her husband and many of her close friends died, Eva turned to the bottle for escape and compansionship."

The article continues:

Recent census data estimates that nearly 35 million people in the United States are 65 years or older. Substance abuse among those 60 years and older (including misuse of prescription drugs) currently affects about 17 percent of this population. By 2020, the number of older adults with substance abuse problems is expected to double.

As demographics change, attitudes about and use of alcohol and drugs change as well. "In January 2006, the leading edge of the baby-boom generation (those born during the population swell of 1946-1964) will turn 60," said Frederic Blow, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan and a Huss Research Chair on Older Adults and Alcohol/Drug Problems at Hazelden's Butler Center for Research. "These individuals have had more exposure to alcohol and illegal drugs, and there is more acceptance among them about using substances to ‘cure' things. We expect to see an increase in drug and alcohol use; and more use means more problems."

There are, of course, health risks associated with alcohol abuse among the elderly. Some older people may not be aware that recommended limits are lower than for younger people. Older adults are more sensitive to alcohol and less able to metabolize it, both of which contribute to adverse effects at any level of drinking. Alcohol can exacerbate some medical problems, reduce a person’s ability to function, increase confusion the risk of falls, and negatively interact with medication.

Fortunately, there is growing awareness among the medical community about this issue, and less stigma and shame associated with it. So, if you're an older person and you believe you are imbibing too much, or if you have an older friend and relative about whom you are concerned, there is plenty of information out there about strategies to help.

The Hazeldon article says there is "good evidence" that older adults do as well as young people when it comes to treating substance abuse and that they may even do somewhat better. "Older adults can recognize all kinds of benefit from treatment," stressed Blow, the University of Michigan psychiatrist. "There are often direct health benefits, improved cognition, more independent living, more and better social connectedness, and new hobbies. The benefits are enormous."

Starting in less than two hours! Saturday's big blow-out Music-A-Thon to save music in the Mt. Diablo schools

If you have some spare time, and want to hear some great music played by some hard-working talented young people in our community, stop by Concord High School sometime today between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The Mt. Diablo Music Education Foundation is hosting a 12-hour Music-A-Thon, featuring performances by music students from various elementary, middle, and high schools in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. The students will showcase different styles of music and vocals.

The music festival is to raise money to save music programs in the school district. Faced with last year's horrific budget crisis, and the failure of a parcel tax to pass, the district had to eliminate the 4th grade instrumental music program this school year. The budget situation from Sacramento doesn't look much better for the coming school year, and parents, teachers, and administrators worry that 5th instrumental music might be another program that will have to go.

Music teachers tell me that if the kids don't start playing instruments in the fourth and fifth grades, the middle and high school programs will eventualy be decimated. Besides that, say leaders of the Mount Diablo Music Education Foundation, "it has been shown that students who become involved in music education become better students, attend school more regularly than other students, score higher on state standardized tests than other students, and stay engaged in school.

Participating schools include Clayton Valley High School, Concord High School, Northgate High, El Dorado Middle, Foothill Middle, Pine Hollow Middle, Pleasant Hill Middle, as well as elementary students from Ayers, El Monte, Highlands, Holbrook, Monte Gardens, Westwood, and Woodside. More schools are expected to be announced soon.

The music will be playing in the Multi-Use Room at Concord High School, 4200 Concord Blvd. in Concord.

Rossmoor man, 91, receives France's highest military honor for covert service during World War II

Both the Contra Costa Times and the San Francisco Chronicle have nice stories today about William Kalan, a retired advertising executive who, at age 24, was a US Army Air Corp pilot fighting in World War II. On June 22, 1944, Kalan was piloting a B-24 Liberator bomber on a mission over the Loire Valley in German-occupied France.

German anti-aircraft and fighters knocked out his plane's engines. Kalan and his crew had no choice but to parachute. He saw from a distance how his falling plane nearly hit a chateau, where, it was later learned, the French had hidden priceless art treasures, including the Mona Lisa.

Kalan hid in a tree for two days from German patrols, before finding refuge with a French couple. The husband happened to be the head of an underground resistance group.

With the French couple risking their lives to shelter him, he returned their kindness and courage by helping them with their cause: to make life as difficult and dangerous as possible for the German occupiers. Kalan told the Chronicle that harassing the Germans involved tracking German troop movements and going on some bombing missions.

For his efforts, the French consul general in San Francisco came out to Rossmoor Tuesday and in a special ceremony pinned on Kalan's chest the Legion of Honor. Kalan was praised as an "exemplary human being" and the guests at the ceremony also paid tribute to the gentleman in the best French fashion: with champagne.

Police looking for two who robbed Rossmoor area bank

Two men, wearing hoods and masks, held up the Pacific National Bank located in the Rossmoor shopping center Thursday morning.

Sgt. Tom Cashion says that at around 10:14 a.m., police received a call about the robbery at the bank at 1910 Tice Valley Blvd.

Officers arrived and learned that two robbers entered the bank. The taller robber, who was wearing a Golden Bears logo on his dark hooded sweatshirt and a black handkerchief covering his face, displayed a handgun.

Both robbers demanded cash. The second one was shorter and wearing a camouflage hooded sweatshirt and a black handkerchief. Tellers handed over an undisclosed amount of cash to the taller robber with the gun.

The robbers both ran out on foot into a residential area along Rolling Hills Drive. Police and a K-9 unit searched the area but couldn't find anyone.

Again, the suspects are described as:

Suspect 1: Black male in his mid to late 20s, 6 feet tall, 165 pounds, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with a California Golden Bear on the front, dark pants and a black handkerchief covering his face. He was armed with a black handgun.

Suspect 2: Black male in his mid- to late 20s, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 150 pounds, wearing a dark camouflage hooded sweatshirt and a black handkerchief over his nose and mouth.

Anyone with information should contact the Walnut Creek Police Department at (925) 943-5844.

Foreclosure woes drives caretaker, or so she says, to steal from 93-year-old Rossmoor client

An Oakley woman pleaded no contest to felony financial abuse of a 93-year-old Rossmoor woman whom she had been hired to work for as a caregiver.

Teresa Bryant was sentenced in Contra Costa Superior Court to serve 60 days in county jail, to probation, and to fully repay her 93-year-old client, from whom she was accused of stealing $15,000 by forging checks. She is also barred from working as a caregiver again.

This plea deal involving Bryant was resolved earlier this month and reported in the latest Rossmoor News.

The News says that the Contra Costa District Attorney's offered Bryant the deal because she was willing to admit guilt, and she had no criminal record. "She told the court that she forged the checks because she was facing foreclosure on her home," the News reported.

The Contra Costa District Attorney's Office lists an array of ways that elderly people can suffer financial abuse at the hands of caregivers: A friend or family member gets power of attorney to "help" the dependent senior pay bills; a scam artist entices an elderly person to invest large sums of money in his amazing investment scheme; and many more.

Elderly people are also prey to other forms of abuse, including physical abuse. Here is more information about elder abuse crimes, including financial abuse, and how to report these crimes.