P.A. MacLean, December 22,  2007

Nothing tugs at the heart more than seeing seniors in assisted living apartments or nursing homes without family visitors at the holidays. And it happens a lot. Talk to the staff at any center and you'll get a dose of the sad reality, that even when family members live nearby, many rarely visit. That's why gifts from your heart make such sense. If the elder in your family, or a friend, can't communicate well, don't ask them questions. Instead, tell them about your life and what's been going on. It's the mundane chores of daily life that will be the most enjoyable: what book you're reading, what you've baked, or what repairs you made on the house. Tell your parents how your job is going, or the latest about friends they might remember. If they can get out, take them for a ride to see city lights or just go to a coffee shop for a donut and java. If you don't live close by, maybe you can have meal together at a local restaurant. If they can't get out, bring a magazine they might enjoy, share a book you've read or bring a favorite candy bar, if that's on the diet. You only need to stay a couple hours. It brings a smile for days and eases the loneliness that comes from being disconnected from familiar faces. Just don't wait months before going again.

P.A. MacLean,  October 25, 2007

Errors in medical bills may have larger ramifications than you realize. Many insurers include lifetime maximum payments for coverage. The faster you use them up, the quicker you run out of healthcare coverage. This can be significant for elderly parents who may rely on a secondary insurance to fill in with coverage on top of Medicare. Employers began limiting the health coverage of retirees in some industries as the number of retired workers swelled and costs skyrocketed. Beyond your parents, consider your own medical bills and whether you are eating into a lifetime maximum coverage. If your bills have errors, you may pay for it twice, first in the overbilling and second by using up your lifetime maximum years earlier than you expected. Find out your lifetime coverage limits, then monitor your bills.

P.A. MacLean,  October 31, 2007

While popular media may be tying every heat wave, caving glacier, drought and severe storm to global warming, the true effects may be far more incremental.Still, we should know the potential health risks of a warming planet to allow the years it may take to prepare for them. But that’s not what America’s disease monitoring entity, the Centers for Disease Control, was allowed to do. Instead, it’s report on the health effects of global warming was “evicerated." The report had been intended to show how global warming might affect the spread of highly contagious diseases. Couple this with another health issue, like rationing flu vaccines to some groups of people in times of severe flu pandemic, and you can see the need for broad public discussion of how to respond to much more serious health risks tagged to global warming.

P.A. MacLean,  March 27, 2007

If it takes a 940-page, 12-pound book to tell you how bad habitats for migratory birds have gotten around the world, you might as well hit yourself in the head with the tome. Things are pretty bad around the world in preserving areas for migratory birds, as The AP recently reported. But local governments can straighten up and fly right. San Francisco Bay has lost roughly 97 percent of its tidal wetlands due to development, but since 1999 nearly 11,500 acres have been restored, according to the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. And recovery of another 25,000 acres is in the works. If you want to know more about what you can do to restore an ecosystem near you, it just so happens the second National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration kicks off April 23-27 in Kansas City, Missouri. Check it out.