Elder Law
AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, offers research findings and other resources on a variety of topics related to aging. Research reports cover topics such as health and long term care, economic security and work, independent living, consumer issues, demographics and more. The Center also provides access to the research databases, AgeLine (see separate annotation) and AgeSource Worldwide, as well as reference materials such as Acronyms in Aging.
The (U.K.) Centre for Policy on Ageing offers a bibliographic database containing information about books, articles, and reports on gerontology issues. The database also provides information about gerontology organizations in the United Kingdom, Europe and the world. Access is available by subscription only.
This AARP database contains abstracts and bibliographic citations of materials on issues related to aging. Coverage primarily extends back to 1978, although there are some older publications. Sources include books, journal and magazine articles, research reports, and videos from the gerontology collection of AARP's Research Information Center, as well as selected articles from 600 magazines and journals. AARP facilitates obtaining copies of full-text articles by giving searchers the option of ordering documents directly from Infotrieve.
This law firm Web site offers commentary, case summaries, a glossary, and more on the topic of age discrimination in employment. Case summaries cover the U.S. Supreme Court and 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The glossary includes employment law terms.
Financial and retirement consultant Mike Gamble provides information on a variety of topics related to elder care. Find checklists, advice, commentary, definitions, resources and more. Topics include the basics of care giving, safety and elderly drivers, nursing home assessment, home safety, living arrangements, symptoms of major health conditions and Medicare. The site also provides a detailed table of contents.
This site offers a report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics, which conducts statistical research on older Americans. The report, entitled "Older Americans 2000: Key Indicators of Well-Being, provides statistics and information on the elderly including the "population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and healthcare." Visitors may download the entire report as a PDF file, or read various segments of it online or in PDF.
American Hospital Directory, The
Supplied primarily with data collected from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and SK&A Information Services, this site offers a mix of free and fee-based information. Typical hospital entries in the free category include hospital name, address, telephone number, Medicare provider number, organization type (e.g., voluntary nonprofit), number of beds, subproviders and distinct units, services, limited financials (gross patient revenue, non-patient revenue, net income/loss), and inpatient/outpatient utilization statistics.
Bazelon Center for Mental Health
This advocacy site offers information about current developments in the area of mental health. Find legislative alerts, information and documents pertaining to Americans with Disabilities (ADA), fair housing, and more.
A care management company that focuses on services for the elderly, chronically ill and disabled, CareGuide offers a wealth of information about a variety of issues. Find articles and resources on health and well-being, the mind and memory, care at home, living alternatives, legal and financial issues, caregivers and child care.
The site offers samples of medical images and sells medical legal exhibits, anatomical models and illustrations. It conveniently arranges its samples into browseable categories including medical specialties and parts of the body.
Novato, California-based law firm Brayton Purcell maintains this Web site on elder abuse issues. It explains how to recognize and avoid abuse, the legal rights of care facility residents and how to report abuse. Sections of the site deal with pain management, under-medication as abuse and choosing a nursing home or other care option. It also provides news analysis on legal, legislative and medical issues related to elder abuse.
Elder Law Answers, created and managed by attorney Harry S. Margolis with the Boston-based law firm Margolis & Associates, targets both consumers and lawyers. Find information about estate planning, wills, trusts, long-term care, Medicaid, Medicare, and other senior law related issues. The site also offers an attorney look-up tool, discussion forums, FAQs, information about books on senior issues, a glossary (selections from the Dictionary of Eldercare Terminology, 2nd edition), online calculators, checklists and more.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration on Aging offers this locator tool for finding information about services for seniors. Search by topic and location to find contact information about helpful programs and services. Topics available include elder abuse prevention, health insurance counseling, legal assistance, long-term care and prescription assistance. Technical note: While the site offers 3 font-size settings (bottom of home page), it did not render well for us in either Internet Explorer or Firefox.
Karen Stevenson Brown, CPA and Senior Manager for McGladrey & Pullen, LLP, Bloomington, IL offers this excellent source of information pertaining to seniors. The site offers numerous articles covering a vast range of issues including, but not limited to, Alzheimer's disease, death and bereavement, assisted living, senior housing, and viaticals and accelerated benefits. The site includes annotations to other Web resources, information about organizations devoted to specific issues, and information about elder care legislation.
Now gone - End of Life/Palliative Education Resource Center or EPERC
Started during 2003 by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, EPERC services were carried on by the Medical College of Wisconsin (which hosted the EPERC Web site) and the American Association for Hospice and Palliative Medicine (maintains the literature database). The Web site provided educational materials arranged by delivery format (forms, cases, self-study guides, Web sites, etc.), one-page outlines of key information on end-of-life clinical topics (Fast Facts), a bibliography of articles on various death and dying issues, links to related resources and educational guides (Starter Kits). The site also provided a monthly e-mail newsletter.
However, the EPERC site was shut down as of January 1st, 2015. The Fast Facts are now being hosted by the Center to Advance Palliative Care.
EOL (End of Life)/Palliative Care Educational Resources
The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine maintains a database of peer-reviewed literature on death and dying issues. You can search by keyword using simple Boolean or review resources by pre-selected categories. The database provides bibliographic information about books, journal articles and videos and CDs on topics such as care of the dying, bereavement, pain management, policy guidelines and more.
The government portal site, FirstGov, now offers a government portal for senior citizens. Visitors find current news and legislation on the home page. All sources point back to government sites. Users also may sign up for email delivery of news stories. On the home page, find easy access to federal and government agencies concerning aging issues.
Health Care Financing Administration
HCFA's Web site targets both consumers and professional researchers. It provides data related to Medicare, Medicaid and child health. Information for legal professionals includes PRRB decisions, administrative rulings, advisory opinions, Medicare payment resources, program manuals, and more.
Health Lawyers Resource Center
American Health Lawyers Association offers a wealth of resources. Find health law news and commentary, a free weekly health law news update service, a collection of documents related to health law issues, and more. Access to some parts of the site requires membership with the association. Additionally, the use of some resources requires payment.
Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law Manual (HALLEX)
Cornell Legal Information Institute offers a database containing the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation's (a unit of the Office of Hearings and Appeals of the Social Security Administration) procedural manual entitled Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law Manual.
Provides an overview of elder law, including links to laws, regulations, news, and blogs on the topic. There are also links to related practice area pages: health law, estate planning, and social security overview pages.
Legal Research for Estate Planners
Florida attorney Jason E. Havens provides a directory of resources with research guidance on the topic of estate planning. The guide covers estate planning research generally, national estate planning Web sites, state and local Web sites, literature sources and estate planning practice tools. Havens annotates most of the resources in the guide.
Lido.com, a subsidiary of Adam.com, Inc., an online health and medical information provider, offers this subscription-based Web site for searching and downloading over 10,000 medically accurate illustrations. The site offers royalty-free use of the illustrations to subscribers.
In addition to the medical images database, the site promises a future database of "detailed anatomical images, including illustrated, fully dissectible male and female bodies (in anterior, lateral, medial and posterior views)." It also promises access to Adam.com's medical encyclopedia. Free trial subscriptions are available.
MedicineNet, a network of U.S. board certified physicians and health professionals, offers this index of medical terms. Medical professionals write and edit this resource.
The Health Care Financing Administration offers this site devoted to Medicare. Find a number of publications on topics like choosing a nursing home, advance directives, hospice benefits, medical savings accounts, and more.
MedicineNet, a network of U.S. board certified physicians and health professionals, provides health-related news and articles, articles and information about diseases and treatments as well as various medical procedures and tests, detailed information about drugs including much of what researchers can find in Physicians Desk Reference, a medical dictionary, information about how to provide first aid, and a directory of American Association of Poison Control Centers certified poison control centers. Medical professionals write and edit all content.
MEDLINEplus, a National Library of Medicine Web site, opened during Fall 1998. As a research guide, it suggests Web, online, paper and other sources of health-related information.
Merck Manual of Geriatrics, The
Merck offers the second edition (1995) of its Merck Manual of Geriatrics. A text on geriatric medicine, the manual covers topics like "Medicare, nursing home and home care, ... the roles of nursing, social services, and rehabilitation." This edition adds "information about normal and abnormal aging, diagnosis, management, and treatment of disease" and expands on clinical legal and ethical issues. Elsewhere on the Merck Web find The Merck Manual of Medical Information, Home Edition (1997) and The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (1999).
The National Aging Information Center offers this bibliographic database of materials pertaining to elder issues. Some of the topics include elder abuse, discrimination, health and wellness, housing, and long-term care. The database covers the years 1982 to 1998.
NARFE (National Association of Retired Federal Employees)
The Web site of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees provides information about federal employees' and retirees' benefits. Find information about NARFE's legislative program, legislative issues and retirement issues. Members receive access to additional legislative and retirement benefit information, and also to NARFE Magazine, a monthly journal on federal employee retirement benefits.
National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA)
Funded by the National Institute on Aging, NACDA collects and disseminates data pertaining to gerontological research. Search NACDA's holdings to find detailed descriptions of surveys and studies, which include links to publicly-available data files for downloading.
National Council on Seniors Drug & Alcohol Rehab
The National Council on Seniors Drug & Alcohol Rehab provide resources, such as informational guides, articles and a confidential hotline, to aid seniors who are struggling with an addiction, as well as to assist concerned caregivers and family members.
The National Library of Medicine provides this new search interface to all resources within its collection. Perform keyword searching for books and other library resources. Medical researchers may search by MESH subject headings. Features include ability to track search query history.
This resource by the Health Care Financing Administration provides information about nursing homes in the United States. Search by home name or by jurisdiction. Data includes home name, address, and phone, ownership, number of beds, date of last inspection, and information about health deficiencies and requirements not met during the last inspection.
The Center for Health Law Studies at Saint Louis University and the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics (ASLME) team to provide this Web site devoted to legal issues involving pain management and palliative care. It offers commentary, including news items, articles from ASLME and other quality journals, direct links to relevant data in commercial databases (pay-to-access) like Lexis and Westlaw, case summaries with links to the full-text in free and commercial sources, and more.
Poverty Guidelines, Research, and Measurement
The Department of Health and Human Services offers poverty guidelines from 1982 to present. Guidelines include Federal Register references or text. Also find additional information and references; for example, an explanation of the difference between poverty thresholds and poverty guidelines.
The American Psychological Association offers this pay-per-use bibliographic database of psychology literature.
The National Library of Medicine provides access to MEDLINE -- a database of bibliographic information about articles in the medical sciences published since about 1966 -- and citations to newer publications not yet appearing in MEDLINE.
David Goldfarb of the law firm, Goldfarb & Abrandt, contributes SeniorLaw, a site where professionals and consumers may discover information about elder law. The site features Medicare and Medicaid updates, articles, and links to estate planning resources.
The Social Security Administration offers rulings pertaining to old-age and survivors insurance benefits, the Social Security Handbook, international agreements, and rules and regulations.
Attorney Timothy L. Takacs offers commentary, a weekly newsletter, and a news bulletin pertaining to elder law issues. The commentary targets seniors and covers issues like "Navigating the Medicaid Maze" and "What the Salespeople Don't Tell You About Living Trusts." The newsletter covers issues of interest to attorneys as well as the public, and is also available via email. Especially for lawyers, the bulletin is published by LexisNexis and appears to be available free of charge by email. It consists of news summaries with links to full-text documents. A current issue covers "Inflation-Adjusted Tax Items for 2003," the "Use of Psychotropic Drugs in Skilled Nursing Facilities" and many other topics. The site maintains an online archive of the bulletin, which you can browse.
This nonprofit organization advocates for "timely and humane treatment for Americans with severe brain disorders who are not receiving appropriate medical care." Its Web site offers briefing papers (articles) and fact sheets about various mental disorders as well as treatment and diagnosis issues. It also provides an index of links to related general, legal and medical resources, information about the activities of states and hospital closures. A very useful database -- called Preventable Tragedies -- provides summaries of incidents of abuse and other crimes, suicide, and victims.
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) offers this database of bibliographic citations and abstracts on violence-related literature. Covering journal articles, books, reports and literature reviews, the database provides information about research and literature on many topics, including school violence, workplace violence, road rage, domestic abuse and elder abuse.
The American Board of Medical Specialties offers a free unofficial database for verifying a doctor's certification. This resource appears to replace the former Certified Doctor Verification Service. Search by name or practice type to obtain information about certification. The ABMS also offers an official version of the database with more information about a doctor at BoardCertifiedDocs.
Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog
Gerry W. Beyer, a law professor at St. Marys University School of Law, comments on developments in estate planning. Many of the comments refer readers to general interest news stories. On the day I read it, there was a mix of comments for professionals and the public. The Weblog offers both an RSS and Atom feed.
