Seniors seeing they can surf

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Seniors seeing they can surf

By Cass Cliatt

Daily Herald, August 10, 2003

After Patricia Thielen's husband was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, the 70-year-old turned to the Internet.

The Web usually is marketed to senior citizens as a tool to keep in touch with family - you can send e-mail to the kids or see pictures of the grandchildren.

But Thielen needed to decipher what the doctor was telling her about how long her husband would live.

So she went to Palatine Township to learn computer research skills and found out about cancer treatment options. She did the same thing after getting her own cancer diagnosis a few years later.

"When you go to the doctor and they talk about this treatment and that treatment, you have no idea what they're talking about," Thielen said. "Looking at the Internet at least gave us an understanding of what it was, so we felt more confident."

Now a widow, Thielen says her tech savvy is helping her protect her fixed income. On the Web, she gets her prescriptions filled in Canada at one-third the price.

"I'm on Social Security (news - web sites), so it makes it more affordable," Thielen said. "I couldn't do that if I didn't know the computer."

Thielen is one of thousands of suburban seniors for whom technology is playing an increasingly critical role.

Retirees and the elderly - often stereotyped as having little more than a recreational need for computers - are using them to apply for Social Security benefits and get Medicare forms, among other crucial tasks.

Enrollment is swelling at local senior computer classes.

"It's not always about keeping up with the grandkids," says Nancy Judd, director of social services at Palatine Township. The township is the 10th largest site in the nation offering the California-based SeniorNet program.

SeniorNet is a nonprofit organization where people 50 and older teach their peers how to use computers. There are 240 centers nationwide.

"When we first started SeniorNet eight years ago, it was to introduce seniors to computers," Judd said. "Now, we're passed that, and we're offering scanning, spreadsheets. ... They can check the Internet to see how their retirement investments are doing."

More than 3,000 seniors have gone through the Palatine Township program. It has spun off SeniorNet branches in Elk Grove Village and Wheeling.

Thousands also use seasonal programs at townships, libraries and park districts in almost every community.

"Most things are going on-line - banking, prescriptions," said Cathy Morgan, supervisor of the computer assistance area at the Schaumburg Township District Library.

The Schaumburg Township library has monthly programs. The 40 chairs are always filled and they often have to turn people away.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 13 percent of people 65 and older had access to the Internet at home. About 28.4 percent of senior households, or 9.3 million, had home computers.

Earlier census figures didn't track Internet use by seniors, concentrating on children's access. But a report showed only 440,000 senior households with computers in 1989, compared to the 9.3 million in 2000.

Staying healthy

Fay Lomax Cook, Northwestern University's director of the institute for Policy Research, says the Web is becoming a necessary tool in health care.

"There is a tremendous amount of information on health promotion and disease prevention on the Internet," said Cook, former president of the Gerontological Society of America (news - web sites).

Older adults who once insisted they didn't need computer skills now realize many senior services are going online, Cook said.

People who rely only on the telephone "don't realize all of the resources you have access to," said Cheryl Powell, with the Chicago regional office of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services."

The Medicare and Medicaid Web site offers quality comparisons of nursing homes, details about health plans, directories of physicians by ZIP code and other services.

"By going online, maybe you're just looking for a physician, but you see right above it the nursing home (comparison)," Powell said. "And there's a section on staying healthy that's disease-specific for preventive services that you might not know to ask for."

Using the Social Security Administration (news - web sites)'s Internet services can keep people out of lines at office visits.

"People whose children help them with things like getting a replacement Medicare card or getting a 1099 (tax form), you can do it 24 hours a day online," said Erin Conway, spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration.

"So, let's say your mom needed help in the evening. You wouldn't have to take time off work," Conway said.

Some seniors describe computers literally as lifesavers.

Traveling in cyberspace helps end debilitating periods of isolation for empty nesters, widowed spouses and those caring for ailing loved ones.

Web-based talk groups can open a new world of hobbies, or help people find the sympathetic ear they need from online support groups for Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites), Parkinson's disease (news - web sites) and other illnesses.

"I have MS (multiple sclerosis), so I can do limited things," said Diane Raupp, 61, of Arlington Heights.

Raupp uses a walker and a wheelchair and had to retire early from her job as a medical technologist two years ago.

"My husband didn't want my brain to go to mush," Raupp said. "So I went to the SeniorNet computer classes. Now I teach a woman's Bible study in my home and I do research on the computer for my material."

At 87, Francis Specht of Wheeling recently got a computing certificate from a class offered at the Addolorata Villa Retirement Community where he lives.

"I haven't used my brain like this in years," said Specht, who now spends hours a day sorting through e-mail from his family.

His daughter said it gives him a feeling of accomplishment.

"It is the best thing for my dad," said Arlene Tillotson. "It also helps with his arthritis through manual dexterity."

Embracing technology was once considered intimidating - and even unnecessary for a generation no longer in the work force.

"Most had retired in their careers when computers became ubiquitous," said Ann Wrixon, president and chief executive officer of SeniorNet.

"One of the things I think is so wonderful about the technological age for seniors," adds Judd of Palatine Township, "is when their mobility may be leaving them and they may be having problems, they can get onto the Internet and go anywhere in the world."