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The Elder Beat Newsletter — September 2026
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Hello neighbors — and welcome to the September edition of The Elder Beat Newsletter.
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There's a particular change that shows up in September — something in the air that hints at the turning ahead. I think of it as a time for "getting your affairs in order," if that doesn't sound too morbid. It's the month a lot of us quietly promise ourselves we'll finally deal with the paperwork we've been avoiding.
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That's exactly where this month's blog posts are headed. On September 10, we're publishing a post on legal planning — advance directives, wills, powers of attorney — the documents that protect us and the people who love us when we can't speak for ourselves. On September 20, we're turning to something that doesn't get talked about enough: caregiver burnout, and what it actually looks like to ask for help before you're running on empty.
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Thank you for being here. I hope you find something useful in this issue, whether it's a resource you didn't know existed or just five minutes of company.
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Recent Posts on the Blog
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Navigating Family Conversations About Aging
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Most families know they need to have certain conversations — about housing, healthcare wishes, finances, driving, and who helps with what as needs change. Most families also keep not having them, for reasons that are entirely understandable and entirely costly.
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Our August 10th post addresses this directly, offering practical guidance for both older adults who want to make their wishes known and adult children who don't know how to start. The post covers how to open the conversation, what topics need to be addressed over time, what to do when the conversation goes badly, and when to bring in outside help — including geriatric care managers and the Clackamas County Family Caregiver Support Program. It also includes free local resources for advance directives, legal assistance, and caregiver support.
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If this is a conversation your family has been putting off, this post is the place to start.
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Fall Prevention: Practical Steps for Staying Safe at Home
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Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults 65 and older — and more than one in four older adults falls each year. What is less often said is the thing that matters most: the majority of falls are preventable.
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Our August 20th post is a comprehensive, plain-language guide to fall prevention for older adults. We cover the home hazards most responsible for falls — bathroom safety, lighting, rugs, stairs, storage habits — and the specific modifications that make the biggest difference, including where to get help paying for them. We discuss the medical risk factors worth raising with your doctor, including medications that increase fall risk, vision problems, and blood pressure changes upon standing. And we cover evidence-based exercise programs that build the strength and balance that protect against falls, including free and low-cost options available right here in our area.
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We also highlight two local resources worth knowing about: ReFIT, which provides no-cost home accessibility modifications for qualifying Clackamas County residents, and the NCOA's free Falls Free CheckUp tool, which assesses your personal risk and gives you a report to share with your doctor.
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This is one of the most practically useful posts we have published. We hope it is the starting point for changes that keep you safer at home.
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Local Resource Spotlight: SHIBA
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Medicare Open Enrollment runs October 15 through December 7, and if you've never sat down with a SHIBA counselor, this is the year to try it.
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SHIBA — Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance — offers free, unbiased, one-on-one Medicare counseling. No sales pitch, no products to buy. Just someone who will sit with your specific situation and help you understand your options. Appointments fill up fast once Open Enrollment starts, so it's worth calling now rather than waiting until November.
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Info Tip of the Month: POLST
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Last month we talked about Advance Directives, the document that names a healthcare representative and describes your wishes for care. This month, a related but different form worth knowing about: POLST.
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POLST stands for Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. Unlike an Advance Directive, which is a general statement of wishes, a POLST is a medical order, signed by your doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant, that translates your wishes into specific instructions medical providers must follow in an emergency — things like whether you want CPR attempted, or whether you want to be hospitalized versus treated where you are.
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POLST is intended for people with serious illness or advanced frailty, where a medical crisis is a realistic possibility in the near term, not a general planning tool for healthy adults. If that describes your situation, or a loved one's, the conversation starts with your doctor.
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The two documents work together rather than replacing each other. An Advance Directive says what you want, generally and in your own words. A POLST tells first responders and hospital staff exactly what to do, right now, in a form they are trained to act on immediately.
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If you are not sure which one applies to you, that is a good question to bring to your next doctor's appointment.
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Health Tip of the Month: Flu Season
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Older adults face a higher risk of flu-related hospitalization and complications, and the timing of your shot matters more than most people realize.
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Getting vaccinated too early — say, in July or August — means your protection may fade before flu season peaks in December through February. Most experts recommend aiming for September or October, which gives your immune response time to build without losing potency by winter.
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A few things worth knowing before you go in:
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- People 65 and older are eligible for a high-dose or adjuvanted flu vaccine, formulated to produce a stronger immune response than the standard dose. Ask your pharmacist or doctor whether it's right for you.
- Medicare Part B covers the flu vaccine at no cost, with no deductible or copay, at providers that accept Medicare assignment.
- Many pharmacies now offer same-day appointments, and several will give you a flu shot and a COVID booster in the same visit, one in each arm.
- If you have an egg allergy, most current flu vaccines are considered safe, but it is still worth mentioning to your pharmacist.
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Talk to your doctor if you have questions about timing given your specific health history. But for most people, the answer is simple: don't wait too long, and don't rush it either.
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Question of the Month
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Every month we pose a single question to our community and invite you to respond. Selected answers appear in this newsletter. There are no right answers — only neighbors sharing what they know, what they have learned, and what they think. We love hearing from you.
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A Response to the August Question
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Last month we asked: What is one thing about growing older that turned out to be better than you expected?
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We received a response that was short, and to the point. A reader wrote: "I'm more comfortable in my own skin."
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There is a lot packed into that one line. Comfort in your own skin is not something most of us are handed early in life — it tends to be earned, slowly, through decades of caring less about who is watching and more about what actually matters to you. Fewer people spend their twenties and thirties confident in their own opinions, their own bodies, their own choices. Somewhere along the way, for a lot of us, that changes.
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We suspect this reader is not alone. If you have felt that same shift — the quiet relief of no longer performing for an audience that was never really watching that closely to begin with — we would love to hear more about how it happened for you.
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Thank you to our reader for putting something so simple, and so true, into words.
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If you could give one piece of advice to someone just entering their sixties, what would it be?
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Elder Beat Reads
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Rules for Aging (2001) and More Rules for Aging (2026)
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Roger Rosenblatt wrote the first Rules for Aging not as a comprehensive guide to growing older, but as a collection of short, wry observations — closer to fifty small pieces of advice than a traditional book. Things like "Nobody is thinking about you" and "Do not go to your high school reunion." Each rule gets a page or two, often just a paragraph, and the tone throughout is dry, self-deprecating, and very funny. He followed it up this year with More Rules for Aging, offering a second batch in the same spirit.
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These are not books you read cover to cover in one sitting, and they are not really trying to be useful in the way a guide to Medicare enrollment is useful. What they offer instead is company — the sense that someone else has looked closely at the small humiliations and small freedoms of getting older and found them worth laughing about rather than only enduring. Rosenblatt has a gift for saying something true in a single line and then getting out of the way before it turns sentimental.
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After a month of newsletters covering legal documents, flu shots, and POLST forms, we thought it was worth reminding ourselves — and you — that aging has a lighter side too, one Earlene has been representing in these pages since June. Rosenblatt's rules are a good companion to that spirit: irreverent, a little rueful, and honest about the parts of growing older that are simply absurd.
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Read one rule a day, or ten at once. Either way, keep them on the nightstand rather than the shelf. They are the kind of book you return to.
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More Rules for Aging is available through the Happy Valley Library; both can be purchased at various online bookstores.
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Coming This Month
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August brings two posts we have been looking forward to sharing — and both come directly from the questions and experiences readers have brought to The Elder Beat:
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- Legal Planning for Older Adults — Advance Directives, Wills, and Powers of Attorney (September 10) — We walk through the three documents most people mean when they say "get your affairs in order:" the Advance Directive, the financial Power of Attorney, and the Last Will and Testament. We explain what each one actually does, who should have one, and how they differ from each other, because the differences trip people up more than you would expect. We also cover what happens, legally and practically, if you do not have these documents in place when they are needed, and where in Clackamas County you can get help completing them, including free and low-cost legal resources.
- Caregiver Burnout: Recognizing It and Finding Help (September 20) — Caregiving for a spouse, parent, or family member is one of the most demanding jobs most people never trained for, and the toll it takes often goes unnoticed by the caregiver themselves until it is severe. We cover the early warning signs of burnout, why caregivers so often minimize their own exhaustion, and what respite care actually looks like in practice. We also share the local programs, support groups, and resources available to family caregivers in Clackamas County, including the Family Caregiver Support Program, and talk honestly about why asking for help is not a failure.
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Earlene on the Lighter Side
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Meet Earlene. Because aging well includes laughing well — at life, at the absurdities of getting older, and occasionally at ourselves. We hope she brightens your day.
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Earlene had circled the date on her calendar three weeks ago, in pen, which for Earlene counted as a solemn vow. Annual physical, 9:15 am, don't reschedule this time.
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She arrived at 8:52, filled out the clipboard of questions she was fairly sure she'd answered identically every year since the Clinton administration, and settled in to wait. The nurse called her back on time, which Earlene took as a good omen for the day.
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"Any changes since last year?" the doctor asked, scrolling through her chart.
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Earlene considered this seriously. "I've started saying 'back in my day' out loud, on purpose, instead of just thinking it. And I bought a birdbath."
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The doctor, to her credit, wrote nothing down but did smile. They moved on to blood pressure, which was a little high, and cholesterol, which was fine, and the state of Earlene's knees, which were, in Earlene's own assessment, "opinionated but functional."
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On her way out, Earlene stopped at the front desk to book next year's appointment before she could talk herself out of it. The receptionist handed her a card with the date already written down.
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"Same time next year?" the receptionist asked.
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"Same time," Earlene said. "I'll circle it in pen."
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A Closing Note
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September is, among other things, a good time to have one conversation you have been putting off — not necessarily the biggest one, just one. A call to an attorney to ask what a first appointment costs. A question to your doctor about your medications. A text to a sibling that starts the planning conversation your family has been avoiding.
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None of these need to be resolved this month. The point is to get started.
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Thank you, as always, for reading, and for being part of this community. If there is a topic you would like to see us cover, a resource we have missed, or a story you would like to share, our door is always open at info@theelderbeat.org.
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— Molly Skeen
Founder, The Elder Beat
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