Mental Health – Wellness Shepherd

West Hollywood Celebrates Aging in Place During Older Adults Month May 2025

May 30, 2025July 5, 2025 bigpondlittlegirl

City streets were abloom with jacaranda and magnolia trees, and sidewalk gardens featured roses, brugmansia, and honeysuckle as the City of West Hollywood, California celebrated Older Adults Month in May 2025.

Aging in Place/Aging in Community resources and services were highlighted, and the city honored a senior who has made a difference in the community.

Since 2016, the Aging in Place/Aging in Community Strategic Plan created to accommodate the anticipated silver tsunami (the worldwide phenomenon of older adults living longer) has been a stand-out initiative. The goal: offer quality-of-life and a sense of control for aging where you live with an extensive array of easy access support services. According to the 2020 census the population of West Hollywood is around 36,000 with older adults 65+ representing 20% of residents (7,200).

A recent West Hollywood Aging in Place success story:

A 92-year-old solo ager was hospitalized after breaking a hip and femur bone. From the time she entered an in-patient rehab she knew she wanted to be at home. Any other place? She felt her life might unravel. The challenge? How to access the only bathroom located upstairs in her one-bedroom apartment. With the good offices of a Jewish Family Services social worker, the woman’s health care advocate who lives almost an hour away, and the non-profit DCRC (Disability Community Resource Center) which serves the disabled, a stairlift was installed so she could continue to enjoy her home of over 50 years. Her health and her spirits improved greatly over a period of months. So greatly that she was able to give a poetry reading from her recently published book at a southern California library the last week of May. She continues to use a walker. The stairlift allows her comfort for healing and self-sufficiency.

Note: In 2022, the City of West Hollywood received the SCAN Foundation Innovation Award for “embracing aging” in one’s home throughout a person’s lifespan.

On May 14 at 2:00 p.m. at the televised Older Adult Advisory Board (OAAB) meeting, Richard (Ritch) Colbert a chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and 39+ year counselor for the recovery and LGBTQ communities received the Senior of the Year Service Award with a proclamation presented by Mayor Chelsea Byers and OAAB Vice-Chairman RJ Holguin. Story plus photos at this link: https://wehotimes.com/west-hollywood-honors-richard-colbert-at-20th-annual-older-adults-service-awards/

Older Adult Advisory Board Chairman John Allendorfer deftly guided the televised meeting. During Public Comments Disability Advisory Board member Rick Watts and Human Services Commission member Karen Eyres spoke movingly about current concerns, mainly proposed Medicaid cuts which would harm children, the disabled, and older adults. Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California, currently provides essential health care coverage including support for vulnerable older adults for long-term care in nursing homes.

West Hollywood Older Adult Advisory Board members at the 20th Annual Older Adult Health Fair on May 8, 2025 in the photo below. Missing are members Nadia Sutton and A. Lee Walkup.

On May 8 several hundred seniors convened at Plummer Park for the 20^th Annual Older Adult Health Fair co-sponsored by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Jewish Family Services. Attendees learned about and/or applied for assistance with an array of non-profits:

Access LA transportation services for the disabled

Bez Tezek Free Legal Services

City of West Hollywood Rent Stabilization Department “Know Your Rights” Workshop

One Generation’s program registration for utility assistance and energy conservation

Jewish Family Services social worker support

Jewish Family Services nutrition education and meals at centers around the community

Jewish Family Services exercise and crafts classes, a social engagement monthly meeting, classes in digital education

Maple Counseling mental health support

Project Angel Food’s medically tailored home-delivered meals

The California Hearing Center, a family business, offered free hearing assessment tests

Others

Most of these programs/services are free or donation based.

Not present at the fair in 2025 but present last year was Metro.net the LA County bus and rail transportation system which continues to offer West Hollywood older adults $20/month complimentary travel on Metro. Seniors TAP cards are reloaded with the city.

According to Rent Café, approximately 80% of West Hollywood residents are renters. West Hollywood’s Rent Stabilization Department gave a presentation at the fair. Grassroots community organization Coalition for Economic Survival (CES), focused on supporting tenant’s rights since 1973, was also present.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center offered:

blood pressure readings, blood glucose readings

cholesterol readings, heart rate reports

consultations with an MD

participation for those interested in a Cedars-Sinai free genetic testing research project

The Care Team, active in West Hollywood since the fall of 2023, and at the fair for the first time, offers mobile behavioral health support in partnership with www.sycamores.org. A two-person team cum phone coordinator 24/7, holidays included, mans each shift. They work in tandem with the County Fire Department’s Station 7 & 8 in West Hollywood, and the West Hollywood Sheriff’s station to respond to crisis situations, especially assisting the unhoused and other vulnerable populations “in an atmosphere that empowers”. The team also conducts follow-up care and wellness checks for all who call. The Care Team number is (323)540-6392. Also see www.weho.org/careteam.

Preparing for the West Hollywood 20th Annual Senior Health Fair on May 8 in the photo below are Older Adult Advisory Board Member Pat Dixon (on the left), honored with the 2025 LA County Older Adult Service Award, and Francisco Gomez, Acting Strategic Initiatives Supervisor, City of West Hollywood currently dedicated to the Holloway Interim Housing Program.

A community Aging in Place plan is a privilege. Nationwide surveys reveal 90% of the older adult population prefers to age in place.

West Hollywood is a small, young city of about two square miles sitting on the unceded land of the Gabrieleño Tongva and Gabrieleño Kizh peoples. It is surrounded by the City of Los Angeles. Los Angeles, founded in 1781, has an estimated population of around 3.8 million. Two older adults from Culver City (20-30 minutes away) who attended the health fair last year and this year shared how they wish they could move to West Hollywood. Other older adults who live in Los Angeles county and neighboring Los Angeles have shared similar thoughts with this writer after witnessing and comparing services. (Yes, a smaller population creates a more tenable situation).

Photos by City of West Hollywood photographer Joshua Barash of Older Adult Month May events may be found online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/weho/albums/

Conclusion:

In its 40 years as a city, West Hollywood has created a strong bank of social service resources for all citizens, not only seniors. Its Aging in Place/Aging in Community plan won the SCAN Foundation’s Innovation award.

Other age-friendly cities actively developing notable services for health, housing, participation, security, transportation, and more are Rochester, NY; Grand Rapids, MI; Madison, WI; Provo, Utah and others. On the This Old House survey (see resource section below), West Hollywood is listed as number seven out of 10, mostly because the cost of living in California is higher compared to the rest of the cities on the list.

Honoring contributions of older adults each year and addressing their needs in aging officially started by federal government decree in 1963. At that time 17 million older adults were 65 or older, one third lived in poverty, and few programs existed to meet their needs. Today there are approximately 60 million older adults in the U.S., nine million in the State of California.

Disclaimer: The author has lived in West Hollywood, CA since graduate school and has a bias for a community she appreciates living in.

Wendy Jane Carrel, MA, is an older adult health care advocate, advisor, and care coordinator from California. She has conducted due diligence for senior living and retirement on five continents and is passionate about supporting families and their elders. She provides informed, attentive, compassionate guidance and curated options for aging in Ecuador, Mexico, and other destinations both domestic and abroad. She is a speaker and published author on subjects related to senior well-being. Wendy’s web site is https://www.WellnessShepherd.com

Resources:

https://acl.gov/oam/history# Administration for Community Living website (formerly Administration on Aging website)

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2024/12/05/rochester-ny-named-best-in-the-u-s-for-aging-in-place-heres-why/76733432007/ This Old House’s 10 best cities for aging

Survey names best and worst cities for aging in place, finds 90% desire to remain in home

https://scag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/old/file-attachments/west-hollywood-he-0421.pdf West Hollywood renter statistics from the Southern California Area of Government

https://www.weho.org/Home/Components/News/News/10603/23 Scan Foundation Award news

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Hollywood,_California

Death and Dying Education, End Well Conference, End-of-Life Care, Multi-Cultural Grief, Time to Pause (grief care)

Time to Pause Multi-Cultural Grief Gathering Follows End Well 2024 in Los Angeles

November 30, 2024December 2, 2024 bigpondlittlegirl

The day after the annual End Well conference in Los Angeles, End Well presenter Alica Forneret, Executive Director of Time to Pause, hosted the non-profit’s first-ever Resource Fair focused on grief in multi-cultural communities. An ideal segue.

The fair was held at Our House, a non-profit grief support center in West Los Angeles. As the program noted, it was produced “by People of Color for People of Color.”

Alica personally welcomed all attendees at the entrance. A fine, warm beginning for what became a meaningful, memorable afternoon among the many who, according to Canadian sacred deathcare practitioner and teacher Sarah Kerr, PhD, “are called to transform how our culture(s) meet death and loss.”

First stop, one-hour with poet/writer Nicholas Reiner who offered reading and writing tools to navigate whatever stage of grief you may find yourself in. Nick lost his Los Angeles County Fireman and First Responder father in the line of duty. Nick was 9 years old at the time. Moving to hear his story, moving to hear Nick read his eloquent poem about this father in both English and Spanish, moving to hear letters of loss from others we read aloud. We were sent home with 10 pages of prompts, ideas, and other writings to ponder. Wonderful gift.

Next stop, the Book Nook with some current (and past) titles relating to death, dying, and grief by authors of color.

I was excited to continue to a glassed-in room where San Francisco Bay Area doulas Tida Beattie and Soyeon Davis had created a labyrinth of marigolds, pine cones, and plant branches from local flora. They had also created a labyrinth for the End Well conference the day before.

Tida and Soyeon provided directions about setting an intention before entering the labyrinth with suggestions for how to focus on your breath and feelings. They also provided a thoughtful sheet about the rich and diverse history of labyrinths.

I am a huge fan of these precious ladies from a Reimagine on-line meeting years ago and subsequent on-line gatherings about death, dying, and grief in Asian communities. Here below you may see and feel their open, receiving energy. Soyeon is on the left, Tida on the right:

Tida was on the mid-afternoon panel discussion. She spoke movingly and authentically about how difficult it is to navigate the subject of dying in an Asian family. Also on the panel were African-American cancer survivor Sonya Jackson, and Our House Latina social worker Jenny Rivera-Cruz with Alica Forneret as the moderator. Each of their experiences about navigating serious illness, death, and grief were compelling to listen to and at moments surprisingly humorous.

Photo below of Sonya, Tida, and Jenny on the Time to Pause afternoon panel:

Photo below of Executive Director Alica Forneret (blue and white blouse) as panel moderator with some of the audience:

The AC Care Alliance, a non-profit “faith and health caring community” focuses on the African-American experience yet serves all others. They received me graciously, just as they were packing up. My thanks to Regional Director Trevino Cochran for offering me a well-conceived, well-written Care Planning Workbook for Advanced Illness Care.

Jasmine Godinez-Gomez had a table with her Art for Grievers.

Mangda Sengvanhpheng, a Laotian-American, shared with me about her culture of care as a death doula since 2019. Her first name translates to light of the full moon. Her name fits her low key, calm and present with you manner.

A short film entitled Curating Grief by London-based filmmaker Jamie Max Lee, shot on location in Lisbon, was screened. Attendee Charlene Lam of http://www.curatinggrief.com is featured in the film. I look forward to viewing the film at another time. A trailer for the film is on Charlene’s website.

Bella Vida Hospice of Signal Hill, CA had a table. They focus on serving the Latino community.

There were many other participants to meet and appreciate.

About 200 authors, chaplains, nurses, caregivers, end-of-life doulas, poets, psychologists, social workers, and anyone interested or involved with cultural differences in end-of-life and grief attended the free event. The atmosphere was healing and supportive, and the fair well-organized and produced.

Several folks who attended End Well stopped by – National End-of-Life Doula Alliance President and Compassion & Choices African American Leadership Council member (AALC) Ashley Johnson from Orlando, Florida; Author/End-of-Life Doula Trainer/End Well speaker Alua Arthur of Los Angeles; SFO Bay Area Author/Hospice Nurse Gabrielle Elise Jimenez, Sarah Chavez of the Order of the Good Death whom I would have liked to have seen again (last time was in 2019) and many others.

If this gathering returns next year, and I hope it does, I have a prayer for possible Native American participation.

Many thanks to Alica and her equally passionate and engaging Time to Pause team for their attention to details and care. For more info on Alica and Time to Pause please see:

About PAUSE Leadership — PAUSE

Note: The End Well conference, produced since 2019 with immense heart and soul by Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider of San Francisco, is devoted to “making the end of life a part of life.” The conference has included diverse voices since inception. If interested, an edited 5-hour recording of this year’s End Well may be viewed on line at: https://endwellproject.org/live/ .

Wendy Jane Carrel, MA, is a Spanish-speaking senior care advocate from California. She has travelled Mexico (and Latin America) for several years researching health systems, senior care, and end-of-life care to connect Americans, Canadians, and Europeans with healing options for loved ones. She is a compassionate companion and palliative care liaison, legacy writer, co-founder of Café Mortality Ajijic/now Death Café Ajijic and founding member/speaker of the Beautiful Dying Expo (USA). She is a trauma-informed, gentle End-of-Life Doula (National End-of-Life Doula Alliance proficient), a speaker and published author on subjects related to senior well-being, and serves on the City of West Hollywood’s Older Adult Advisory Board. Wendy’s web site is https://www.WellnessShepherd.com

Health & Wellness Mexico, Mental Health

Corona Virus Mental Health Discussions Begin on New Website HealthFlix.Online

March 31, 2020April 2, 2020 bigpondlittlegirl

Corona Virus Mental Health – Healthflix.Onine Launches FREE Online Classes March 31, 2020 GMT with 100 World Thought Leaders Sharing Knowledge

My distinguished award-winning book clients, integrative psychiatrists Richard P. Brown, MD and Patricia Gerbarg, MD, join colleagues on-line to support the public during the current public health and mental health crisis.

Drs. Brown and Gerbarg, New York-based medical school professors known for their continuing trauma relief work at Ground Zero NYC, and with Syrian, Sudanese, Rwandan, and Rohingya refugees, have written innumerable articles and six noteworthy books.

See The Healing Power of the Breath from Shambhala Publications as welcome reading for these times.

Their participation in the Corona Virus Mental Health discussion begins March 31, 2020 Greenwich Time (London, UK) and continues for the next two weeks.

Details may be found in the press release I posted on the Internet at the following links:

https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/471405/corona-virus-mental-health-healthflixonline-launches-free-online-classes-march-31-2020-gmt-with-100-world-thought-leaders-sharing-knowledge

or https://tinyurl.com/wffa23h

To read more about Drs. Brown and Gerbarg please see http://www.Breath-Body-Mind.com

To your health and the health of our planet during these times and always.