ElderWeb

Web site on eldercare is thorough but easy to navigate

Seattle Times, April 28, 2003

By Liz Taylor

First a confession. When computers hit the market, I thought they were toys for people with too much money and too few hobbies. But when I bought one 20-plus years ago, I experienced an epiphany. Writer's block disappeared, as well as a host of other problems that plague us mortals. In my view now, computers are right up there with electricity, penicillin, and airplanes ? inventions that have changed our world forever, for the better. But like all things, they come with flaws. Or they remind me of mine ? I'm still hesitant about relying on the Internet for research. I won't blame my age, because there are lots of people older than me who do better. I find there's just too much stuff to read, too much to sift through, too much I don't trust. And many of the commercial eldercare sites seem gimmicky. Which is why I want to refer you to www.elderweb.com. Now 9 years old (a centenarian in computer years), Elderweb is the brainchild of Karen Stevenson Brown of Normal, Ill., and a certified public accountant. Accounting and eldercare seem an odd mix. However, Brown has been involved in the long-term care industry for 20 years, mainly as an accountant, and is devoted to computers. Her goal in developing Elderweb was to make information available that nobody else provides ? and to make it as easy as possible to understand. Thus there are no directories of providers on her site but, rather, links to directories and thousands of other "top notch" eldercare Web sites. The results are amazing ? and voluminous. There's an excellent site map for easy navigation, an events calendar of conferences on aging around the world, articles on eldercare that she has either written or collected from hundreds of different sources, even a "calculator" you can use to find out what the federal poverty level is for any state and family size. There's also information on how to find lost birth records or forgotten property (both items useful for people applying for financial assistance), and a captivating history that Brown has compiled called "Long Term Care Backwards & Forwards," complete with photos and old-timey descriptions from the Library of Congress telling how this country has cared for its elders since 1776. Brown has made her Web site accessible for people with vision problems, so you can change the background color, font size and window size to fit your needs. "I thought (this) was going to be a minor project, but it turned out to be extremely difficult," Brown wrote me. "So I know why there aren't more accessible sites out there. I'm pretty proud of the result." There are no fees to access Elderweb, demands to provide your identity, or ads ? it's all self-funded. Try it, and you'll see why Time, CNN, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger's, Business Week and many other media have long recommended Elderweb for reliable, squeaky-clean research on eldercare topics. Liz Taylor, a specialist on aging and long-term care, counsels individuals and teaches workshops on how to plan for one's aging ? and aging parents. E-mail her at growingolder@seattletimes.com or write to P. O. Box 11601, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.