National Resources

Administration on Aging - http://www.aoa.gov
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - http://www.ahrq.gov
Department of Veterans - http://www.va.gov
National Cancer Institute - http://www.cancer.gov/
National Center for Health Statistics - http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
National Institute on Aging - http://www.nih.gov/nia
National Institute of Health - http://www.nih.gov/
Senate Special Committee on Aging - http://aging.senate.gov/
Social Security - http://www.ssa.gov
AARP - http://www.aarp.com
Access to Benefits Coalition - http://www.accesstobenefits.org
Alliance for Aging - http://www.agingresearch.org
Alzheimer's Association - http://alz.org
American Health Care Association - http://www.ahca.org/
Families USA - http://www.familiesusa.org/
MedicaireRx Connection - http://www.maprx.info/
National Center on Elder Abuse - http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/ncearoot/Main_Site/index.aspx
National Council on Aging - http://www.ncoa.org/
National Health Council - http://www.nationalhealthcouncil.org/
National Women’s Health Network - http://www.nwhn.org/
Optical Society of America - http://www.osa.org/education/
Society for Public Health Education - http://www.sophe.org
Visiting Nurse Association of America - http://www.vnaa.org
Official U.S. Government Site for People with Medicare - http://www.medicare.gov
Friends of Residents in Long-Term Care - http://www.FORLTC.org
America Heart Association - http://www.amhrt.org
American Cancer Society - http://www.cancer.org
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases - http://www.niddk.nih.gov
National Association for Home Care & Hospice - http://www.nahc.org
Arthritis Foundation - http://www.arthritis.org

Government Sites

Medicare.gov. An all-purpose site with interactive tools for planning and paying for long-term care and choosing among drug plans. Includes searchable inspection results, good and bad, for the all the nation's skilled nursing facilities.
http://www.nih.gov/ . A collaboration of the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine that provides authoritative information on all diseases and disorders of old age. Each section is available in both large-type and audio versions.
www.aoa.gov U.S. Administration on Aging. Brief fact sheets on aging and links to outside resources for an assortment of caregiving issues, including financial planning, residential options, in-home services, case management and the law.
Govbenefits.gov. A tool to help determine benefit eligibility for a variety of government programs.

Caregiving

http://www.caregiver.org Family Caregiver Alliance. Offers tips on a wide range of topics, including how to hire help, hold a family meeting, balance work and caregiving, find important papers, and decide whether parents should move in with an adult child.
http://www.caregiving.org/ National Alliance for Caregiving. Reviews of more than 1,000 books, videos, Web sites and links.
http://www.nfcacares.org/ National Family Caregivers Association. Provides statistics, research and policy reports, tip sheets, first-person accounts, a newsletter and an exhaustive resource list.
http://www.familycaregiving101.org/ Family Caregiving 101. A separate "how-to" site by the NFCA with advice on time management, asking for help, navigating the health care maze and communicating with insurance companies and hospitals.

Legal and Financial

www.benefitscheckup.org Benefits Checkup. A search tool developed by the National Council on Aging to determine eligibility for 1,300 benefit programs that help pay for medications, health care, utilities and so forth.
Reverse.org. A consumer's guide to reverse mortgages from a non-profit with no ties to the industry. Links to the AARP's calculator for choosing such policies.

End of Life

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. An excellent search tool for finding a hospice, as well as guides on issues related to palliative care, including Medicare coverage and techniques for communicating end-of-life wishes.
Caring Connections. Contains of the consumer information from NHPCO and has state-by-state advance directive forms.

Advocacy

AARP - political position papers, member discounts, demographic research, online versions of its bulletin, and magazine and consumer advice.
Center for Medicare Advocacy - detailed information about what Medicare covers, and how to enroll and, if necessary, appeal denial of claims.
Medicare Rights Center - a similar tutorial on how this government health care program for the elderly works. A link to the Kaiser Family Foundation's "Medicare 101" and a hotline for questions and complaints.