The Detroit News published an article, Seniors Get a Dose of Daily Care, introducing me to the concept of senior concierge services. The May 26, 2010, article describes a new business set up by Liz Pinto and Frank Gordon in the Detroit area. Their company, Senior Concierge, provides services to relatively healthy elderly adults who want to stay … Continue reading
Filed under aging changes …
New Alzheimer’s Report: Our Window on a Scary Future
If there is one word synonymous with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, it is heartbreak, though this is hardly surprising to anyone who has lived with a loved one’s progression through one of these diseases. In the beginning we can do things to keep them stimulated and engaged. By the end we feel helpless and can do almost … Continue reading
More on Seniors and Falling
Yesterday, May 13, 2010, the Los Angeles Times Booster Shots Blog reported yet more research on seniors and falling. This time the research comes from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, investigated how aging seniors in California follow their doctors’ medical recommendations after a fall. Check out the blog posting by Jeannine Stein for additional information … Continue reading
Aging Parents and Telephone Fraud – Five Rules that Protect
I have just hung up the phone on yet another call asking me just to “update” some sort of personal information. Still another caller, a day or two ago, was trying to convince me that I have a problem at my bank (one which I do not use, by the way). A few weeks ago a … Continue reading
Dementia: The Problem of Wandering
The May 4, 2010 New York Times features a health article, More With Dementia Wander from Home, focusing on the problems families experience when a family member with dementia wanders and gets lost. The piece explains how a rising number of confused dementia patients are walking away from home, requiring the development of new policing and … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Dehydration Dangers
Warm weather brings increasing concern about dehydration, and it is especially worrisome for older seniors. I am thinking more about this today after reading an update at the Life With Father blog that describes how difficult it can be to get an elderly parent to drink enough liquids. Dehydration is a huge concern for elderly … Continue reading
Late-Stage Dementia, Hospitals, and Feeding Tubes
A professor at the Brown University Medical School was the lead author on a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Hospital Characteristics Associated With Feeding Tube Placement in Nursing Home Residents With Advanced Dementia (abstract). Joan M. Teno, MD, used Medicare data from 2000 to 2007 to evaluate how … Continue reading
Caring for Aging Parents…Balancing Life… Podcasts
Take a few minutes to read the post Striking a Balance: Eldercare and the Workplace over at Changing Aging, the blog of geriatrician Dr. Bill Thomas (his bio at As Time Goes By). The post discusses how to balance parent caregiving with the rest of life. He was joined in a presentation by Dr. Judah Ronch (both men … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Medical Technology for Aging in Place
On April 22, 2010, the US Senate Special Committee on Aging convened a hearing, Aging in Place: The National Broadband Plan and Bringing Health Care Technology Home (view webcast of the hearing at bottom of committee page). The concept of Aging in Place is becoming a mantra, not only for our aging parents but for people … Continue reading
Aging Moms, Boomer Daughters, and Granddaughters: Estrogen?
Many of our aging moms took estrogen for significant periods, and many adult daughters — like me — have taken estrogen and then stopped and started and stopped again. Some boomer adult women continue to take the medication. I keep hearing from older women, including my mom, that they did not feel as good after … Continue reading
Baby Boomer Brains: Aging Parent Focus Making Us Worry
Today’s NPR Morning Edition, April 20, 2010, features a story about middle age brain ability and development. Barbara Stauch, author of The Secret Life of the Grown Up Brain (Politics and Prose in Washington, DC, Amazon, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble), discusses what she has learned about the brains of 40-65 year-olds — the age-range of my brain. Stauch … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Dementia, and Driving Safety: New from Neurologists
This past week the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) held its annual meeting in Toronto. At this meeting neurologists revised and updated guidelines about driving and dementia. Adult children and physicians can use the information to help determine if and when an aging parent with dementia should stop driving. Here is a list of news … Continue reading
Aging Parents-Mobility Aids: Thinking About Improved Devices
I’ve written a lot about accidental falls and described my experiences with parents who do not like mobility aids, even when they need to use them. Moreover, I’ve linked to sites that discuss how some mobility devices actually facilitate falls. Some of these posts are linked at the bottom of this page. Now a class … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Bodies Slower but Same World View
Aging parents, we should all understand, have frustratingly aging bodies, yet many are seeing and perceiving the world just as they always have. In fact, I’ve heard them say how curious it is to look in the mirror and see themselves staring back. Some wonder, “Who is that old person looking back at me?” About 25 … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Recognizing Social Wisdom
Assisting parents with their health and other issues often keeps us focused on difficulties, so it is easy to forget just how much experience older parents have with the game of life. Now research from the University of Michigan’s Culture and Cognition Program published in the April 6, 2010 Proceedings of the National Academy of Science … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Falls — In Time Prevention? Part III
Do we wait too long to educate people about the danger of falls and how to go about preventing them? I ask myself this question over and over as I consider past aging parent falls and anticipate what might happen in the future. I’ve perused a wide range of fall prevention resources, ticked off countless … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Research on End-of-Life Decisions
Researchers at the University of Michigan have published Advance Directives and Outcomes of Surrogate Decision Making Before Death (abstract link) in the April 1, 2010, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study included 3,746 participants and focused on their end-of-life decisions between 2000 and 2006. Another article about the end-of-life research is at … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Death from Falls, Part II, Observations
Observation about Seniors and Falling (for resources on falling see Senior Adults and Falling and Keeping Our Parents and Ourselves Accident Free) Three out of four of our parents fell while they were living active lives, albeit with certain chronic medical conditions. All four attended classes or workshops on balance assessment and fall prevention. Our … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Death from Falls, Part I
With aging parents on my mind a lot these days, I am extra clued into sickness, decline, and factors that contribute to the end of an elderly person’s life. Frequently I ask two questions. Why do falls have such a strong association with the death of people over age 65, and why isn’t prevention more … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Post About Medication Management
Medication Support Information Check out Dale Carter’s post, Important, Little-known Resource for an Aging Parent, at her Transition Aging Parents blog. She writes about Medication Therapy Management (MTM), a service my husband and I wish we had known about for his mother, who died in January. It looks like an amazing service, one that I plan to learn … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 