This interesting article, Nursing Homes Trend Toward More Homey, Less Institutional Settings, in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle describes the quality-of-life changes that residents and families experience when a family member lives in a Green House Project home. Reporter Patti Singer provides a window, allowing readers a glimpse of life in a care community where … Continue reading
Filed under aging parents …
Our Chance of Dying in Intensive Care – Peter Saul TED Talk
Australian intensive care physician, Peter Saul, recently presented a TED Talk about the increased chance of dying in intensive care in the 21st Century. He explains that one ten people will die in intensive care, but in the United States it is one in five and in Miami, three out of five. People who are … Continue reading
A Daugher’s Long Goodbye: A Book Review by Mom and Me
When my mom picked up A Daughter’s Long Goodbye: Caring for Mother at the church library, she brought it home and quickly read it cover to cover. Then she suggested that I read it — well actually she instructed me to do so. Caring for Mother, written in 2007, is not easy reading. Virginia Stem … Continue reading
Paul Allen Donates Another $300 Mil to Brain Research
New York Times, March 22, 2012 Paul Allen Gives Millions for Brain Research By Benedict Carey It’s a good day for brain research. Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen is giving millions more to the Allen Institute for Brain Science, which according to a New York Times article, opened as a center for brain research in 2003.Reporter … Continue reading
Stroke Symptoms? Don’t Ruminate! Go to the Hospital!
Adult children should all know the location of the closest stroke certified hospital, and no one should hesitate to get to the hospital if any potential stroke symptom causes concern. Oddly enough, research recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), finds that the rate of people who experience symptoms and call … Continue reading
Removing Racist and Hateful Comments: A Simple Relevancy Test
After the jury announced its verdict in New Jersey I watched Associated Press video statement read by Tyler Clementi’s father. Sad and clearly with a heavy heart, he nevertheless looked to the future in a way that most of us could not have done had we lost a child the way he lost Tyler. Then I … Continue reading
Maybe Some Good News About Fighting Alzheimer’s?
Short excerpt from The Fiscal Times, March 14, 2012 A Bold New Attack on the Alzheimer’s Scourge I’ve added a few links to this excerpt. Click on the above link to read the entire article by Michael Hodin, Executive Director of The Global Coalition on Aging. Dr. [Peter] Piot, who served as executive director of the … Continue reading
SuperWomen — Take Care
Adult children try to do it all. Adult daughters sometimes do even more and take risks with their health. Spend a minute reading this short, succinct article, reminding those of us who are mothers, adult daughters, and daily workers that we need to take time and use a bit of our energy to care for … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Hospitals, and Exercise
Anyone with an aging parent knows how frustrating it can be for that parent to be released from the hospital after a few days confined mostly to bed. Even if a mother or father is in pretty good shape and not terribly ill, regaining previous mobility and strength can take ages, not because of the … Continue reading
Read — Making the Best of What Could be the Worst – Atlantic Article
Read the March 7, 2012 Atlantic article, Making the Best of What is Often the Very Worst Time of Our Lives. Whether we are helping to support aging parents right now or thinking about the years when we become elderly adults, we all know the situation. Our health care system and long-term care options are … Continue reading
The Patient’s Checklist by Elizabeth Bailey
A patient checklist — what a terrific idea! Checklists are “in” right now. John’s Hopkins physician, Dr. Peter Pronovost focuses on checklists to reduce mistakes, reduce hospital-acquired infections, and improve patient safety in hospitals. Writer-physician Atul Gawande publicized checklists even more widely in his book, The Checklist Manifesto, describing more examples about how physicians can make … Continue reading
Listening to Bill Gates
In one of those weird coincidences, during the week that India was declared polio free — with lots of help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, I had an opportunity to hear Bill Gates speak about education at a conference in Seattle. To appreciate the significance of this one only needs to ask a … Continue reading
Staying Sharp in Middle Age and Keeping It that Way
For weeks I’ve been intending to post a link to A Sharper Mind, Middle Age and Beyond, a New York Times article that appeared on January 19, 2012. The article, by Patricia Cohen, addresses mental fitness of people as they age and examines the reasons that brain power changes as people grow older. Especially interesting … Continue reading
Mothers, Daughters, and Aging
“Mother-daughter. Daughter-mother. With aging parents, the lines blur in ways that make you question everything you know about yourself,” writes Washington Post reporter Tracy Grant in her February 22, 2011 Momspeak column. If you are an adult daughter with a strong and confident mom, this introduction not only rings true — it also makes you … Continue reading
Art in a Hospital? Does it Help with Healing?
Read this short Detroit News article, Saint. Joseph Mercy Oakland Enhancing Hospital Environment, appearing in the paper on March 22, 2012. Not only does this hospital currently display art on its walls, but it is now seeking art to purchase or commission to become a permanent part of the new South Patient Tower, currently under construction. … Continue reading
The Over-Medicalization of Aging
At what point, as we age, do we become accepting of aches and pains –aging that is — and stop thinking about rushing to a physician all of the time? How do we decide whether or not to fix a problem if it has more to do with the later years of our life than … Continue reading
Duplicate Discharge Orders for Elderly Seniors to Adult Child
In this day of electronic medical records, EMR’s for short, why can’t a hospital with an e-mail or fax number on file send off a copy of the discharge orders to the adult child designated by the elder parent? Given that the private sector has figured out a way to help adult children keep track … Continue reading
More Men are Becoming Caregivers
The Chicago Tribune has a story today (Valentine’s Day, 2012) about men who are caring for family members. In The Increasing Male Face of Caregiving Doug Wyman, who is semi-retired from a career in sales and marketing, explains how he assists his wife, who has Alzheimer’s disease. The couple has been married for 63 years. … Continue reading
Making Choices that Lower the Count: Low Sodium Diet #IX:
If you liked this post consider reading my other posts on decreasing sodium in our diets. Aging Parents, Disease of Aging, and Sodium – Low Sodium Diet: Seniors Get Started in their Eighties – Hospital Cafeteria with No Low Sodium Options – Making Sense of Sodium Labels and Numbers – Five Lessons Learned About Cutting … Continue reading
Different Falls – Different Interventions
If you have aging parents who falls — and recently one of my parents took a spill — read the article about senior falling in the September 2010 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Mobilize Boston, the organization that conducted the research stated on its website that, “The purpose of the study is to collect information that will … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 