Filed under aging parents …

The Unexpected Caregiver

Check out the radio program, The Unexpected Caregiver, broadcast on KYMN Radio in Northfield, Minnesota. Host Kari Berit and her guests discuss caregiving, communication, health, medical information, and other critical issues that arise when adult children help aging parents. I listened to the program with Connie Goldman, the program on the dangers of denying our … Continue reading →

iPad for Dad, #15: Amazing Shared Memories

If a goal of the iPad is to connect people and media, that is what now happens between my dad and me. His iPad has added unexpected and pleasurable reading to my day as he sends, via e-mail, memories, reminiscences, and musings. This virtual interaction, so different from the other ways we connect with each … Continue reading →

Continuing Care Retirement Communities

Lately continuing care retirement communities (CCRC’s) are in the news. Confusing information abounds, and it can be worrisome for anyone who is in the process of choosing a CCRC, as well as for aging parents who already live in a community. In the last two months (August – September 2010) The New York Times and Wall … Continue reading →

Physical Capability and Aging

Research published on September 10, 2010 by British Medical Journal (BMJ), Objectively Measured Physical Capability Levels and Mortality: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, re-examined a range of published studies that looked at the physical capabilities of older adults. Conducting a meta-analysis, which is a statistical method for examining multiple studies and pooling the results, researchers reviewed results … Continue reading →

Are We Ever Old?

Just when do we become old?  Carolyn Rosenblatt, in her Aging Parents blog over at Forbes, asks this question. Months ago I wrote a post, Aging Parents: Bodies Slower but Same World View, describing how my 90-year-old grandmother giggled like a schoolgirl when  good-looking men strolled by on the boardwalk. The view from her eyes … Continue reading →

Check out the “Be the Noodle” Review

While I was intently focused on my Green House posts last week, Inside Aging Parent Care posted a terrific review of Be TheNoodle by Lois Kelly. What I love about this book is the noodle support metaphor. When the summer waters are rough in my beloved St. Lawrence River, a noodle is just the ticket … Continue reading →

Medication Disposal

In April 2010 As Our Parents Age posted  information about how to dispose of medications that are expired or no longer used. I researched the topic because there were many medications in our kitchen cabinet, left after my husband’s mother died, and we needed to know how to get rid of them in a way that … Continue reading →

Seattle Times Series — “Seniors for Sale”

For the past several days I’ve been excitedly writing posts about the Green House Homes initiative and specifically about how the continuing care retirement community where my parents live is planning to build these homes. The whole point of Green Houses is to make late life elder care safe, respectful, thoughtful, and homelike. The movement … Continue reading →

Nuts and Bolts of Green House Planning: Part III

“Whatever form they take, there should always be as little distinction as possible between a Green House and the other housing nearby.” What Are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World by William H. Thomas, M.D. (page 233) The Green House vision projected by Dr. Thomas has become a small, growing movement with … Continue reading →

Replacing a Nursing Community with Green Houses: Part II

Ideas about changing the nursing care at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC) began when carpets were replaced in one of the memory neighborhoods. For several days residents with memory disabilities spent their waking hours visiting a more home-like assisted living area. The caregivers immediately spotted a change — people from the memory neighborhood were more … Continue reading →

Observing a Senior Fall in the Supermarket

Alas we watched it happen this afternoon. Moving at breakneck speed through a large supermarket we reached the end of a row and saw an elderly woman fall as she pushed her cart. Earlier we had watched her moving slowly through the store, but we had not noticed any balance problems. Still, we know what a … Continue reading →

Long-lived Seniors Give Advice to Med Students

A delightful article appearing in the September 7, 2010 Cleveland Plain Dealer describes a panel discussion presented to second year medical students at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Panel members, all in their 90’s, told the medical students what physicians need to do to be more helpful to elderly patients. The article, Elders … Continue reading →

Green Houses for Older Elders: Part I

The Boston Globe published a terrific article, A ‘Green House’ in Chelsea Provides Skilled or Elder Care on a Family-like Site, about Green Housing for the elderly, describing newly a constructed community in the Chelsea section of Boston. According to the August 30, 2010 article by Kay Lazar, the new housing provides “alternatives to traditional institutional care … Continue reading →

Scams and Seniors

My amazing 83-year-old mother has not found a technology that she does not want to learn. Computers, scanners, Facebook, mobile phones, printers, e-mail, you name it. Most recently she learned to text — though her texting circle only includes three people — me, and my daughter (her granddaughter), and my cousin, Sandy. So it was … Continue reading →

Health Care Costs Essays: Contribute Your Two Cents!

Over at the National Public Radio Shots blog is a short post about an essay contest, encouraging doctors, nurses, and patients (two different categories) to write a true story about the impact of high medical costs. The blog post, written by NPR health policy correspondent, Julie Rovner, describes the contest, the cool essay judges, and the … Continue reading →

Alzheimer’s Drug Research – A Ray of Hope

Read Finding Suggests New Target for Alzheimer’s Drugs, by New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata, to learn about a new direction in Alzheimer’s disease research. In her article Kolata writes about Nobel Prize winner (2000) Paul Greengard, an 84-year-old scientist, who is studying a specific protein, gamma secretase activating protein, that can possibly be targeted by … Continue reading →

iPad for Dad, # 14: A Report from Dad

When my daughter and son-in-law provided this iPad, it was with the knowledge and recognition that I never honed my computer skills to my satisfaction. Nevertheless, I made significant strides using a laptop and writing paragraphs of opinion over the years. The laptop, while useful, could be complex. The iPad is not. I have been … Continue reading →