At the Amazing Aging Mind blog, the author has posted her thoughts comparing the five stages of caregiving to the five stages of grief defined by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying. I’ve put the book link to Wikipedia for background since the since copies — new and used copies — are … Continue reading
Filed under Caregiving …
Three Medical Reference Sites for Aging Parents
The other day I asked some questions about a particular medication that has been prescribed for one of my parents. When we searched for information on the web, I realized that my parents’ computer needed permanent bookmarks to three reliable health and medical information sites: Medline Plus Mayo Clinic WebMD All of my health and … Continue reading
Founding Director of National Institute of Aging – Robert Butler
Today the Washington Post and the New York Times carried obituaries for Robert N, Butler, M.D., the founding director of the National Institute of Aging and a pioneer on aging research. In fact, Dr. Butler expanded the frontiers of what constituted research on the aging process and aging people. Before Dr. Butler came along gerontology … Continue reading
Caregiving: Feelings and Emotions
Caregiving is complex, confusing, and mostly uncontrollable. When we provide caregiving support, we discover that despite our most valiant organizational efforts we never quite make sense of the situation. Caregivers are never really in control, no matter how well we believe we are doing the caregiving, and we must be comfortable with the situation. During … Continue reading
Aging Parent Hospitalizations – Family Caregiving Tips
Our family has experienced two types of aging parent hospitalizations, and we handled each in a slightly different way. For surgeries a or medical procedures that required a hospitals stay, we monitored the situation one way, but if our parent was hospitalized overnight for dehydration or observation, we focused on different things. Our aim, in … Continue reading
End-of-Life and Pacemakers that Keep on Going
If you are not a regular reader of the New York Times, use this link to go to What Broke My Father’s Heart, by Katie Butler, published in the June 14, 2010, NY Times Magazine. Butler writes about the enormous difficulties her family encountered after a pacemaker was inserted into her father’s chest despite that he had … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Questions to Ask About Home Health Care
Are you asking questions, trying to figure out whether home health care might work for an aging parent? Are you seeking a way to evaluate a parent’s need for support because he or she wishes to continue living at home? Is your home safe enough for aging parents to visit? The Visiting Nurses Service of New … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Hospitals, and Noise
The Boston Globe (Boston.com) recently published an article on hospital noise, Fixing the Noisy Hospital — a timely topic for my family. Written by Drake Bennett, the May 30, 2010, news story highlights the problem of hospital noise and its negative impact on healing. Last year I was directly involved it two hospitalizations, one for my … Continue reading
Another Gail Sheehy Event
This video at Iowa Public Television features Gail Sheehy lecturing on May 19, 2010, at the Des Moines Public Library about her book Passages in Caregiving. Sheehy’s lecture, part of the library’s Authors Visiting Des Moines series, describes the “predictable caregiving crisis” highlighting problems that caregivers experience and offering strategies that caregivers can adopt to … Continue reading
Activities of Daily Living — Declining Proficiencies
What signs illustrate a person’s increasing difficulty performing the activities of daily living (ADLs)? At first they are not obvious. Instead a series of events and behavior changes gradually appear. Observed individually, each change doesn’t seem to represent much, but the trick is to view each observation as a puzzle piece that fits together with … Continue reading
Inside Aging Parent Care — A Blog Worth Following
If you haven’t already explored, Inside Aging Parent Care (the writers have commented a couple of times on this blog), head on over to read thoughtful, intriguing and skillfully written postings, many of which zero in on how we as caregivers can and should harness our inner strength. Caring for the caregiver — what a … Continue reading
Senior Concierge: In-Home Services for Aging Parents
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
Caregiving: How One Couple Avoided Burnout
… by trying to work together During three years of caring for a senior parent, my husband and I took many steps to ensure that neither of us would shoulder too many burdens, lose too much sleep, or just reach a point where one of us ran out of steam. We knew that any one … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Adult Children, Everyone: Evaluating Web Health Info
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) web site features a medical research user’s guide, Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine, with step-by-step techniques to ensure that the information you discover is good and reliable. The narrator speaks slowly and clearly. A link at the end takes the user to a … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Washington Post Caregiving-Financing Series
This past Sunday personal finance columnist, Michelle Singletary, wrote about her introduction to aging parent/adult child caregiving, explaining how her father-in-law, in his 80’s, requires daily assistance and has moved in with his children (her family). Writing in the May 16, 2010 Washington Post, Singletary explores the challenges that exist for her and members of … Continue reading
Caregiving: Gail Sheehy-Diane Rehm Show Podcast
If you are, have been, or will be involved in caregiving for a parent, spouse, or other family member, listen to author Gail Sheehy, discuss her new book, Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos into Confidence, on the Diane Rehm Show, a syndicated public radio program produced by NPR Station WAMU in Washington, DC. The program … Continue reading
Dementia: Will I Catch It?
W8J8SJ5DBYR5 Last week, after the publication of Greater Risk of Dementia When Spouse Had Dementia? The Cache County Study (abstract), practically every newspaper health section and blog was featuring this type of headline: If Spouse Has Dementia, Your Risk Rises, Too (MSNBC.com) Dementia Risk Higher if Your Spouse Has Dementia (WebMD) Spouses Who Care for … Continue reading
Dementia: Small Schedule Tweak, Big Result
In March the National Public Radio health blog, Shots, reported an interesting and delightful story, Midnight Munchies Keep Elderly Safer In NY Nursing Home. An employee at the Parker Jewish Institute, a nursing home in New Hyde Park, New York, started, quite accidentally, a midnight snack program for dementia patients in her unit who tended to … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Emergency Department Texting
According to the May 11, 2010 Washington Post, the Reston Hospital Center emergency department in Northern Virginia has added a texting service. The article, Reston Hospital Uses Cellphone Texting to Announce Emergency Room Waiting Time, explains how the hospital has enabled cell phone texting so that patients and their families can learn how long the … Continue reading
Aging Parents: Best Doughnut (Donut) Hole Explanation
I’ve been searching for a news article that best explains how the new health care legislation changes the doughnut (donut) hole prescription medication problem. The most comprehensive explanation that I have found was published by the LA Times on March 26, 2010. Written by Christopher Weaver, the article, Health Plan Closes the Medicare Doughnut Hole, … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 