An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Medicare Head Donald M. Berwick, MD, Takes on Mission of Health System Reform, should put to rest any doubt about his commitment to high quality medicine and to seniors’ access to it. The article is free and can be downloaded as a PDF. Some … Continue reading
Tagged with aging parents …
More Senior Emergency Departments are Opening
More emergency rooms designed expressly for seniors are opening, according to an October 25, 2010 article in the Detroit News, Hospitals Designing Senior ERs to Cater to Needs of the Elderly. The report, by Detroit News reporter Melissa Burden, describes how hospital systems in Michigan are are opening senior ERs for the good of older … Continue reading
Health Care Law and Medicare
A Kaiser Health News (KHN) article written in collaboration with a reporter at the Washington Post analyzes some of the campaign claims about the health care bill, including Medicare changes and potential changes in our coverage. The piece identifies, with clear explanations, what assertions are true and what are false (or at least strongly exaggerated). … Continue reading
Can We Walk More and Help Our Aging Parents Do the Same?
Read The Pedometer Test: Americans Take Fewer Steps, an article by Tara Parker-Pope published in the October 19 , 2010 New York Times Well Blog. Parker-Pope describes a study, in which adults wore pedometers for two days as they went about their daily activities. In the study, Pedometer-Measured Physical Activity and Health Behaviors in U.S. Adults … Continue reading
iPad for Dad, #16: Maps
Last weekend I visited my dad, and we had only a bit of time to enjoy the iPad together. However, quite by accident we started playing with the map application. I turned on the location part of the map program and then showed my father how look over maps of his neighborhood and town. Next … Continue reading
Senior Falls: Different Types – Different Interventions
If you have aging parents who fall — and most of us have some experience with parent falls — read the article about senior falling in the September 9, 2010 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. On its website (not active in January 2012) , the Mobilize Boston Study organization that conducted the research states that, “The purpose of the … Continue reading
Guest Post: Adult Child Develops iPad Apps for Senior Mom
Paul Rhoades is an adult child and a subscriber to As Our Parents Age. He keeps an eye on his 90-year-old mother and has introduced her to the iPad. I’ve looked at his apps, developed to help her use the iPad more effectively, but I have not been anywhere near my dad’s iPad so I have not … Continue reading
Aging Parents Working? Boomers Will Work Even More
Read 10 Reasons Seniors Continue to Work, in Us News and World Report. While earning money is the top reason people continue to work, the October 7, 2010 article points out that other reasons, such as staying intellectually sharp and keeping active are significant. Interesting to me is reporter Philip Moeller’s comment, “If work isn’t … Continue reading
Internet Cafe in Philly Senior Center
A senior center in Philadelphia recently used United States Recovery Funds to renovate its dining room, make it green friendly, and add an Internet cafe with connected laptops. Lots of enthusiastic elders, who have been enjoying meals for years, are thrilled with the new dining facilities and eager to connect. Tutoring will be available for … Continue reading
Seniors Go Places-So Get With the Accessibility Program
For a few weeks I’ve been seething about disgraceful treatment of an elderly senior friend at a memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery. Now, Dale Carter’s October 5, 2010 post over at Transition Aging Parents has encouraged me to share my frustrating experience. After an elderly colleague died, many of us gathered at Arlington National … Continue reading
Aging Parents: AD8 – More Effective Alzheimer’s Screening
E-Max Health reports on an article, Relationship of Dementia Screening Tests with Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease (abstract), published online by the journal Brain. The October 10, 2010 article is free, but to get the text file it’s necessary to sign up for a login name and password at the journal website. In a longitudinal study … Continue reading
Extraordinary PBS Interview on Caregiving – Dr. Arthur Kleinman
In Caregiving: Feelings and Emotions I described several commentaries,written by Arthur Kleinman, MD, a psychiatrist and professor at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kleinman wrote about providing care for his wife, Joan. The post explained: Dr. Kleinman, a caregiver for his wife, Joan, who has Alzheimer’s disease, writes eloquently about the emotions, the … Continue reading
Green Houses? So Why Not Green Hospitals? …and Free Wireless, too
Here’s an interesting article, Crown Sky Garden Grows at New Children’s Hospital. It describes how a hospital in Chicago is trying to be green, emphasizing wellness over sickness and open, airy, and calm spaces without noises and incessant interruptions. The sky garden sounds amazing, and I hope this hospital administration can translate the peacefulness of … Continue reading
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
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
More Info on Falling – Aging in Place Tech Watch
As Our Parents Age has posted many pieces on seniors and falling — a topic near and dear after two of our senior parents fell numerous times in their later years. Over at Aging in Place Technology Watch, Laurie Orlof posted comments and thoughts about senior falls on September 12, 2010. She also reviewed some recent research, … Continue reading
Getting Ready for the Gray Tsunami… Staggering Statistics
The American Medical News, a publication of the American Medical Association (AMA), just published an interesting opinion piece, Coping with Baby Boomers and Staggering Statistics, by Ardis Dee Hoven, M.D., a AMA board member. After the statistics, she has many ideas and recommendations for physicians, medical training, especially in relation to geriatrics information.
Building a Green House Home-The Inside: Part IV
If you are an adult child who’s spent even a little time searching for the right living arrangement for an elderly parent who needs a lot of extra care, it doesn’t take long to understand the terrain. You see lots of hallways, sometimes laid out in a hub, or in a square, or sometimes just … 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
As Our Parents Age So Do We 