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
Tagged with aging …
Middle Age, Senior Years, Elder Years, REPEAT or RERUN
My husband and I are empty nesters. Over these past few years, as blog readers know, we helped to support his parents, now deceased. These days we regularly touch base with my parents by phone and in person as often as possible, and though they are currently independent and active, at times they welcome our … Continue reading
More Cuts to Aging And Caregiving Services
In Slow Starvation of Senior Services columnist Howard Gleckman writes that Congress, shortly before going on Christmas recess, cut funding for a number of services for seniors and elderly Americans. He describes how some program budgets for seniors and the elderly were cut outright, but that other programs are starved into reducing services when funds are not raised year … Continue reading
My Mom Gets an iPhone, #1
Like lots of other people this fall, I bought a new iPhone, the 4s model. My old 3G iPhone, which works just fine, went to my mother. My mom likes to look things up, something that smartphones do easily. She has envied family members with iPhones and Androids, starting a year or two ago right … Continue reading
Dementia, Thatcher’s Privacy, and What It’s Really Like
Last night about 20 minutes into watching The Iron Lady interact with her dead husband, I leaned over to my husband and exclaimed, “Now I really understand what it was like was for your mother — she saw those things.” This movie is about dementia, not history. Lady Thatcher’s conversations with her husband Denis, were … Continue reading
Epidemiology: What Is It and Why Should Adult Children Know About It?
It happens over and over again as I listen to the radio or read the news. I hear about an aging parent issue or a disease that is increasing in magnitude. Or sometime it’s a health issue that is affecting certain groups of people or a new bit of research that describes problems with an … Continue reading
Dale Carter’s Eden Alternative Interview on BlogTalk Radio
The past two posts here on AsOurParentsAge have described the Woodland Park groundbreaking for Green House® homes at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC). A good deal of the Green House project philosophical basics grew out of Eden Alternative, and Dale Carter over at Transition Aging Parents has an excellent interview on the Eden Model at her blogtalk radio … Continue reading
Forging Adult Children-Aging Parent Connections BEFORE the Challenging Years
It’s that time of year again. Many blogs and caregiving articles are encouraging adult children to “be alert for signs” of extreme aging. With titles such as “Ten Things to Observe When You Visit Your Aging Parents Over the Holidays” or “How to Spy and Check Out Whether A Parent Needs Support,” the posts explain … Continue reading
Family Members’ Attention-Visits Make a Huge Difference
I’ve just finished reading Involved Family Is a Key to Receiving Good Care in Nursing Homes, a December 13, 2011 article in the Detroit Free Press. The report describes how a nursing home resident benefits enormously when family members drop in to visit on a regular basis and get to know the staff that is caring … Continue reading
Hospitals in Cleveland Introduce ER’s Focused on Senior Care
This Cleveland.com article, University Hospital’s Bedford, Richmond ERs Focus on Senior Care, shares important changes at yet another medical center, changes that focus on the needs of seniors when they go a hospital’s emergency facility. How wonderful that the first senior-friendly emergency room, at Holy Cross Hospital in suburban Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC … Continue reading
More Automotive Changes for Aging Adults
A while back I wrote a post about the Ford Motor Company’s plans to increase the font size on dashboards, starting with car models in 2012. The other day, via Dr. Bill Thomas’ Changing Aging blog, I read an article with more information about automotive changes. The piece was published on the SmartMoney.com Encore blog. In A Stethoscope … Continue reading
Read More on Green House® Homes
I’ve just read the post, Two New Green House Stories, over at Allen Power’s blog. His post tells a story that illustrates how Green House® “at home” expectations and environment make an enormous qualitative difference for an aging senior. And be sure to read far enough along to get to the mattress anecdote — it ‘s a hoot. … Continue reading
Reading Glasses and More Reading Glasses
I’ve just finished reading You Can See Mortality Better Through a Pair of Reading Glasses, an essay in today’s Washington Post. The opinion piece, by Janice Lynch Schuster, looks at reading glasses — and how nearly all of us eventually require them — as a metaphor for viewing and accepting our mortality. Writing with irony and … Continue reading
Apropos of Distracted Driving, Children, and Cell Phones
In light of my previous post about the apparent extra protective layer that grandparents have when they drive their grandchildren around, I decided to post this BMW distracted driving advertisement. I believe that telephones and texting play a big role in parents’ accidents these days. I wrote a longer post about the this BMW video … Continue reading
Mom and Me: Thoughts on Marginalization and Aging
Thoughts From Mom to Me As we age, we are treated differently, make no mistake about it, but until I felt it myself, it never rang true. In my professional life, from time to time I observed how people are marginalized – individuals with mental illness, immigrants, international students, people of color. Now, after years … Continue reading
Aging Parents: To Do or Not to Do?
If you are providing minimal aging parent support, but still find yourself in ongoing muddles about whether or not to offer help — or even just take over with a task — check out Paula Span’s NY Times New Old Age blog post today, When to Back Off. Span deftly sums up the adult child’s quandary … Continue reading
Cultural Changes Wrought By Aging in the ‘Burbs
According to a Washington Post story, If Baby Boomers Stay in Suburbia, Analysts Predict Cultural Shift, the suburbs are already experiencing a huge cultural transition as their populations age. Many locations are already making substantial program and infrastructure changes as they prepare for what will be a wave of graying residents (sometimes referred to as a … Continue reading
Aging: Ford Makes Font Size Modifications on Dashboards
Ford Motors, surely anticipating aging boomers and wanting to make Ford automobiles as attractive as possible to everyone, has decided to increase the font size on interior display screens. Read, the SmartMoney.com article, Ford to Boomers: Can You Read This Now? The article, by Catey Hill, points out that initially the company is changing font size … Continue reading
Multi-Generational Teams Work Best: Surprise!?
Have you been ever in a work situation where you feel especially old because younger colleagues occasionally roll their eyes or flaunt their up-to-the-minute technology skills? Does this situation make you speak defensively, sometimes making jokes about senior moments or aging? We’ve all been there! Read, Why Multi-Generational Teams Are Best, over at bNet, the CBS … Continue reading
Awesome TED Lecture — Go Dr. Bill Thomas!
Dr. Bill Thomas, known for Changing Aging, Green Housing, and Eden Alternative, as well as his position as a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has just given a TED Talk. Click to learn about TED Talks. Below you can listen to and watch Dr. Bill’s TED presentation, Elderhood Rising: The Dawn of a New … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 