Tagged with Caregiving …

Assisted Living: The Talk with Aging Parents

Recently Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts interviewed Elinor Ginzler, AARP’s Director of Livable Communities. The January 10, 2010 interview focused on tips to help aging children initiate conversations with aging parents, helping their parents think about assisted living options. The conclusion? These discussions need to gently encourage parents to embark on a healthy and safe transition. Scroll down the … Continue reading →

Aging Parents: Caregiving and Saying Good-bye

Caregiving, especially helping to care for an aging parent who is ill and nearing the end of life, is arduous. One never stops asking questions about “doing the right thing.” Throughout this challenging time an aging child has lot of things to say, memories to review, and good-byes to be arranged for family members near … Continue reading →

Aging Parents and Dementia: JAMA Study Redux

Wow! I discovered the JAMA article about dementia, hospitalization and the elderly and mentioned it here on the blog several days ago, on March 4, 2010 — before the Vital Signs blog at the NY Times discussed it on March 8th. How exciting to once-in-a-while be ahead of the Times (which by the way I … Continue reading →

Hospital Stays, Seniors, and the Possibility of Dementia

…or Disorientation We have taken parents to the hospital and discovered that the hospitalization process seems to facilitate disorientation. We have also observed incidental dementia. In essence, a frightened aging parents is sick, frightened, and disoriented and loses touch with reality. One of our parents, who was already experiencing some dementia but was living securely … Continue reading →

NIH Senior Net – A Senior Friendly Site

…and Tips for Making a Website Senior Friendly Take a few minutes to visit this NIH Senior Health site. Bring an aging parent along. Notice the great care that has been taken to make the site easy-to-read with large type and navigation links that are clear and uncluttered. This site is full of information on … Continue reading →

New Old Age Blog – NY Times

Love the New Old Age blog at the New York Times.  This July 1, 2008 New Old Age posting, Our Parents Ourselves by Jane Gross, sums up the perspective of aging children confronting the aging parent experience — anxiety, love, concern, frustration, respect, and more.  So much to learn. So much to give back.

Census Information and Aging Parents

I’ve written about seniors and aging parents and how they can interact with technology, computers, urban legends, and scams, but one aspect that I have not touched on is the upcoming census. Dale over at the Transition Aging Parents blog, has written an excellent post about helping aging parents avoid census scams. Census information gathering … Continue reading →

Thoughts on Medications and Seniors: Part I

Protonix, Synthroid, Lasix, Lopressor, Altace, Fosamax, Vitamin D, KDur, Coumadin and others …  all medications prescribed for my husband’s mother in the last several years of her life. Mother took some of these in the morning after breakfast, others in the evening after dinner, and one was prescribed for just before bed. The Fosamax was  supposed to … Continue reading →

Snow Worries and Aging Parents

As a teacher it used to be that I thought about time off from school when snow was predicted. Now I have parent “SnowWorries,” and I rarely get around to anticipating snow days. During a big snow storm, and we’ve had a bunch this winter, my anxiety level is higher than usual. Not crazy high, … Continue reading →

Caregivers: Looking Back, Giving Back

We were fortunate to have people and places who helped us care for my husband’s mother. During the last year of mother’s life, things were intense, and sometimes we wished that we could be taken care of, too. Choosing to help with mother’s care and to have her near us, especially before she needed substantial … Continue reading →