Elder Care Cafe

As our parents age, many of us find ourselves having to cope with our parents declining health. Not only do we need to help them deal with a growing number of health issues, but also make such decisions as whether they should stay in their own home, move in with a family  member, or relocate to an assisted [...]

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During the 1950s and 1960s most seniors either moved in with their adult children or an adult child or caregiver moved in with them when they were unable to care for themselves. Life expectancy was much lower and most families did not have to care for their family members beyond their 40s, 50s, or 60s. [...]

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Along with the goals and objectives I am developing for the coming year as mentioned in yesterday’s post, I am also including healthy aging as a priority for both Dad and myself. As a caregiver, I need to stay healthy in order to better help the one I am caring for. Here is a brief [...]

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Readers of Elder Care Cafe will undoubtedly realize I haven’t posted in quite a while. It has been a long  almost six weeks mainly due to a crashing computer that has since died. I just got my laptop back from my daughter who used it while at school. Today is a new beginning for Elder [...]

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Our recent emergency reminded me how important medication safety is to a person’s health and well being. When Dad fell down a stairwell several months ago, he was out of town at the time. EMTs took him to their local hospital, and over his three-day stay in ICU his usual medications were changed. Then he [...]

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An advance directive is a document that allows a person to make his or her wishes for treatment known in advance. Many people choose to have a written document on file stating what medical intervention, if any, they would like in case of emergency or if they become incapacitated.

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As with most any new trend, there are savvy entrepreneurs who will take advantage of a growing movement to offer their goods and services. Currently, that is the case with aging in place, the new buzz word for those families who are choosing to keep their parents and grandparents in their own homes as long [...]

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Dementia patients often suffer unnecessary medical interventions because health care workers and family members do not realize they are close to the end of their life. What most people do not understand is that dementia is fatal.

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The older we get, the greater importance we must place on wearing the right shoes to help prevent falls. Increasing problems maintaining balance, and health issues such as diabetes, dictate we wear the right shoes to help keep our feet healthy and our walk steady. Shoes make a difference in whether we stay safe and [...]

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Today is my Dad’s 87th birthday. Earlier today I was thinking about how many decades he has lived and what life experiences surrounded him over the years.
He was born in 1922, just as the Roaring 20’s was becoming the next big it thing. By the time he was ten-years-old, the banks had collapsed and the [...]

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Nursing homes are facing a double-edged sword. Just when the baby boomer swell is rolling in, economic woes, increased costs, and decreased funding are causing nursing homes to decrease staff and services. Some are even needing to shut down.

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Recently, I have noticed a growing number of seniors who either have continued working out of necessity after their retirement age, or have retired only to find they must make drastic changes in their lifestyle because they failed to plan financially.

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Today there are more older drivers on the road than ever before. According to the Federal Highway Administration, more than 202.8 million drivers were on the road in 2006, and 20 million of those drivers were 70 or older.

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The World Health Organization is being urged to declare the more than 35 million people around the world who are living with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia a health priority.

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Although the financial crisis has hit Americans of every age group, a recent University of Michigan study reveals older Americans are weathering the crisis relatively well. Many more seniors expect to work longer than they had originally planned, but they are proving to be happier in the work that they do as compared to those [...]

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