On the best of days, caregiving for a family member with dementia is difficult. Watching the decline of a loved one is hard. Having to help them with things that are basic and personal makes it even harder. The commitment - 24 hours a day - offers little time for [...]
Family care of an older adult has emerged as an essential element of the US health care system, with 83 percent of long-term care provided to older adults coming from family members or other unpaid helpers. As the population of older adults grows, so too does the expectation of family [...]
Low diastolic pressure can arise as a result of medication use, heart failure or other health complications. But, in most people, it is simply a matter of the heart not pumping out enough blood with each stroke; in other words, low cardiac output. And low cardiac output occurs when not [...]
I was offered a “pass.” It was a routine appointment approximately one year following Mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in late 1997. The physician quietly handed over to me a written order saying, “Admission to nursing home.” And then he waited silently for my response. Having toured the area nursing homes [...]
2002-2003 Those were the SARS years, but communications were so different in the early 2000’s! The internet was still quite new – and most hospitals did not yet have websites. Our regional television networks and newspapers reported on the threat of the SARS pandemic and we learned that older people [...]
"Some experts worry that a long-standing shortage of palliative care professionals ― who focus on the physical pain and mental and spiritual distress caused by serious illness — could leave many COVID-19 patients in distress... 'There is already a shortage, which will only worsen as demand goes up because of [...]
Harvard professor Dr. Arthur Kleinman asks, “How do we strengthen caregiving? How do we do those things that will make it recognized as important as it is? It’s going to take a radical rethinking. Our health care system is focused on entirely the wrong issues. Economics is not the most [...]
“The senior living field has long been ripe for disruption. While the pandemic is causing incredible stress and suffering, it can also be a launch pad for change – to move beyond ‘what was’ to an exciting new future. Join Jill Vitale-Aussem as she talks with Bob Kramer, President and [...]
In 2003, we were many miles apart but still in touch – two decades after being colleagues in a Chicago-area hospital. Stephanie Mayercik, my “wise sage” during our employment years, possessed finely-tuned listening skills, common sense and abundant practical wisdom, a quick wit and sense of humor, and buoyant and [...]
I was simply stunned. This time, it hit close to home. My deceased father had been in a highly invisible group of people ... a group which, in many cultures, is revered and held in esteem. Writing this in a chaotic post-truth era, the words of the Acting White [...]