Category Archives: Caregiving
Adults caring for their elderly parents are sometimes embarrassed by a parent’s racist remarks that appear completely out of character or a sudden penchant to travel to Indian casinos to gamble too much. Bet you never thought of brain atrophy of the frontal lobe. Brain Atrophy Leads to Unintended Racism, Depression and Problem Gambling As [...]
Dr. Helen focuses on Dutiful Sons who are “quietly and without complaining” taking care of their parents. Then she quotes Mark Penn, author of “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes” – According to a 2004 study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP, nearly 40 percent of the 44 million people [...]
We all need our advocates who understand us when we’re sick and in the hospital. We also need people who love us. So this is good news. ICUs’ New Message: Welcome, Families (Wall St Journal, link for subscribers) For decades, hospitals tried to keep visitors out of intensive-care units for more than a few [...]
When the family tree becomes a beanpole, there’s no one left to take care of the old folk. So, Italy’s Aged Turn to Foreigners for Care Marzano is one of a swelling number of Italians entrusting themselves to an army of foreign workers from eastern Europe, South America, Asia and Africa who are doing what [...]
In a 5-part series, USA Today and ABC news collaborate on Role Reversal, Your Aging Parents and You the story of millions of Americans caring for elderly parents and maneuvering “the murky worlds of medicine, law, hospitals, nursing homes, guilt, fear and family ties” Some facts • 41% of baby boomers with a living parent [...]
A good round-up in the New York Times of the technological tools that allow older people to live on their own yet still under the watchful, loving eye of their adult children…. Today, Barry Jacobson has a button on his browser, Where’s Pop?, to track the whereabouts of his father with Alzheimer’s.
It sounds like a pretty good idea The technology consulting company Accenture is developing a system called “The Virtual Family Dinner” that would allow families to get together — virtually — as often as they’d like…. — “To physically eat with others, to be able to do that, there are not only social benefits, but health benefits,” said Dr. Julie Locher, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, who specializes in eating issues among older people.
Sue Shellenberger is following three trends she says are gaining momentum, just in time to counter the discontented more people feel with their work-life balance Reasons to Hold Out Hope for Balancing Work and Home (Wall St Journal subscription only…. Marguerite McCullough, 67, who lives alone in a Florida retirement community, had QuietCare installed after she spent five hours one night alone and helpless in her bathroom, disabled by a bad case of stomach flu.
“There is a myth out there that families abandon their frail elders,” said Dr. Robert L…. “Instead, across the income spectrum, children are sacrificing to care for their parents to the limit of their means and sometimes beyond.”
They say ‘Not only is my father in the hospital, and they’re calling me at work saying, “Figure out where he’s going next because he’s not going home,” but the school’s calling to say my learning-disabled child has developed another problem.’… Middle-aged women are racked by worries about aging parents and relatives and other family members and are less happy than the average American reveals a recent poll commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Association of Social Workers.
