Monthly Archives: January 2009

Making Your Visits With Elderly Parents Memorable

When you visit your elderly parents what do you do with them? Do you have trouble coming up with activities? Don't just sit around looking at each other; take steps to make visits with elderly parents memorable one. The kitchen is a great place to interact with your parent. Bring over the ingredients for a…
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How to Choose an Assisted Living Facility

Is your parent in that in-between state, where independent living is no longer safe but nursing home care isn't necessary? If so, you might want to consider assisted living for your parent. Assisted living is a type of senior living arrangement that combines the best of both worlds. Assisted living encourages independence to the fullest…
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3 Tips for Successful Long Distance Caregiving

Are you caregiving while living in a different city or state from your family member? It's estimated that 7 million family caregivers live an hour or more away from the person they are caring for. Long distance caregiving has its own unique set of challenges. Even the simplest task like filling a prescription takes careful…
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How Caregivers Can Prevent Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is a difficult topic for anyone to discuss. We don't like to think about elder abuse as a reality, but unfortunately, a comprehensive studyby the University of Chicago revealed that approximately 13% of older Americans are mistreated either verbally, financially, or physically. In the study, among those who reported verbal abuse, 26% reported…
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Caregiving: Keeping your Marriage Safe

Caregiving can put as much strain on your marriage as raising young children. It takes the same type of focus on your marriage that you used when your children were young to keep your relationship strong now.  The time and emotional energy that elder care requires can leave you with less energy to share with…
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Eight Things You Need to Know about Alzheimer's Disease

If you're caring for a parent with Alzheimer's disease, you already know that the condition can seem like a very dark mystery with wonderful moments of sunshine. Watching my own grandmother descend into Alzheimer's while I was in college is what led me to a career devoted to helping other families deal with the heartache and challenges associated with this disease.

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Finding In-Home Elderly Assistance

My widowed aunt was living alone and as she was getting older we began to see some telltale signs that she might need some type of senior assistance.   Her home wasn't as clean as it once was, she seemed to be eating less and less, and she was becoming a bit unsteady on her feet.…
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Want to Know More About Elder Services?

Do you want to know more about elder services for your elderly parents or family member? One of the first questions I had when I suddenly became Mom's caregiver after an emergency surgery was what elder services were available for her and where could I find them? The Internet The Internet lets our fingers do…
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Find a 5 Star Nursing Home

Medicare has just made finding a great nursing home for your parent easier. The agency recently launched a 5 star rating system for nursing find-a-5-star-nursing-home1homes. The rating system makes it easier for family caregivers to choose among the many facilities that are available.

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What Is a Geriatric Care Manager?

While working for the Alzheimer's Association, I received a lot of phone calls concerning geriatric care for aging parents. Many of the calls came from adult children who were either overwhelmed with caregiving responsibilities or lived too far away to provide the eldercare their parent required. Many times, I suggested that the caller look into hiring a geriatric care manager.

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