Navigating the Different Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease as a Caregiver Alzheimer's Disease develops over time, causing changes in the brain that affect a person's memory, thinking and behavior. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's Disease, and 16 million Americans serve as unpaid caregivers to loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease or related dementias. With every change to a loved one’s health as the disease progresses over time, these 16 million caregivers are along for the journey right there with their loved one. Read more
My Mother’s Caregiver: Here to Serve Writer and photographer Mark A. Lee joins us for a guest blog, highlighting his current role as his mother's caregiver and excerpting his upcoming book on his past experiences caregiving for his father, "Raising Dad" Read more
5 Tactics to Help Improve Your Home Health CAHPS Rating There’s a reason that positive customer reviews are very important to home health agencies—many households seeking in-home health care services rely on published accounts to guide them in selecting the agency they feel will be the best fit for their situation. Read more
COVID and Quarantine: The Mental Health Consequences As the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our world, it has also made us reevaluate how we understand mental health. This webinar will share tips on recognizing the role COVID-19 and quarantine risk factors play in the mental health disorders of our loved ones, how to become familiar with symptoms of PTSD and other mental health disorders that are linked to quarantine, and ways to help our loved ones cope. Read more
Time is Precious for Family and Friend Caregivers—How Care Coaching Can Help When you consider that 60 percent of family/friend caregivers are employed outside the home, the time drain on daily life can be extraordinary, leading to stress, strain in family relationships and unmet needs for both the caregiver and the older adult needing assistance. That’s why Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging developed BRI Care Consultation™. It’s an evidence-based care-coaching program specifically designed to work with both the family or friend caregiver and the person with a chronic condition to identify ways to better manage ongoing care. Read more
It’s OK to Feel: The Emotional Side of Caregiving The reality is that caregivers experience a wide range of emotions, from ambivalence and resentment to anxiety, grief, loneliness, fear and even joy—often within the same day. We are conditioned to believe, as one family caregiver so eloquently stated, that we “must always smile and never complain…" And yet these emotions are normal, they are healthy, and we need to find ways to name them, to feel them and to express them. Read more
When Parents Weren’t There For You: What Are Your Responsibilities? There is a tie that binds the adult child to their parent, be it a sense of loyalty, duty or compassion. So how does the adult child provide care for their aging parent after this type of childhood? If you are in this situation, you may wonder if you should find it within yourself to take on the role of caregiver. But if you do, what will that role look like? Read more
Understanding Different Types of Dementia When most people hear the word “dementia,” one of the first things that comes to mind is “Alzheimer’s.” However, Alzheimer’s is just one cause of dementia, which is the umbrella term for decline in memory, thinking and reasoning skills that significantly impacts daily life. If a loved one is experiencing memory issues, Alzheimer’s could be a potential diagnosis, but there are four other common types of dementia that should also be considered: Lewy body, frontotemporal, vascular and mixed. Read more
Self-Esteem Boosting Tips for Older Adults Self-esteem is a person’s evaluation of their own worth. Simply put, it is what someone thinks of themself, whether positive or negative. Our concept of self-esteem begins in early childhood and is formed by the image we build for ourselves through experiences with people and different situations. The things we experience as a child initially form a foundation in shaping our self-esteem. Successes; failures; and how we are treated by members of our families, teachers, religious authorities, friends, etc., contribute to a basic sense of self. Read more
Identifying Risks and Preventing Falls for Older Adults Winter weather can be beautiful, but along with the picturesque snow comes the less ideal increase to falls caused by ice and slush. While falls can be dangerous for people of all ages, they are a particular risk to older loved ones. According to the CDC Injury Center, around 25 percent of adults aged 65 and over will experience a fall over the course of a year. These falls are the cause of more than 2.8 million injuries that require hospital treatment, such as hip fractures and traumatic brain injury, resulting in over 800,000 hospitalizations and more than 27,700 deaths annually. Read more
