Caregiver

‘What do I say or do when all my loved one does is beg to go home?’ By Micha Shalev Here are some tips to try...

By Marilynn Marchione One-fifth of Medicare nursing home patients with advanced Alzheimer’s or other dementias were sent to hospitals or other nursing homes for questionable...

Falls in the elderly cost $30 billion yearly to treat and can send them spiraling into poor health and disability.

“Your relationship changes. Life as you know it becomes different,” said Raymond Collins, 62, of Houston, who retired early in part to spend time with his wife, Karen.

Finding the right nursing home for an elderly loved one is a daunting task. And it’s one most of us will face, as two-thirds of people over 65 will need nursing home care, at least temporarily.

Chronic pain affects 1.5 billion people worldwide, an estimated 100 million of whom live in the United States. Yet we currently have no effective treatment options. Fortunately, research advances have determined some of the ways in which chronic pain changes the brain, and several promising research areas could lead to better treatment approaches.

“Tis the season.” Winter is a special time for caution if you or someone in your family is an older adult. It is the season for the flu, for slips on icy streets, and for other dangers that are particularly great for seniors.

Wandering, a complex motor, cognitive and behavioral disorder, is a common symptom among patients with dementia. A contemporary definition for wandering is: “A syndrome of dementia-related locomotion behavior having a frequent, repetitive, temporally disordered, and/or spatially disoriented nature that is manifested in lapping, random, and/or pacing patterns, some of which are associated with eloping, eloping attempts, or getting lost unless accompanied.”

Too often, older Americans wind up in a nursing home not because they’re super-sick, but because they can’t get through their days safely at home.

“I needed eyes and ears closer to my mother,” said Schwartz, an only child living in Malibu. “I needed someone to handle the medical, the insurance, the financial, stay on top of the daily caregiving, so the emotional strain wouldn’t be overwhelming.”