Top Mistakes We Make With Dementia Patients
The Connected Caregiver
As caregivers coping with the spook-house corridors of the dementia patient’s mind, we often find ourselves saying the wrong thing: “Mom, how could you have possibly forgotten your own daughter’s birthday!” Where do comments like this come from? Frustration? The subconscious desire to will our patient back to rational thought? ... Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 3:08 p.m., 6/21/2012
“Help, Robot! I’ve fallen and I Need You to Pick Me Up”
The Connected Caregiver
Imagine having a robot around the house that can lift a frail elder if they fall when you are not around. Now visualize automated dresser drawers that can literally talk and guide a dementia patient through the complex—and often stressful—act of getting dressed in the morning. You are seeing what could very well be the future of caregiving. Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | midnight, 4/18/2012
How to Help When Help’s Not Wanted
The Connected Caregiver
**Or, Let’s Go to the Videotape!** How old do you have to be to be considered a “grownup”? For some people, it’s 18 or 21; for others, it’s not a precise age, but the distinction of becoming finally self sufficient, for example, having one’s own place to live and a ... Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 9:18 a.m., 2/15/2012
Why Caregiving is Good for Your Health
The Connected Caregiver
Caregiving is no picnic. Do I even need to say that? By definition, the job is stressful, physically demanding, and it not only consumes all the hours in the day but fills one’s mental landscape. For many, it can be exceedingly debilitating. A mountain of reports have linked caregiving to heart disease, depression and a shorter lifespan. I’ve also joined the chorus on caregiver burnout in this blog. (See http://beclosegroups.com/blog/?p=414). And I certainly support the mission of exhorting fulltime caregivers to look for ways to take a break now and then, to find some “me-time” in the blur of responsibilities that comes with the job. Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 10:34 a.m., 1/20/2012
Adventures with ‘Alert’ Monitors
The Connected Caregiver
The necklaces made famous by those “[Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!][1]” TV advertisements back in the ‘80s can seem like a brilliant idea. So simple, so inexpensive. Here, at last, is a way for Mom or Dad to maintain independence as they become frail: a button on ... Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 1:52 p.m., 11/30/2011
Helping Men Become Better Caregivers
The Connected Caregiver
According to the 2010 Census, the number of male caregivers in the United States has risen from 19 percent in 1996 to nearly 40 percent in 2009. That’s positive news in the gender equality front. For generations, caregiving duties automatically fell to women in the family, and this responsibility was accepted without question. But, if things are getting fairer, there’s still progress to be made. And to put it plainly, men who are caregivers could use a little help. Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 11:46 a.m., 11/2/2011
The Distance Dilemma
The Connected Caregiver
The very idea of caring for a family member in a different zip code—much less a different time zone—has little precedent. Go back 100 years and most extended families shared a single dwelling. At the most, grandma and grandpa lived across town. Today that’s all changed. The centrifugal forces propelling family members far and wide seems only to be increasing. A 1997 study estimated that more than 7 million Americans were distance caregivers. More recently, the National Council on Aging [NCOA] projected that the number of distance caregivers would increase to 14 million by 2012 Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 2:13 p.m., 9/9/2011
Think Twice Before Quitting Your Day Job
The Connected Caregiver
The biggest decision about caregiving—“do I do it myself or do I hire someone outside the family?”—is frequently based on an arithmetical calculation. It goes something like this: what’s the difference between the cost of an outside caregiver and my take-home salary? For many of us, this is an “ouch!” moment. People often find that their wages barely cover the expense of home care (or that they’re positively dwarfed by the cost of institutional care.) So, many of us quit our jobs and take on the infinitely more complex role of being caregivers without giving the question much more thought. Today, nearly 10 million adult children over the age of 50 care for their aging parents, triple the percentage that were doing so as recently as 15 years ago. Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 2:24 p.m., 7/21/2011
New Hope for an Alzheimer’s Cure
The Connected Caregiver
Earlier this spring, the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association announced a new pre-clinical stage of Alzheimer’s Disease, marking the first change in the definition of the illness in 27 years. The announcement grows out of evidence that plaques and tangles characteristic of Alzheimer’s Disease begin to form in the brain years before the patient shows any symptoms. The new definition raises the tantalizing possibility of developing treatments Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 2:34 p.m., 6/21/2011
How to Avoid a Fall
The Connected Caregiver
I get a chill thinking about elderly people falling. Some 12 years before her death in 2008, my mother fell down a flight of stairs while alone in her home. She managed to crawl into bed where a concerned neighbor found her unconscious 18 hours later. She had suffered a subdural hematoma, and nearly died. Tough woman that she was, following brain surgery she recovered to have many more good years. Want to avoid falls? Read on for some expert guidance. Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 3:10 p.m., 2/20/2011
An Unexpected Fall
The Connected Caregiver
When the call came, I was in a meeting at a midtown, New York, magazine publisher’s office. It was my sister on the line, and she was upset, her words coming out in gasps. “Mom’s in the hospital.” And just like that, my sister, brother and I went from having an older parent who was entirely self-reliant to having a parent with a giant question mark in her future. Read more ...
Posted by Steve_Slon | 3:19 p.m., 2/8/2011
