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Love to Travel? Don’t Let Aging or a Disability Stop You July 11, 2018 by Mary Jacobs - As a cultural attaché for the US Department of State, Teresa Wilkin lived abroad and traveled the world, and she kept traveling, extensively, after retiring in 2004. But it wasn’t until last year that Wilkin, 69, had what she wryly…
How to Save Yourself and Those You Love During a Disaster April 20, 2018 by Mary Jacobs - When Hurricane Harvey struck his neighborhood on August 28, 2017, the Rev. John Stephens of Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston helped launch a “boat ministry.” He and several men in the church navigated privately owned boats into the rising…
Aging Boomers May Need a Little Help from Their Friends March 11, 2018 by Lois Collins - Family members already form an invisible work force that cares for America's frail elders. But changes in policy and family structure—from later-life divorce to smaller families—suggest that friends and extended family will play even more important roles as caregivers in coming years.
They’re Not Well and They’re All Alone March 11, 2018 by Sharon Jayson - Phyllis Krantzman knows what she should do, but like many of her peers, the 71-year-old doesn’t know how to approach a casual acquaintance to ask who will take care of her when she needs it most.
Boomerang Seniors—They’re Moving to Be Near Mom or Dad March 7, 2018 by Sharon Jayson - Like many peers in their 70s, Lois and Richard Jones of Media, PA, sold their home and downsized, opting for an apartment in a nearby senior living community they had come to know well. For 13 years, they have visited Lois’ mother, Madge Wertzberger, there.
Save on Health Care at the Playground January 20, 2018 by Mary Jacobs - When Ronni Bennett discovered elder playgrounds online a few years ago, she immediately fell in love with the concept.
Aging and Addicted January 20, 2018 by Jenny Gold for Kaiser Health News - It took a lot of convincing for John Evard to go to rehab. Seven days into his stay at the Las Vegas Recovery Center, the nausea and aching muscles of opioid withdrawal were finally beginning to fade.
Chinese American Families: Stressed Out over Caregiving January 20, 2018 by Lotus Chau - Almost three in four Chinese American family caregivers say they feel the stress and burden of caring for their elderly parents, according to a recent study from Rush University Medical Center and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.- The Opioid Balancing Act January 18, 2018 by Jenny Gold for Kaiser Health News - The national conversation about the opioid epidemic has mostly focused on young people who buy drugs illegally on the street. But the scrutiny of opioids has also changed the way doctors are prescribing medications to [older people] to ease their pain from arthritis, cancer, neurological diseases and other illnesses that become more common in later life.
Medical Tourism: Are Local Doctors Always the Best Choice? January 18, 2018 by Mary Jacobs - Patients travel from around the United States and the world to see Richard Guyer, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon at the Texas Back Institute in Plano, TX, because he is a recognized, widely published expert in disc-replacement surgery. But when…
They’re Falling Through the Cracks: Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren January 10, 2018 by SCF-Editor - Increasing numbers of grandmothers across the United States are raising their grandchildren, many of them in poverty and grappling with a public assistance system not designed to meet their needs.
Henry Cisneros: Homes—and Neighborhoods—Should Work for All Ages June 29, 2017 by Leigh Ann Hubbard - For years, Henry Cisneros watched his father, George, live an active life with limited mobility. A stroke at the age of 59 had left the elder Cisneros without the use of his left arm and left leg. But parts of his house were modified to accommodate his limited mobility. He was able to live there, with his wife, Elvira, in the home and close-knit neighborhood where they’d raised their children, until two years before he died in 2006 at age 89.
They Aren’t Really ‘Just Fine’: Your Aging Parents Who Don’t Live Nearby April 4, 2017 by Lisa Esposito - "I'm doing fine." It's reassuring to hear when you call a parent who lives far away. But the fact is, seniors living alone in their 70s and beyond may keep serious problems to themselves because they don't want to worry you or feel like a burden.
Holding Stories in Their Hands April 4, 2017 by Victoria Robinson - Thelma is 97. “Did you know I used to be a bartender?” she asks photographer Elaine Zelker.
Emi Kiyota: Out to Transform the Rigid Nursing-Home Culture April 4, 2017 by Karen Miller - The first time Emi Kiyota visited her grandmother in a Japanese nursing home, she was profoundly affected. “I was so uncomfortable,” Kiyota says.
The Home Care Revolution: Is Family Care on the Way Out? April 4, 2017 by Barbara Peters Smith - He rinses her feeding tube and hands it to her; she shakes it dry and attaches it to a port on her abdomen as he dissolves three pills in water. Chuck fetches her liquid lunch as Rosalie places a plastic receptacle in an ingenious homemade stand that Chuck fashioned from PVC pipe and an old battery charger, weighted “with imported stones from the front yard.”
The Home Care Revolution: Strangers in the Home April 4, 2017 by Barbara Peters Smith - Many families plunge into the mysterious universe of elder home care after a hospital stay—often an unexpected one.
Shortly before it's time to go home, the patient or a relative typically receives a brochure for the hospital's recommended home health agency, with a brief discussion of the limited rehabilitation services Medicare will cover.
The Home Care Revolution: Are Robots the Answer? April 4, 2017 by Barbara Peters Smith - If you are 55 years old, you could wake up 30 years from now to the warm, affectionate voice of your personal care robot, asking what you would like for breakfast and why you slept for only 5.8 hours last night instead of your usual 7.3.
They’re Old, They’re Sick—and They’re Homeless April 4, 2017 by Margot Kushel - On any given night in the United States, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, over half a million people are without a home. That number may have decreased nationwide in the past few years, but California remains on the forefront of the problem, accounting for 20 percent of the country’s homeless in 2014.
Membership Medicine: When the Doctor Is Always In April 4, 2017 by Leigh Ann Hubbard - Adina Cook’s teenage son was skateboarding one evening. He tried to jump 10 concrete stairs and landed smack-dab on his shoulder. Instead of rushing him to the emergency room, Cook, 52, called the family’s doctor, Tracy Ragland, who met them…
Senior Centers Are Evolving - The first time Sue and Mike Miller visited their community’s senior center in Portage, MI, several years ago, they found a few people playing pool or bridge—and decided it wasn’t for them. But the couple tried again in 2022, when…
The Upside and Downside of Being Owned by a Cat - I love my cat, but until now, I hadn’t thought of her as a way to stay healthy. In fact, when I first brought Velvet—a small, feisty black kitty—home, I thought of her as a dog substitute. My beloved dog…