Carnegie-Mellon University-College of Engineering recently conducted a survey of 1,900 US adults on care for their aging parents, as background for a project in fall prevention.
Tag Archives: aging parents
5 criteria for dementia-friendly hotels
Feeling stuck at home? Here’s a guide to dementia-friendly travel with your loved one. You can do it!
This article is a re-post from Alzlive.com. Check them out for more travel tips and information on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
5 Criteria for an Alzheimer’s-friendly Hotel Room
by YUKI HAYASHI
Do your pre-trip sleuthing to ensure your lodgings are safe and sound for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
Not all hotel rooms are created equal! Here are five features to look for or request when booking travel in the United States, Canada or even further afield, if you are adventurous. These amenities provide a safer, better home-sweet-home experience for patients and caregivers.
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10 Lessons Learned Through Caring
I found this article on the Alzheimer’s Speaks blog. If you are interested in dementias, and especially in dementia care, check out their blog and website – they have some great information. This article is written by one woman, sharing her lessons learned through her experiences of caring for her mother dementia.
Cartoon about dementia – with music!
I found this article on thedailymail.co.uk. It’s a good cartoon, and tells the story in a way that anyone can understand and feel emotion about. And when you add my suggested song, you are really in for a treat 🙂
Golden Girls lifestyle
I found this article on the Changing Aging website, where you can read the original, if you would like, or explore other interesting topics.
Golden Girls Shared Living on the Rise
If you’re like me, you weren’t surprised to read about the recent Age Wave/Merrill Lynch study finding that two-thirds of retirees now say they are living in “the best home of their life.”
I, too, am living in my dream home, but with a different cast of characters than I could have ever imagined. When a divorce left me living alone in newly remodeled 5-bedroom home in 2008, I searched for and found four roommates to fill the bedrooms.
Conversations with Dada
I came to know Eddy and Dada through a facebook group called Memory People. It is an online support network, started by Rick Phelps. Its a place where anyone who has memory issues, works with someone with memory issues, is a caregiver, is a former caregiver, or is otherwise interested in dementias and memory disorders can come together in a support group consisting of thousands of people from all around the world. What is discussed there is private, meaning that only other people in the group can see what is written and respond. It’s also a great source of support, where we can ask questions, share knowledge, and be understood by others who have been/are in a similar situation.
Eddy would post videos of his conversations with his father, whom is lovingly called Dada. It is easy to tell that both of these gentlemen have big personalities. I have been following Dada for the past few months, and also follow him on his own facebook page (Conversations with Dad).
These videos help to make dementia real. A face is put on it. A name is put on it. A voice is given to it. Dada probably doesn’t realize the influence he is having on the world. That a woman in Denmark can be watching a video of him taking a walk in the United States, laugh with him, cry for him, and think about him and how he is doing. It’s amazing and moving that people all over the world are getting to know this wonderful man.
I think that what Eddy is doing is wonderful. He is sharing his caregiving journey with us, he is sharing his father’s life with us, he is sharing himself with us. And when people honestly share like this, it is touching and it is powerful enough to change the world.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend to check out Eddy’s page and get to know he and Dada.
UPDATE: I am sorry to inform you that Dada aka Captain Jack passed away on February 24, 2015. There are still the posts, pictures, and the great videos on the facebook site if you want to like the page and check them out. I still recommend it, Dada has a lot to teach us and I promise you won’t be disappointed. Eddy, the son who has been documenting and sharing Dada with us, is in my thoughts and I still find myself thinking about them almost daily. I wonder if he knows the gift he has shared with the world.
Technology and Independence
Tech Advances Will Give Aging Baby Boomers More Independence
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A notable trend is medication reminder functions increasingly found in mobile apps as a value-added feature that is free of charge. Medication reminders used to be marketed as a subscription service, but health-focused smartphone apps are integrating the reminder function with other health and wellness features, such as Personal Health Record, symptom checker and daily activity tracker. |
By Harry Wang You can read the original article here.
10/01/14 7:14 AM PT
10/01/14 7:14 AM PT
The U.S. is facing a retirement wave. Seventy-six million Baby Boomers are beginning to hit the 65-year-old mark. By 2025, the number of people between 65 and 85 will account for 16.6 percent of the total population, compared with an estimated 12.5 percent in 2013, an increase of 18 million. In the U.S., the elderly prefer aging in their own home, but living at home has potential risks.
Connectivity and technology advances are enabling more sophisticated devices and tools — including personal emergency response systems, medication management, home safety and activity sensors, and GPS and location-assistance solutions — to help consumers and caretakers manage risks at home.
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Computer and Internet use in the US
This is a post from Telekin, a great company that started making computers specifically for older adults. If you want to find out more about them, their computers, and to purchase a Telekin, check out their website here.
Senior Computer and Internet Use
The Pew Research Center just released new data on internet and computer usage among older adults. In short, the numbers show that more seniors are adopting technologies, but still at a much slower pace than the rest of adult Americans.
The key overall statistic is that now 59% of Americans age 65 or older go online. In last year’s report that same number was 53%, which was the first time more than half of seniors went online. This increase in seniors logging on demonstrates the steady, if rather slow, trend for more and more older adults adopting new technologies. As I’ve written about before, the benefits of technology for seniors are numerous, so it is encouraging to see that more are actually capitalizing on those benefits.
Here are some of the other key findings:
Redesigning dementia care
This is a re-post from Crisis Prevention Intervention. Amy Schoenemann gives some great insight into design considerations for care!
Spotlight on Design for Dementia Care: An Interview With PDC Midwest’s Amy Schoenemann
By Terry Vittone | Posted on 06.04.2014
CPI recently had a chance to catch up with Amy Schoenemann, Director of Design Development and Project Architect for PDC Midwest, a Wisconsin-based architect-led design-build firm that specializes in senior living.
Throughout the last 18 years, PDC has been commissioned by regional and national senior care owner-operators to provide nearly 490 senior care projects in 27 states, and they are on the forefront of the trend in memory care facilities toward designing environments that engage and support residents.
Firms like PDC Midwest are of special interest to CPI’s Dementia Care Specialists, because we believe strongly that physical environments are critical components of successful memory care programs, where the combination of specialized care and environment create an optimum level of function, safety, and quality of life for those living with Alzheimer’s/dementia.
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I wish I had known before I started caregiving….
This is a re-post from caring.com, and an excellent article where caregivers reflect back on what they wish they had known before caring for their aging parents.
By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor
June 06, 2014
Looking Back on Caregiving
6 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Cared for My Parents
You’ve heard the expression “hindsight is 20/20,” and when it comes to family caregiving, it absolutely applies. Get any group of midlife adults together and you’ll hear caregiving “war stories” about what they’re facing when it comes to aging parents, and how completely unprepared they feel for what’s ahead.
“We are not prepared for this situation as a culture — there just isn’t enough information out there,” says Chicago-based Mary Kay Buysse, director of the National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM), who has had many years of experience in helping older adults make changes to their living situations. “People are blindsided when suddenly there’s a crisis and Mom needs help and they’re completely in the dark as to what’s available and how to find it.”
To help you navigate this process with more insight, we’ve put together tips from experts and fellow caregivers on what they know now that they wish they’d known when they started the process of finding a safer situation for Mom and Dad. Having been there, done that, they have a wealth of wisdom to pass along to help you learn from their mistakes.
Doctor Dementia and the Dementia Adventure 