Caring for the Caregiver = Asking for Help
Asking for help is hard. Better to go-it-alone, like a swashbuckling action hero: Lara Croft, Indiana Jones, Han Solo (Solo!)—the list goes on and on. I bought into this particularly American concept of self-reliance in my youth. The “thanks—I’m good!” mindset fit...
Finding Cure for Alzheimer’s: Sexy. Supporting the 5 Million+ With Dementia: Not So Much.
At a campaign stop in May, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush revealed that his mother-in-law has Alzheimer’s disease. He asked people to email him their ideas and suggestions for how to cure the deadly disease. Journalist and producer Maria Shriver did...
How Old Do You Feel?
Mark Twain said, “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” That’s pretty much the same conclusion researchers Andrew Steptoe and Isla Rippon came to after conducting a long-term study of close to 6,500 men and women. The...
5 Great Resources for Uber-busy Caregivers
Recently I came across some eye-popping Pew Research findings about family caregivers. A sampling: Family caregivers spend more time seeking out health information online than any other group of Internet users. Caregivers spend more time combing the Internet for...
Media Makeover Needed to Counter Negative Images of Aging
We all interact with some form of media every day—whether it’s radio, TV, Internet or that old standby, print media—and when it comes to portrayals of older adults, mixed messages abound. But the way people actually feel about getting older often contradicts what they...
Top 5 Netflix Crime Shows For Seniors and Their Caregivers
My octogenarian mother is obsessed with crime shows. I discovered this when we lived together after my father died and I looked for any way to cheer her up, including finding programs for us to watch together on TV. Little did I know that Mom’s idea of being cheered...
You Can Lead A Senior To Tech…
At yesterday’s “Outside|In: Aging in a Tech World” event in DC, billed by host POLITICO as “a discussion of health technology’s role in an aging population, and how digital innovations are revolutionizing how we monitor and manage older adults’ physical and mental...
Aging Well is a Multigenerational Experience
This stylish lady, aka Yia Yia (Greek for “grandmother”), sadly is no longer with us, but she left behind quite a legacy. Intrepid and modern, Anna emigrated alone, as a teenager, from the Greek island of Lesbos to Toronto, Canada, and eventually lived at the...
Why Don’t We Support These Troops?
A few weeks ago I sat in a packed briefing room on Capitol Hill where representatives from the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP gave a presentation on the state of caregiving in the U.S. Their full report is available here: Caregiving in the U.S. 2015...