Home for the Holidays: How are Mom and Dad Really Doing? Many of us will be making the trek home to visit family for the holidays.  These holiday excursions represent important opportunities to see how the elders in our families are really doing. They always sound pretty good on the phone, but seeing how they...Read More

The Secrets They Keep: The Innermost Fears, Facts and Feelings Seniors Don’t Share and How to Address Them The things we worry about, and the secrets we keep, evolve as we move through life’s many stages.  We might like to think that by the time we’ve raised our children, left the world of full-time employment,...Read More

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Age Segregation: Should Seniors Live Apart from the Rest of Us? Americans tend to live in silos sorted by age.  Young people spend most of their time with other young people or interacting with them on social media, and seniors, similarly, live amongst each other in 55+ communities or facilities, often...Read More

Fear of Falling: New Frontiers in Senior Fall Prevention Falling and its many consequences are hardly new to the senior age group.  There are a host of reasons seniors fall, some of which can be mitigated, and there are several new technologies that may help make this phenomenon less damaging. Medicare and Medicaid certainly have...Read More

An Elephant in the Room: Seniors and Alcohol Consumption Happy Hour at an assisted living community tends to be lively, well-attended and a very welcome diversion from the day-to-day routine. In a building filled with adults who have less responsibility than they once did, and who rarely drive or leave the property, having a glass...Read More

The Only Child of an Only Child Nancy calls about once each year. She struggles to care for herself and her adult disabled son. John is 6’2 and weighs 220 pounds. Nancy is about 5’2” and in her 70s. The physical task of tending to his needs is very nearly beyond her capabilities. Nancy acknowledges...Read More

Used and Abused: The Many Faces of Financial Exploitation As Baby Boomers retire at a rate of 10,000 people per day and the proportion of seniors in the American populace grows at an incredible rate, there is concern that financial exploitation will increase, as well. Financial exploiters, after all, seem to find seniors an incredibly...Read More

The Senior Experience: What We Think It Is, What It Really Is and How We Can Make It Better Think of advanced age as a foreign country. If we’re lucky, we will all eventually live there.  Many of our clients and loved ones have moved there and had remarkably mixed experiences.  And yet we tend...Read More

Very Old and Very Healthy: The Characteristics and Habits that Seem to Drive Longevity People are living quite a bit longer than they used to, and both scientists and laypeople have taken an interest in identifying the key factors driving this trend.  Above and beyond improvements in medical treatment, it is widely believed that certain...Read More

Helping Seniors Accept In-Home Care What can you do when seniors refuse to accept the care they need? These tips empower you to understand their fears and help them take action to avoid resistance. Your elderly client has been caring for her husband with Alzheimer’s round the clock. She’s physically exhausted and emotionally drained. Yet...Read More