Archive for the ‘elder care’ Category

Caring for the Caregiver

The relationship between an elderly person and his or her caregiver is complex and intense sometimes.  But that relationship does not exist in a vacuum.  There are a lot of people affected by what is going on when that caregiver goes to that senior citizens apartment and give to him or her that one on [...]

Easing into Care Giving

There is one axiom that if your parents don’t pass away young in life, you are going to watch them age.  Now for the most part, this is a natural and nice part of life because mom and dad can slowly become grandma and grandpa which are nice roles for them after working so hard [...]

Caregivers and the Work Place

More and more businesses are facing a challenge and some decisions to be made.  As the baby boom generation moves into retirement years and becomes elderly, the workers that make your business function so efficiently are going to have the additional demands placed on them of becoming the primary caregiver for an aging parent. It’s [...]

Giving Thanks for Being a Caregiver

Much of the adjustment that goes into being a caregiver for your aging parent goes into dealing with the stress and the emotional drain that role can bring.  In addition to the issues of how to care for her in the best possible way, there are the emotions of anger when programs don’t work right [...]

Going to a Better Place

There are some momentous events in the life of a senior citizen.  And few can compare in terms of the tremendous change of lifestyle to the moment when your aging parent moves out of their home and into an assisted living facility.  It’s a very emotional decision.  If your mom and dad have been living [...]

Listening to Your Parents even Now

Have you ever had that aggravation that you go over to your aging parents apartment or house to help with the housework and get some serious “care giving” done and the senior himself seems to be bent on stopping your progress?  You no doubt came over with a list as long as your arm of [...]

Managing Your Senior Citizen’s Medications

“Old people need a lot of pills.” That was an observation the grandson of my adult parent observed about his Granddad. And while that may be a bit of a crude way of making that observation, it is certainly a correct observation.  The truth is that senior citizens sometimes to find themselves taking a vast [...]

Guilt Helps Nobody

If the job of being a caregiver only involved giving help to your aging parent such as doing the dishes and helping fill out the Medicare paperwork, your life would be considerably easier.  And if that were the case, even if there was a lot to do, the problem of caregiver burn out would not [...]

Listening to Your Parents even Now

Have you ever had that aggravation that you go over to your aging parents apartment or house to help with the housework and get some serious “care giving” done and the senior himself seems to be bent on stopping your progress?  You no doubt came over with a list as long as your arm of [...]

Making a Difference Together

There is something very self absorbed about the caregiver to senior citizen relationship. By that we mean that most if not all of the decisions you make and subjects of concern focus either on the senior citizen and his needs or on the caregiver and the senior citizen and how you will work together to [...]

Does Grandpa Like Himself?

Few of us think about our own self esteem.  But how we feel about ourselves, our work, our relationship to family and the community and our place in the world is the cornerstone not only of your ability to function and be productive in life but of your mental and physical health as well.  That [...]

Quality of Life for your Senior Citizen

When you were growing up, your parents were your care givers.  They made sure you were safe, well fed, clothed had medical care and that the money was there for the things you needed.  But being your caregiver for your mom and dad was about more than just giving you the basics of survival and [...]

Senior Citizens Bill of Rights

Sometimes when you and your elderly parent are partnering for their care, it seems like an “us against the world” situation.  But since the senior citizen you are caring for has little fight left in them, it seems it’s up to you to make sure that your elderly mom or dad get all they have [...]

Is Mom a Sucker?

Sometimes a caregiver is a combination of maid, doctor, spiritual advisor and amateur detective.  It’s no secret that elderly people sometimes become more like teenagers and children then mature adults.  So, while we wish they wouldn’t do it, your senior citizen mom or dad may be hiding a few things from you. And one thing [...]

Taking Care of Yourself is Part of the Job

The job of becoming the primary caregiver for your aging parent is universally recognized as one of the most difficult transitions we will go through.  To start with, it’s hard to go through the reversal of parent and child.  All your life, mom or dad were the strong ones.  They were the ones you ran [...]

A Stressful Job

It’s an understatement that being a caregiver for an elderly loved one is stressful. And in general, by the time you accept that you are in the role of “primary caregiver”, the need to help your elderly parent is already advanced.  So you usually have some “catch up work” to do so you can establish [...]