Caregiving - Elderly Care - Aging
The Caregiver Dilemma
The growing population of people that are in need of 24-hour personal care
is steadily increasing like a
slow moving tsunami that has no end.
More than 44 million American Families are Caring for a
Loved One at Home. By 2050, people 65 and over will
comprise an impressive 21 percent of the
U.S. population.
10,000 baby boomers turn 65
everyday
in America, that's 3,650,000 every year. And if you add the number who
turn 66 and 67 everyday, here comes the tsunami.

Growing Old Hard Facts - Statistics

42 million Americans ages 40 to 60 care for an older adult, and
those numbers are on the rise. March 2012, Nearly 10 million adult
children are caring for aging parents.
Alzheimer's disease is
expected to triple by 2050, from 4.7 million patients in 2010 to
13.8 million by 2050.
Alzheimer's is currently the sixth leading cause of death in the
United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. 15 percent of the population 70 and older has
dementia. There's only 1 specialist for every
20,000 older adults living with a severe chronic illness. There's only 5,150 hospice programs
and 1,635 hospital palliative care teams in the U.S.. There's only 18,000 physicians focused
on palliative care and hospice care. As many as 700,000 adults
in the US with a disability like autism live with parents or another
family member who’s at least 60 years old. What happens when those caregivers are gone?
We Need to Educate and Train a Caregiving Workforce of the Future, Starting Today!
Caregiving Training -
JobsPalliative Care -
End of Life Care -
How I wish to Die
Avoiding Isolation and Alienation
Technology Tools
First Aid
Caregiving Definitions
White House Conference on Aging (gov)
Caregiving Books
(amazon) -
Resources
The coming Neurological Epidemic: Gregory Petsko (video and Interactive Text)
Evidence-Based Care (knowledge)
Music Therapy
Overmedication -
Abuse
A National Profile of Family and Unpaid Caregivers Who Assist Older Adults
With Health Care Activities. Estimated
42
million friends and family members who are the primary caregivers
of adults and children who have disabilities, are recovering from
surgeries and illnesses or are coping with Alzheimer's and other chronic
diseases. Caregivers, who are primarily women and provide 37 billion hours
in unpaid care to relatives or close friends.
A 2015 study by AARP found that 46 percent of family caregivers
perform medical/nursing tasks, 78 percent of family caregivers manage
medications, and 53 percent of family caregivers serve as care
coordinators. The majority told researchers they'd received no training in those tasks.
Patient Confidentiality is a legal concept,
related to medical confidentiality, that protects communications between a
patient and his or her doctor from being used against the patient in
court. It is a part of the rules of evidence in many common law
jurisdictions. Almost every jurisdiction that recognizes
physician–patient privilege not to testify in court, either by statute
or though case law, limits the privilege to knowledge acquired during the
course of providing medical services. In some jurisdictions, conversations
between a patient and physician may be privileged in both criminal and civil courts.
Private Information
Gerodiversity is the multicultural approach to issues of aging. This
approach provides a theoretical foundation for the medical and
psychological treatment of older adults within an ecological context that
includes their cultural identity and heritage, social environment,
community, family system, and significant relationships (Iwasaki, Tazeau,
Kimmel, Baker, & McCallum, 2009). Gerodiversity encompasses a social
justice framework, which considers the social and historical dynamics of
privilege and inequality (Iwasaki et al., 2009). In addition to issues of
aging, gerodiversity includes race, ethnicity, language, gender identity,
socioeconomic status, physical ability or disability, sexual orientation,
level of education, country of origin, location of residence, and religion
or spirituality. Gerodiversity builds on the field of clinical
geropsychology, which applies psychological and developmental methods to
understanding the behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and biological aspects
of aging in the context of providing clinical care to older adults. The
goal is to develop culturally competent, scientific methods for the
psychological and medical treatment of the aging population (Iwasaki et
al., 2009). According to this perspective, in order to ethically and
scientifically provide optimal care to older adults, clinicians must be
aware of the cultural factors in health care utilization, including use of
physical and mental health care. Moreover, from this perspective,
clinicians must continually work to improve their multicultural knowledge
base, skill set, and attitudes towards cultural diversity.
Gerontology is the study of the social,
psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of
Aging. It is
distinguished from geriatrics, which is the branch of medicine that
specializes in the treatment of existing disease in older adults.
Leonard Davis School of
Gerontology. Nearly 90 percent of Americans 65 and older say they want
to stay in their current homes and communities as they age, according to the AARP.
Aging in Place is the ability to live in one's own
home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of
age, income, or ability level."
Administration on Aging (gov).
Ageing is the process of becoming older, when single
cells within an organism have ceased dividing (cellular senescence) or to
the population of a species (population ageing).
Aging (gov).
Cognitive Decline -
Alzheimer's -
Entropy
Senescence is to grow old, the gradual deterioration
of function characteristic of most complex life-forms, arguably found in
all biological kingdoms, that on the level of the organism increases
mortality after maturation. The word "senescence" can refer either to
cellular senescence or to senescence of the whole organism. It is commonly
believed that cellular senescence underlies organismal senescence. The
science of biological aging is
biogerontology, which is the sub-field of gerontology concerned with
the biological aging process, its evolutionary origins, and potential
means to intervene in the process.
Muscle Loss.
Old Age refers to ages nearing or
surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the
human life cycle. In October 2016, a highly publicized paper claimed the
maximum human lifespan is an average age of 115, with an absolute upper
limit of 125 years, but the authors' methods and conclusions are
controversial. Terms and euphemisms for old people include, old people
(worldwide usage), seniors (American usage), senior citizens (British and
American usage), older adults (in the social sciences), the elderly, and
elders (in many cultures—including the cultures of aboriginal people).
Geriatrics is a specialty that focuses
on health care of elderly people. It aims to promote health by preventing
and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults.
American Geriatrics Society.
Age
Progression is the process of modifying a photograph of a person to
represent the effect of aging on their appearance. Digital image
processing is the most common technique today, although sometimes artists'
drawings are used. Age progression is most often used as a
forensics tool by law
enforcement. It can be used to show the likely current appearance of a
missing person from a photograph many years old.
Longevity (living longer and healthier)
There are just too many people who do not fully understand what it means to provide
a person, or loved one, with 24-hour personal care. And it’s not
just providing the care itself, but more importantly, it’s
understanding the struggle for the people who need this care and
the long-term effects on the people who must provide this care.
There is suffering on both sides of this issue.
Support Groups for Caregivers
Community Support
Support Groups
(counseling)
Elder
Helpers
Caregiver
Tips
Stress Management
Public Service (knowledge)
Healthy
Aging
Caregiving Advocacy
Care Act Bill
Care Act (PDF)
The Silver Tsunami refers to the rise in the median age of
the United States workforce, to levels unseen since the passage of the
Social Security Act of 1935. It is projected that by the year 2020, about
25% of the U.S.
workforce will be composed of older workers (ages 55 and
over). While many factors contribute to the aging workforce, the
Post-World War II baby boom created an unusually large birth cohort for
the U.S. population, resulting in a large aging population today. This
phenomena has many short-term and long-term implications, affecting many
areas, including the U.S. economy, society and public health.
Educating the Public has to be a top priority. Increasing the amount of people who have the
necessary skills
also needs our full attention. If not, this problem will only
get worse then it already is.
I have heard too many nightmare stories about caregivers and
seen too many family members struggle with their love ones. This
affects everyone, so it’s just a matter of when. And it’s
not just growing old but also the debilitating diseases, illnesses,
injuries and the handicapped. You see the facts and figures
about our aging population but no one is talking about how many
need personal care. It's all about making our final days as
comfortable as possible, and at the same time learn.
Customizing Healthcare
Eric Dishman: Healthcare (video)
Doctors Ignorance stands in the way of care for the Disabled
(NPR)
Disabilities
"
Too Poor to Retire and too Young
to Die"
Clinical Geropsychology is broadly defined as the
application of “the knowledge and methods of psychology to
understanding and helping older persons and their families to
maintain well-being, overcome problems and achieve maximum
potential during later life"
Home & Community Based Services (HCBS) provide
opportunities for Medicaid beneficiaries to receive services in their own
home or community.
Senior-Friendly Home Remodeling
Stressful Work
Being a caregiver is a very demanding
job, mentally and physically.
Stressful, pressure,
anxiety.
Who’s going to take care of the caregiver? Caregivers don’t have
normal relationships or do they live a normal life. Needing 24 hour care can be
like prison for both the caregiver and patient. Caretakers are
not perfect and they need support as well. And you certainly
can't be a caregiver just for the money. You need
skills, experience and be very
compassionate, otherwise you will
most likely suffer and so will the patient.
The caregiving industry is one of the fastest growing and also
the worst paid.
Turnover is high and the labor shortage is a
serious problem as the baby boomers age. How do caregivers
protect themselves from becoming a
Slave or an
Indentured Servant?
People get stressed out just hearing about someone’s stressful experience.
Health-care workers treating soldiers with
post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) report that some soldiers’ partners and family
members display symptoms of PTSD
despite never serving in the
military.
Empathy.
Family members are sometimes horrible
caregivers. Family members need to have good relationships in order
to be good caregivers. If a family member is abusive or disrespectable
towards the other, then this toxic environment will be harmful and create
more problems then it solves. There needs to be respect, there needs to be
trust, and there needs to be an environment that everyone feels
comfortable and safe in. If not, then you need to get another caregiver.
Sometimes a stranger is better then a known
family
member.
Alarm Fatigue
happens when people are constantly hearing alarms that they fail
to recognize the real alarms when they happen. A sensory overload when
clinicians are exposed to an excessive number of alarms, which can result
in desensitization to alarms and missed alarms. Patient deaths have been
attributed to alarm fatigue.
Alarm Fatigue
occurs when one is exposed to a large number of frequent alarms (alerts)
and consequently becomes desensitized to them. Desensitization can lead to
longer response times or to missing important alarms.
Propaganda works in
similar ways, when you keep hearing the same lies over and over, you may
end up believing them to be true.
Always being on
Alert can also have serious mental health
consequences.
Alarm Fatigue Hurts Patient Care and Overwhelms Nurses
Nurses Reducing Alarm Fatigue
The Boy Who
Cried Wolf (wiki) -
Alarmism (alarmist)
False
Alarm also called a nuisance alarm, is the
deceptive or erroneous
report of an emergency, causing unnecessary panic and/or bringing
resources (such as emergency services) to a place where they are not
needed. False alarms may occur with residential burglary alarms, smoke
detectors, industrial alarms, and in signal detection theory. False alarms
have the potential to divert emergency responders away from legitimate
emergencies, which could ultimately lead to loss of life. In some cases,
repeated false alarms in a certain area may cause occupants to develop
alarm fatigue and to start ignoring most alarms, knowing that each time it
will probably be false.
Compassion Fatigue is a condition characterized by a gradual lessening
of compassion over time. It is common among individuals that work directly
with trauma victims such as,
therapists (paid and unpaid), nurses,
teachers,
psychologists, police officers, paramedics, animal welfare
workers, health unit coordinators and anyone who helps out others,
especially family members, relatives, and other informal caregivers of
patients suffering from a chronic illness. It was first diagnosed in
nurses in the 1950s. Sufferers can exhibit several symptoms including
hopelessness, a decrease in experiences of pleasure, constant stress and
anxiety,
sleeplessness or nightmares, and a pervasive negative attitude.
This can have detrimental effects on individuals, both professionally and
personally, including a decrease in productivity, the inability to
focus,
and the development of new feelings of incompetency and self-doubt.
Journalism analysts argue that the
media has caused widespread compassion
fatigue in society by saturating newspapers and news shows with often
decontextualized images and stories of tragedy and suffering. This has
caused the public to become cynical, or become resistant to helping people
who are suffering.
Sensationalism -
Fear
Mongering.
Emotional Labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to
fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers
are expected to regulate their
emotions during interactions with
customers, co-workers and superiors. This includes analysis and
decision
making in terms of the expression of emotion, whether actually felt or
not, as well as its opposite: the suppression of emotions that are
felt but not expressed.
Emotional Exhaustion is a chronic state of physical and emotional
depletion that results from excessive job and/or personal demands and
continuous stress. It describes a feeling of being emotionally
overextended and exhausted by one's work. It is manifested by both
physical fatigue and a sense of feeling psychologically and emotionally
"drained".
Vicarious
Traumatization is a transformation in the self of a
trauma worker or
helper that results from empathic engagement with traumatized clients and
their reports of traumatic experiences. It is a special form of
countertransference stimulated by exposure to the client’s traumatic
material (Courtois, 1993). Its hallmark is disrupted spirituality, or a
disruption in the trauma workers' perceived meaning and hope.
Perceived Organizational Support is the degree to which employees
believe that their organization values their contributions and cares
about their well-being and fulfills socioemotional needs. POS is generally
thought to be the organization's contribution to a positive reciprocity
dynamic with employees, as employees tend to perform better to reciprocate
received rewards and favorable treatment.
Perceived Psychological Contract Violation is a construct that regards
employees’ feelings of disappointment (ranging from minor frustration to
betrayal) arising from their belief that their organization has broken its
work-related promises and is generally thought to be the organization’s
contribution to a negative reciprocity dynamic, as employees tend to
perform more poorly to pay back PPCV.
A person being "
waited
on hand and foot" expects others to do all the work for them and to
always be looking after their personal needs.
Old-People Smell is the component of body
odor that only manifests in older individuals. Term for the smell is
nonenal, the scientific term describing that unpleasant odor.
Tips on how to eliminate stains and odors.
Stress
(occupational)
Computers - Smartphones
Effectively Utilizing our Technologies we can give elderly
their freedom, and at the same time, give caregivers and loved ones peace
of mind. Technologies can also make communication a lot easier.
Voice Activation
TechnologyTechnology is a great tool to help people with disabilities,
like water that automatically shuts off, a stove that
automatically shuts off (over boiling), lights that
automatically shuts off and on, heating and cooling that
automatically shuts off and on, and so on.
Computers for Senior Citizens
Seniors Guide to using Computers and Software (the
Need to Learn is greater then ever)
Internet Resources
Having an internet connection where you care for someone is
extremely important. The caregiver can
keep in contact with
friends and love ones using video chat and social networks. This helps ease the
loneliness and isolation of caregiving. Having the internet is
also good for the patient because you can look up important
information on medications and treatment alternatives. The
internet can also be used to help keep the patient active with
news, TV shows, games and cognitive tests to keep their mind
active. Patients can also use the internet to keep in touch with
family by
video chatting and e-mail. Then of course any Laptop
Computer or Smartphone can also help with monitoring health
issues and educating the patient to be more aware of their
physical health.
Health Monitors
Pulse-Oximeter that Connects to Smart Phone
Check-my-Temp: More Than A Wearable Thermometer
New Hexoskin Smart: World's Leading Smart Shirt
monitors and records your
heart rate, breathing, and
movement
whether you're awake or asleep.
Wearable tattoo sends alcohol levels to your cell phone
Bioelectronics
is the convergence of biology and electronics. Biological materials and
biological architectures for information processing systems and new
devices.
Medical Sensors
Wearable Electronic Health Patches May Now Be Cheaper and Easier to Make
iBeat Smart Watch 24/7 heart monitoring smartwatch that can
immediately notify your family and 911 in an emergency.
Fast, stretchy circuits could yield new wave of wearable
electronics
George Whitesides Affordable easy Tests (video)
Eric Topol: The Wireless Future of Medicine (video)
A Cradle and App Turn Smartphone Into Biosensor
(youtube)
Smartstones Communicate by Touch
Home Health Monitoring Devices
Health Monitoring Apps -
Video
Pebble 2, Time 2 + All-New Pebble Core heart
rate-enabled smartwatche
Figure1 Clinical Image Sharing App for iphone
Qardioarm: Read Blood Pressure from Smartphone
Cor: Health Tracker measures your blood chemistry at
home and delivers personalized, actionable health
insights.
Emergency Alert
Device - I've fallen and I can't get up!
Environment
Monitors (another set of eyes) -
Bio-Monitoring
Voice Activated
Voice Control Virtual Assistant Apps
ivee: Voice Activated Assistant
Vinci - First Smart Headphones with AI Voice-controlled headphones and
personal AI, with smart noise cancelling and immersive 3D sound.
Myle Tap Wearable Thought Catcher
Touch-Free Smartphone, Sesame Enable
Neptune Suite: your computing life now seamless
Evenflo SensorSafe generates a series of tones
Hiris: The first wearable computer for everyone
Embrace Watch Designed to Save Lives
Nimb: Smart Ring Calls for help when you’re in trouble
Rufus Cuff Smartwatch
Live
Athos Wearable Technology
Mobile
Healthcare Technology
Portable Ultrasound Unit
Handy Sana 210
Pulse Point
Cell Scope
Wanda Connects a Medical Devise to a WiFi Network -
Thaw
Sleeping Aids -
Sleep Monitors
Smartphone Technology Tools
Medical
Aid App (youtube)
Health Symptoms Checker
Tele-Health
Wireless
Medicine
Health Apps
Bio-Sign
Gecko
Robots (robotics information)
Scanadu
Angel
Medical Questions
Kinsa Health
The Wellbe
Hiris Wearable Computer
Wearable Sensors
(health monitors)
Stroke Riskometer (app)
Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Diagnostic Performance of a
Smartphone Based Photoplethysmographic Application for Atrial Fibrillation
Screening in a Primary Care Setting.
Heart Info
Apps for Smartphones
V-Scan
Smartphone Vital Signs Checker
Medical Apps
Cognitive
Testing
Epic
Google Disabilities Impact Challenge
Lightfreq Square2 Smart Light bulb Speakers Intercom
Mobile Health Wearable's -
Philips’s CareSage suite Predictive Analytics
CareZone App helps caregivers keep track of medical information by
organizing medication, allergies, insurance cards and ID
cards all in
one place. Helps caregivers manage their personal stress, navigate family
conflict and reach a 24/7 helpline.
Symple keep track of your loved one's symptoms like anxiety, fatigue
and pain over long periods of time. The app allows you to track up to 10
individual symptoms, recording how your loved one feels and documenting
any possible contributing factors to mood or health shifts.
Pacifica
mindfulness app that aids in relief of anxiety, depression and stress.
Users can track their moods and health, while also keeping track of
moments during the day that trigger mood shifts. The app has in-app
exercises, too, which help reduce stress and anxiety.
Mindfulness app that aids in
relief of anxiety, depression and stress. Users can track their moods and
health,
while also keeping track of moments during the day that
trigger mood shifts. The app has in-app exercises, too, which help reduce
stress and anxiety.
CaringBridge app connects you with the support of friends and family when
its needed most. CaringBridge for Android makes it simple: create a
website, visit a friend’s page, add updates or encouraging notes, and
share your story.
Stay Warm
Hot Water Bottle is a container filled with hot
water and sealed with a stopper, used to provide warmth, typically while
in bed, but also for the application of heat to a specific part of the
body.
Heating Pad is a pad used for warming of parts of
the body in order to manage pain. Localized application of heat causes the
blood vessels in that area to dilate, enhancing perfusion to the targeted
tissue. Types of heating pads include electrical, chemical and hot water
bottles.
Hand Warmer are small packets which are held in the
hand and produce heat on demand to warm cold hands.
Electric Blanket is a blanket with an integrated
electrical heating device usually placed above the top bed sheet.
Bedding -
Blankets
Clothing
The First Heated Down Jacket & 6X Mobile Charging
Flexwarm Smart Jacket
Ravean Down 2.0 Heated Jacket
Heacket: The World’s Most Durable Heated Jacket
Fyre: Temperature-Regulating Cardigans and Hoodies
Clothing (natural)
Body Temperature Knowledge
Home Monitoring Systems
Smart Home Monitoring Systems for the Elderly
Smart Homes
Smart Home
Systems
Halo: The World's Safest Smartest Smoke Alarm
iSmart Alarm Spot Smart Home Camera that detects smoke alarm sirens,
sends notifications, and records video.
Clinical Guard
Simplisafe home
security wireless technology, no annual contracts.
Mobile Health News
Energy Monitors -
LED
Lights
Use of local intelligence to reduce energy consumption of
wireless sensor nodes in elderly health monitoring systems
Protonet ZOE - Smart Home Hub of the Free
The Internet of Things
Who's at the Door?
Skybell: Answer the Door and See who's there using your
Smartphone
dbell live: Smartest Video Doorbell & Security Cam HD live video
doorbell allows answering the door from Smartphone and Mon/Rec from PC,
Mac & TV.
Hi! your connected Butler, internet video doorbell
Professional Outdoor Security Camera
Butterfleye: Smart and Versatile Monitoring Camera
Korner Home Security
Xchime Video Doorbell & Motion Detect Smart Alerts. App Enabled Video
Doorbell w/ Live Stream, Motion Detection, Garage Door Controls & Online
Storage.
Video Monitors
Orbii: A Mobile Home Security Robot with HD Video
Oco2 Home Monitoring Camera with SD Card and Cloud
Reolink Argus Wire-Free Security Camera, weatherproof, 1080p Full HD.
Ring Floodlight
Cam motion-activated HD security camera with built-in floodlights, a
siren alarm and two-way talk. App-controlled camera, Smart zoom with
panning. Live View streaming video and audio, iOS, Android, Mac and
Windows 10 compatible.
Invidyo: World's Smartest Child Monitor
Ohmni: is a moving monitor.
eufy EverCam: The Wirefree Security Cam with 365-Day Battery:
Face-Recognizing Alerts | Motion Detection | 1080p Full HD | No Monthly
Fee | Free Local Storage | Night Vision | Weatherproof (IP66).
Surveillance Concerns -
Privacy
Door Locks
Ultraloq Smart Lock: Simplify Your Safety
OVIO PairLock - Lock System with One Key for all Locks.
Smartphone
House Key
Gate: The First All-In-One Connected Smart Lock enhances your deadbolt
with a motion activated camera, keypad, and 2-way audio.
The Westinghouse Nucli Smart Lock
Friday Smart Lock
Oomi Smart Home
Helmet
Sensor-1: The Tiny Powerful Security System
SENS8: Smart All-in-One Home Security System
Simpli Safe
24/7 Protection
Get Safe
WiFi Alarm System and HD WiFi Camera by Smanos DIY, no contracts, no
monthly fees, and FREE Motion Detector with each purchase.
K Kit: Smart home made simple
Presence Security Pack
Remote Controls
Sevenhugs Smart Remote: The Remote for Everything.
Switchflip: The Ultimate Lighting Accessory Customize your lighting
and use the switch you already have with switchflip!
Smartphone Remote Apps
Android TV Remote Control app
AnyMote Universal Remote +WiFi
Twinone Universal TV Remote
IR Universal Remote
ASmart Remote IR
iRBeacon - smarter remote for a smarter home
Hayo: Augmented Reality for the Connected Home 3D scans your room to
use hand jesture to control devices in your home. Transforms the objects
and spaces around you into a set of virtual remote controls.
Klik Universal Remote
Control
Robots
Trackers
For Patients who wonder off
Itraq: Cellular Tracking Device
Ping - The World’s Smallest Global GPS Locator Global range, long
battery life & instant locating for kids, pets, luggage – or anything that
moves.
The 1st Motion Tracking Smart Home Security Camera
Stilla Motion get instant alerts if something moves when it shouldn’t.
Geo-Fence
Allbe1
Trackr Bravo Thin Tracking Device -
Trackr-Atlas
Wireless Key Locators
GPS Trackers -
GPS Collars
Pebblebee Stone Tracker
Kenneth Shinozuka: My simple invention designed to keep my
Grandfather Safe (video)
Buddy. The Dog Collar Re-Imagined
TAG: GPS Tracker with Functional Design & Style
4 premium item trackers, by Philippe Starck
Walli - The Smart Wallet
Alert with one touch button
Revolar: GPS alerts to get help. Check-ins to be in touch. Step
tracking to stay active. All with 1 button. you can get any help you
need at the click of a button.
Flic: The Wireless Smart Button one touch button to easily
activate important actions like text your loved ones of your
location if you’re in distress, turn the lights on or off, call
a cab, locate smartphone, turn on music, open front door, and so
on.
Trak Taag Tracker - 80 Year Battery & SOS Button No more
losing things & buying batteries. One button makes SOS Calls &
takes Videos, Pictures, Audio.
Motion Sensors
(amazon)
Health Monitors
Home Remodeling for Disability and Special Needs
Music Therapy
Alive
Inside
Music and
Memory
Music
on the Brain ABC TV Catalyst (youtube)
Music
for the Elderly
The
Musical Brain
Music Therapy
Laptops for Seniors
Pet Therapy
Cats and Seniors
Canine Caregivers for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Patients
Pets
for the Elderly Foundation
Animal Therapy Dogmanship is an individual’s ability to
interact with and train dogs. Good dogmanship involves best practice in
dog-human interactions and has a fundamental role in the success of dogs
as companions and co-workers.
Operation Fetch Service Dog Education and Awareness.
Robots
I have been noticing that Growing old sucks. But what sucks more is the fact
that most of us will not get the care that we need. Dementia, bed
ridden, Parkinson's, wheel chair bound, physical or mental
disabilities. Doctors and
pharmaceutical companies look at the elderly as a commodity,
they don't see them as human. Families don’t want to talk about
it and the media doesn't care, unless of course they can exploit
it for their own personal gain.
Standard
of Care -
Duty of
Care
National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 is to ensure that
people who need community care services or other types of support get the
services they are entitled to. Patients have their needs and circumstances
assessed and the results determine whether or not care or social services
will be provided. This also ensures that the people giving the care follow
a certain set of rules called the care value base. Local authority
resources can be taken into account during the assessment process, but if
it is deemed that services are required, those services must be provided
by law: services cannot be withdrawn at a later date if resources become
limited. The act also split the role of health authorities and local
authorities by changing their internal structure, so that local authority
departments assess the needs of the local population and then purchase the
necessary services from 'providers'. To become 'providers' in the internal
market, health organizations became NHS trusts, competing with each other.
Community care ensures that people in need of long-term care are now able
to live either in their own home, with adequate support, or in a
residential home setting. The Act Made provision for the establishment of
Family Health Services Authorities in place of Family Practitioner
Committees and for the establishment of NHS trusts.
Social Care in England is defined as the provision of
social work, personal care,
protection or social support services to children or adults in need or at
risk, or adults with needs arising from illness, disability, old age or
poverty. The main legal definitions flow from the
Health and Community Care Act 1990 with other provisions covering
responsibilities to informal carers. That provision may have one or more
of the following aims: to protect people who use care services from abuse
or neglect, to prevent deterioration of or promote physical or mental
health, to promote independence and social inclusion, to improve
opportunities and life chances, to strengthen families and to protect
human rights in relation to people's social needs.
How I wish to Die
How you wish to
Die is almost as important as how you wish to
live.
Life with Dignity is just as important as
Death
with Dignity.
How I wish to be Treated when on my Death Bed
-
Types of Medical Treatments I will Accept -
Exit Strategy
Judy Macdonald Johnston: Prepare for a Good End of Life
(video)
Talk about your death while you're still healthy: Michelle Knox (video
and text)
International
Society of Advance Care Planning and End of Life Care (ACPEL)
The National
POLST Paradigm Physician Orders for
Life Sustaining Treatment
End-of-Life Planning
Advance Health Care Directive or
Living Will, is a legal document in which a person specifies what
actions should be taken for their health if they are no longer able to
make decisions for themselves because of illness or incapacity. In the
U.S. it has a legal status in itself, whereas in some countries it is
legally persuasive without being a legal document.
Advanced Health Care Directives-and-Living WillWill
and Testament
Trust
Law
Living Trust (PDF)
Legal Guardian is a person who has the legal authority (and the
corresponding duty) to care for the personal and property interests of
another person, called a ward. Guardians are typically used in three
situations: guardianship for an incapacitated senior (due to old age or
infirmity), guardianship for a minor, and guardianship for developmentally
disabled adults.
Power of Attorney
-
Executor
Guardianship: Last
Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (youtube) - It’s alarmingly easy
for a total stranger to gain total control over the life of a senior
citizen.
End of Care Options -
Nurse Types
Do you have a Health Care Agent?
Choosing a Health Care Agent
Health Care Proxy is a document (legal instrument) with
which a patient (primary individual) appoints an agent to legally make
healthcare decisions on behalf of the patient, when he or she is incapable
of making and executing the healthcare decisions stipulated in the proxy.
Once the health care proxy is effective, the primary individual continues
making healthcare decisions as long as he or she is legally competent to
decide. Moreover, in legal-administrative functions, the healthcare proxy
is a legal instrument akin to a "springing" health care power of attorney.
How do I wish to Live?
End-of-Life Care
refers to health care, not only of patients in the
final hours or days of their lives, but more broadly care of all
those with a terminal illness or terminal disease condition that
has become advanced, progressive and incurable.
End of Life Factsheet
Good End
of Life
End-of-Life Issues
End of Life Issues
Hospice End of Life Care
Hospice Network
Death Midwife, also known as Death Doula is one who assists an
individual in their dying process. Most commonly these people are hospice
nurses or those trained in caring for the terminally ill is a person who
assists in the dying process much like a midwife or doula does with the
birthing process. It is "a community centered response that recognizes
death as a natural, accepted and honored part of life. One might say that
death midwifery is to hospice palliative care as the slow food movement is
to large scale agricultural practices, or as birth midwifery is to
obstetrics." Practitioners "can help create death plans, some provide
spiritual care, psychological and social support, and sometimes even
physical care. They can help plan home vigils and home funerals, and offer
guidance with respect to what your rights and responsibilities are in
caring for someone who's died.
Dignity in Dying End of Life Care
Compassion and Choices
Do Not Resuscitate DNR
Respecting Patient Choices
Get
Your Shit Together
Ever Plans
Direct Care Alliance
Advance Directive End of Life Care Frailty
What types of
Life Support will you accept?
Intensive Care Unit
Make-A-Wish
Foundation
Ambulance Wish Foundation
Funeral and Burial Needs
75% of patients preferred to die at home. But among people
65 years of age or more,
63 percent die in hospitals or nursing homes, frequently
receiving treatment that's painful, invasive and ultimately
ineffective.
How would you like to Die
Info-Graph
Palliative Care is a multidisciplinary approach
to specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses.
It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms,
pain, physical stress, and mental stress of a serious
illness—whatever the diagnosis. The goal of such therapy is to
improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.
Palliative care is provided by a team of physicians, nurses,
physiotherapist, occupational therapist and other health
professionals who work together with the primary care physician
and referred specialists (or, for patients who don't have those,
hospital or hospice staff) to provide an extra layer of support.
It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious
illness and can be provided as the main goal of care or along
with curative treatment. Therefore, although it is an important
part of end-of-life care, it is not limited to that stage.
Palliative care can be provided across multiple settings
including in hospitals, in the patient's home, as part of
community palliative care programs, and in skilled nursing
facilities.
American Academy
of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Get Palliative
Care
Stories from a home for terminally ill children: Kathy Hull (video and
interactive text)
Most of the children who die in the United States
every year die in hospital rooms, surrounded by beeping machines and
anxious, exhausted adults who have no other option but to say goodbye
under those harsh, institutional lights and among virtual strangers. The
United Kingdom has 54 hospice and respite centers, the United States has
only two freestanding pediatric hospices.
A Video Game to Cope with Grief: Amy Green (video with interactive
text)
Virtual Reality
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Zen Hospice
person-centered model in health care, the practice of
mindfulness.
Art of
Dying
The Conscious Dying Network
Chalice of
Repose
Death Over
Dinner Talking about Death
Assisted Suicide
-
Suicide
What is Death?
Should I write my own Obituary? -
Should I write my own Eulogy?
Obituary is a news article that reports the recent
death of
a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and
information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger
newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant.
In local newspapers, an obituary may be published for any local resident
upon death. A necrology is a register or list of records of the deaths of
people related to a particular organization, group or field, which may
only contain the sparsest details, or small obituaries. Historical
necrologies can be important sources of information. Two types of paid
advertisements are related to obituaries. One, known as a death notice,
omits most biographical details and may be a legally required public
notice under some circumstances. The other type, a paid memorial
advertisement, is usually written by family members or friends, perhaps
with assistance from a funeral home. Both types of paid advertisements are
usually run as classified advertisements.
How To Write An Obituary - A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Write an Obituary -
Legacy -
Grieving
How To
Write An Obituary – Tips and Ideas
Eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person(s) or
thing(s), especially one who recently died or retired or as a term of
endearment. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. They take
place in a funeral home during or after a wake. However, some
denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to
maintain respect for traditions. Eulogies can also praise people who are
still alive. This normally takes place on special occasions like
birthdays, office parties, retirement celebrations, etc. Eulogies should
not be confused with elegies, which are poems written in tribute to the
dead; nor with obituaries, which are published biographies recounting the
lives of those who have recently died; nor with obsequies, which refer
generally to the rituals surrounding funerals. Catholic priests are
prohibited by the rubrics of the Mass from presenting a eulogy for the
deceased in place of a homily during a funeral Mass.
How to Write a Eulogy
Do you have a eulogy to write? funeral speeches step-by-step
Eulogy Examples - Sample Eulogy
How to Write a Eulogy
Eulogy Examples No Body Hardly ever Dies from Old Age or
Natural Causes, we are slowly killing ourselves.
Death by Natural Causes or
Unnatural Death are not even defined accurately, or even
understood correctly.
We are mostly dying from things that we can avoid.
Death by Natural Causes is an
Unnatural
Death, there's nothing natural about dying. Define the cause?
Aged Based Allocation of
Healthcare Resources
Age Based Rationing of Health Care
Resource Allocation is the assignment of available resources
to various
uses. In the
context of an entire economy, resources can be allocated by various means,
such as markets or central planning. In
project management, resource
allocation or resource management is the
scheduling of
activities and the resources required by those activities while taking
into consideration both the resource availability and the project time.
Scarce Resources
Age Base
Pub
Med
Can a family
member be a good caretaker? Not from what I have seen.
The relationship is not the same. Where does this knowledge and experience
come from? And who educates the family members?
Caregiving is s a stressful job. And if family embers don't get along,
then this job will be even a more difficult then it already is.
Respite Care
is planned or emergency temporary care provided to caregivers of
a child or adult. Respite programs provide planned short-term and
time-limited breaks for families and other unpaid care givers of children
with a developmental delay and adults with an intellectual disability in
order to support and maintain the primary care giving relationship.
Respite also provides a positive experience for the person receiving care.
The term "short break" is used in some countries to describe respite care.
Info -
Responsibilities of
Caregiving
Can Family members get paid for taking
care of the Elderly Parents?
What are the dangers of
Social isolation?
Care Giver Credit
The Family Caregiver
Aging Care
V.A.
Planning your Doctor Visit
My first experience with an elderly
person needing care was in 1975. My grandmother was ill so she came up
from down south to stay with us in Danbury. This was my mother’s
mother. I remember that she was very ill from smoking cigarettes
most of her life.
I was 15 and had no idea what an elderly
person needs, especially a grandmother that I had only met twice
in my life. I was also unaware of the strain that this had put
on my mother. The relationship between my mother and my
grandmother and was not the best. My grandmother pretty much
just sat on the couch all day. The experience was confusing and
not very pleasant. When my grandmother passed I was relieved
that her suffering was over. But I was sad knowing that her last
days were painful. I never got the chance to actually know her.
Of course that one experience was not enough to fully open my
eyes to a problem that is adversely affecting the lives of
millions of people. That would sadly come 31 years later. All
that time was wasted not educating myself. I wish I knew.
The next experience that eventually
opened my eyes about caretaking started in 2006 when my
96-year-old cousin needed a
24-hour live in caretaker. My cousin, who was independent and
living on her own, had injured herself and was found on the living room
floor after spending 2 days on the floor without food or water. She was
unable to move or cry for help. Luckily a neighbor had visited her and
called 911. She recovered but this of course changed my cousin’s life from
being independent to being fully dependent. Her life was saved but now her
life would never be the same.
Care Giving Statistics
Social Security
After my cousin was released from the hospital she was not sent
home. She was instead sent to a nursing home in Kent that was 30 miles
from where she lived. It’s extremely important to know what happens to an
elderly person when the State gets involved. People are going to make
decisions for you whether you like them or not. And if your family is not
involved, or if you have no one close to you who knows your needs, you
will bed ridden and surrounded by strangers, with some of those strangers
having very little experience or knowledge about what it takes to properly
care for an elderly person. The Nursing Home in Kent, Ct. was turning her
into a bed-ridding patient. It's hard for the family to understand how
they are treated and how this affects their loved one. And on top of that
the only way that the nursing home would release her was that the family
had to agree to pay for a caretaker or visiting nurse.
Hospitals overwhelmed by Permanent
Patients
Older People in Japan Some 420,000 senior citizens are
waiting for beds in nursing homes.
Luckily my cousin’s family got
involved. They were able to get her released from the nursing
home in Kent. But it wasn’t easy. They would not release my
cousin until the family provided care for her. They first tried
just having someone visit for a few hours everyday but they soon
found out that if she was left alone she was to vulnerable.
Luckily they found a caretaker who was willing to move in a take
care of her 24/7, but not without cost. The expenses are
incredibly high and if you are not prepared your choices will be
limited. This would be an absolute nightmare for any elderly
person who does not have family or friends. My cousin had
already written her will or living trust. The money she thought
she was leaving to her family was now in jeopardy of being spent
on her care. She was horrified at the cost of this care, which
came to almost a $1,000.00 a week. $200.00 a week went to the
placement service that found her the caretaker. After 5 years
they are still paying that
same placement service.
So that’s almost $50,000.00 for a service who is no longer
providing a service because the same woman has been with my
cousin since the beginning without taking a single day off. This
caretaker incredibly special and one of a kind.
I had absolutely no idea what it
meant to have a caregiver. My 96-year-old cousin was reluctant
and refused several caretakers before she accepted one. I’m glad
she did even though I also had my doubts. Mostly because I
lacked the necessary information and knowledge that was needed
to understand the situation. But thanks to my inquisitive nature
that was about to change.
During my visits to my cousin’s
house I became friends with her caregiver. She turned out to be
an incredible woman.
She educated me and opened my eyes to the needs of the elderly,
and also what it meant to be a caregiver. This was a new career
for her. It was just going to be a fill in, but she ended up
moving in.
Another thing I learned is the hospital does not have enough qualified
people who are skilled enough to care for the elderly. Hospitals
need to expand their training and skills. But sadly most
hospitals are ignorantly driven by money when they should be
driven by care and compassion. I knew of an elderly person who
had to go to Danbury Hospital were the treatment was horrific.
Like they never saw an elderly person before. The caretaker had
more experience then the nurses. There is a huge gap in the way
we are training and educating hospital staff to take care of a
growing segment of human population that increases everyday. On
top of that there was very little communication between hospital
workers. There was no patient chart at the end of the bed so you
had no idea who is doing what and when and what medication is
being given. My cousin said some one gave her a pill in the
middle of the night but no one had record of who or what the
pill was. I'm disappointed in hospitals, they kill more people then they save, and not
just with their infections but with their extremely high cost of
treatment that sends more people into bankruptcy and foreclosure
then any other public service known to man. And you wonder why
we needed
Healthcare Reform. Then on top
of that there is so much corruption and fraud in healthcare that
most of the money is being wasted.
Hospitals are Less Safe than we think
And this is not just my opinion of course. I have talked to many
people in Hospitals and have heard the same nightmare stories
about the horrible service they received. The corporate
mentality has no place in public service, it has no place any
where.
Tableware for People with Special Needs
Designing Clothes with Style and Function for People with
Disabilities
At least one-third of hospital
patients older than 70 leave more frail than when they arrived,
and many become too weak to go home. Nursing home care or
rehabilitation often are needed, and even then, research
suggests more than two-thirds remain weaker a year after being
in the hospital.
Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive
Decline in the Elderly
(wiki)
Psychiatric Rehabilitation
is the process of restoration of community functioning and
well-being of an individual diagnosed in mental health or mental or
emotional disorder and who may be considered to have a psychiatric
disability.
Cognitive Maintenance Cognitive Science
Cognition TestsElderly people with high cognitive function
have more of a certain type of brain cell called
Spindle Neuron,
also called von Economo neurons (VENs), which are a specific class of
neurons that are characterized
by a large spindle-shaped soma (or body), gradually tapering into a single
apical axon in one direction, with only a single dendrite facing opposite.
Other neurons tend to have many dendrites, and the polar-shaped morphology
of spindle neurons is unique. A neuron's dendrites receive signals, and
its axon sends them. Spindle neurons are relatively large cells that may
allow rapid communication
across the relatively large brains. Although rare in comparison to other
neurons, spindle neurons are abundant and large in humans.
"There are not enough
trained people who know how to help people with disabilities, or
mental health issues, beyond just giving them food and shelter.
Some Healthcare workers are even seeing some people with
disabilities as being
beyond help, they say nothing can be done
for them, which is a lie. You just haven't figure out a way to
help them just "Yet". There is always a way in, but you have to
learn how, because people in need can't explain it for you."
Luckily Some Hospitals are Improving
Acute Care for Elders (ACE) at the San Francisco General
Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) is an interdisciplinary model
of care for hospitalized older adults with a focus on
maintaining and improving physical function and returning
patients to a community setting.
Acute Care For Elders Units Produced Shorter Hospital Stays At
Lower Cost While Maintaining Patients’ Functional Status
Hospitalization-Associated Disability “She Was Probably Able to
Ambulate, but I’m Not Sure”
Hospital management of older adults nosocomial complications and
adverse drug reactions
Bowl Movements, Diapers and Sponge
Baths....Oh My...
When to say no and when to say yes? When do you let patients have their
way?
When do you have to do what's right
for the patient even when they complain?
How much
sleep does an elderly person
need?
When should you allow an elderly
person to sleep?
When should you make an elderly person
get up and move around?
Walking Around Is the Simplest Way to Shorten Hospital Stay,
Study Finds
What are
some of the
Responsibilities
of a caregiver?
Fecal Incontinence
Should my patient carry a Medical
Alert Device?
Home Health
Monitoring Devices
Wireless Emergency Alert Pendant
Silver Alert
Medical Alert Service
Home Health Monitor Systems
If and when
should a
Patient
take their
Medication?
Should a Caregiver keep a daily record
of what their patient eats, their activities, therapy
performance, their moods, theirs medications and doctor visits?
What is the
right type of
Wheelchair
or Adjustable Bed?
4 things that are almost
worse than Death
Incontinence
Needing a breathing machine
Needing a feeding tube
Needing care all the time.
Abuse
As many as 2 million seniors are
abused, exploited or neglected every year, but there could be
many more. Some research indicates that 1 in 10 seniors have
suffered some form of abuse at least once and
most abuse
is at the hands of relatives.
Adult Protective Services
Adult Protective Investigators
Families for Better Care
Drug AbuseMoney
Exploitation
I have also heard about the drug abuse
and drug problems of Care Givers. I have also heard about
care givers stealing. I have also heard about women from
other countries that are exploited and abused by people who send
these women to homes with patients, with some of these caregivers being abusive towards their patients. So shopping around for a good
caregiver is extremely important.
A Live in Caregiver is a lot cheaper then a nursing home.
Some nursing homes cost as much as $12,000 a month.
Cost of a Live in Caregiver
Care Rates
Paying for Senior Care
Center on Elder Abuse
I have also heard that some caregivers are taking their patients
property. How and why I'm not sure. But that is not as bad as
Banks and Towns stealing homes from the elderly for property
taxes as little as $400.00. Outdated state laws allow big banks
and other investors to reap windfall profits by buying the
houses for a pittance and reselling them,
The National Consumer Law Center
said in a report. If the owner fails to pay all the costs,
investors can sell the home at a big profit compared with the
cost of buying the tax lien.
Tax Lien Sales
differ from most
Foreclosures,
which happen when people fall behind on mortgage payments. In
many states, homes sold because of tax debts can be sold for
only the amount of back taxes owed. That means a $200,000 home
might fetch only $1,200. In the process, homeowners can lose
thousands of dollars in
Home Equity
that they have built up by making monthly payments.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (wiki)
You were disgusted when you heard about the torture in
Guantanamo,
how about the treatment of the elderly and the ill at the hands
of inexperienced caretakers and hospital workers. Will they ever
understand their pain, their suffering, their loneliness?
Nursing Home Abuse
(youtube)
Nursing Home Abuse Center
Nursing Home
Abuse Support
Employees who take demeaning photographs and videos of residents
and post them on social media. Inappropriate Social Media
Posts by Nursing Home Workers, Detailed Details of 47 incidents
since 2012 in which workers at nursing homes and assisted-living
centers shared photos or videos of residents on social media
networks. The details come from government inspection reports,
court cases and media reports.
Elderly Inmate Population Soared 1,300 Percent Since the 1980s. The
population of aging and elderly prisoners in
U.S.
Prisons
exploded over the past three decades, with nearly 125,000
inmates aged 55 or older now behind bars, according to a report
published Wednesday by
The American Civil Liberties Union.
More than $16 billion is spent
annually by states and the federal government to incarcerate
elderly prisoners, despite ample evidence that most prisoners
over age 50 pose little or no threat to public safety, the
report said. Due largely to higher health care costs, prisoners
aged 50 and older cost around $68,000 a year to incarcerate,
compared to $34,000 per year for the average prisoner.
"About 60 percent of nursing home residents harmed by their treatment wound up back
in the hospital as a result; such injuries likely cost Medicare
about $2.8 billion a year, officials say. And that's just the
hospitalization cost. It doesn't account for extra doctor visits
and longer nursing home stays that also result from patients'
injuries."
"Most elderly
agree that
prisoners are treated better in prison then the
Elderly are treated in nursing homes."
What is a Vulnerable Adult? Vulnerable
adults are people who by are unable to independently provide for their own
basic necessities of life due to: Age, Disability, Disease or
Developmental disorders. Vulnerable adults also includes: Adults who
reside in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, adult family
homes, boarding homes or assisted living facilities or those who receive
health care or other assistance in providing for the basic necessities of
life while residing in their own home. Examples of abuse, neglect and
financial exploitation include: Pushing, hitting, punching a vulnerable
adult. Shouting at, berating, intimidating, or threatening to harm an
elderly person. Taking financial advantage of one who is lonely,
vulnerable or has memory lapses. Taking money an elderly person needs,
“borrowing” money with no intention to pay it back, tricking someone into
buying something they have no use for. Failing to provide goods and
services that are necessary to meet the physical, medical or emotional
needs of a vulnerable adult, when a person has an oligation to do so.
Neglecting an elderly person’s physical, medical and emotional needs or
Allowing an older adult to neglect their personal needs.
What to look for: Unexplained injuries,
bruises, burns, puncture wounds, cuts, sunken eyes and/or welts. Excessive
fears, withdrawal, agitation. Sudden inability to pay bills, buy food or
personal items. Changes in appetite or unusual weight gain or loss. Poor
personal hygiene. Does not know personal finances or unexplained changes
in health. hat is self-neglect and what are the signs?
Hoarding. Failure to take
essential medications or refusal to seek medical treatment for serious
illness or injuries. Leaving a burning stove unattended. Poor hygiene. Not
wearing suitable clothing for the weather. Confusion. Inability to attend
to housekeeping or dehydration. Ways that families and friends can help:
Respect and honor your elders. Report suspected abuse/mistreatment or
self-neglect. Find sources of help and use them. Visit regularly monitor
the well being of elderly neighbors. Keep track of medication and doctors’
visits. Volunteer to help. Realize abuse can happen in your family or
neighborhood. Speak up when something looks or sounds wrong. Warnings for
older adults: DO NOT live with a person who is violent or who abuses
alcohol or drugs. If you are abused, mistreated, neglected, please tell
others - such as your doctor, the clergy, a friend or family member. DO
NOT leave cash or valuables out in the open. DO NOT give friends or family
money if you need the money to live on. Ask someone you trust to read a
document before you sign it. DO NOT allow anyone to keep details of your
finances or property away from you.
These are commonly reported types of abuse received by Adult
Protective Services agencies: Physical abuse: may include slapping,
hitting, beating, bruising or causing someone physical pain, injury or
suffering. This also could include confining an adult against his/her
will, such as locking someone in a room or tying him/her to furniture.
Emotional abuse: involves creating emotional pain, distress or anguish
through the use of threats, intimidation or humiliation. This includes
insults, yelling or threats of harm and/or isolation, or non-verbal
actions such as throwing objects or glaring to project fear and/or
intimidation. Neglect: includes failures by individuals to support the
physical, emotional and social needs of adults dependent on others for
their primary care. Neglect can take the form of withholding food,
medications or access to health care professionals. For more information
on neglect, click here. Isolation: involves restricting visits from family
and friends or preventing contact via telephone or mail correspondence.
Financial or material exploitation: includes the misuse, mishandling or
exploitation of property, possessions or assets of adults. Also includes
using another’s assets without consent, under false pretense, or through
coercion and/or manipulation. Abandonment: involves desertion by anyone
who assumed caregiving responsibilities for an adult. Sexual abuse:
includes physical force, threats or coercion to facilitate non-consensual
touching, fondling, intercourse or other sexual activities. This is
particularly true with vulnerable adults who are unable to give consent or
comprehend the nature of these actions. Self-neglect: involves seniors or
adults with disabilities who fail to meet their own essential physical,
psychological or social needs, which threatens their health, safety and
well-being. This includes failure to provide adequate food, clothing,
shelter and health care for one’s own needs.
If you witness a
life-threatening situation involving a senior or adult with disabilities,
dial 911. Contact your local Adult Protective Services agency any time you
observe or suspect the following: Sudden inability to meet essential
physical, psychological or social needs threatening health, safety or
well-being. Disappearing from contact with neighbors, friends or family.
Bruising or welts on the skin, especially those appearing on the face or
lateral and anterior region of the arms (physically abused elders are much
more likely to display bruises than seniors injured by accident).
Fingerprints or handprints visible on the face, neck, arms or wrists.
Burns from scalding, cigarettes, or in shapes of objects such as an iron.
Cuts, lacerations or puncture wounds. prains, fractures or dislocations.
Internal injuries or vomiting. Appearing with torn, stained, bloody
clothing. Appearing disheveled, in soiled clothing or inappropriately
attired for climate. Appearing hungry, malnourished, disoriented or
confused.
Nursing
Home Patients Bill Of Rights
All U.S. residents of nursing homes have specific legal rights,
detailed in the
Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987. Some of the most important
rights include:
The right to be free from physical or mental abuse, corporal
punishment, involuntary seclusion, and any physical or chemical
restraints imposed for purposes of discipline or convenience and
not required to treat the resident's medical symptoms.
The right to confidentiality of personal and clinical records.
The right to current clinical records of the resident upon
request, and to get those records within 24 hours (excluding
hours occurring during a weekend or holiday) of when the
resident or a legal representative makes the request. The right
to choose a personal attending physician, to be fully informed
in advance about care and treatment, and to be fully informed in
advance of any changes in care or treatment that may affect the
resident's well-being. Also, the resident (or a legal
representative) has the right to participate in planning care
and treatment or changes in care and treatment.
Finally,
psychoactive drugs (including antipsychotics as well as
drugs for depression and anxiety) may be administered only on
the orders of a physician and only as part of a written plan
designed to eliminate or modify the symptoms for which the drugs
are prescribed. Such drugs may be given only if, at least
annually, an independent, external consultant reviews the
appropriateness of the drug plan of each resident receiving such
drugs.
Source:
Cornell University Law School Legal information Institute
Nursing Home Resident's Rights (wiki)
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (wiki)
Nursing Home Residents being Evicted without
warning and Discharged Involuntarily.Nursing home residents
have a lot of rights guaranteed in state and federal law. And nursing
homes rarely pay a price for illegally evicting residents.
Resident Rights and Protections (PDF)
California Long-Term Care
Ombudsman Association protect the aging and dependent adults in their
communities.
Legal Advocacy for the Rights of Older Persons
RHF provides affordable
housing for seniors, low-income families and persons with disabilities.
Top of Page
Too Many Drugs - Drugs being Wasted
Over medicating that's driven by greed and ignorance
Substance Abuse among the Elderly
Elderly Drug Abuse
Overmedicating the Elderly
Over Medicating
Over Prescribing Medication
Drug Interactions Checker
Managing Multiple Drugs (PDF)
Multiple Medications Dangers
Overmedication (NPR)
Nursing Home calms troubling behavior without risky drugs (NPR)
Nursing Homes rarely penalized for over sedating patients (NPR)
Seniors & Drugs -
NCADD
Senior Citizens Addiction
Rehab -
Addiction Help
Number Needed to Treat
-
Consent
Polypharmacy
-
Poly-Users
Pharmaceuticals Awareness and Info
iPharmacy Pro App to easily identify medications, check for any potential
drug interactions, and track prescriptions.
Every year Nursing Homes
nationwide flush, burn or throw out tons of Valuable Prescription Drugs.
Every week in Des Moines, Iowa, the
employees of a small nonprofit collect bins of unexpired prescription
drugs tossed out by nursing homes after residents died, moved out or no
longer needed them. The drugs are given to patients who couldn’t otherwise
afford them.
Elderly Fraud
- Abuse and
Exploitation of Old People
National
Center on Elder Abuse
Prevent Elder Abuse
National
Adult Protective Services Association
Center on Elder Abuse
Nursing Home Abuse Guide
Financial Crimes Against the Elderly
NYC Elder Abuse
Center
Elder Justice Coalition
Stop Fraud
Crimes -
Victim Assistance
Fraud Victims -
Consumer Protection
Older Americans Lose $2.9 Billion A
Year To Fraud
Financial or Material Exploitation
is defined as the illegal or improper use of an elder's funds,
property, or assets. Examples include, but are not limited to,
cashing an elderly person's checks without authorization or
permission; forging an older person's signature; misusing or
stealing an older person's money or possessions; coercing or
deceiving an older person into signing any document (e.g.,
contracts,
Will
or
Trust);
and the improper use of an
Executor,
Conservatorship,
Guardianship or
Power of Attorney.
Financial Crimes
against the elderly share some characteristics with other
crimes. Related problems requiring separate analysis and
responses include
* identity theft,
Consumer Protection
* Internet fraud,
* check and credit card fraud
* prescription fraud.
Financial Exploitation
of the elderly may also occur in concert with other types of
elder abuse, including:
* physical abuse,
* sexual abuse,
Abuse Info
* emotional abuse
What is Emotional Abuse?
* neglect.
Legal Help for the Elderly - Elder Law
- Attorney Help
National Academy
of Elder Law Attorneys
Elder
Law Answers
National Elder
Law Foundation
AARP Free Legal Assistance
Connecticut Law Help
PBS Finding Legal Help
Nursing Home Abuse
Legal Help Websites -
Lawyers -
Law Knowledge
Living Wills
Advance Health Care Directive
Choosing how you wish to die on your terms
Caregiving Training Courses - Jobs
Manuals
Caregiver Manuals
Caregiver Alert Information
Caregivers Handbook
Long
Term Care Link
Publications
Elder 411 App - Practical information for caregivers all in one place.
Care
Transitions Training Program
Preparing Patients and Caregivers to participate in care delivered
across settings: the Care Transitions Intervention.
Employment Forecast (jobs)
Patient Care Training Videos
Transferring a Patient from Chair to
Bed (youtube)
Patient Transfer Techniques with
Ergotrans (youtube)
How to Care for Aging Parents
(dailymotion)
The hidden role informal caregivers play in health care: Scott Williams
(video and text)
Why I Train Grandmothers to Treat Depression: Dixon Chibanda (video
and text)
National Council
for Therapeutic Recreation Certification
Recreation Database
Objective
Structured Clinical Examination
Care Giver Training
Institute
Frontier Nursing
University - Distance Education from the Birthplace of Nurse-Midwifery
and Family Nursing in America.
Caregiver Training
Onkar
Red Cross -
First Aid
CNA
Training
Senior Caregiver Certification
Home Care Training
Caregivers Training Videos
Caregiver Training
Patient Lift is an assistive device that allows patients in
hospitals and nursing homes and those receiving home health care to be
transferred between a bed and a chair or other similar resting places,
using hydraulic power. Sling lifts are used for patients whose mobility is
limited. They could be mobile (or floor) lifts or overhead lifts
(suspended from ceiling-mounted or overhead tracks). (May be either a
sling lift or Hoyer Lift, a brand name, or sit-to-stand lift, patient
hoist, jack hoist, hydraulic lift).
The sling lift has several
advantages. It allows heavy patients to be transferred while decreasing
stress on caregivers while also reducing the number of nursing staff
required to move patients. It also reduces the chance of orthopedic injury
from lifting patients. Another kind of sling lift, which is called a
ceiling lift, can be permanently installed on the ceiling of a room in
order to save space. Mistakes using patient lifts may result in serious
injury and some injuries that have been caused by improper use or
malfunction of Hoyer lifts have led to civil lawsuits.
Mechanical Slings - Patient Lifts Equipment
Training caregivers to use technology
like computers and smart phones could help home aides monitor
and record things,
such as physical and mental changes, reactions to medications
and so on.
Films
-
Caregiving and Elderly Care Videos
Nursing Home Abuse (youtube)
Joan Halifax: Compassion and the True
Meaning of Empathy (youtube)
The
Unspooling Mind (youtube)
The Price of Life (vimeo)
Intro to 1963 Move The Caretakers (youtube)
Alexis Abramson (youtube)
The New Method of Swallowing (youtube)
Aging Parent Movies (amazon)
Mental Health Videos
Documentaries
Special Needs
Responsibilities
Companion Services Should Include:
Friendly
Conversation and
participation in
Recreational Activities.
Assistance with phone calls and
Correspondence.
Computers for Senior Citizens
Assistance with maintaining
medication
schedules.
How to Administer Oral Medications
Transportation to physicians, shopping
or recreation.
Light
Housekeeping and
Laundry.
Supervision of
dressing and
Bathing,
and assistance with general mobility.
How to
Dress and Undress Others (youtube)
Meal
Preparation, meal planning, and food shopping....Sounds a little like
Parenting.
Exercise
Exercise for SeniorsExercises
that are modified for the Elderly and for those with injuries.
Chair Exercises and Limited Mobility Fitness
Elderly Exercise
Senior Fitness
Elderly
Exercises
Cane
Masters
Exercising for Life
Exercise Knowledge and
Information
Please view the services to learn more
about which home care option is right for your loved one:
Companions
Homemakers
Personal Care Attendants
Live-In Companions
Alzheimer's Care Companions
Specialty Care
Special Events Attendants
Visiting Angels
Health Visitor are professional individuals engaged in
public health work
within the domestic setting, predominantly found in countries
with state-funded health systems. They are distinct from
district nurses, who provide clinical healthcare, domestically.
In the UK, since 1945, health visitors are required to be
Registered Nurses or Midwives who have undertaken further
training to work as part of a primary health care team.
Books
The Emotional Survival Guide for Caregivers: Looking After
Yourself and Your Family While Helping an Aging Parent
(amazon)
Eldercare For Dummies
(amazon)
American Medical Association Guide to Home Caregiving (amazon)
"We look at children as being our future,
but the elderly are the future too, and not just our past."
Caregiving Jobs
Companions and Homemakers Employment
Home Care Aide Jobs
Caregiver Jobs
Be a Property Caretaker
Home Health Aides & Personal & Home Care Aides Employment
ProjectionsFrom 2016 to 2026. The Bureau expects the
job of “personal-care aide” to grow faster than any other, with about
750,000 additional jobs; “home-health aide” is fourth on their list of
fastest growers, adding an additional 425,000 jobs to the economy. Both
jobs involve assisting people with diseases and disability, usually the
elderly, as they continue to live their lives at home—the major difference
being that home-health aides can legally offer some medical services.
These jobs would go from 2.3 million of all US jobs in 2016 to about 3.4
million in 2026, accounting for 10% of all jobs created over the next
decade. Among the fastest growth rates at 47% and 37%, respectively.
“Solar installers” and “turbine technicians” are the only two occupations
the Bureau expects to grow faster. In 2016, the median hourly wage for
elderly-care aides was $10.66, compared to $17.81 for
the average job.
US News & World Report rates these jobs as above average in stress level
and below average in flexibility.
Elderly-care aides jobs are generally
filled by women, people of color, and those with a high-school education
or less. Nearly a quarter were not born in the US.
Care.com find temporary, qualified care for your loved ones
— including caregivers specializing in the needs of people
with disabilities and aging populations — with just a few taps
of your finger.
Specialized Skills that Some Caregivers Might Need
Caregiver Support
Respite Care Strategies
Child Development
Stories and Info I found on the
internet........
Disclaimer: The research materials are
collated from web based resources.
The Census Bureau
reports on July 1, 2004, 12 percent of all Americans were 65
and over.
By 2050, people 65 and over will
comprise an impressive 21 percent of the U.S. population.
In
observance of
Older Americans Month
2005, the U.S. Census Bureau has compiled some revealing
statistics about America's aging population.
Population · 36.3 million -- The
number of people 65 and over in the U.S. on July 1, 2004. This
age group accounts for 12 percent of the total U.S. population.
Between 2003 and 2004, 351,000 people
moved into this age group.
86.7 million -- Projected number of
people 65 and over in the year 2050.
People in this age group would
comprise 21 percent of America's total population at that time.
147% -- Projected percentage increase
in the 65-and-over population between 2000 and 2050.
By comparison, the population as a
whole would have increased by only 49 percent over the same.
The number
of Americans age 55 and older will almost double between now and
2030 – from 60 million today (21 percent of the total US
population) to 107.6 million (31 percent of the population) – as
the
Baby Boomers
reach retirement age.
During that same period of time, the
number of Americans over 65 will more than double, from 34.8
million in 2000 (12 percent of the population) to 70.3 million
in 2030 (20 percent of the total population).
The most rapid growth in numbers is
among the "oldest old." According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
there are currently 66,000 Americans older than 100, which is 20
times the number of centenarians who were alive in 1960. The
Bureau estimates that there will be 214,000 centenarians in the
U.S. by 2020 and 834,000 by 2050.
The next generation of retirees will
be the healthiest, longest lived, best educated, most affluent
in history:
Americans reaching age 65 today
have an average life expectancy of an additional 17.9 years
(19.2 years for females and 16.3 years for males). The likelihood that an American who
reaches the age of 65 will survive to the age of 90 has nearly
doubled over the past 40 years from just 14 percent of 65 year
olds in 1960 to 25 percent at present. By 2050, 40 percent of 65
year olds are likely to reach age 90.
Advice for the Elderly...
Decide what kind of future you
envision for yourself.
Create a plan that will help you
achieve those goals.
Share that plan with the important
people in your life.
AARP
Next Avenue
These days I’m seeing more and more
people needing 24-hour personal care.
You read about the statistics of how
many Americans are over 65 but theres nothing about how many
are in need of 24-hour personal care. People are more worried
about the quality of their retirement then they are about the
facts about an aging body and the facts about our decaying
world.
If you are an ill person or and
elderly person in need of care today, you are extremely lucky if
you have a caretaker. And extremely lucky to have an experienced
caretaker who actually cares. You would not be so lucky if you
are placed in a home were you’re lucky if someone even talks to
you anymore, like you’re still a human being. Almost discarded
like trash. You are basically at the curb waiting for the
garbage man.
When I go to a convalescent home
"Skilled Nursing Facility" or "SNF" or nursing home I want to be
smiling, friendly and compassionate. But inside I’m crying at
the state they are in. Knowing that the horrific reality of
their care. physical, occupational, and other rehabilitative
therapies following an accident or illness. Residents may have
certain legal rights depending on the location of the facility.
Basic Care:
Patients are paying for private nurses as NHS staff are failing
them. Elderly patients are choosing to pay for private nurses in
National Health Service Hospitals to provide them with basic
care such as help with being fed and washed. New reports from
nursing agencies and
The Patients Association
show that elderly NHS patients are being neglected as NHS nurses
do not have the time to provide them with basic care. The
association has received accounts from eight families in the
past six months who have turned to private nursing help for
elderly patients while they are in NHS hospitals.
Aging Parents and Elder-Care
Caring for an aging parent, elderly
spouse, domestic partner or close friend presents difficult
challenges – especially when a crisis hits and you are suddenly
faced with the responsibilities of elder care. Perhaps your
aging mother has fallen, is hospitalized with a broken hip and
needs to go to a rehab facility or nursing home to recover.
Caregiving can also begin as a result of a series of unsettling
mishaps and warning signs that indicate a need for long term
senior care. Perhaps your elderly spouse has wandered off and
gotten lost several times. Or a long-time friend has lost a lot
of weight and rarely leaves home. You may be the only person to
step in and become the caregiver, or you may be the linchpin of
a network of family members and friends willing to help care for
your elderly senior. Whatever the situation, you are not sure of
the next step, or even the first step.
How to care for elderly parents is
a major concern of many Foreign Service families. Our concerns
mirror those of other American families, but how to ensure good
health care, find the right living situation, and handle legal
questions is often complicated for Foreign Service families by
being posted abroad. The distance involved makes it harder to
get information and help so contingency planning is essential.
Often Foreign Service families only
have short visits during R & R or on home leave and hate to
spend the precious time with their parents talking about serious
business or unpleasant possibilities. Or we may be caught up in
hectic preparations for an overseas assignment and not want to
take the time to do contingency planning with parents. While it
is difficult to discuss the issues of aging, the family who has
discussed the options and agreed on plans will be better able to
handle whatever happens. It will be worth the time taken, if
there is an emergency.
The ideal situation is when the
parents take control of their own situations and make decisions
in advance of an emergency.
They should investigate the types of
retirement options and decide which is most appropriate, make
informed decisions about life-sustaining medical care, and make
sure that documents, instructions, and powers of attorney are
available to those who must take responsibility in an emergency.
The American Association of Retired Persons recommends that
elderly people use a document locator list (scroll to bottom of
this page) to make sure their papers are in order. This list can
then be given to the person(s) who will be responsible for them
should an emergency arise. Going through the list with your
parents should ensure that their wishes are understood.
Communicating with Elderly Parents
Talking with our elderly parents about
their living situations and the possible need for change is not
always easy. A successful conversation depends to an extent upon
the relationship we have with the parent, as well, of course, as
on the parent's mental, emotional and physical condition. While
many people put off serious conversations to avoid conflict or
awkwardness, both parent and adult child may lose an opportunity
for closeness, understanding, access to information that may
affect the decision, and optimum peace of mind. To the extent
possible, talk with your elderly parents gently and honestly
about their wishes, their abilities and their options. Far more
often than not, these conversations are helpful and put the
adult child in a better position to make decisions later when
the parent may not be able to do so. The following are
suggestions for conversations with your elderly parent:
* Share your own feelings, and
reassure the parent that you will support them and can be
depended upon to help them solve their problems.
* Help the parent to retain whatever
control is possible in making his or her own decisions. Respect
and try to honor their wishes wherever feasible.
* Encourage the smallest change
possible at each step, so that the parent is more able to adjust
to the change.
* Educate yourself on legal, financial
and medical matters that pertain to your parent as background
for your conversations, including current knowledge on the aging
process.
* Respect your own needs - be honest
with your parents about your time and energy limits.
If this kind of conversation seems
impossible or the situation and relationship with the elderly
parent become overwhelming, professional counseling may be very
helpful. You may also consider using the Department of State's
resources to approach this delicate issue somewhat indirectly.
Filling out FIVE WISHES for yourself and sharing your decisions
with your parents may encourage them to open up on the subject.
You may also wish to raise the subject of long-term care
insurance as a practical matter. (For more information about
FIVE WISHES and Long-Term Care Insurance, see below).
When a Lifestyle Change May Be
Necessary
Physicians and geriatric social
workers warn that there are a number of danger signs that
indicate an elderly person needs extra help or a change in
living arrangement. Any marked change in personality or behavior
should be heeded. However, no change in lifestyle should be made
without discussions with the elderly person, other family
members, and doctors or other health professionals.
Danger Signals
*
Sudden weight loss could be an indication that the elderly
person is simply not eating or not preparing foods.
* Failure to take medication or
over-dosing may indicate confusion, forgetfulness, or a
misunderstanding of the doctor's instructions.
* Burns or injury marks may indicate
physical problems involving general weakness, forgetfulness, or
a possible misuse of alcohol.
* Deterioration of personal habits
such as infrequent bathing and shampooing, not shaving, or not
wearing dentures could be the result of either mental or
physical problems.
* Increased car accidents can indicate
slowed reflexes, poor vision, physical weakness, or general
inability to handle a vehicle.
* General forgetfulness such as not
paying bills, missing appointments, or consistently forgetting
name, address, phone number, and meal times could be a signal.
* Extreme suspiciousness could
indicate some thought disorder. Your parents thinking that their
neighbors, friends, family, doctor, and lawyer are all
conspiring against them would be an example. Intense ungrounded
fears about dire consequences may be a danger signal.
* A series of small fires could be
caused by dozing off, forgetting to turn off the stove or
appliances, or carelessness with matches. They may indicate
blackouts or dizzy spells.
* Bizarre behavior of any kind could
be a warning sign. This behavior could be dressing in heavy
gloves and overcoat in 90 degree weather or going outside
without shoes when it's snowing. Watch for uncharacteristic
actions or speech.
* Disorientation of a consistent
nature may indicate a need for help. Examples include not
knowing who one is, where one is, who the family is, or talking
to people who are not there.
Elder Care Options
If you see danger signals in your
parent's behavior, it is important to discuss the changes and do
some research. (See IQ: Information Quest below for information
about the Department of State's free resource referral service.)
There are many housing options available to the elderly.
Choosing the best one will depend on the elderly person's
preference, age, health, and financial condition.
Death Wish
Aging in Place
Under this option, the elderly person
continues to live in his/her own apartment. Many elderly people
live in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs),
apartment buildings, condominiums, or cooperatives not designed
as retirement communities but where at least 50 percent of the
residents are 62 years old or older. These buildings often have
amenities such as grocery stores, pharmacies, limousine service,
or shopping services.
Recent technological advances often
make aging in place easier: Velcro fasteners, lightweight
wheelchairs, devices to control appliances and dial telephone
numbers. There is even a "walk-in bathtub" for people who have
difficulty climbing into an ordinary bathtub. Many services are
available to help the elderly person stay in his/her home.
Information about them can be obtained from contacting IQ:
Information Quest (see below) or your local Area Agency on
Aging.
Aging in Place
is a resource hub for seniors and their families to learn more about the
specific aspects of aging in place.
* Home care services are available in
many communities, providing appropriate, supervised personnel to
help older persons with either health care (giving medications,
changing dressings, catheter care, etc.) or personal care
(bathing, dressing, and grooming).
* Meals and transportation are
available to older people to help them retain some independence.
Group or home-delivered meal programs help ensure an adequate
diet. Meals-On-Wheels programs are available in most parts of
the United States. A number of communities offer door-to-door
transportation services to help older people get to and from
medical facilities, community facilities, and other services.
* Adult day care is similar to child
day care. The elderly person goes to a community facility daily
or 2 or 3 days per week. Activities include exercise programs,
singing, guest lectures, and current events discussions. Cost
varies and there are often long waiting lists at such centers.
* Respite care brings a trained person
into the home to give the full-time caregiver time off to get a
haircut, visit the dentist, or take a vacation. Service is
generally offered through area Departments of Social Services
and is based on a sliding fee scale.
Other Housing Options
There are
several types of
Retirement Communities
that provide living arrangements and services to meet the needs
of both independent seniors and those who need assistance. Large
hotel corporations are in this field and other facilities are
set up for members of a certain organization (retired military,
Elks, etc.)
It is important when investigating
these housing options to understand completely the services
provided and the cost.
Adult Congregate Communities
are designed for the fully able-bodied, 55 and older. Residents
buy co-ops or condominiums and pay a monthly fee for grass
mowing, leaf raking, and snow shoveling. A pay-as-you-go medical
center is on site and a nurse is on duty 24 hours a day to make
home visits in emergencies.
Leisure World
is the most famous example of an adult congregate community.
Assisted Living Communities
are rental retirement communities for independent seniors who
need some assistance. A homelike atmosphere, three meals a day,
maid, linen, and laundry service, availability of a registered
nurse, and many personal care services are provided in the
all-inclusive rent.
Rental Retirement Communities
with fee-for-service nursing units charge residents an entrance
fee plus a substantial monthly rent. When the need for nursing
care arises, residents pay an extra daily fee and stay in a
nursing unit, usually located on site or nearby.
Life Care or Continuing Care
Communities provide a
continuum of care from independent living to nursing home care
on the premises. The individual must be independent when s/he
enters the community. These communities require a substantial
entrance fee and monthly service fee. Residents get one meal a
day in a dining room, maid service, linen service, maintenance,
transportation to shopping and cultural events, travel planning,
and a pull cord to an emergency nurse. If nursing care is
needed, it is provided at no extra cost.
Personal Care Homes
(board and care) are licensed in many communities to provide
shelter, supervision, meals, and personal care to a small number
of residents.
Subsidized Housing for the Elderly
is an option for the elderly poor in reasonably good health.
Subsidized by Department of Housing and Urban Development,
income limits apply. No round-the-clock care is provided but
nurses come in to check blood pressure and assess a resident's
functioning. Residents take meals in a dining room and may have
use of a library, recreation area, or beauty shop.
Nursing Facilities
or a nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing facility (SNF), care
home, rest home or intermediate care provides a type of residential care.
It is a place of residence for people who require continual nursing care
and have significant difficulty coping with the required activities of
daily living. Nursing aides and skilled nurses are usually available 24
hours a day. Residents include the elderly and younger adults with
physical or mental disabilities. Residents in a skilled nursing facility
may also receive physical, occupational, and other rehabilitative
therapies following an accident or illness. Some nursing homes assist
people with special needs, such as Alzheimer patients. Residents may have
specific legal rights depending on the nation the facility is in.
If the
elderly person is not capable of
Independent Living,
a nursing home may be the appropriate option. Nursing homes
offer two levels of care - skilled nursing and intermediate care
- depending on the patient's needs. Most nursing homes offer
both levels of care on a single site.
Skilled Nursing Facilities
provide 24-hour nursing services for people who have serious
health care needs but do not require the intense level of care
provided in a hospital. Rehabilitation services may also be
provided.
Intermediate Care Facilities
provide less extensive health care than skilled nursing
facilities. Nursing and rehabilitation services are provided but
not on a 24-hour basis. These facilities are for people who
cannot live alone but need a minimum of medical assistance and
help with personal and/or social care.
Paying for Long-Term Care
It is important to understand the
different types of
insurance that are available to older people.
Many people believe that Medicare will cover long-term care
needs. It will
not.
Long-term Care Insurance
(wiki)
Understanding the Financial impact
Medicare
medicare.gov
Medicare is a Federal health insurance
program which helps defray many of the medical expenses of most
Americans over the age of 65. Medicare has two parts:
(Part A) Hospital Insurance helps pay
the cost of inpatient hospital care. The number of days in the
hospital paid for by Medicare is governed by a system based upon
patient diagnosis and medical necessity for hospital care. Once
it is no longer medically necessary for the person to remain in
the hospital, the physician will begin the discharge process. If
the person or the family disagrees with this decision, they may
appeal to the state's Peer Review Organization.
Medicare does not pay for custodial
care or nursing home care. It will, however, cover up to 60 days
in a nursing home as part of convalescence after
hospitalization.
(Part B) Medical Insurance pays for
many medically necessary doctors' services, outpatient services,
and some other medical services. Enrollees pay a monthly
premium.
Medicaid
medicaid.gov
Medicaid is a joint federal-state
health care program for people with a low income. The program is
administered by each state and the type of services covered
differs. There are strict income requirements so it is necessary
for the person to "spend down" all income and assets to poverty
levels before becoming eligible. Medicaid is the major payer of
nursing home care.
The Medicaid requirement to "spend
down" all income and assets created a great hardship for the
spouse of a person needing nursing home care. Changes in the
Medicaid rules now allow the spouse to keep a monthly income and
some assets, including the primary residence. The amounts
allowed change, so you must check for current levels.
Insurance Problems (misconceptions)
Other Insurance
Why buy
other insurance? The purchase of additional insurance gives the
policy holder access to a greater choice of facilities without
dipping into additional financial resources.
Medigap
is the name given to privately-purchased supplemental health
insurance. It is designed to help cover some of the gaps in
Medicare coverage but does not cover long-term care. Study
Medigap policies carefully to be sure they provide the
protection needed and do not duplicate other health insurance.
Long-Term Care Insurance is a private
insurance that is usually either an indemnity policy or part of
an individual life insurance policy. An indemnity policy pays a
set amount per day for nursing home or home health care. Under
the life insurance policy, a certain percentage of the death
benefit is paid for each month the policyholder requires
long-term care. Policies are priced differently depending on the
age of the policyholder, the deductible periods chosen, and
indemnity value or duration of benefits.
Effective October 2002, Federal
employees, annuitants, and qualified family members (spouse,
adult children, and parents may purchase insurance from
Long-Term Care Partners, a consortium
formed by John Hancock and MetLife.
Long-Term
Care Partners will offer a choice of policies specially designed
to meet the needs of the federal workforce at potentially lower
cost than individual commercial policies. For more information
on long-term insurance through the U.S. government, check with
your HR officer or visit the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
web site at
opm.gov
or
ltcfeds.com
We shouldn’t have any unemployed people. There is just
so much work
that needs to be done. We are slaves to the
Monetary System.
We have no money for the things we need to do, we only have
money for the wealthy that only want to do what they want to do
and not what is needed. Money is just a tool and not something
that tells us what we can and cannot do. When someone says they
don’t have the money they are either a liar, a criminal or very
ignorant. So listen to a politician the next time they say that
they can’t do what is needed because of money, they are either a
liar, a criminal or very ignorant...Stop
using Money as a Weapon of Control...Please..It
has never been about money. It’s more about knowledge. Money
makes slaves and knowledge frees slaves. It’s time to ask our
leaders what the real problem is.
Care Giving (definitions)
Care Giver is a person who
Helps another individual with
an impairment with his or her activities of daily living. Any person with
a health impairment might use caregiving services to address their
difficulties. Caregiving is most commonly used to address impairments
related to old age, disability, a disease, or a mental disorder.
Care Giving
Voluntary Caregiver or carer is an unpaid or
paid person who helps another individual with an impairment with his or
her activities of daily living. Any person with a health impairment might
use caregiving services to address their difficulties. Caregiving is most
commonly used to address impairments related to old age, disability, a
disease, or a mental disorder.
Unlicensed Assistive Personnel is a class of
paraprofessionals who assist individuals with physical disabilities,
mental impairments, and other health care needs with their activities of
daily living (ADLs) and provide bedside care—including basic nursing
procedures—all under the supervision of a registered nurse, licensed
practical nurse or other health care professional. UAPs must demonstrate
their abilities and competencies before gaining any expanded
responsibilities within the clinical setting.
Personal Care Assistant is a class of
paraprofessionals who assist individuals with physical disabilities,
mental impairments, and other health care needs with their activities of
daily living (ADLs) and provide bedside care—including basic nursing
procedures—all under the supervision of a registered nurse, licensed
practical nurse or other health care professional. UAPs must demonstrate
their abilities and competencies before gaining any expanded
responsibilities within the clinical setting.
Personal Care Assistant (PCA) is a nurse who
cares for people who are sick, injured, convalescent, or disabled. LPNs
work under the direction of registered nurses or physicians. In the United
States however, California, Vermont and Texas refer to them as a licensed
vocational nurse (LVN).
Personal Assistant is a job title describing a person who assists a
specific person with their daily business or personal tasks.
Nanny is an individual who provides
care for one or more children in a family as a service. Traditionally,
nannies were servants in large households and reported directly to the
lady of the house. Today, modern nannies, like other domestic workers, may
live in or out of the house depending on their circumstances and those of
their employers. Professional nannies are usually certified in
cardiopulmonary resuscitation, qualified in First Aid, and have a degree
or extensive training in child development. There are many employment
agencies that specialize in childcare and online services that aid in
finding available nannies.
Nurse is a profession within the health
care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities
so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of
life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health care providers by
their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice. Nurses
practice in many specialisms with differing levels of prescriber
authority. Many nurses provide care within the ordering scope of
physicians, and this traditional role has shaped the public image of
nurses as care providers. However, nurses are permitted by most
jurisdictions to practice independently in a variety of settings depending
on training level. In the postwar period, nurse education has undergone a
process of diversification towards advanced and specialized credentials,
and many of the traditional regulations and provider roles are changing.
Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
Licensed Practical Nurse (RPN) is a nurse who
cares for people who are sick, injured, convalescent, or disabled. A
person can generally become an LPN with two years of
training.
Travel Nursing is a nursing assignment
concept that developed in response to the nursing shortage. This industry
supplies nurses who travel to work in temporary nursing positions, mostly
in hospitals. While travel nursing traditionally refers specifically to
the nursing profession, it can also be used as a blanket term to refer to
a variety of travel healthcare positions, including physical therapy,
occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and even doctors and
dentists.
Doctor
Transitional Care refers to the
coordination and continuity of health care during a movement from one
healthcare setting to either another or to home, called care transition,
between health care practitioners and settings as their condition and care
needs change during the course of a chronic or acute illness. Older adults
who suffer from a variety of health conditions often need health care
services in different settings to meet their many needs. For young people
the focus is on moving successfully from child to adult health services.
Companion may be a nursing assistant or similar professional who is
hired to work with one patient (or occasionally two). Companions may be
hired to work in a variety of settings, including nursing homes, assisted
living facilities, hospitals, and private homes, and their duties range
from advanced medical care to simple companionship and observation.
Domestic Worker is a person who works within the employer's household.
Domestic helpers perform a variety of household services for an individual
or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to
housekeeping, including cleaning and household maintenance. Other
responsibilities may include cooking, laundry and ironing, shopping for
food and other household errands. Such work has always needed to be done
but before the Industrial Revolution and the advent of labour saving
devices, it was physically much harder.
Handyman
is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home.
These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, are both
interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "side work", "odd
jobs" or "fix-up tasks". Specifically, these jobs could be light plumbing
jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet or light electric jobs such as changing
a light fixture.
Other Types of Help and Support
Ethics of Care is a normative ethical
theory: a theory about what makes actions
morally right or wrong. It is
one of a cluster of normative ethical theories that were developed by
feminists in the second half of the twentieth century. While
consequentialist and deontological ethical theories emphasize universal
standards and impartiality, ethics of care emphasize the importance of
response. The shift in moral perspective is manifested by a change in the
moral question from "what is just?" to "how to respond?". Ethics of care
criticize application of universal standards as "morally problematic,
since it breeds moral blindness or indifference.
Disabilities (special needs)
Duty of Care is a
legal obligation, which is imposed on
an individual requiring adherence to a standard of reasonable care while
performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others. It is the first
element that must be established to proceed with an action in
negligence.
Care of Residents refers to long-term
care given to adults or children who stay in a residential setting rather
than in their own home or family home.
Home Care is supportive care provided
in the home. Care may be provided by licensed healthcare professionals who
provide medical treatment needs or by professional caregivers who provide
daily assistance to ensure the activities of daily living (ADLs) are met.
In-home medical care is often and more accurately referred to as "home
health care" or formal care. Often, the term home health care is used to
distinguish it from non-medical care, custodial care, or private-duty care
which refers to assistance and services provided by persons who are not
nurses, doctors, or other licensed medical personnel. For terminally ill
patients, home care may include hospice care. For patients recovering from
surgery or illness, home care may include rehabilitative therapies.
Elder Care Locations (gov)
Senior Homes
Geriatric Care Management is the
process of planning and coordinating care of the elderly and others with
physical and/or mental impairments to meet their long term care needs,
improve their quality of life, and maintain their independence for as long
as possible. It entails working with persons of old age and their families
in managing, rendering and referring various types of health and social
care services. Geriatric care managers accomplish this by combining a
working knowledge of health and psychology, human development, family
dynamics, public and private resources and funding sources, while
advocating for their clients throughout the continuum of care. For
example, they may assist families of older adults and others with chronic
needs such as those suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other dementia.
National Health Service is the name of the
public health services of England, Scotland and Wales, and is commonly
used to refer to those of Northern Ireland.
Caregivers Library
Insurance
Abbott Patient Assistance Foundation
Community Care Vs Institutional Care ?
Overnight Dementia Care Give Caregivers Rest
Health Care is the maintenance or
improvement of health via the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of
disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in
human beings.
Health Care is delivered by health professionals (providers or
practitioners) in allied health professions, chiropractic, physicians,
physician associates, dentistry, midwifery, nursing, medicine, optometry,
pharmacy, psychology, and other health professions. It includes the work
done in providing primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care, as well
as in public health.
Intensive-Care Medicine is a branch of medicine
concerned with the diagnosis and management of life-threatening conditions
requiring sophisticated organ support and invasive monitoring.
Managed Care is used in the United
States to describe a variety of techniques intended to reduce the cost of
providing health benefits and improve the quality of care ("managed care
techniques"), for organizations that use those techniques or provide them
as services to other organizations ("managed care organization" or "MCO"),
or to describe systems of financing and delivering healthcare to enrollees
organized around managed care techniques and concepts ("managed care
delivery systems").
Long-term Care is a variety of services
which help meet both the medical and non-medical needs of people with a
chronic illness or disability who cannot care for themselves for long
periods.
Assisted Living
is a housing facility for people with disabilities or for adults who
cannot or chose not to live independently. The term is popular in the
United States but is similar to a retirement home in the sense that
facilities provide a group living environment and typically cater to an
elderly population.
Nursing Home provides a type of residential
care. It is a place of residence for people who require continual nursing
care and have significant difficulty coping with the required activities
of daily living. Nursing aides and skilled nurses are usually available 24
hours a day. (also know as a
Convalescent Home, killed nursing facility (SNF),
care home, rest home or intermediate care).
Skilled Nursing Facilities (help guide)
End of Life Care
Adult Day Care Centers (help guide)
Adult Day Care
Adult Daycare Center
is typically a non-residential facility that
supports the health, nutritional, social, and daily living needs of adults
in a professionally staffed, group setting. These facilities provide
adults with transitional care and short-term rehabilitation following
hospital discharge. The majority of centers provide meals, meaningful
activities, and general supervision. The care provided is often a social
model (focusing on socialisation and prevention services) or a medical
model (including skilled assessment, treatment and rehabilitation goals)
provided in order to improve participants health and guide their progress
in the right direction.
Adult Day Care Group
Visiting
Nurse Association
Custodial Care and Baby Sitters
Independent Living
is people with disabilities working for equal
opportunities, self-determination, and self-respect. In the context of
eldercare, independent living is seen as a step in the continuum of care,
with assisted living being the next step.
Social Model of Disability
is a reaction to the dominant medical model of
disability which in itself is a functional analysis of the body as machine
to be fixed in order to conform with normative values. The social model of
disability identifies systemic barriers, negative attitudes and exclusion
by society (purposely or inadvertently) that mean society is the main
contributory factor in disabling people. While physical, sensory,
intellectual, or psychological variations may cause individual functional
limitation or impairments, these do not have to lead to disability unless
society fails to take account of and include people regardless of their
individual differences.
Flatulence Odor Remedy
Caregiving Resource Center
Caring for Elderly Guide
Senior Living Guide
Caregiver Support Blog
The Care Givers Voice Blog
Cognitive Assessment
More Resources
International
Association for Homes and Services for the Aging
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
National
Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers
Senior Americans Association
Mental Health Websites
Physical Health Websites
Helping pays off: People who care for others live longer
Care Giving Resources
Education for Care Givers, Parents and their Children
Compassion Care
Masoni Care
CSI
Caregiver
Caring Info
Care
Best
Senior Care Online
A Place for Mom
Caregiver List
Heavenly Caregivers
Care with
Heart
My Guardian Angels Homecare
Foundation
AARP
Constellation HS
My Guardian Angels Home Care
Polish Helping Hands
Parent Care Balance Blogspot
Obc Eldercare
Aging Care
Caring
Caring Parents
The Scan Foundation
Golden Girls Network
Caregiver
Care Giver Responsibilities
Care Giving Knowledge Base
Cooperative Home Care Associates
Medicare Caregiver Resources
Leading Homecare
Leading Age
Living
Senior
Age in
Place
Aging in Place
American College
of Health Care Administrators
American
Health Care Association
American Medical
Directors Association
National
Association of Health Care Assistants
California Health Plan
Reverse Mortgages
Aristo Care
Com
for Care
Comfort Keepers
El Direct Home Care
Griswold Homecare
Home Helpers
Home instead
Home Watch Caregivers
Right at Home
Sarah
Care
Superior Senior Care
Living Assistance
Senior.com
Physician's Care Clinic
Johnson County Kansas
Elder Options of Texas
Top of Page
Aging Parents: The Family Survival Guide
Aging Parents - Consisting of a booklet and two videotapes,
this guide is designed to help family members respond to
eldercare crises and to plan ahead for long-term care giving. To
order, call 1-888-777-5585 or order online.
Aging Parents and Elder Care - Articles, comprehensive
checklists, and links to key resources.
The site is designed to
make it easier for family caregivers to quickly find the
information they need.
Elder Web: An Online Eldercare
Sourcebook. Designed to assist older Americans,
professionals and family members,
this web site covers eldercare
and related issues with an extensive array of links.
Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs Travel Tips for Older Americans.
(see Special Planning Considerations / Senior Travelers).
Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
1604 North Country Club Road
Tucson, AZ 85716
Tel: 520-881-4005
Fax: 520-325-7925
Alzheimer's Association, Inc.
919 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1000
Chicago IL 60611
Tel: 1-800-272-3900
American Association of Homes for the
Aging
901 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
Tel: 202-783-2242
Fax: 202-783-2255
American Association of Retired
Persons
601 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20049
Tel: 202-434-2277
Partnership for Caring
Provides the following free
pamphlets:
Miles Away and Still Caring (D-12748);
A Handbook
About Care in the Home (D-955);
A Path For Caregivers (D-12957)
Choice in Dying/Partnership for
Caring
1035 30th Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Tel: 202-338-9790 or 800-989-9455
Fax: 202-338-0242
Guide to Retirement Living
Free medical directives and living
will samples.
Douglas Publishing Company, Inc.
9302 Lee Highway, Suite 750
Fairfax, VA 22031
Tel: 703-536-5150 or 1-800-394-9990
Health Insurance Association of
America
555 13th Street NW, Suite 600 East
Washington, DC 20004
Tel: 202-824-1600
Fax: 202-824-1722
National Association of Private
Geriatric Care Managers
Publishes A Consumer's Guide to
Long-Term Care.
1604 North Country Club Road
Tucson, AZ 85715
Tel: 520-881-8008
Fax: 520-325-7925
National Council on the Aging, Inc.
Provides free referrals nationwide and
sells a directory of members and managers
409 3rd Street SW
Washington, DC 20061-5087
Tel: 202-479-1200
National Institute on Aging
Publishes Perspective on Aging,
a bimonthly magazine, and Family Home Caring Guides.
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
Tel: 301-496-1752
National Guardianship Association
1604 N. Country Club Rd
Tucson, AZ 85716
Tel: 520-881-6561
Long-Term Care Link
A comprehensive web site with links
to eldercare services and insurance information. Updated web
site addresses for all State Agencies on Aging.
NIH Senior Health
Health for
Seniors
Anxiety
Heart Attack
Quiz
Ultimate Guide to Rehab & Medicare
Assisted Living Regulation and Laws
Aging in Place
Administration on Aging
Administration for Community Living
Mesothelioma (wiki)
Mesothelioma Group
Caregivers
Falling Risk factors for Older Adults
Senior Health Risk Calculators for Healthy Aging
Health Information for Older Adults
Seniors Swimming
Aging Parents and Elder Care Reference Links
Adult Day Care
Aging – General
Air Ambulance Services
Alzheimer's Disease
Assisted Living – Facilities
Assisted Living – General
Assistive Devices and Services
Benefits for Seniors
Books and Videos
Care Managers
Continuing Care Retirement Communities
Counseling
Elder Care – General
Elder Law
Elderly Drivers
End of Life Issues
Family Caregivers
Financial Planners
Geriatric Professionals
Geriatrics Education Resources
Health - Medical Products
Hearing
Home Health Care – Agencies
Home Health Care – General
Medicaid
Medical Alert Systems
Medicare
Money Managers
Moving – Relocation
Nursing Home Abuse
Nursing Homes – Facilities
Nursing Homes – General
Other Health Resources
Other Medical Conditions
Professional Journals
Reading Aids
Respite Care
Retirement Planning
Why does Hair turn Grey?
A persons hair turns grey when the
body stops producing the cells
called
Melanocyte, which helps create
color in the hair
called
Melanin. The older we get, melanocytes decrease in number.
The result is less and less melanin, until none are present. Thus, we
slowly turn gray. Gray hair is the result of less melanin within the
keratin. The less melanin, the more gray your hair will be. White hair has
no melanin at all.
Human Hair Color (wiki)
Hygiene
Old Age is not the only factor that determines when a
persons hair starts to turn grey.
Some autoimmune diseases can cause premature graying, as well as
smoking, Anemia,
Poor Nutrition, insufficient B vitamins,
your genes, and untreated
thyroid conditions, to name a few.
Gray Hair Linked to Immune System activity and Viral Infection.
Researchers report that loss of hair
pigmentation, or
gray hair, is associated with activation of the innate
immune system in
mice. A direct link between MITF, innate immunity, and hair
graying.
Why Do
Our Hair And Eye Color Change? (youtube)
When babies are born, their eyes and
hair are one color, but
change within the first few years of their life! Why do hair and
eye colors change? Trace explains the process of inheriting
certain traits from your parents, and discusses why the colors
change!
History of Eye Color - Eye Sight
The
OCA2 Gene (formerly called the P gene) provides instructions
for making a protein called the P protein. This protein is
located in melanocytes, which are specialized cells that produce
a pigment called melanin. Melanin is the substance that gives
skin, hair, and eyes their color. EYCL1, EYCL2, EYCL3 are human
genes
that influences pigment and hair, skin, and eye colors.
OCA2 gene mutation for Blue Eyes occurred between 6,000 and
10,000 years ago. Before then, there were no blue eyes. Why did
we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years
ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes
now?
Even though there is a wide range of
hair and
skin color, there are only two main types of melanin-eumelanin
is what produces dark browns and blacks, and pheomelanin
produces reddish/yellow. How these cells blend together will
determine what color your hair will be. One gene, and its
alleles responsible for red hair, have already been identified;
known as MC1R.
"We're not getting any younger, but that doesn't mean you should
be getting dumber. Since 2008 I've spent the last 6 years
repairing the years of ignorance that I have accumulated since
1960, it's not easy, but it is being done. But you have to
start, or you will never finish. Everyone has challenges ahead.
So Keep experiencing life as much as you can, but more
importantly,
don't stop
learning."
"I don't see old age as
a slow decline. I see old age as a gradual rise in energy and
awareness. The body may slow down a little but the mind is
speeding up, becoming more aware, learning new skills,
processing more information, seeing more and more each day. If
you keep learning the right things at the right time you will
never grow old, on the inside at least, which just happens to be
the most important side. Creating a
learning environment is easy, knowing what to learn is the
hard part."
"I might be doing less
as I get older, but I will be doing more with less. So instead
of doing 100 important things in my life, I'll be doing just a
handful of the most important things that my life has to offer,
the
cream of the crop."
"My last breath
will not be the defining moment, just another moment."
When poet Robin Morgan found herself facing Parkinson’s disease,
she distilled her experiences into
these four quietly powerful poems — meditating on age, loss, and the simple power of noticing.
No Signs of Struggle
Growing small requires enormity of will: just sitting still in
the doctor's waiting room watching the future shuffle in and
out, watching it stoop; stare at you while you try not to look.
Rare is an exchange: a smile of brief, wry recognition.
You are the new kid on the block. Everyone here was you once.
You are still learning that growing small requires a largeness
of spirit you can't fit into yet: acceptance of irritating help
from those who love you; giving way and over, but not up.
You've swallowed hard the contents of the "Drink Me" bottle, and
felt yourself shrink. Now, familiar furniture looms, floors
tilt, and doorknobs yield only when wrestled round with both
hands. It demands colossal patience, all this growing small:
your diminished sleep at night, your handwriting, your voice,
your height.
You are more the incredible shrinking woman than the Buddhist
mystic, serene, making do with less. Less is not always more.
Yet in this emptying space, space glimmers, becoming visible.
Here is a place behind the eyes of those accustomed by what some
would call diminishment.
It is a place of merciless poetry, a gift of presence previously
ignored, drowned in the daily clutter. Here every gesture needs
intention, is alive with consciousness. Nothing is automatic.
You can spot it in the provocation of a button, an arm poking at
a sleeve, a balancing act at a night-time curb while negotiating
the dark. Feats of such modest valor, who would suspect them to
be exercises in an intimate, fierce discipline, a metaphysics of
being relentlessly aware?
Such understated power here, in these tottering dancers who
exert stupendous effort on tasks most view as insignificant.
Such quiet beauty here, in these, my soft-voiced, stiff-limbed
people; such resolve masked by each placid face. There is
immensity required in growing small, so bent on such unbending
grace.
On Donating My Brain to
Science
Not a problem. Skip over all the pages reassuring religious
people. Already a universal donor: kidneys, corneas, liver,
lungs, tissue, heart, veins, whatever.
Odd that the modest brain never imagined its unique value in
research, maybe saving someone else from what it is they're not
quite sure I have. Flattering, that.
So fill in the forms, drill through the answers, trill out a
blithe spirit.
And slice me, dice me, spread me on your slides. Find what I'm
trying to tell you.
Earn me, learn me, scan me, squint through your lens. Uncover
what I'd hint at if I could.
Be my guest, do your best, harvest me, track the clues. This was
a good brain while alive. This was a brain that paid its dues.
So slice me, dice me, smear me on your slides, stain me, explain
me, drain me like a cup. Share me, hear me:
I want to be used I want to be used I want to be used up.
The Ghost Light
Lit from within is the sole secure way to traverse dark matter.
Some life forms -- certain mushrooms, snails, jellyfish, worms
-- glow bioluminescent, and people as well; we emit infra-red
light from our most lucent selves. Our tragedy is we can't see
it.
We see by reflecting. We need biofluorescence to show our true
colors. External illumination can distort, though. When gravity
bends light, huge galaxy clusters can act as telescopes,
elongating background images of star systems to faint arcs -- a
lensing effect like viewing distant street lamps through a glass
of wine.
A glass of wine or two now makes me weave as if acting the
drunkard's part; as if, besotted with unrequited love for the
dynamic Turner canvasses spied out by the Hubble, I could lurch
down a city street set without provoking every pedestrian
walk-on stare.
Stare as long as you need to. If you think about it, walking,
even standing, is illogical -- such tiny things, feet!
especially when one's body is not al dente anymore.
Besides, creature of extremes and excess, I've always thought
Apollo beautiful but boring, and a bit of a dumb blonde.
Dionysians don't do balance.
Balance, in other words, has never been my strong point. But I
digress. More and more these days, digression seems the most
direct route through from where I've lost or found myself out of
place, mind, turn, time.
Place your foot just so, mind how you turn: too swift a swivel
can bring you down. Take your time ushering the audience out,
saying goodbye to the actors. The ghost light is what they call
the single bulb hanging above the bare stage in an empty
theater.
In the empty theater of such a night, waking to meet no external
radiance, this is the final struggle left to win, this the sole
beacon to beckon the darkness in and let the rest begin, this
the lens through which at last to see both Self and Other
arrayed with the bright stain of original sin: lit from within
This Dark Hour
Late summer, 4 A.M. The rain slows to a stop, dripping still
from the broad leaves of blue hostas unseen in the garden's
dark. Barefoot, careful on the slick slate slabs, I need no
light, I know the way, stoop by the mint bed, scoop a fistful of
moist earth, then grope for a chair, spread a shawl, and sit,
breathing in the wet green August air.
This is the small, still hour before the newspaper lands in the
vestibule like a grenade, the phone shrills, the computer screen
blinks and glares awake.
There is this hour: poem in my head, soil in my hand: unnamable
fullness. This hour, when blood of my blood bone of bone, child
grown to manhood now -- stranger, intimate, not distant but
apart -- lies safe, off dreaming melodies while love sleeps,
safe, in his arms.
To have come to this place, lived to this moment: immeasurable
lightness. The density of black starts to blur umber. Tentative,
a cardinal's coloratura, then the mourning dove's elegy. Sable
glimmers toward grey; objects emerge, trailing shadows; night
ages toward day. The city stirs.
There will be other dawns, nights, gaudy noons. Likely, I'll
lose my way. There will be stumbling, falling, cursing the dark.
Whatever comes, there was this hour when nothing mattered, all
was unbearably dear.
And when I'm done with daylights, should those who loved me
grieve too long a while, let them remember that I had this hour
-- this dark, perfect hour -- and smile.
Senior Citizen Stories