We Americans often fall into the trap of looking at our problems in isolation. But every nation in the world faces its own challenges when it comes to caring for the elderly and younger people with disabilities. An imporant new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides an important international context for caregiving and caregivers in the developed [...]
Last evening, I had the opportunity to speak to WISER (Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement), a Washington, D.C.- based group dedicated to improving the financial security of women. My topic: caregiving, and the effects it has on Baby Boomer women. I told the group about a couple of women I met when I wrote my book, Caring for Our [...]
As if we needed it, this week has provided yet more evidence that the world of both medical and long-term care services for seniors is changing in profound ways. It is complicated and hard to follow, but the bottom line is this: There will be increasingly less government support for the services frail seniors and their families need. And senior services [...]
Prepare yourself for big new cuts in government support for elder care. In his State of the Union address last evening, President Obama called for a five-year freeze on a narrow slice of the federal budget. Unfortunately, programs subject to the freeze would include many that are critically important to the frail elderly and younger people with disabilities--especially those living in [...]
It is an article of faith among many in the elder and disability advocacy communities that aging in place is always the best alternative for someone who needs personal care. I don't believe it, and I recently heard an important panel discussion that confirmed that view. The panel, sponsored by Washington Grantmakers, was especially interesting because the participants were all supporters of [...]
I spent yesterday with more than a hundred elder care professionals at the Seven Acres senior care campus in Houston. For a while they listened to me, but for much of the time I had the opportunity to listen to them. And what I heard was striking, and an important addition to the HSC Foundation's recently published study based on listening to family caregivers. We [...]
The other day, I had a long talk with a friend about her mom. My friend lives on the East Coast. Her mother lives in the Midwest. Mom is in an independent living apartment and recently has been falling and suffering memory lapses. The other day, mom got lost trying to drive home from her regular bridge game. My friend realizes it is time for her mother to [...]
We all know how tough it is to be a family caregiver. The physical, financial, and emotional strains have been well documented for years. And those of us who have cared for a family member hardly need research to describe these pressures. But a new study suggests active caregiving, as opposed to the role of passively sitting and waiting for a problem to occur, [...]
Those of us who are caring for our parents or other loved ones know how tough it is. The emotional, physical, and financial burdens are sometimes overwhelming. Bathing your father or changing his adult diaper puts both of you in a new, uncomfortable, and difficult world. But at a Syracuse University long-term care conference I attended last Thursday and Friday, Carol Levine reminded me about the medical expertise caregivers [...]
Receiving personal care at home, as opposed to in a nursing facility or other institution, is not possible without two things: Somebody to provide the assistance and an appropriate place to live. A southern Virginia minister has come up with a possible solution to the second. MEDCottage is a portable, modular self-contained 24x12 dwelling that could be attached to the home [...]