Mom used to tackle housework and cooking like a pro—whipping up family favorites, keeping every corner spotless, and somehow making it all look easy. But now, things have changed. The vacuum feels heavier, laundry piles up faster, and cooking complex meals has turned into a draining chore. You’ve suggested getting a little help, but she shuts the idea down immediately. Where’s the resistance coming from? For many older adults, misconceptions…
Insights and Tips for Enhancing Care at Home
Finding Support for Family Caregivers When Siblings Won’t Help
If you’re managing the majority of care for your aging parents while your siblings remain uninvolved, you’re not alone. Caregiving can be a lonely journey, and many family caregivers find themselves carrying the burden without much help from other family members. In fact, a recent AARP report revealed that 50 percent of family caregivers are providing care alone. Understanding why this is such a common occurrence—and how to protect your…
Mom’s Coming Home from the Hospital: Can We Handle Her Home Care Alone?
Your 90-year-old mother, who has been living independently, recently experienced a fall that resulted in a cracked pelvis. After spending time in the hospital, she is finally coming home from the hospital today. As you quickly go over her release paperwork, you begin to feel a wave of anxiety wash over you. The list of responsibilities is long and daunting: picking up prescriptions, arranging transportation for physical therapy sessions, scheduling…
How to Overcome the Stigma Surrounding Mental Health in Aging Parents
Mental health awareness is crucial at every stage of life, but it takes on added significance as our parents grow older. For many older adults, discussing mental health can be particularly challenging due to deep-seated stigmas and the values they were raised with. It’s important to understand why older loved ones are often reluctant to talk about mental health, and recognizing the signs that they might be struggling can help…
Tips on How to Support Family Caregivers
Family caregivers know all too well how it is to feel invisible. Caring for someone you love takes center stage, and you may discover that your own needs are put on the back burner. A recent listening session, however, allowed family caregivers to speak honestly and openly about how to support family caregivers—and their feedback may surprise you. Here are some of the key findings and insights gleaned from these…
10 Time Management Tips for Family Caregivers
24-Hour Care to Help Seniors Age at Home Without Facing a Move
At first, caring for Mom may have just taken up a few hours of the week. But now, she’s starting to need help throughout most of the day and maybe even into the night. Now, you’re realizing Mom would feel most secure with someone around 24/7, ensuring her needs are met and ready to tackle any unexpected situations.
Careful Conversations: How to Approach Aging Parents’ Health Changes This Holiday
Heading home for the holidays can be a heartwarming experience filled with the warmth of family gatherings and the joy of reconnecting with loved ones. However, for many adult children, it can also be a time when the reality of their aging parents’ health changes becomes starkly apparent. If you’ve noticed Mom’s increasing forgetfulness or Dad’s declining mobility, you’re not alone – the holiday season often serves as a reality…
Alzheimer’s Care: Balancing the Responsibilities of Caregiving
Being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is life-changing both for the person receiving the diagnosis and anyone who loves them. It is important for family caregivers to allow themselves ample time to prepare for the changes to come with the new responsibilities of caregiving and to discover a healthy way to sort out the assorted emotions that manifest.
Dementia Caregiving: Unexpected Factors to Watch
If you’re the caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s, then you know how much patience, flexibility, and willingness to expect the unexpected that dementia caregiving takes. On any given day, the person may experience a broad array of emotions: calm, angry, agitated, fearful, giddy, melancholy. As you modify your care strategy to correspond to the person’s demeanor, you also need to juggle management of a host of challenging symptoms: wandering, repetitive…