When Family Members Care for Aging Parents
Sandeep Jauhar, a cardiologist, writes about her experience sharing caregiving duties with her siblings for a father with dementia and a mother with Parkinson’s disease:
My siblings and I joined the ranks of the 15 million or so unpaid and untrained family caregivers for older adults in the United States.
In addition to expected duties like dispensing medications and shopping for groceries, she discovered that she also needed to look out for people trying to take advantage of her parents financially:
after some items were stolen, we realized we had to be more careful about whom we allowed into our parents’ home. Older adults in this country lose almost $3 billion a year to theft and financial fraud.
Can’t Get Comfortable In Your Chair? Here’s What You Can Do
Chairs haven’t always been the big, soft, enveloping things that fill our living rooms today. Historically, chairs were built to accommodate the human spine better than many chairs do today. If you’re having trouble sitting comfortably, here are some suggestions about how to sit so as to best support your spine.
35 OVER 35: WOMEN AUTHORS WHO DEBUTED AT 35+
I’m a bit peeved that the author of this article chose 35 as the starting point for “older” writers’ debuts.
This list of “women writers whose debut traditionally published full-length work came out after their 35th birthday” includes writes from age 35 to 93.
Apple Watch faces its toughest challenge yet: Grandma and Grandpa
Because one of the stereotypes of older adults is people who have to ask their grandchildren how to work the DVR, I especially like articles that feature older adults using new technological gadgets. This article focus on the Series 4, the latest version of the Apple Watch:
The Series 4 Apple Watch now in stores pitches itself as a Food and Drug Administration-cleared “proactive health monitor” and a “guardian” that will call help if you take a hard fall. Its screen is 30 percent larger. You won’t see Apple say “senior citizen” in ads – yet suddenly, grandmothers and abuelas, not to mention opas, are thinking about getting one. Adult children looking to keep parents safe are curious, too.
Writer Geoffrey A. Fowler reports:
I sought help in reviewing the new Watch from a gang of tech-savvy seniors. Seven members of the Computer Club of Rossmoor, a 55-plus community in California, helped me set up, poke and prod the new model. No seniors were harmed in testing the fall-detection tech… . There wasn’t a technophobe among my helpers. After our tests, one of them – a satisfied Apple Watch owner – decided she’d definitely upgrade. None of the others were sold.
Read how they tested the watch and how the new features, such as the fall detector and electrocardiogram monitor, performed.
The Comforting Fictions of Dementia Care
This long article in The New Yorker looks at the use of “nostalgic environments,” surroundings created to resemble life in earlier times, to help ease the anxiety and disorientation of dementia patients. The article proceeds from description of such environments to a consideration of the ethics of lying to patients intertwined with a history of various approaches to treating patients with dementia.
© 2018 by Mary Daniels Brown
Retreading for Retirement 