What ‘In Sickness and In Health’ Really Looks Like

“For better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” These vows are repeated hundreds of times a year, in front of thousands of witnesses, to represent a binding contract between husband and wife. The beauty is when these words ring true — 63 years later.

Frank and Mary Jo Havlak are the focus in a New York Times Op-Doc series by filmmaker Joe Callander. The Havlaks have been married for almost 63 years, but for the last eight, Mary Jo has suffered from Alzheimer’s. Her memory of weddings, graduations and holidays is gone, but this has not deterred Frank from holding on to that commitment he made to her all those years ago.

You know those caregivers who keep it all together? Despite the responsibilities and challenges of caregiving, they still have time to pursue their own interests and they make time for friends, fun, and even fitness. How do they do it?

In talking to working daughters all across the country, I’ve observed that successful, happy caregivers do some things differently than most caregivers.

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The Truth About Long Term Care And Why You Must Talk About It

Could you imagine a time that your aging parents were no longer independent?  They are probably not going to bring up that question. It might be the conversation no one wants to have. Will you, the adult child take on that task?  What we see at AgingParents.com is that when no one talks about it, the sudden costs can overwhelm all but the most financially secure.  Parents are unprepared and their adult children become very uncomfortable with the prospect of having to help support their aging loved ones.

Sudden costs happen when a parent falls, or has a stroke and becomes disabled.  Anything unexpected can trigger the need for help. Mom or Dad (or both sometimes) can’t manage alone any longer. Then the scrambling begins.

Working It Out at Your Workplace

As a working caregiver, have you found that your personal and professional lives collide? If so, you are certainly not alone! Consider that many of us will work an average 40-hour work week. As a busy caregiver, you could easily add another 20 to 25 hours on top of that tending to an aging senior’s needs and little time remains. As a means to ease that burden, employers could better recognize these challenges and make caregiving respite much easier for their own working staff. Just one idea would be to welcome their staff’s elderly parents into the workplace to receive care and support while sons and daughters are on the job. With the ever-rising number of employees trying vainly to juggle their own career and caregiving responsibilities, this change might well be in order.

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Disorientation: Why It's More Devastating Than the Loss of Words Share

We try to parse diagnostic data into finer and finer distinctions, thinking the dissection will result in better care for loved ones with dementia. If only the transition from classification to intervention was that simple.

When I suggested to a friend that some of his father's behaviors could be indicative of dementia, he said, “No it’s not dementia, it’s Alzheimer’s.” He proceeded to go into a long list of diagnostic features distinguishing Alzheimer’s from other forms of dementia and memory problems associated with aging, alcoholism, and chronic sleep deprivation.

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5 Signs That Someone You Love May Be A Hoarder

Smith College psychologist Randy Frost, an expert on obsessive-compulsive disorder and a pioneer in the field of compulsive hoarding, estimates there are as many as 4 million hoarders nationwide and many more who fall on the spectrum of “problematic cluttering behavior.” Hoarding is a problem that worsens with age.

Hoarding, Frost said, is associated with a number of things including difficulty processing information, the inability to make decisions when confronted with a large amount of information and a failure to categorize things — meaning you can’t see the commonality of objects and they instead all look unique to you.

8 innovators targeting the elder-care market

The longevity economy, representing all economic activity serving the needs of Americans over 50, is expected to top $13.5 trillion by 2032, according to Oxford Economics. This opportunity isn't lost on savvy entrepreneurs.

Out of a total 290 entrepreneurs who attended the annual Boomer Summit last month in Chicago, 40 percent were entrepreneurs hoping to pitch their products to potential investors and get ideas on how to best appeal to this demographic. That was twice the amount as the previous year, and for the first time, they came from many different countries.

10 Things You Should Save To Give To Your Kids Someday

Chances are, you never use your Grandma’s china set although you’ve schlepped it along for multiple moves because the idea of selling it feels wrong. So what do you want your kids to have — that won’t burden them the way the china set does? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Some caring for Alzheimer's patients make "startling" sacrifices

Almost half of the people caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's disease are sacrificing their own financial security to do so, and many are setting aside their own basic needs, a new nationwide survey shows.

According to the Alzheimer's Association's 2016 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report, many caregivers put off their own medical care, sell their cars to raise money, draw from funds meant for their kids' education, and even cut back on food to support a loved one with Alzheimer's.

On average, the report found they spent more than $5,000 a year of their own money to care for someone with Alzheimer's disease, but amounts varied widely and some spent far more.

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Are You Going Broke Caring for a Loved One With Dementia?

If the 15 million Americans who provide unpaid care for relatives and friends with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias received just $12.25-an-hour for their efforts, they’d have racked up more than $221 billion in 2015, according to a report out Wednesday March 30.

That’s nearly half the net value of Walmart and about eight times the total revenue of McDonald’s, according to the 2016 edition of “Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures,” compiled by the Alzheimer’s Association.

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Big Financial Costs Are Part Of Alzheimer's Toll On Families

First, Alzheimer's takes a person's memory. Then it takes their family's money.

That's the central finding of a report published Wednesday by the Alzheimer's Association on the financial burden friends and families bear when they care for someone with dementia.

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You Can Take These Tax Deductions for Long-Term Senior Care

Know the rules for deducting assisted living expenses.

Tax season is here, and for many seniors and family caregivers of elderly loved ones, it can be a stressful time of year. No one likes to be hit with a big tax bill, and for elderly folks living on a fixed income, keeping costs down is crucial.

For seniors, deductions for certain medical expenses, including some long-term care and assisted living expenses, are among the biggest tax-saving opportunities. And in some cases, family caregivers of older adults can include related expenses in their own tax deductions.

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