Teaching In-Home Caregivers Seems To Pay Off

Low-income Californians who are elderly and disabled were less likely to go to the emergency room or be hospitalized after their in-home caregivers participated in an intensive training program, according to a report.

Under a pilot program, nearly 6,000 aides in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Contra Costa counties were trained in CPR and first aid, as well infection control, medications, chronic diseases and other areas. All were workers of the In-Home Supportive Services program, who are paid by the state to care for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, many of them relatives.

Caregivers Could Be The REAL Silent Majority In This Election

There is probably not another segment of the population as large and drowning in quiet desperation as our country’s 34 million unpaid family caregivers. Yet their needs have barely been discussed on the national stage of this presidential election.

Why is that? Maybe it’s just that caregivers don’t have any time left on their hands to organize protest marches or come up with Twitter hashtags to keep their situation front and center in Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s headlights. But come November, don’t be surprised if the nation’s family caregivers rise up and speak in one voice.

When Should You Consider A Nursing Home For Your Spouse With Alzheimer's?

Written by Dr. Nathan Herrmann, Lewar Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Question: Is this the right time to think about a nursing home for my husband with Alzheimer's disease?

Answer: Placement in long-term care is one of the more difficult decisions facing caregivers of patients with dementia. Let me start by stating that my personal bias is to try and keep my patients at home as long as possible, assuming that their safety and health, as well as the caregiver's health, is compatible with this goal.

When Alzheimer’s Turns Violent

When I lost my mom to Alzheimer’s disease, one of the things I vowed was that I wouldn’t wait to fulfill my “bucket list” items. At the moment, I’m spending the summer with my family in New York City, where we’re seeing as many Broadway shows as we can — checking off another item on that bucket list. Seeing yet another Tony Award-winning show was part of our itinerary this week.

I’d heard that the play was full of humor, that it cast a spotlight on family dynamics and sometimes the darkness that lies beneath, that it was earning rave reviews and had a stellar cast. What I did not know was that the play features a grandmother with a dementia-related illness. I don’t think one character in the play ever uttered the word “Alzheimer’s,” but I know Alzheimer’s when I see it.

Alzheimer’s Patients Keep the Spark Alive by Sharing Stories

Can you keep the love light shining after your partner’s brain has begun to dim? Just ask Denise Tompkins of Naperville, Ill., married 36 years to John, now 69, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

The Tompkinses participated in an unusual eight-week storytelling workshop at Northwestern University that is helping to keep the spark of love alive in couples coping with the challenges of encroaching dementia.

New Medicare Law to Notify Patients of Loophole in Nursing Home Coverage

In November, after a bad fall, 85-year-old Elizabeth Cannon was taken to a hospital outside Philadelphia for six and a half days of “observation,” followed by nearly five months at a nearby nursing home for rehabilitation and skilled nursing care. The cost: more than $40,000.

The hospital insisted that Ms. Cannon had never been formally admitted there as an inpatient, so under federal rules, Medicare would not pay for her nursing home stay. The money would have to come from her pocket.

An Alzheimer's Doctor Reveals His Most Powerful Technology

I am an Alzheimer’s doctor. I practice at a “university-based memory center.” I care for patients with failing brains, and I also care for their families, because you cannot have one without the other.

Technology surrounds me. Beneath me, in a basement encased in concrete, a 220-ton cyclotron spins hydrogen atoms to near light speed, creating a beam of protons to shoot at a cancer. Around me, infusions suites house intravenous pumps delivering powerful medications. There are devices to monitor, pace and even resuscitate hearts. The building itself testifies to invention, a multi-storied glass-and-steel-framed atrium, a kind of crystal palace.

How to Move On From Caregiving After a Parent Dies

As an only child, Aline Roberts, 57, always knew the role of caregiver for her parents would eventually fall to her. Then when her father was hospitalized after a fall a few days before Christmas 2013, it did. Shortly thereafter, she took the lead in moving her 85-year-old parents out of their home of 40-plus years into an assisted living facility.

“We spoke on the phone daily, often two or three times,” she recalls. She was also regularly on calls with her parents’ health care providers, insurance company and caregivers at the assisted living facility. She made the 10-hour roundtrip drive from her home in Dothan, Ala., to New Orleans at least once a month, if not twice, to check on them in person.

Study: Gender Can Make A Difference In Diagnosis Of Alzheimer’s Disease

New research putting the spotlight on differences between the sexes when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease.

Among the 5.2 million Americans age 65 or older with Alzheimer’s disease, nearly two-thirds are women reports Dr. Deanna Lites.

This may be because men don’t show the same symptoms so they’re often misdiagnosed.

Clinical trial for Alzheimer’s gene gives hope to Woodbridge family

Almost since she got the devastating news eight years ago, Joanne has been looking forward, without really even knowing it, to the conference to be held in Toronto on Saturday.

Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease caused by a genetic mutation was rife in her husband Ted’s family. His late mother had it. A half-dozen aunts and uncles had or have the disease, and some are now in advanced stages.

In 2007, Ted began to have a few mild symptoms.

Picking an Elder Care Home for Dad: 5 Questions Families Should Ask Themselves

It’s difficult to see an aging father reach a point where full independence is impossible. Helping Dad transition from a role of caregiver to that of someone who needs care can be just as difficult—and can begin to feel like an exercise in walking on eggshells. Polite offers of help can be met with stern rebuffs, leaving you feeling helpless.

No one is ever fully ready for the tough, but necessary, conversations with a father who is clinging to his former way of life, but prolonging his struggles could have serious consequences in the long run.

Advice on taking care of a parent with Alzheimer’s

One in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, and nearly 16 million family members and friends are caregivers. Loretta Veney’s book “Being My Mom’s Mom” outlines many practical do’s and don’ts culled from her own experience with her mother. Here are a few: