Welcome to the May newsletter!
Deaf Caregivers Say Fixing Communication Barriers in Health Care Is Long Overdue
t was a fall in the middle of the night in 2012 when my mother's life shifted. She had been suffering from arthritis for many years and when she fell, she was rendered immobile. I was living with her at the time, with my younger brother. As we headed to the hospital, I could sense my life changing. I would need to become my mother's caregiver now. What I didn't realize is that I would face my first test in the emergency room.
The long, exhausting reach of dementia care
The Covid-19 pandemic is reinforcing a grim lesson we should have taken to heart but haven’t: Some diseases harm not only patients but also people close to them, reverberating throughout society.
In the U.S., the tallies of patients and deaths is nearing 30 million and 540,000, respectively, as I write this. Millions more have suffered isolation, depression, anxiety, and declining health. More than 20 million have seen cuts to their pay or even unemployment.
Gardening Therapy for Dementia
For someone who loves gardening, there is nothing like the meticulous, careful work of planning, planting and caring for a garden. The creative and tactile experience of being near to nature is not only good for our well-being, but it may in fact help to relieve the symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.