Three Sweet Gifts for Elders and Their Caregivers
Now that the wild flurry of December holidays is over, I’m settling back into a more relaxed relationship with the subject of gift-giving. From the safe vantage point of mid-January, I view my family’s...
View Article“This Story Needs to Be Shared: A Drug-Induced Dementia?” by Ellen Belk
“A Drug-Induced Dementia? Our Family Ordeal with an Over-Medicated Elder” is Ellen Belk’s powerful story of her father, whose “precautionary trip to the emergency room” following a fall in the bathroom...
View Article“When ‘Knowing’ Changes Everything: The Value of ‘Mapping’ End-of-Life...
Editor’s note: “It’s OK to Die” is the title of a book and web site by Monica Williams-Murphy, MD, an emergency medicine physician who helps individuals and their loved ones prepare for death....
View ArticleGratitude Series, 3/17/2013
3/11/2013: I am grateful for today’s email from Amazon.com that says my video camera has been shipped. With this new tool, I hope to film some short pieces about caregiving and self-care for you to see...
View ArticleHow to Write a Condolence Note
Yesterday after church I stood in line for coffee and then threaded my way through the crowd in the parlor to the note-writing table. Our pastoral care volunteers set up the table each Sunday, complete...
View ArticleDear Readers, I’m Sharing Secrets of My Happiness
Dear Readers, Awhile ago, I wrote a piece for you called Dear Readers, This Year I Want to Write About Happiness. Since then, I’ve been through a storm of painful circumstances that is turning out to...
View Article“Weeping in Public Places” by Donna Thomson
Editor’s note: Today’s post is a poignant story from Donna Thomson, who is an active blogger about issues relating to caregiving on her website “The Caregivers’ Living Room” (www.donnathomson.com). She...
View ArticleInfographic on Family Changes and the “Sandwich Generation”
Editor’s note: Thanks to Griswold Home Care for this enlightening look at multiple generations growing up and growing older in our families. Griswold Home CareFiled under: Aging and Elders, Caregiver...
View ArticleKeeping People with Dementia Active Through Music
Editor’s Note: Here is the outline of a presentation I’m giving on using music as an activity with people who have Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. It’s geared to professional caregivers, but...
View ArticleInfographic on Alzheimer’s Disease and Home Safety
Editor’s note: Thanks to Griswold Home Care for this valuable guide to key safety issues facing those affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Note that a common symptom is agnosia, an...
View ArticleSad: My Nurse-Mentor Is in Hospice
Editor’s note: Six-Word Memoirs® is a project of SMITH Magazine that challenges us to tell a story in six words. “Writing in Six Words,” says the online publication’s editor, “is a simple, creative way...
View ArticleIllness, Forgiveness, and Families by Dana Snyder-Grant, LICSW
Editor’s note: Illness and blame. Blame and forgiveness. Forgiveness and healing. My friend Dana Snyder-Grant, a Massachusetts writer and social worker, has had ample opportunity in her personal and...
View ArticleStove Reminder™: A Home Safety Tool for Your Kitchen by Alan Majer
Editor’s note: Today’s post gives us a glimpse into the world of inventors who develop products to help individuals maintain their independence at home. I invited Canadian entrepreneur Alan Majer to...
View Article5 New Tips for a More Peaceful Feast: Thanksgiving 2013
Last year I wrote my first Thanksgiving post for you, 5 Tips for a More Peaceful Feast: Thanksgiving 2012. It was a wonderful holiday, full of warmth and laughter. It was also a day full of sorrow,...
View ArticleWant to Help Me Write My Book?
May 5, 2014 Dear Readers, Want to help me write my book? Rest is a book of readings about finding rest and renewal as we care for others. The poems and stories I’m writing for Rest are relatively easy...
View ArticleWho Are Family Caregivers? (INFOGRAPHIC)
Editor’s Note: This infographic about family caregivers was published by Alert1. Thanks to Glen Hougan for listing it on his Pinterest board, Aging, care & health: infographics. — MAB [Via: Alert1...
View ArticleHow Science Can Help You Stick to Your Goals
Editor’s note: Happify is a light-hearted but science-based online resource for games and activities to boost happiness. You might enjoy playing some of these educational games yourself, or trying them...
View ArticleMovement Modalities: Nia Dance Poem
Nia Dance Poem With thanks to Karen, Maria, and Robyn These first rare steps on the enchanted floor: soft as sand dunes beneath your bare feet. Words, dear words, bubbles of music: humming sitar,...
View ArticleDementia Talk #2: Props
How can we bring lightness and pleasure to our interactions with people with dementia? I like to use props, which can be any durable object suitable for show-and-tell. Introducing a new object to a...
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