Communicating with Senior Citizens
How to better communicate with elderly people.
Hearing Healthcare of Virginia
Hearing Healthcare of Virginia is a local, privately owned company with six clinics serving Virginia. The Hearing Healthcare of Virginia hearing specialists are longtime residents of the areas they serve and are committed to their communities! I know this personally because of their frequent and enthusiastic participation in Aging in Place Business Round Table in both [...]
If You Can Face It, I Can Face It!
“Are you ready for this?” My client was continuing a game we love to play together: I call to remind her of my appointment to help her with her calendar, the mail, the bills, the taxes, the doctor’s appointments. She warns me, tongue firmly in cheek, of the chaos that will greet me when I [...]
Think You Know What a Power of Attorney is For? Not so Fast – Watch This Video!
Powers of attorney are widely misunderstood, even among professionals in the senior care industry. Equally misunderstood is how to determine if a person has legal capacity to make their own decisions. For example, did you know that in the State of Virginia: If the person granting the power of attorney (the principal) has mental capacity [...]
Tips for Communicating with an Elderly Loved One with Hearing Loss
How do you make communication easier with a loved one who has hearing loss? I like the following summary from Oticon. You can download the Oticon full brochure here. Talk Face-to-Face Face the person you are talking to. Don’t try to converse from a different room or with your back turned. It is easier to [...]
Clear Speech Technique Helps Your Hearing Impaired Loved One Understand You
Hearing loss can make your loved one feel isolated, embarrased and frustrated. You can help by making your own speech easier to understand. Clear Speech is a technique of speaking in which the speaker attempts to express every word and sentence in a precise, accurate, and fully formed manner. It is not loud, monotone, artificial [...]
UVA Speech-Language-Hearing Center Provides Hearing Aid Services
The UVA Speech-Language-Hearing Center offers comprehensive services for the diagnosis and treatment of language, speech, and hearing disorders for adults, adolescents, children, and infants. The facility has treatment rooms with observation capabilities and diagnostic suites for hearing evaluations and hearing aid fittings. At Care is There, we have experienced Dr. Mani Aguilar’s passion for her [...]
On her iPhone home screen, next to her knitting instructions
I am constantly inspired by our clients, and I’ve learned to never underestimate them. Today I was talking to a new client, who cares for her elderly mother in the home they share. We were getting her setup on the website we use to communicate with her and her out-of-town sister about the geriatric care [...]
Video: Charlottesville Albemarle TRIAD Helps Keep Senior Citizens Safe
TRIAD presents Senior Safety Seminars about home safety, scam awareness, safe shopping on the Internet, storm preparedness, gang awareness, and elder abuse.
How to Say it to Seniors
Want to know how to communicate with your elderly parents? David Solie wrote the classic: How to Say it to Seniors, Closing the Communication Gap with our Elders. This is a must read for anyone who wants to learn what is important to our elders, how to understand what they are trying to tell us, [...]
Online Course and Study Group “Know Thyself” Helps Lifelong Learners Expand and Connect
Coursera offers free, high quality courses on-line. Starting March 4 is the course Know Thyself by University of Virginia professor Mitchell Green.
Digging Ditches with Dad – the Art of the Family Visit
What’s the recipe for a perfect family visit? Answering that question can open a whole new world of joy and connection with the people you love. My family loves doing projects together. We thrive on the closeness we derive from planning, trading ideas, recognizing each other’s strengths, and admiring the fruits of our labor. Our [...]
Geriatric Care Management: Useful and Ornamental!
I spent Christmas Eve with a delightful client who was having a medical emergency. In the process of thanking me she said, with a gleam in her eye: “You’re both ornamental and useful!” I love that compliment! As care managers, those of us at Care is There want our client’s lives to go well, but [...]
Connecting With Your Elderly Parents at the Holidays
The holidays are a time for connecting with our families, with our traditions, and with what makes our lives meaningful. How can we make this precious time a fulfilling opportunity rather than a stressful rush? As usual, a client provided me with insight and inspiration! Today I helped a client prepare her holiday cards. This [...]
Boundary-setting for Care Givers and Care Receivers
Care giving and care receiving present many challenges, not the least of which is learning to set healthy boundaries. Johanna Rude can help! Johanna is the founder of Passion Points, an organization that combines psychotherapy tools with executive coaching. With her background in psychotherapy, business and executive coaching, Johanna provides the guidance, insight and accountability [...]
AAA Online Interactive Driving Evaluation for Senior Citizens
Concerned it is not safe for your senior citizen loved one to drive? Driving safety is one of the most difficult conversations between adult children and their elderly parents, and sometimes it helps to use a neutral evaluation tool. AAA has developed an on-line, confidential self-screening program featuring a series of computer-based exercises that can [...]
Elderly Parents Not Taking Their Medications? Partner With Your Pharmacist!
Failure to take medications as prescribed is a leading cause of problems for senior citizens, and can contribute to them prematurely losing their health and independence. A 2012 study indicates that the most pervasive reason for non-compliance is the cost of the medication, but that patients are more likely to take their medication if they [...]
Communicating with Senior Citizens: Listen, Be Authentic, Show Respect
Excerpt: “As Seniors we know our capabilities and energy are diminishing, but want to retain the right to limit ourselves when the time comes, and not have young people put those limitations on us, to make them feel better.” I recently asked Dawn Schultz and several others to speak at the Aging in Place Business [...]
How to Effectively Communicate with Senior Citizens and Their Adult Children
I asked four esteemed colleagues to participate in a panel discussion titled “What Seniors (and their Families) Want – How to Promote Your Services Effectively and Respectfully.” The discussion was brilliant, and made for a very rewarding meeting of our Aging in Place Business Round Table from the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. It was [...]
The Art of Making a Personal Connection – Plus my own Dad singing!
This week I’ve been visiting my own parents, who have taught me so much over the years about caregiving. Besides raising me and my two sisters, they cared for their own aging parents and took on extensive, longstanding caregiving roles for members of their church. My dad is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and [...]
Ducks in a Row: End of Life Planning with Mary Ann Stripling
One of the most difficult components of senior living is the constant worry over what comes next. Oftentimes, it is overwhelming to consider how many decisions have to be made in a short time-span, so that in the event of disability or death, all personal wishes and information are easy to access and understand. Well, [...]
The Art of the Medical Emergency
My client’s medical emergency is beautiful. My client is beautiful and she is the master of her emergency. Here’s why and how. She is of 81 years; a Ph.D. in sociology; a painter. Gracious, generous, and thoroughly competent, a friend said she “should be running the United Nations.” Quite. Her health is better than most people [...]
Caregiving Resolution: This Year We Celebrate!
Here’s a powerful mind trick: pretend you are sitting at the funeral of the elderly person you love. Now that they are gone, what are you treasuring about them? What is lost now that they are gone? What do you wish you had done or said? Now: snap your fingers and you have a second [...]
How Not to Have the Same Old Conversation with your Elderly Parents
It’s that time of year – time to visit the elderly parents! You’re glad you’re going because, you know, you love them and all and they may not be around forever. But are you already getting antsy thinking about sitting around in that dusty house having the same conversation you’ve had for twenty years? Time [...]
CareCheckers Call Service Checks on Your Elderly Loved Ones
CareCalls from Care Checkers are designed to assist families of aging and disabled loved ones by making daily health and safety checkup calls. Care Checkers offers medication reminders, meal reminders and activity reminders, along with friendly social interaction. All calls are made by live representatives, not an automated system. They keep caregivers updated with daily status reports [...]
Massachusetts General Hospital Documents the Benefits of Care Managers
Where do geriatric care managers fit into the health care system? Today I listened to a presentation about innovations in the delivery of health care. Timothy Ferris, M.D., M.Phil, M.P.H., Medical Director, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization reported these important results of adding care managers to Massachussets General Hospital (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School) in a [...]
Thanking my clients for their…Moxie!
My clients have moxie. I love them for it! Two of my beloved clients died this year but while they lived they did it moxily! One of them raised three kids on her own after her husband was killed suddenly in a freak accident. She picked herself up and did what needed to be done – [...]
Be a Caregiving Genius! Ten Easy Tips
Want to be a caregiving genius? Try these ten easy tips! How do I know so much, besides the fact that I’m a geriatric care manager? I like to listen to my clients, and yesterday one of them said to me (and I quote) “You are a genius!” Hey, cut my pay in half and sign me [...]
The Intimacy of Caregiving
I knocked on the door – no answer. I called – no answer. His newspaper was still by the door. I asked if the neighbors had seen him. No. I was checking in on a new 90-year-old client while his family was away for the weekend. On Saturday everything went as planned – he greeted me [...]
Helping Senior Citizens Relocate
Do you know a senior citizen who is facing a household move? Change is difficult for anyone, and it can be especially unsettling for senior citizens. Moving one’s house means moving one’s home. It means giving up familiar surroundings and routines and often means giving up cherished belongings that signify memories, accomplishments, and affection. It may [...]
Caregiving – How Everyone Can Win
In my work as a geriatric care manager I’m always looking for the win/win/win scenario: the client wins, the caregiver wins, the community wins. I see so many caregivers frustrated because their loved ones won’t accept the help they appear to need. But who really wants to “be helped?” We are used to being independent and productive, [...]
Joy with Our Mothers Now
I spoke on Jennifer Till’s radio show about how we can miss the joy of “now” with our mothers by relating to them based on past experiences. (Click here to listen to a recording of that episode of “Real Life with Jennfer Till.”) Perhaps we had difficult childhood experiences with our mothers that we haven’t fully [...]
Your Mom and I are Having a Slumber Party
At 1:30am I got a call from the personal emergency response system (PERS) for one of my clients. The message was cryptic and unsettling: “Person number one is not responding! Person number one is not responding!” Hmm. So I called her and she was fine — bright as could be! I apologized for waking [...]
My 92-year-old Client Says “Do Resuscitate!”
Should a healthy ninety-two year old woman sign a do not resuscitate (DNR) order for herself? A client of mine was given that choice recently. She is marvelously modern, healthy and alive, having a spirit that is deep in wisdom and fresh with optimism and grace — and a body that is holding up well! [...]
A Miracle Can Look Like A Bagel
This week I attended Charlottesville’s Senior Networking Group – one of several such groups I participate in to keep informed about services available here. After the meeting there were bagels left over. Margaret Fitch – Program Coordinator for our local Senior Center – knew I was going to see on of our geriatric care management [...]
How a Trip to the Hairdresser Can Change Everything
Today I took a client to the hairdresser. That was a giant victory because this very frail and very proud lady rarely lets anyone do anything for her. Then we had lunch (something she rarely does anymore) and picked up light bulbs for her nightlights and a battery for the radio beside her bed. So [...]
Coming to Terms with Dementia
This is a beautiful article about the changes that dementia brings and how family members and caregivers can cope, adjust, and ultimately reconnect: “Loving Those with Dementia the Way They Are“, by Daniel C. Potts, MD
Cell Phone Designed for Senior Citizens Includes an Emergency Response System!
“Just Five” is the next generation in cell phones for seniors. See the Independent Lifestyles Newsletter for a description and how to learn more. In order to age in place with excellence and maintain our independent living as long as possible, it make sense to leverage technology in addition to all the love and care [...]
Senior Citizens and Driving: Dementia – What if My Parent Forgets They Can’t Drive?
Dementia and driving are a dangerous mix, and it becomes even more complicated if your elderly parent forgets they can’t drive.
Senior Citizens and Driving: Life After Driving
Losing the ability to drive can be a major turning point in a person’s life and can threaten their independent living and plans for aging in place. It means he must depend on other people or professional services for transportation, and he is subject to their schedules, routes, and destinations. There is the risk that after an older person loses the ability to drive, they will stop doing the things that keep them healthy and engaged.
Senior Citizens and Driving: How to Talk to Your Elderly Parents About Driving
When speaking to your loved one, remember that driving is a powerful symbol of and facilitator of freedom and independence. It also forces older people to consider that they may no longer be capable of performing a task that they’ve been doing since they were a teenager! So it is important to discuss the subject with respect and consideration.
Senior Citizens and Driving: What To Do When Your Elderly Parent Needs to Stop Driving
For your elderly parent, losing the ability to drive can seem like the first sign that they are losing their freedom and independence and they may feel it will threaten their ability to age in place. But if your loved one has become unsafe behind the wheel they are a risk not only to themselves but to other people’s loved ones that are sharing the road with them.
Senior Citizens and Technology: Eldercare Locator Publishes “Staying Connected: Technology Options for Older Adults”
Eldercare Locator’s “Staying Connected: Technology Options for Older Adults” guide takes users through the basic facts about how to use tools like Facebook, email and texting, including privacy and safety information. The guide also introduces YouTube, Twitter, Skype, Instant Messaging and blogging – all tools that older adults can use to stay connected. You can [...]
Five Ways to Get your Elderly Parent to Listen to You
Elderly parents will listen to you if you understand what is important to them vs pushing your own agenda. Try these five ways to improve your communication with them, whether you are a long distance caregiver or close at hand.
