Filtered tag: Recognizing and Dealing with Health Issues

Today was a very hard day for me as a gerontologist and case manager. I have a client who has Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s been five years since her diagnosis. She is on the highest dosage of Aricept and is well supported in Assistive Living. She is very functional and maintains a high level of independence… Read more…

Mr. Jones is an 83-year-old widower living in his own home. When asked, he’ll tell you he is doing “fair to middling.” He’ll go on to tell you his legs are tired and wobbly and he doesn’t get out as much as he’d used to. He has a scooter, which gets him to town and… Read more…

I am really excited to announce Keystone Eldercare Solutions’ new website! Click HERE to go right through to the site OR watch the video below and I will give you a quick tour of the new site.     If you have any comments, feedback OR find errors, please connect with me – my team… Read more…

I think it’s safe to say, “Death isn’t easy to deal with at any age.” So how do you explain it to your three-year-old? How do you comfort your eight-year-old when their grandparent dies? How comfortable are you with the whole concept of death? What are you beliefs regarding after-life, if any? How do you… Read more…

  All of us know the expression, “Where there is a will, there is a way” and perhaps we’ve even used it when we want to motivate someone, (maybe ourselves), that with determination achieving something or anything is possible. As I thought about a topic for this week’s column, it struck me that the same… Read more…

My Dad and I always got a kick out of seeing if people could figure out which of the following statements about us were fictitious: 1. We both celebrated the same birthday. 2. We both had brain surgery. 3. We both had webbed feet, making us exceptional swimmers. We got even more of a kick… Read more…

Why won’t my Mother accept help?” “My father won’t stop driving and he has had numerous accidents this year. What should I do?” “My Great Aunt denies needing any help despite evidence of missed meals and unwashed hair. Can you get her to accept help?” Sound familiar? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to these… Read more…

I returned from holidays to learn we had several new clients, many of which were initiated by out-of-town family caregivers. Statistically, 22 per cent of family caregivers provide care to aging loved ones long distance. Many out-of-town adult children are taken aback to see how much a parent has declined mentally, physically or emotionally from… Read more…

Last week, my dear friend Melissa from Toronto called me with some distressing news about her parents. Her Mom, who is but 70 years old, is showing early signs of dementia. Her Dad, who is 10 years older, is facing some major mobility issues due to chronic back pain. Needless to say, Melissa is, as… Read more…

Elaine hasn’t slept well for the past week, so when the phone rings at 5:30 a.m., she doesn’t wake with a start. She’s not surprised when the person on the other end is the night care support worker at the assisted living facility where her Mom lives. This is the fourth call from the facility… Read more…