Seniors go through a lot of changes that can impact their mental and emotional health. Some of these changes are minor and occur gradually, while others are significant and abrupt. Below are some of the challenges older adults face that may compromise their psychological well-being. Challenges That Impact Seniors’ Emotional and Mental Health Isolation and […]

View Full Article - Improving Older Adults’ Mental and Emotional Well-Being with Home Health Care

Up to 42% of Americans over the age of 65 take five or more medications, and in 2018, at least one in every five seniors experienced an adverse drug reaction. Such reactions are more common when seniors can’t properly adhere to the instructions that accompany their prescriptions. In fact, according to U.S. Pharmacist, nonadherence accounts for about half […]

View Full Article - How New Tech Can Support Caregivers as They Support Seniors

Approximately half of middle-aged people in American provide financial, health, or emotional support for adult parents and minor or adult children. The term “sandwich generation caregiver” emerged in the 1980’s to describe middle-aged people who support minor children while providing physical, emotional, financial, or legal assistance to adults. Of course, doing so much exacts personal […]

View Full Article - Dilemmas and Solutions for Americans Raising Children While Caring for Elderly Family Members

Caring for loved ones who have aged or become disabled is not a new concept. Many of the services provided in hospitals, clinics and even funeral homes were once provided by families at home. Particularly in communities where traditional cultural beliefs are highly valued, taking care of an aging parent or grandparent is still a […]

View Full Article - The Critical Role of Caregivers, and What they Need from Us

Emergency room staff call it a “pop drop” – when a disabled older person comes in for medical attention, but it seems like the person who takes care of them at home is also seeking a break from the demands of caregiving. It’s been hard to actually study the phenomenon. A new University of Michigan […]

View Full Article - Stressed Out Caregivers Are Using ER Visits for Respite, Study Finds

More than 700,000 elderly and disabled Americans receive health care in residential care communities, such as assisted living facilities. As the population ages, this number will grow. A new study by RTI International found that low Medicaid payment rates for services in assisted living and similar settings discourage residential care providers from serving Medicaid beneficiaries, which […]

View Full Article - Low Medicaid Rates Limit Beneficiaries’ Access to Assisted Living Facilities, Quality Care

In this “silver tsunami” era, elder populations are outnumbering the younger workforce. This creates significant inequity and more than enough opportunity for people to take advantage. Whether financially, neglectfully, emotionally, physically or sexually, seniors in the United States are at a high risk for exploitation. Seniors can be abused by underpaid and overworked employees. Nursing […]

View Full Article - Elder Abuse in the Twenty-First Century

When working with elderly patients in health care facilities, it is likely that we may forget about the needs of their adult children aka The Sandwich Generation. The sandwich generation is adult children typically between the ages of 30-50 who are caring for their aging parents while taking care of their own family as well. Taking care […]

View Full Article - Are We Forgetting About The Sandwich Generation?

I work for a hospice program providing palliative care which means we attend to the emotional and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients at an inpatient facility or at the patient’s home, and I see lots of people near the end of their life. Some of them are too lethargic to use an iPad, but […]

View Full Article - Are We Afraid of Developing Technology for the Elderly

A few weeks ago at the Home and Community Health Association conference, I met some of the team behind CleverCare, a new service that connects an Android smart watch to a web interface and a 24-hour call centre. CleverCare is the brain-child of Maria Johnston. As the website explains, “developing the Clevercare system was driven […]

View Full Article - CleverCare Watch Brings Peace of Mind

In today’s technology-enabled world, adult services social workers are looking for better ways to help them with their work, but they may be worried about how their clients will react. In honor of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15, a day to bring together senior citizens, their caregivers, and governments to combat the […]

View Full Article - Adult Services and Mobile Technology: There’s an App for That

The last place one would expect to find ageism well and flourishing is in the helping professions, particularly among those who devote their careers to working with, helping, and advocating for older adults. Yet, we often see ageist attitudes prevail in these areas.  Not unnoticed are the unintentional ageist practices in our own field of […]

View Full Article - Are Social Workers Disempowering and Contributing to Widening the Power Differential

When I first became a hospice social worker, I was stunned to realize more than half of my patients were diagnosed with advanced dementia. I had been under the assumption that I would be working with mostly people with cancer or other chronic illnesses such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Congestive Heart Failure […]

View Full Article - A Gentle Approach to Dementia for Care Providers

By Denise Bartley, Andre Juste, Rachel Meadows, and Guiseline Momplaisir According to a study by the National Center on elder abuse, 63.7% of the reported abuse cases were elderly women? Statistics suggest that the majority of elderly Americans, our grandmothers and grandfathers, are being abused and neglected. For those of you who don’t know, elderly […]

View Full Article - Elder Abuse: Don’t Let It Be Your Grandma!

We are having a conversation, social worker to social worker, about the older constituents and clients who we each try to help. She works in a small senior center, and I work in the district office of a New York State Senator. I believe it is those of us on the front line of senior […]

View Full Article - Older People Living Alone With Dementia

In late September, HUD’s Secretary Julián Castro made the announcement that nearly $8 million in grant funding will be used to assist thousands of people with disabilities and senior citizens receive healthcare, meals, and other daily living activities and services in the comforts of their own homes, arranged by service coordinators.  Living independently as a disabled […]

View Full Article - HUD Awarded $7.5 Million to Assist Disabled & Elderly Americans Live Independently

Recently, the United States Department of Justice announced the launch of the Elder Justice website which was created to help further combat elder abuse and financial exploitation of seniors. Being the caregiver of a member of the Silent Generation and being a helping professional, I understand how dire it is to protect the older members […]

View Full Article - Spotlighting the Launch of the DOJ’s Elder Justice Website

Surveys show that most people when asked prefer to spend the last years of their lives in their homes rather than in a community or institutional setting. What they fail to consider…or don’t want to consider…is the prospect of being homebound and spending their last years alone with only an aide for companionship. As human […]

View Full Article - Aging-in-Place: It Can Be Detrimental to Your Health

This month, we learned that former model and restaurateur B. Smith has been living with Alzheimer’s Disease.  Smith, dubbed the “black Martha Stewart” due to her career paths as a designer, author, and TV host, shared her story about remaining steadfast in fighting the disease, and having the support of her husband and business partner. Hearing […]

View Full Article - African Americans Speaking Out About Alzheimer’s Disease

How do you feel when you sit down to unwind in front of the television at the end of the day and you are bombarded with ads that tell you to “Stop the Hands of Time with Mrs. Smith’s Anti-Aging Formula 801”?  Or, you may want to try a little cosmetic surgery to lift that […]

View Full Article - Ageism and the Anti-Aging Industrial Complex: What Does Wisdom & Beauty Look Like?