Inside Aging Parent Care

A Recipe for Combating Ageism

By Carol March 20th, 2012

Poking around on line for a bit of inspiration I came across this meaty morsel written by attorney Orrin Onken and republished in Ronni Bennett’s blog Time Goes By:

The Older Americans’ Pledge

We will not be judged by the values of youth.

We will not be expelled from work or play.

We will not equate aging with illness.

We will not be a subject matter for experts.

We will not be the objects of condescension or ridicule.

We will not be a social or economic problem.

We will not be trivialized.

We will not be docile.

We will not be interned.

We will treat our later decades as a unique stage of human development.

We will …

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Revisiting The Caregiver Desperation Scale

By Carol March 4th, 2012

A few posts from a couple of years ago still get a lot of looks. Here is one of my favorites:

Not long ago, after we got home from taking my very thin and frail father to one of his medical appointments, Bill postponed our customary debriefing session to take a quick trip to the Safeway for ice cream. Of course it was chocolate.

By the time he got home, I was wondering if we caregivers can get a rough idea of our own stress levels by noticing things like ice cream runs or the incidence of lost car keys. We tossed this idea around for awhile, and here is the result:

The Family Caregiver Desperation Scale ©

1. You have a feeling of optimism and a strong sense of resolve to make things …

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Fear of Dying

By Bill March 1st, 2012

Dead

Recently Carol and I have noted a number of media stories about how our population has a greater life expectancy than in years past. The stories talk about an aging population with more degenerative diseases, and people needing to take many steps to remain healthy into their nineties.

While there is some truth to all that, the real reason life expectancy has increased so drastically is that people are living past infancy and childhood in greater numbers. The fact is that in past centuries if a person lived past those first critical years they stood a fair chance of living a long life. The same is true today, with help from modern medicine.

“Wait!” you say, “More and more people are reaching an advanced age.” Well, yes. There are more and more …

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Strategies for Aging in Place: A Roommate

By Carol February 21st, 2012

Informal group living is a trend in housing for seniors who don’t want to move to industrial senior care where they may be locked out of the main dining room if they become disabled. If you don’t believe you could get locked out of the dining room at a nice senior community where you might have paid $600,000 for the privilege of paying more in high monthly rents and fees, check out this post at the New York Times New Old Age blog.

Students at Columbia University School of Journalism explore the option of taking a roommate in this video.

My House, Our Home from Our Future Selves on Vimeo. Social Bookmarking

Technorati Tags: aging, aging in place, Brave Old World, Columbia School of Journalism, elderly changes, healthy aging, New Old Age, paula span, senior care

Retired, Not Engaged

By Bill February 16th, 2012

Not Engaged

I was doing the grocery shopping yesterday. The store was busy with Valentine’s Day shoppers getting their last minute gifts, myself among them. There were at least two non-shoppers in the store as well. As I pushed my cart near the main entrance I saw one of my fellow water department retirees walking out the store. I wasn’t able to catch him to talk to him because of the crowd . The unusual thing is that he was leaving without any purchases. I also saw another elder retiree hovering near the exit greeting children, talking to their mothers and the store staff, and generally impeding shoppers trying to leave the store.

I have not seen the elder man before, but I have seen the fellow retiree other times. Once was in …

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Revisiting The Caregiver Desperation Scale

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