What to Ask When Medicare Pays for Care at Home

May 30, 2011

I hope by now it’s clear: Medicare does not pay for ongoing help at home. However, if your aging parent has what’s known as a “skilled need” (i.e. a medical need for the skilled assistance of a nurse, physical therapist or speech pathologist), Medicare will pay for the skilled assistance AND often a home health [...]

Read the full article →

15 Ways to Help a Parent Break a Hip

May 26, 2011

Raise your hand if your mom or dad would like to spend up to a year in a nursing home… All kidding aside, this is EXACTLY what can happen if your aging parent breaks a hip. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that breaking (sometimes called “fracturing”) a hip is serious [...]

Read the full article →

Medicare vs. Medicaid – What’s the Difference & Who Qualifies?

May 23, 2011

  Medicare vs. Medicaid – These terms are confused all the time and there’s three good reasons why: 1) Medicare and Medicaid are both federal health insurance programs 2) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the governing body for both 3) Let’s face it – they sound alike. So let’s set the record [...]

Read the full article →

A Short Guide to Medicare’s Parts

May 12, 2011

Before I review Medicare’s four parts, here are a few must-know points about the overall program: Medicare is a form of federal health insurance Not everyone qualifies for Medicare Medicare provides short-term coverage for acute needs ONLY Medicare is not the same as Medicaid For more information on the above, check back in a few [...]

Read the full article →

How to Manage Bad Medical News

May 9, 2011

When bad medical news hits, the blow can be devastating. Shock is almost always the first thing people feel, followed by anger, fear and often a profound sense of sadness. At times like these it came be extremely difficult to collect your thoughts and decide what to do next.  Your head is likely to flood [...]

Read the full article →

Honoring My Mom

May 7, 2011

I don’t often talk about my personal life on this blog, but for Mother’s Day I am making an exception. If you’re a regular here you may know that I am the only child of a 76-year-old.  Most people with a parent that age are at least 45 or even 50 years old themselves, but [...]

Read the full article →

When Mom *HATES* the Aide You’ve Hired to Help

April 27, 2011

Dear Maria, My mother is 95, deaf in one ear and needs help with most activities of daily living.  My brothers and I decided to hire an aide to assist her a few days a week, but mom HATES her.  She tells me that she eats all the food in the fridge and talks on [...]

Read the full article →

How To Deal with Anger That Comes From Mom or Dad

April 23, 2011

A few years back, Jeannie contacted me for help with her “angry mother”… “I feel like I’m going crazy, Maria, and I’m exhausting myself in the process. Ever since my mom’s health started to decline, nothing I do for her is ever enough.  She’s ungrateful and nasty…I feel like I’m at the end of my [...]

Read the full article →

How To Avoid Caregiver Burnout

April 17, 2011

Are there moments when caregiving makes you want to scream? Any number of things related to caring for your aging parent can cause you to feel like you’re at the end of the proverbial rope including: your relationship with your parent elements of your work life/family life which are separate from, but inextricably linked to, [...]

Read the full article →

Where Are All the Happy Caregiving Endings?

April 11, 2011

Okay, I admit it. I have a new favorite past time… Every few days I dig into my Google Analytics to find out how folks find my site. I’d imagine that my new activity is a bit like dumpster diving (although I’ve never done that) – lots of useless pieces of information to be uncovered, [...]

Read the full article →

What We Tell Ourselves When Caregiving Begins

March 29, 2011

Another Misconception About Elder Care If you’re just joining me, let me catch you up. This is the second of three posts that discuss the most common misconceptions about elder care.  I covered the biggest misconception, last week which has to do with Medicare. (Interested in reading more about it?) Number two has to do [...]

Read the full article →

The Game Changers

March 25, 2011

A person’s life and that of his/her family can be changed instantaneously and irrevocably by illness and/or injury…. And although we can become ill or injured ant any age, there’s no doubt that age increases this risk. In my work over the past several years with older adults and their family caregivers, three health “events” [...]

Read the full article →

The Biggest Misconception About Elder Care (and the Truth)

March 21, 2011

Are you new to providing care to an aging parent? Maybe your mother’s health has only recently begun to decline or your father has fallen for the first time and now requires assistance… If I’m talking to you then there’s a good chance that you may have some misconceptions about elder care. Why? Because caregiving [...]

Read the full article →

“Caring For An Aging Parent Will Mean the End of My Career”

March 14, 2011

A few days ago, someone typed these words into Google and landed on my site. Without knowing anything about the circumstances that led her (or him) to begin a search with such an incredibly powerful statement, I’m almost certain that (s)he speaks for some of you. And while this isn’t the kind of sentiment that [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →