Gossamer of Sadness

So many people are afraid of getting old

“Getting old is hell,” my friend Jo recently wrote. I think her words and sentiment reflected her feelings of loss. Loss of her dear parents, who are slowly fading away, and a sense of loss as the signs of her own aging are becoming clearer with the passage of each birthday. Perhaps it’s not really getting old that seems so hellish as is the realization that what was once, will never be again. Read More >>

All by Itself, Managing the Money Is a Full-time Job

Lessons learned . . .

I have job, a full-time job. Since I manage two adult day service associations—Washington Adult Day Services Association and National Adult Day Services Association—it sometimes feels like I have two full-time jobs. And I have been managing my mother’s finances and care for about two years, which means I essentially have three jobs. Read More >>

Why Don’t Large Vendors Invest More in Technology for Seniors?

Aging in place is here to stay

This is a rant. I am tired of youth-oriented tech vendors with their back-to-school laptops. I am tired of how clumsy and nonintuitive most computing technologies are—especially home networks. Read More >>

Reduce Medicare Expenditures?

What does the Obama administration intend to cut or eliminate?

I try to read almost all of the articles I come across that focus on pending health care reform and its potential or proposed impact on aging services and long-term care. Almost without exception, the articles I have read discuss how important it is to cut Medicare so that we can afford to pay for health care for the millions who have none. Sounds like the same old saw: old people have an obligation to get out of the way and make room for younger generations. Read More >>

Saintly Behavior Witnessed in Seattle

Visit lifts spirits

Sixty-one-year-old Mansell David Myers was recently seen catching a cab to the Seattle airport after a whirlwind weekend visit with Reva, his mother. Reva lives at Gaffney House, a dementia-specific assisted living arrangement that is much more architecturally akin to a frat house on fraternity row than an assisted living “facility.” Read More >>

Common Sense Advice on Health, Happiness, and Longevity

Suggestions for living a long, happy life

One of the more pleasant aspects of my professional life is to read excellent medical journals and publications. I read, skim, or speed read quite a few, mostly in my own specialty of internal medicine. (Yes, "internal medicine" IS a specialty.) Read More >>

What’s Up with Life Extension?

We spend billions trying to “reverse” aging

I watched Oprah this afternoon, and she and Dr. Oz featured strategies, techniques, and equipment to extend life. I understand wanting to live a healthier, happier, more meaningful life, but living to 125 or 150, just for the sake of living long, doesn’t make sense to me. Read More >>

Holding Negative Stereotypes About Aging Is Unhealthy

A self-fulfilling prophecy?

Internalized negative stereotypes of aging developed when one is younger result in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy when one is older. Read More >>

How Can Freelance Writers Make It in This Economy?

Now is the time for creative thinking

Dear Ellie:

This recession has impacted my income as a writer so severely that I don’t know what to do. For more than 30 years, I have been successful as a freelance writer. I enjoy an excellent reputation in my city and have had continuous contracts with newspapers and a wide variety of magazines. Now newspapers are shrinking or going bankrupt, and many magazines have simply stopped publishing. I have recently been writing for some medical magazines and have experience in the restaurant and travel industries. I have not had a new contract for a number of months, and I am getting desperate. I am over age 65 and cannot survive on Social Security alone. What do you advise? Read More >>

Taking Care of Business

Forward-thinking employers would do well to offer resources to caregiving workers

With the first of the baby boomer generation turning 60, the “silver tsunami” is upon us, and working caregivers are being faced with the added responsibility of caring for aging parents or other loved ones. What was once referred to as the “sandwich generation” is now becoming the “club sandwich generation.” Those in the 35–55 age group are sandwiched between caring for their own families and assuming the responsibility of caring for aging parents, grandparents, or aunts and uncles—all while working full time.

Balancing the responsibility has become a juggling act. Deciding between attending a child’s final soccer game and taking an elderly loved one to a medical appointment is stressful, a decision that tugs at the hearts of caregivers. Days grow longer as the nights grow shorter.

Although statistics show the burden of caregiving still falls on the woman in the family, the number of men in this role is increasing steadily, with a 60-40 ratio of female-male caregivers.
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