Sometimes the smallest room in the house — the bathroom — can cause the greatest risk. One in four people over age 65 falls each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Bathrooms are a prime place for injuries, with falls causing about 80% of bathroom injuries. “For seniors aging in […]
Short-term care offers assistance and a taste of senior living Above photo: A class in the pool at Westminster Place in Evanston When 84-year-old Shirley Ratcliff recently moved from Missouri to Chicago, her health was precarious. She lives with pulmonary fibrosis, relies on oxygen, and was recovering from pneumonia. After staying for a few weeks with […]Read More
Start early for less stress when sorting through a lifetime of stuff When Nan and Evan Freund decided to move closer to their children in California, they chose a 1,500-square-foot home in a continuing care retirement community. It was a big change from their 3,000-square-foot Victorian rowhouse in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. “After almost 50 […]Read More
Pat Walker was feeling particularly low. A sister had just died, and after a huge fight with her daughter, she couldn’t get out of bed. For this active, engaged 74-year-old, that was unheard of. So she sought therapy, which she had done in the past, but this time it was with a geropsychologist, someone who […]Read More
We’ve all felt the tug of something tangible snapping us back to moments in our past, such as the whiff of our grandmother’s perfume on a stranger, which reminds us of her warm embrace, or the notes of a favorite song that instantly transport us to our teen years. For the more than 6 million […]Read More
Communities provide options when one spouse requires more care than the other Lynne Bugai’s parents, Bud and Joanne, were in their 80s and married for 63 years when her dad decided they could no longer safely stay in their Park Ridge home. Over the course of a decade, Bud had survived bypass surgery, a heart attack, […]Read More
Try these communication pointers to connect to loved ones with dementia When Peter Zollo’s mother passed away in December, relatives spoke at the Zoom funeral about the happiest years of her life — before she suffered from memory loss due to dementia. Yet, Zollo chose to talk about her final years, which were also happy — […]Read More
When people think about dementia, they typically think of memory loss. Yet, people with dementia may also experience a decline in all senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. And despite a loss of touch, specific massage techniques can reach people with dementia in the most touching of ways. The decline in the sense of […]Read More
Among the many lessons that 2020 has taught us is that human happiness goes hand-in-hand with human connectedness. That counts doubly so for intergenerational relationships between older adults and younger individuals, according to a 2019 AARP study. Researchers found that 93% of people on both sides of a close intergenerational friendship felt it came with […]Read More
Explore the ins and outs of aging in place Some changes are inevitable. We all outgrow things we used to enjoy: music, food, hairstyles, even relationships — but what about our homes? When is it time to switch up and adjust the way we live? As we grow older, the homes we’ve lived in for […]Read More
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