Experts help families navigate tough situations Betsy Calkins and her siblings recently faced a daunting situation. They noticed their mother, who at the time was in her 90s, was beginning to have challenges living alone in her Mount Prospect home. But with Calkins and two of her siblings living out of state, the responsibility to […]
9 tips to keep your loved one eating well with dementia When you think about side effects of dementia, eating probably isn’t one of the first issues to come to mind. But for a disease that impacts every area of a person’s life, mealtime definitely takes a hit. Over time, dementia may cause changes in […]Read More
No one wants to end up in the hospital. But each year in the United States, adults 65 and older have about 13.2 million hospitalizations, according to a 2021 report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A sudden hospital visit can be stressful. One of the easiest ways to prepare is to have […]Read More
Winter in Chicago is a challenging time for many people. But for older adults, it is especially fraught with risks from falls, hypothermia, and isolation. Check out these winter safety suggestions from caregiving experts at two local agencies about how to keep your loved ones toasty and safe this winter. Winter safety tip #1: Keep […]Read More
Seek support when caring for a partner with dementia In the basement of Frank Pagura’s Elk Grove Village home is a woodshop, a respite from his role as full-time caregiver to his wife Rosemary, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease about five years ago. While Frank, 80, gets lost in the art of woodturning, Rosemary, 81, […]Read More
At age 68, Mary knew the time had come to sell the family’s two-flat on Chicago’s North Side that her grandfather purchased in the 1940s. She grew up with her siblings and parents on the first floor. After her grandparents passed away, Mary moved to their second-floor apartment where she was joined by her partner, […]Read More
Michael Grecco is currently at the end of his rope. Not only is he, along with the rest of the world, dealing with the continued uneasiness of the pandemic, but for more than 15 years, he has had the responsibility of taking care of his now-81-year-old mother. A proud woman at her core, Grecco’s mother […]Read More
Finding one’s way through mourning and loss Carisa Urban was quite literally at the end of her rope. Working tirelessly as a nurse in a Covid-19 intensive care unit at a busy Chicagoland hospital, the Bolingbrook resident had her hands full. She found herself not only treating an onslaught of severely ill patients, but also personally dealing […]Read More
Taking care of an older adult can be exhausting for family caregivers, who learn as they go from one precarious situation to the next. If you’re not prepared for the challenge, every mishap can feel like a one-two punch. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you feel like you could benefit from […]Read More
Chicago Health is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions. The opinions expressed in this op-ed article are the author’s own. My husband was diagnosed out of the blue with stage 4 lung cancer. We never saw it coming; he was a non-smoker and health nut. Plus, he had no alarming symptoms, just some back […]Read More
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