Resources

 

 

This page is dynamic, changing as we discover ideas, products, and information that can help elders or their family caregivers.

 

 

Adaptive Products

These are items that can make an elder’s life more pleasant by making it more manageable.  They range from simple tools for use in the kitchen or bath to clothing and shoes to appliances that are designed to adapt to the mobility, fragility, and limitations of aging.  These products make good gifts—useful to the elder and thoughtful offerings from the giver.

Google “Adaptive devices for elders”

Books

Loverde, Joy.  The Complete Eldercare Planner:  Where to Start, Which Questions to Ask and How to Find Help. Three Rivers Press, New York, NY. 2009

When you suddenly realize that your parents have lost some or most of their abilities to manage their own lives, this workbook can help you identify the questions, prioritize the issues, develop a plan, and manage your own feelings of overload and confusion.  It can lead you to consider issues including  money and legal matters, finding the documents before it’s too late, insurance on-hand and what it covers, housing, making the parent and his/her surroundings secure and safe, transportation and mobility, managing medical and in-home care,  the elder’s preferences on end-of-life issues, and managing death’s details.

Pearce, Nancy. Inside Alzheimer’s:  How to Hear and Honor Connections with a Person who has Dementia.  Forrason Press, Taylors, SC. 2010

Nancy Pearce, a medical social worker who lives in Taylors, SC, has used short lessons and multiple examples from her own practice to teach us how to communicate with a person who has dementia, even during the stages when the person’s ability to respond in conventional ways are gone. Nancy speaks is plain, understandable language to help family and caregivers learn to connect with the person inside the dementia and to help the caregiver learn to take care of himself/herself while giving care.

Span, Paula. Then the Time Comes: Families with Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions. Springboard Press, New York, NY. 2009

“Where should Mother (or Daddy) live?”  If this is the question with which your family is dealing, then Paula Span’s book can provide examples of answers that others have found to that question,  their rationale for choosing that particular housing arrangement, and  the advantages and limitations that each poses.  The housing choices that she explores, one chapter at a time, are staying at home with home care, moving into a shared household (with the children or friends), assisted living, nursing home, and hospice care.

Seminars/Lectures/Classes

“Dementia Dialogues is a five part learning experience designed to educate individuals who care for persons with exhibit sign and symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s Disease or related dementias. Each session is approximately one and one half hours in length.”  It covers the signs and symptoms of dementia, communication skills, environmental safety, addressing challenging behaviors, and creative problem solving.  Jan Merling, Education Coordinator for The Office for the Study of Aging at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, maintains the schedule for the course’s offering. Jan may be reached at (803) 318-1601. This course is absolutely worth an investment of time and attention for anyone because we all know someone who has dementia in general or Alzheimer’s in particular.

Radio/TV

The Senior Care Corner Show (http://seniorcarecorner.com/radio-show), with hosts Kathy and Barry Birkett, is an informative broadcast reaching out to family caregivers of senior adults and companion to Senior Care Corner’s popular blog. Explosive growth in the US’ senior population means new family members each day are caring for aging loved ones.

The show’s format includes a news segment, with news items of interest to caregivers gathered from a number of sources; a quick tip, a tidbit of information or action caregivers can take to benefit senior loved ones; and a feature segment covering more in depth one of the topics covered by Senior Care Corner in their blog, sometimes with an interview with an industry expert or technology provider to give listeners special insight.