Breathe: Calming Someone with Dementia Starts with Calming Yourself
Dear Carol: I need tips on how to calm my husband who has been diagnosed with both Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. In the past,...
Death and dying
Hospital Delirium: Cognitive Decline After Hospitalization
In the expected course of treatment, people are hospitalized because they are ill. Then, barring a terminal condition, they are released because they are...
How to Engage in Self-Care While Grieving
Many caregivers watch their loved ones endure a long, slow decline that will eventually end in death. As they age, we grieve every mental...
When One Parent Dies the Other Often Needs a Long-Term Care Plan
Long-term marriages generally evolve into a support system so efficient that even adult children hardly notice changes in their parents. If Dad’s hearing is...
Reconciling Grief & Relief When the Loved One You Cared for Dies
When my mother died in a local nursing home, my “career” of visiting this exceptional facility nearly every day for almost 15 years ended....
Hindsight Can Be a Blessing or a Curse for Caregivers
They say hindsight is 20/20. But things from the past that may seem “clear” to you now can still be distorted by difficult emotions—especially...
5 Questions to Determine the Impact of Caregiving
Are you prepared to take on the responsibility of caring for a family member? Will you be able to handle the commitment of moving...
New Year’s Resolution for Caregivers: Reframe Guilt as Regret
Dear Carol: Once upon a time, I closed out each year with satisfaction and looked forward with optimism to the next. Now, after taking...
When a Loved One with Alzheimer’s Doesn’t Recognize You
Watching a loved one move through the stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can be one life’s toughest and most heart-breaking challenges. If we had...
10 Common Caregiver Confessions
Wouldn’t it be nice to be a family caregiver who never gets frustrated and is an eternal optimist? Maybe there are some like that...
