Well before Marie Kondo proselytized about the necessity of storing tee shirts in precise little rolls in her top-selling manifesto, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, a bounty of books had been published about the virtues of pruning possessions and neatening homes, complete with suggested systems for how […]
It’s human to be influenced by others — and often a healthy reflection of open-mindedness. And the power of influence when it helps snag a sale, win an election, or even make a simple decision is generally applauded. But problems arise when the influence is “undue” — when one person actually usurps another person’s free […]
In a kinder, easier, more foolproof world, there would be one document allowing people to indicate what medical care they prefer to have provided or withheld. And it would be housed in one repository, accessible by medical personnel anywhere and everywhere, at any hour of the day or night. We don’t live in that world. […]
For many older people, hospitals have revolving doors. About one in every five seniors who spends time getting care in a hospital is readmitted within 30 days of being discharged. A hospital readmission often signals a gap in the quality of medical care. In addition, it’s a disruptive and unsettling experience — and an expensive […]
Joy Crowley took her first puff of marijuana last year, sometime after she turned 79. While recovering from hip replacement surgery a few years ago, she had a serious adverse reaction to the medications prescribed for pain, as well as many over-the-counter medications “all the way down to Aleve.” She now suffers from arthritis throughout […]
More seniors are taking care of business by making legal documents specifying that their money, property and medical care be managed and distributed as they direct. But as their numbers have swelled, so have the challenges by outsiders — usually family members spoiling for a fight — that they lacked the mental capacity required for […]
Make a mid-day, midweek visit to a casino in any one of the 40 states that have them and you’re likely to see a sight you might not have expected: seniors crowded in at the slot machines, the industry’s biggest revenue producers. Some are beckoned there by the targeted tantalizing lures such as Senior Days […]
Most people say they fear getting Alzheimer’s disease more than they fear heart disease, stroke, diabetes, or cancer, according to a number of recent polls. And a large number even fear it more than dying. And the odds of that fear being realized seem scary, too. The Alzheimer’s Association posts the statistics that an estimated […]
Despite strict government warnings and national initiatives cracking down on administering antipsychotic drugs to older people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, dangerous abuses persist. The practice is particularly pernicious when it occurs in nursing homes, behind closed doors, where the most vulnerable residents are rarely informed or allowed to give meaningful consent before being […]