About 1.2 million individuals currently reside in nearly 15,000 nursing homes nationwide. For many, it’s the best place to receive care and housing; for some, it’s the only real option. But for too many, there is a documented dark side behind closed doors: abuse and neglect. Periodic reports of the wrongs committed have resulted in […]
Architect Erick Mikiten ticks off some of the top reasons many people fear growing older: perceived threats of being institutionalized, aging out of relevance, becoming progressively more isolated. And, he says, these are the self-same traits that must be avoided in architectural design. Mikiten argues that architects must update designs of homes and other buildings […]
Chances are you may be one of the 66 million family caregivers in the U.S. charged with attending the needs of a loved one — or will join their growing ranks one day. Either way, you are likely aware of the many practical and emotional challenges involved in navigating life while providing that care. Caregivers […]
At a recent lecture titled “Making a Difference to Seriously Ill Older Adults,” Louise C. Walter, Chief of the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California-San Francisco, first answered the question she’s asked most often: How old do you have to be to get treated by a geriatrician? To the surprise of many, geriatrics […]
After 35 years, you might assume that retirement would bring an end to the professional life of sex therapist/sex columnist/board-certified sexologist Isadora Alman. You would be wrong. It turns out she’s still happy to share on her website the insights gained through her working years and decades of counseling (as well as over 25 years authoring […]
Long-term insurance — a form of coverage generally intended to help pay for care services that may be needed later in life — has already been both embraced and disgraced in its relatively short history. First introduced in some forms and formats in the late 1970s, it didn’t really take hold with consumers until a […]
Copious studies document that loneliness rates are highest among those who are college-age and seniors. That problem plagued Madeline Dangerfield-Cha and Joy Zhang, who connected as friends just before starting business school at Stanford a few years ago. Their early interests and experiences differed but meshed: Zhang had previously worked as a hospice volunteer, and Dangerfield-Cha in […]