For many people, retirement is one of those things that has always been on the horizon at just enough distance not to warrant any real concern related to what to do about it in practical day to day terms. That is, until the horizon is upon us and the more pragmatic aspects of the retirement […]

If your aging parents are a bit leery about using today’s technology, call in the grandchildren. Even the youngest ones seem to intuit how to use smart phones and tablets, search for and download apps, and have mastered the Internet.  And they no doubt can show their grandparents how to use a fitness tracker or […]

Updated September 2025 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about two-thirds of people between the ages of 55 and 64 participated in the American labor force in 2024, while almost one-in-five people over the age of 65 did so. Excluding a couple of pandemic years, the percentage of the labor force that is 65 […]

Elderly Social Security recipients are easy prey for scammers, as headlines remind regularly. Whether through a sweet-talking individual who claims to be from the Social Security Administration or the response to an authentic-looking email that looks like it is from the Social Security Administration, once a scammer gets the beneficiary’s information, the trouble begins. With […]

In most cases, the need to downsize is a function of the need to move. Moving from the family home can be one of the most stressful events an older adult ever faces. Tough decisions have to be made about what to take and what to do with the things that are being left behind. […]

Oftentimes, family members become frustrated if they face resistance from their elderly relatives when they suggest having help or considering another place to move. In many cases, this resistance comes from fears that seniors have while they face the challenges of staying active and independent as they age. Understanding and acknowledging these fears can help […]

The Hospice movement was started in Britain in 1967 by a physician, Cicely Saunders, who advocated pain management for the dying. Her philosophy was that dying people needed dignity, compassion and respect. and “abolished the prevailing ethic that patients should be cured, that those who could not be cured were a sign of failure and […]

The impact of one individual’s health can have a ripple effect on an entire family. Family members are caring for their loved ones in the home more today and for longer periods of time than ever before. If you are the primary caregiver for a dependent loved one, you are at risk for developing caregiver […]

Updated July 2025 The Journal of General Internal Medicine published a report in 2012 that looked at data from more than 3,000 people covered by Medicare to gauge the impact of health care cost on seniors. Researchers measured how much Medicare-eligible seniors had spent out of pocket on healthcare in their last five years alive, […]

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of four older adults (those aged 65 or older) falls each year.1 In 2013, 2.5 million nonfatal falls among older adults were treated in emergency departments and more than 734,000 of these patients were hospitalized. In 2020, 14 million older adults in the United […]