Category Archives: Housing & Care

A Post-Pandemic Look at Nursing Homes

Nursing home staff and people

Updated June 2025 Aging Americans have a wide variety of living options. The right choice is usually determined by a combination of need and affordability. Maximizing independence is the goal of most seniors. Whether that means staying in a family home, downsizing, or moving to a retirement community is a decision that healthy seniors will […]

Can CMS Nursing Home Ratings Be Trusted?

Nursing Home

Updated June 2025 Many of the nation’s nursing homes deliver quality care to people who desperately need it. Still, some deliver care more capably than others. How do consumers evaluate the promises that nursing homes make to provide excellent care to their loved ones? With the best of intentions, the federal government instituted a rating […]

Healthy Aging During a Pandemic

Memory loss

Healthy aging means maintaining the functional abilities that enable wellbeing. Functional abilities include the capacity to meet basic needs, to be mobile, to build and maintain relationships, to make decisions, and to feel like a contributing member of society. Factors that contribute to healthy aging include exercise, diet, healthcare, having regular contact with friends and […]

Protecting Seniors from COVID-19

As the country reopens and stay-at-home orders are eased, the risk to seniors from COVID-19 may increase. While the curve has flattened in some parts of the country, infected people still inhabit every state. Since a large percentage of individuals who carry the coronavirus have no symptoms — and may never develop symptoms — it […]

The Age-In: A Flashback in Learning About Aging

Older couple on a couch

The Age-In. It was something of a flashback — modeled after the Teach-Ins of the 1960s, which were characterized by peer-to-peer talking and listening sessions rather than the more formalized “I’m-gonna-lecture-and-you’re-gonna-listen” teacher/student set-up. The event commemorated the 10-year anniversary of At Home With Growing Older, a group with a diverse membership of architects, advocates, social […]

The Top 10 Nursing Home Problems – and What To Do About Them

Nursing home staff and people

Nursing home residents and their advocates have scored some improvements in the types and quality of care provided. But in many facilities, the caring concept of “nursing” and “home” are still hard to come by. While lauding the good changes, Eric Carlson, directing attorney of the advocacy group Justice in Aging, describes the 10 most common complaints […]

The Whys and Hows of Family Councils

Seniors meeting

Robert Kriegel says it was a hefty hike of 5.5% in fees at his lifecare community in San Francisco that provided the impetus. A small group of residents who played bridge together there let their ire fly freely while conversing over the cards and decided to find out whether other residents were also upset that […]