Getting old is often fraught with difficulties and can be very stressful for families with older parents or relatives. In many cases the changes that are happening are often a gradual process, easily missed if one is not looking. It is also difficult to know when to step in and make certain decisions, as the impact on all concerned will be an emotional and financial one. However, it does help to know that you are not alone and that help is at hand if needed.

Click here for full article:

There are numerous societal benefits in having seniors volunteer in our communities. They have helped out by providing compassion to  visitors for people in hospitals. Retired teachers have helped out younger generations by tutoring them after school. Professionals of all kinds donate their time and services after retirement. This give back mentality has carried then national when times are tough.

Click here for full article:

Falling for the elderly is devastating and has many lasting consequences such as pain, injury, loss of independence, and costly medical bills. In fact, fifty percent of older adults who have fallen in the past year have a fear of falling. In 2005, 15,800 people 65 and older died from injuries related to unintentional falls.

Click here for full article:

Dementia is a decline in memory and/or intellectual functioning severe enough to interfere with social or occupational functioning. Dementia is not a disease itself, but group of symptoms.

Click here to learn more:

Assistive Technology is not a new concept, walking aids like the cane or wheelchair have been around for centuries; but there is an enormous need for new and innovative products that improve the quality of life the aging population. Assistive technology can make up for the shrinking number of caregivers and the skyrocketing institutional care costs.

Click here for full article:

Among its more notable findings the SAMHSA study reveals that from 1992 to 2008 the proportion of admissions among this age group due primarily to: 

• Heroin abuse more than doubled-from 7.2% to 16.0%
• Cocaine abuse quadrupled-from 2.9% to 11.4%
• Prescription drug abuse rose from 0.7% to 3.5%
• Marijuana abuse increased from 0.6% to 2.9%

Click here to learn more:

The U.S. government website, Health Reform, defines the doughnut hole on the page titled, “Answers for Families and Small Business” (no author, 2010), under the section for seniors: “After you’ve spent $310 [deductible], you pay 25 percent of the cost of your prescriptions until the total cost of all the medicine you have received in a year hits $2,830. Then, you are stuck with 100 percent of the bill until the total cost of your medicines hits $6,440.” Medicare will then pay 100 percent above $6,440.

Click here to learn more:

A witty someone once said, “Growing old is not for the feint of heart.” Nor is it sexy: collectively we spend millions battling the little indignities that accumulate as we age–crow’s feet, ballooning waistline, hair loss (and accumulation) in all the wrong places. But these tell-tale signs of age will no longer trouble us when the real problems inevitably set in. Sooner or later most of us will suffer serious physical and cognitive impairments that require the need for assistance with even the smallest of every day tasks, like getting out of bed or holding a fork. The need for long-term support services is also familiar territory for many younger people with disabilities and their families.

Click here for full article:

In this large observational study, we found that during a 14-year period of reduction in hospital length of stay and increased use of skilled nursing facilities after discharge for Medicare patients with HF, 30-day mortality decreased but posthospital readmission and mortality risk increased. From the patient perspective, it is not clear that care in 2006 was markedly better than it was in 1993. The outcome of patients hospitalized for HF measured by short-term mortality has improved, which may be a result of better quality of care. However, because length of stay has substantially decreased, improvement is less than what might be suggested by in-hospital mortality. In contrast with that improvement, rates of readmission and discharge to skilled nursing facilities have increased, suggesting that patient outcomes, although better, have not improved in all areas.

^{Click here for full article:}

On May 5, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic established Memorial Day or Decoration Day as the national day to decorate the graves of the Civil War soldiers with flowers. Major General John A. Logan appointed May 30 as the day to be observed. Arlington National Cemetery had the first observance of the day on a grand scale. The place was appropriate as it already housed graves of over 20,000 Union dead and several hundred Confederate dead. Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant presided the meeting and the center point of these Memorial Day ceremonies was the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion. Speeches were followed by a march of soldiers’ children and orphans and members of the GAR through the cemetery strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves. They also recited prayers and sang hymns for the dead.

Click here to learn more: