by External Article | Dec 15, 2022 | Caregiver News, For Friends & Family, For Professional Caregivers |
At a hospital in a Chicago suburb last winter, there were so few nurses that psychiatric patients with Covid were left waiting a full day for beds, and a single aide was on hand to assist with 32 infected patients. Nurses were so distraught about the inadequate... by External Article | Dec 3, 2022 | Caring for a Friend, Caring for a Neighbor, For Friends & Family, Planning |
When her sister died three years ago, Ms. Ingersoll joined the ranks of older Americans considered “kinless”: without partners or spouses, children or siblings. Covid-19 has largely suspended her occasional get-togethers with friends, too. Now, she said, “my social... 
by External Article | Oct 4, 2022 | Caring for a Parent, Caring for a Sibling, Long Term Caregiving |
My mother has an undiagnosed mental illness that makes her incapable of accepting reality and that has caused her to be emotionally abusive my entire life…What options do my sister and I have as she ages and her living situation deteriorates further? And what... by External Article | Aug 25, 2022 | Caring for a Romantic Partner, Finances, Long Term Caregiving |
Within weeks of the Tarpy’s date, both knew they had found their forever partner. But three months after Mr. Contreras proposed in his Salinas, Calif., home in December 2016 and Ms. Long said an ecstatic “yes,” Ms. Long sat him down for a talk. “I told him, ‘Mark,... by External Article | Aug 19, 2022 | Caring for a Sibling, Short Term Caregiving |
I am the only family member with whom Jay maintained contact for the last three decades. Over that time, we communicated exclusively through email and cards I sent to a post office box. … The hospital discharged Jay with a bag hanging from his chest to drain... 
by External Article | Jul 22, 2022 | Caring for a Romantic Partner, Long Term Caregiving |
That attack marked the beginning of our struggle to navigate a relationship transformed by trauma. Since then, I think I’ve read just about everything that has been written about how to support a loved one healing from post-traumatic stress. Among other things, I’ve... by External Article | Jul 12, 2022 | Caring for a Child, Finances, Millennial Generation, Working Family Caregivers |
A dearth of child care and elder care choices is causing many women to reorganize their working lives and prompting some to forgo jobs altogether, hurting the economy at a moment when companies are desperate to hire, and forcing trade-offs that could impair careers.... 
by External Article | Jul 6, 2022 | Grief |
I began leaving voice-mail messages for my mother about a month after she died. It was February last year, during some of the darkest days of the pandemic for my family. My teenage daughters were mourning their grandmother while largely cut off from their friends and... by External Article | Jun 15, 2022 | Art, Caring for a Sibling, Millennial Generation |
Arbery, who grew up in Dallas with seven sisters in a conservative Catholic milieu similar to that of “Heroes,” had always wanted to write a play about his relationship with Julia, who is two years older (as she likes to remind him). But he didn’t want to write, as he... by External Article | Jun 1, 2022 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Child, Housing, Long Term Caregiving |
Sabrina, who was given a diagnosis of autism coupled with a rare genetic disorder, has exhibited aggressive behavior since she was a little girl. Now she towers over her parents. When she is happy, she gives them great big hugs, knocking them slightly off balance.... 
by External Article | May 9, 2022 | Finances, For Friends & Family, Long Term Caregiving |
Adult Protective Services agencies in every state receive reports of possible neglect, self-neglect, abuse or exploitation of older people and other vulnerable adults. But agency workers consistently face a bedeviling question: Does the adult in question have the... by External Article | Mar 26, 2022 | Death & Dying |
Where do people most want to be when they die? At home, they tell researchers — in familiar surroundings, in comfort, with the people they love. an article this month in The New England Journal of Medicine that pointedly asks, “Is There Really ‘No Place Like Home’?”... by External Article | Mar 13, 2022 | Generation X, Housing, Long Term Caregiving, Silent generation |
Ms. McWhinney-Morse was in her mid-60s when she and a handful of others her age started laying the groundwork for Beacon Hill Village. But younger villagers are surfacing. Jenn Prunty founded My Glacier Village in the Flathead Valley of Montana four years ago, when... by External Article | Mar 12, 2022 | Finances, Housing, Long Term Caregiving |
Ms. Biteranta now receives all of her health care through PACE, which monitors her, along with 120 other seniors, meticulously. PACE supplies much of her social life, too. “Here, they schedule you for appointments,” said Ms. Biteranta, 74, a retired nurse. “They send... 
by External Article | Jan 14, 2022 | Care Work Library, Finances, Generation X, Long Term Caregiving, Planning |
A diagnosis may be alarming enough, but equally frightening can be the costs for medical treatments, home renovations and other expenses. Some people with disabling conditions may be forced to retire earlier than they had planned, resulting in a loss of income and... by External Article | Dec 25, 2021 | Caring for a Parent, Death & Dying |
My mother and father never married. This meant, as my mother explained, that I was his legal next of kin, responsible for making his medical decisions. This responsibility, already complex because of his lack of a living will, would prove to be even more fraught... by External Article | Nov 9, 2021 | 24/7 Caregiving, Caring for a Child, For Friends & Family, Millennial Generation, Occasional Caregiving |
I am currently helping friends with their severely disabled child. The child needs round-the-clock supervision; this is especially challenging during the night, as someone must monitor the child’s condition at all times. Because of the pandemic and my friends’... by External Article | Oct 5, 2021 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Generation X, Occasional Caregiving |
My father and I have not been especially close for all of my adult life because of his inability to communicate or relate to me, to others or to the world in general in a meaningful way. As he has aged, his danger and menace have pretty much disappeared, and he has... by External Article | Aug 31, 2021 | Caring for a Romantic Partner, For Friends & Family, Long Term Caregiving |
What are your thoughts on the spouse of an early-onset Alzheimer’s patient dating while said patient is still alive? By way of background, my mother was the full-time caregiver of my stepfather until a few months ago, when he was moved to assisted living, and she is... by External Article | Aug 24, 2021 | Caring for a Child, Generation X, Long Term Caregiving |
Currently, only three states in the country explicitly include special ed students in their sex-ed requirements. Six other states provide optional resources adapted for more accessible sex-ed curriculums. Thirty-six states fail to mention students with special needs... 
by External Article | Aug 22, 2021 | Care Work Library, Finances |
This year, the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret: a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers. The insurers’ trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would “undermine competitive... 
by External Article | Aug 12, 2021 | Care Work Library |
The nation’s caregiving work force is fraying. Paid providers are overworked and undervalued, often forced to take on multiple jobs or turn to public assistance just to scrape by. Many family caregivers are struggling as well, sacrificing their own health and... 
by External Article | Aug 11, 2021 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Death & Dying, Planning |
Some of the hardest conversations I have in my work involve telling families managing the debilitating chronic illness of a loved one at home that they are essentially on their own. Most do not realize that medical insurance does not pay for long-term home care.... 
by External Article | Aug 6, 2021 | Caregiver Stories, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Millennial Generation, Occasional Caregiving, Sandwich Generation |
As soon as we learned a new baby was on the way, Mike’s anxiety became more than an occasional visitor: It officially moved in. We recently had bought a family-size home with a yard in Seattle, and suddenly he saw danger everywhere. When someone you trust starts to... 
by External Article | Jul 9, 2021 | Caring for a Friend |
To break up with someone is to lose the imagined future you would create together, but you would always share the landscape of your collective past. If Sam could not remember, I would be alone in that landscape. His doctor said we had a window of opportunity to... by External Article | Jul 6, 2021 | Baby Boom Generation, Care Work Library, Caring for a Sibling, Long Term Caregiving |
One of my brothers is moderately schizophrenic; he does well on his medication but is increasingly unable to live alone. He and I are not close and are very different people, but when our mother went into a nursing home several years ago, he came to live with my wife... 
by External Article | Apr 16, 2021 | Care Work Library, Finances, For Professional Caregivers, Generation X, Millennial Generation, Sandwich Generation, Working Family Caregivers |
Infrastructure “of a country, society, or organization,” according to the Collins Dictionary, “consists of the basic facilities … which enable it to function.” I’ve inserted an ellipsis in place of the clause “such as transportation, communications, power supplies,... by External Article | Apr 1, 2021 | Care Work Library, Housing |
Regina Smith has dedicated her career to keeping seniors out of nursing homes. A geriatric social worker at an adult day care network in Indianapolis, she strives to provide services that can help people live independently. But Ms. Smith’s expertise didn’t keep her... 
by External Article | Feb 26, 2021 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Generation X, Long Term Caregiving, Occasional Caregiving, Planning |
During my dad’s illness, I experienced firsthand what had, until then, just been book learning: Financial planners are often at their best when your life is at its worst. Almost immediately, my siblings and I found ourselves out of our depth on a number of levels.... 
by External Article | Feb 22, 2021 | 24/7 Caregiving, Care Work Library, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Finances, Working Family Caregivers |
For four months, my husband, Brad, had been recovering from a stem-cell transplant that saved his life from aggressive lymphoma. The hospital administration said he must go home, but he needed a level of support that, I thought, only a hospital could provide. I became... 
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