Caregiver Lessons Archives - Page 13 of 15 - Aging, caregiving and the journey through the second half of life

Dancing with Negative Feedback: Redirection and Resolution

November 21, 2013

I wrote this article for an assisted living magazine but the technique of “Redirection and Resolution” works in a wide range of situations where negative feedback needs to be managed in a calm, professional manner. Asking the daughter of a…

The Car Front Mind Map

June 30, 2013

Driving is a “hot spot” issue for aging parents. Attempts by family members to modify, restrict, or take away driving privileges are in direct conflict with the older adult’s need for control even if it results in unsafe decisions about…

Caregiver Mind Maps

May 5, 2013

In March 2013 I released my new book Caregiver Mind Maps: New Tools for Aging Parents. I elected a PDF format because the book’s mind maps are designed to be used on the front lines of caregiving, a kinetic space…

Communicating with Older Adults: An Update

March 16, 2013

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I have been studying how to unlock the communication code of older adults for the last twenty-three years. My first breakthrough came early on with developmental psychology, a model based on age-specific tasks that are easy to understand, easy to…

David Solie on Communicating with Senior Housing Clients

January 18, 2013

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This is an interview I did for the Senior Real Estate Institute on January 17, 2013. The topic was communicating with senior housing clients, older adults and adult children. The focus was the two psychological hurdles that have to be…

From Pleading To Informing…

January 6, 2013

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A lead caregiver of aging parents was going to extraordinary lengths to keep everything together only to find herself drowning in transactional quicksand. As her parents drifted into the land of “more and more care,” her uninvolved siblings either refused…

Dangling Conversations…

January 1, 2013

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Conversations with adult children about their aging parents eventually include the dilemma of declining health. Embedded in this emotional topic is the volatile issue of “advanced directives.” Everyone knows that you need one, but having just one version turns out…

The Right Words…

August 21, 2012

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We are always searching for the right words when a death occurs. We mean well but our attempts to comfort may painfully produce the opposite result. This blog post by Carole Brody is a “refresher course” in how our words…

The Caregiver Dance: Compassion and Equanimity

April 1, 2012

Last year I went to a conference on accepting the limits of being a caregiver. It was attended by mostly hospital-based healthcare professionals who have to deal with suffering and loss on a daily basis. The focus of the program…

Bad Parent Connection: Now What?

December 19, 2011

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It’s one thing to have a decent connection to our aging parents. We may not be close, but we still feel compelled by love and loyalty to come along side them in the in last years of their lives. But…