Second-Half of Life Blog

I Don’t Need Assisted Living!


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An older adult is ready to move into an independent living community and undergoes a “pre-placement” health assessment by the facility’s physician. Based on the findings, the physician indicates that the older adult “needs assisted living.” The older adult and…

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Boomer Community: Aging with the Right People


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Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. Aristotle Stress is an isolator. As its intensity increases, it promotes distrust of others and that distrust leads to greater isolation from the essential social networks…

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Boomer Perspective: Moment of Truth


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One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak. —Chesterton While aging is inevitable, arriving at a healthy perspective about its meaning and potential is not. In our youth-oriented culture, middle age more often than not…

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Conflicting Layers of Longevity


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As boomers approach the outskirts of being old, a new aging dilemma is beginning to emerge: simultaneous developmental phases with their aging parents. It is one thing to be fifty-something and have aging parents in their mid to late seventies.…

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The Transitional Care Dilemma: Good News


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Sooner or later aging parents get swept into the complex currents of transitional healthcare. It may be a simple back and forth between the primary care provider and one or more specialist, or it could be a major health setback…

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Pulling the Cardiac Plug


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Even the best laid plans of aging can fall apart. Katy Butler’s recent article in The New York Times, What Broke My Father’s Heart, tells a painful tale of the unwanted impact of medical technology in the last and most…

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When Am I Going Home From The Nursing Home?


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This is one of the predictable dilemmas of aging we all wish we could avoid. We can’t. At some point we run out of aging-in-place options and a parent winds up in a place they never wanted to be, a…

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Hospital Quicksand: Words Are Not Enough


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I was asked for suggestions on how to help seniors preserve control in a hospital setting where all control quickly vanishes. Interesting question I thought. What would make things better? And then I remembered David. David is a friend of…

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Caregiver Stress? Try Inspirational Walking


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Caregiver stress is well documented and extracts a heavy toll on both caregivers and their families. In the heat of trying to keep everything together, it is hard for caregivers to find effective strategies that offer some respite from the…

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No Place Like Home for Aging Parents? Maybe, Maybe Not (Follow Up)


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Leslie Peters was my guest on a recent blogtalk radio show I host (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/solie/2009/11/07/no-place-like-home-for-aging-parent-maybe-maybe-no). I asked her to provide me with a “list” of questions that would help aging parents and their adult children screen potential senior living accommodations. She…

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