caregiver

So what’s in the world come over you…


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
The title of this blog is taken from John Prine’s song “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness,” which seems apropos for an article on the profound impact of loneliness on the health of aging parents. Here’s the first punch line:…

Continue Reading

The First Cousin


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
I grew up amid a herd of cousins, surrogate brothers and sisters who were embedded in my childhood. Operating as life scouts, they lived a few years ahead of me on the dangerous and uncharted perimeter of the adult world.…

Continue Reading

The Wrong Signals: Shutting Down Change Before It Starts


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
How do we help our aging parents consider making positive changes in their lives? We want to help, and feel we have good ideas that could improve their quality of life. For example, we would like for them to consider:…

Continue Reading

Navigating Caregiver Dilemmas


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
As the drama of aging parents unfolds, it reveals itself as layers of interconnected dilemmas that resist heroic attempts to keep everything together. Like an unruly Rubik’s Cube, alignment in one caregiver area seems to trigger chaos in another. Just…

Continue Reading

Boomer Perspective: Moment of Truth


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
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…

Continue Reading

When Am I Going Home From The Nursing Home?


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
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…

Continue Reading

Caregiver Stress? Try Inspirational Walking


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
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…

Continue Reading

What I Know Now: Lessons From Looking Back


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
Last June I was interviewed by Nell Bernstein, Senior Editor at Caring.com about what “I would have done differently” in caring for my mother based on what I know now. Below is my response: Talking With David Solie June 2008…

Continue Reading

Bitter Endings


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
We wished things had turned out different. They didn’t. History and personalities brought the drama of our aging parents to its only logical and painful conclusion. But as Linda Kriger points out in her heart felt article entitled Seeking Forgiveness…

Continue Reading

Working with Low Income Seniors


Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/davidsol/public_html/wp-content/themes/ds2/lib/donepurple.php on line 133
I was recently asked by a large medicare provider how my work on the developmental tasks of seniors could be used by their patient advocates with a predominately low income population. I thought is was an excellent question, and here…

Continue Reading