home care

I’ve recently been helping a friend who has been managing her mother’s transitions from a hospital to a rehab facility and then to another rehab facility that now wants to send her home before she, or her family, is ready.

En español | I’ve been a family caregiver for more than 30 years, and I’ve found that there are some gadgets that not only make my life much easier but also make the lives of those I’m caring for much safer and happier.

For more than five years I’ve been hiring paid caregivers to help care for my parents. They have run the gamut from top-notch to terrible. Along the way, I’ve learned some hard but valuable lessons:

My pop, like many family caregivers, used his ingenuity to solve problems. This time, Pop was trying to figure out an easier way to help my mom out of her wheelchair and into bed. Pop was in his 90s, and anything would make it easier on him. So he rigged up a ramp from cinder blocks and particle board. If he could get her chair going at the right speed and right angle, he could run up the ramp and drop her in bed. No doubt Mom was a good sport and willing passenger.

A federal judge has approved the proposed Settlement Agreement in the Medicare Improvement Standard case, Jimmo vs. Sebelius, clearing the way for thousands of Medicare beneficiaries to receive needed health services to maintain their current level of functioning.

By Jay Hancock of Kaiser Health News

AARP and the Ad Council are teaming up to raise awareness about the 42 million Americans who care for a loved one - people like me who are family caregivers. This campaign is designed to help us find the quality information, resources and support that we desperately need.

I've had a strange obsession with watching The Waltons the past few months. I find myself DVRing every episode on three different channels. I watch 4 episodes a day. For some reason, I've been oddly attracted to their TV-land multigenerational family living and the connection to my childhood (when The Waltons was in its prime.)