While quantity and quality of senior living options and related technologies continue to evolve, the senior care industry faces at least three major challenges; The median caregiver turnover rate across the industry was 66.7% in 2017, the highest rate since 2013. About 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 each day. The number of people aged 65 and over is projected to …
Take Care; Send A Little Love to Your Heart
While presenting a Keynote for the Nebraska Healthcare Association Annual meeting, I guided the audience through a ‘one minute, relaxation- meditation’. I asked the group to begin taking a few deep breaths, to close their eyes and allow themselves to be fully relaxed and simply be present. Taking long slow, conscious deep breaths, I then asked the participants to place …
Being Mortal; A Must Read for Caregivers & Families Alike
‘Being Mortal, Medicine and What Matters Most in the End’, by Dr. Atul Gawande is a must read for caregivers and families alike. Gawande begins with the assertion that ‘for a clinician, nothing is more threatening to who you think you are than a patient with a problem you cannot solve.’ He further shows us that for more than half a …
A nod to my Dad; a legacy of perseverance, courage and joy
My Dad recently passed away one month shy of his 93rd birthday. Here’s one story that embodies his spirit and legacy, courage, perseverance and joy. ~~~ Dad could still muster the energy to walk to the end of the driveway and into the passenger seat of my convertible. Over the years I did my best to look out for him, to visit …
Family Caregivers Need Support
In my new memoir, Who Cares? The Give and Take of Family Caregiving, I detail many of the challenges and personal hardships I faced while caring for my siblings and elderly parents. I was often exhausted, stressed, even depressed, after what seemed like endless trips to the emergency room, doctor visits and hospital stays. Not to mention the negative impact …
Advisory and Health Warning from the Department of Communications, Stress Management, and Sanity
I received no warning regarding the mental-emotional challenges of living in a world driven by technology. I never got this letter…and neither did you. January 1, 2000. Advisory and Health Warning for the use of Electronic Mail from the Department of Communications, Stress Management, and Sanity . “Attention, over the next several decades your primary method of communication will be electronic mail, aka …