Aging Care Coach

I'm going to be real here... The reality of the situation is that I have avoided blogging about this topic for months because it such a difficult topic. It's not difficult because I find the topic uncomfortable. I am not a prude, per se. We are adults. And by now, you all know I'm all about tacking tough topics of dementia care. The reason I've avoided writing about the topic is because there is absolutely no way that I can wrap this topic up in 750 words with a pretty little bow on top. No way, it's much too complex for that.  To start, "Sexuality in Dementia" encompasses such a wide variety of issues...foul/sexual language, suggestive comments, touching self/others, exposing self/others, masturbation, requesting sexual acts, and extra-marital relations when the person living with dementia no longer recalls they have a living spouse/partner and have found a new companion... to name a few.  See what I mean? That's quite a variety of situa...

March is Social Work month. Social workers in hundreds of different roles, working with a variety of populations across the county have been celebrated and appreciated this month. Before March comes to an end, I wanted to take time to express appreciation for social workers. Social Work is such a broad label. With a quick internet search of “social work” jobs, you will find thousands of positions requiring varying levels of education and experience, working with children, adoption, family services, hospitals, homeless, counseling/private practice, veterans, domestic violence, seniors, community services… the list goes on and on. That is just positions labeled ‘social worker’. So, what is a ‘social worker’? That title often comes with a presumed image of a caring person doing their best to make social change, often working one on one with individuals and families, helping them through life’s’ obstacles. That is true in many cases, while far from all inclusive. When peo...

Senior Oral Health Care—The Oral/Systemic Link This article was submitted by Mary Jensen RDH, MS Can you imagine not being able to brush your own teeth? Perhaps it is due to arthritis, poor vision, or dementia. Your inability to perform routine and effective oral hygiene care leads to dental decay and likely periodontal (gum) disease. It can also contribute to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and aspiration pneumonia. Controlling your diabetes will be much more difficult. Oral hygiene care is more than routine grooming like brushing one’s hair, or shaving—it is infection control! Inflammation of the gums will negatively effect overall health. The mouth is connected to the body! The blood that is in the infected gum tissue is the same blood that is traveling to the heart. Many seniors have had the benefit of preventative dental care. They have their natural teeth! Who will take the responsibility for caring for them when they can no longer care for themselves?...

Friends, I see news stories almost daily about individuals living with dementia who wander away from the safety of their care partners. Many times they are found safely, but there are many stories where the story ends tragically. The Alzheimer's Association states that SIX out of ten individuals living with dementia will wander. They go on to say that half of those who wander, half will experience serious injury or death if not found within twenty-four hours. These statistics are alarming. For over half of those living with dementia, the question is not IF but WHEN they will wander. The risk is real, yet many care partners assume wandering is not a risk for  their  loved one. Let's just put this into perspective a little... If you knew with 50% certainty that a child was at risk for being kidnapped, would you ignore the risk? I don't know of anyone caring for small children who would ignore this risk without putting some safety precautions in place. This comparison ...

As I travel around the country speaking about dementia, I get to meet a lot of neat people and hear a lot of stories about caring for loved ones throughout the aging process and those living with dementia. I repeatedly hear accounts of husbands, wives, sons and daughters who tell of "sudden" changes in their loved ones which are mistakenly misdiagnosed as sudden onset dementia or sudden drastic progression of the dementia process. I had the recent misfortune to have little run in with a deer while driving on a major thoroughfare in my town... I could almost see the deer laugh at me as he ran off. Meanwhile, my husband's Jeep (which I was driving at the time) required over three thousand dollars in repairs. When I took the car to the collision center for repairs, I struck up small talk with a fellow customer. As conversations often evolve, the topic of careers came up and I shared that I work in dementia care. I noticed an immediate change in James' (my new f...

Alright friends, it is Real Talk Time again on the Aging Care Coach blog. Over the past 6 weeks, many of you have visited aging family members that you may or may not see regularly. In recent visits, there are a few bits and pieces of your interactions that have stuck out in your mind. For some of you, these are more alarming and you know that it is probably past time to get help. Some of you, however, are finding ways to “justify” these incidents as stress, normal aging or lifelong challenges with details, personality issues, etc. I’m not a mind-reader, I haven’t been spying on your texts with your siblings and I haven’t been a part of your whispered conversations with loved ones… so how do I know this? I know what many of you are experiencing right now because I have experienced this in my own family situations and have worked with families reaching out for support in late December, January and February for the past 15 years. During my Masters’ program, I had the privileg...

Friends, let's talk about giving gifts to loved ones living with dementia. Yet again, I speak from experience... I have seen my own family and others overcompensate in their grief and feelings of hopelessness by giving extravagantly at a point when the person living with dementia is unable to appreciate or secure treasured valuables. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think those living with dementia are un-deserving of nice things. That is not my point at all. Unfortunately, because of the memory and thinking changes experienced, some "valuables" may not be as meaningful to them as their world gets more narrow. If they do treasure an item, they may place the item in a 'safe place'... You know the safe place I'm talking about - the place where a person with dementia puts a treasured item then cannot recall the location? Yep, some of you know all about these 'safe places' where items go missing sometimes turning up months or years later. ...