Where Is the Line Between Caregiver Stress and Burnout?
Every person who becomes a caregiver will have unique personality traits, yet we nearly always share certain feelings and experiences as we travel a road similar to one another. That’s one reason that caregivers often turn to other caregivers for support. It’s a version of the adage that we need to walk in another’s shoes in order to truly understand what they feel. One of those shared experiences is a certain amount of stress. Some personalities cope with the ever changing, nearly always challenging, business of caring for another adult with health issues better than others.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 25, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer ’s Symptoms: Navigational Skills may Deteriorate Long before Memory
Typically, when we think of the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease we think of memory problems. Words go missing, names escape your grasp and tasks to be done are forgotten. Now, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that making mental maps of where we have been and where we are going is a process the brain may lose before memory problems begin to show. People with these early symptoms can no longer navigate even a familiar area as they once did.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 24, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Reminiscing Powerful “Drug” for People with Dementia
I love stories. When I was a teenager, I’d encourage my grandparents to relate stories of their young years struggling to survive on the wind-swept prairie. When I grew older, I was fascinated by the stories my parents and in-laws told of their early years of growing up during the Great Depression. Little did I know at the time that peoples’ stories would become the springboard for my life’s work. Now there is mounting evidence that encouraging our elders to reminisce about their past is therapeutic as well as enjoyable.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 23, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Alcohol and Dementia Can Be Toxic, Complex Terrain
Dear Carol: My husband has been a recovering alcoholic for years, but after we both retired he started having a drink here and there. It didn’t seem like a problem until he started to show symptoms of dementia. He was eventually diagnosed with mixed Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. I’m not sure whether he forgets how much he’s had to drink or his alcoholism has caught up with him. He often becomes angry and on a couple of occasions he’s become threatening. He also falls after he’s been drinking, which is scary. I can’t get him to stop drinking or to return to his recovery meetings. I think...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 22, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Drug Free Management of Sundowning in People with Alzheimer's
Sundowning, sometimes called Sundown Syndrome, is the label given to late day anxiety, irritability, disorientation and general agitation in people with Alzheimer’s. Sundowning, also called sundowners, frustrates home caregivers and professional care staff alike, as they often feel completely unable to comfort the person affected.
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“I hold onto your book as a life preserver and am reading it slowly on purpose...I don't want it to end.”&...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 21, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Convincing Incontinent Elder to Wear Protection Can Be a Challenge
Our parents changed our diapers when we were babies. As we grew into toddlers we were “potty trained,” and from that time on we were expected to control our bodily functions. Is it any wonder that elders who have been rendered incontinent by a medical problem or disease often deny their incontinence and refuse, even in the face of evidence, to wear protection? They equate incontinence protection with diapers and diapers with babies. They feel humiliated. Wouldn’t they feel more humiliated smelling of urine or feces, you ask? Logically, yes.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 20, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Group Activities Reduce Depression among Older Population
When our elders are suffering from physical pain, mental stress, loneliness or the effects of ageism in our society, the result can be depression. Research done at Sweden’s Umeå University and reported on by Medical News Today finds that when group activities were introduced into the elders’ environments, depressive symptoms were often improved and the need for medication reduced or eliminated.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 19, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Women Caregivers Report More Health Issues than Men
Not surprisingly, the researchers say that caring for an ailing spouse is extremely difficult emotionally and physically for either gender. However, the researchers discovered that three years after the death of their spouse, surviving wives reportedly fared worse than surviving husbands...Another important issue that researchers face is that men and women tend to report caregiving differently.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 18, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Kegel Exercises: Prevent or Improve Urinary Incontinence Problems
“It has happened to all of us: we cough, sneeze or laugh and suddenly we feel that unique sensation of a bladder leak. The makers of incontinence products would have us believe that small bladder leakages are normal and manageable. This may be, but most women feel embarrassed and uncomfortable if they experience leakage, and no one enjoys planning trips around the closest bathroom locations. So, is there anything that can be done to prevent or manage urinary incontinence? Absolutely!”
Read full article on Agingcare about how Kegeling can improve incontinence issues:
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 17, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Unearned Guilt Often Intrinsic Part of Parent Care
Dear Carol: My mother has had diabetes for years and now her health has been complicated by dementia. I cared for her in my home for three years but apparently couldn’t do anything right. That wasn’t new, since her personality is such that even when she was fairly healthy, nothing anyone did was ever right. She’s now in a nursing home. The staff is excellent and I visit her nearly every day but she’s still complaining. This makes me feel even guiltier than I felt when she was at home complaining. It’s as if moving her to the nursing home makes me a bad person. I know that I did what ...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 16, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Bilingual People May be Better Protected Against Alzheimer's
The first elder for whom I became a primary caregiver was my neighbor, Joe. He was born of Norwegian immigrant parents who spoke Norwegian at home. As a result, Joe needed to repeat first grade because he spent his first year in school learning English. While Joe went on to become a well educated engineer who spoke English with no Norwegian accent, in his later years he did occasionally talk about the challenges he faced as a Norwegian speaking child. Joe’s experience of growing up in a home where a language other than English was hardly unusual since, historically, the U.S. has been populated by immigrants. What’s sur...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 15, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer’s Development Predicted Through Changes in Gait
When you are stuck behind an older woman at the supermarket, do you get impatient at her slow pace? Maybe she simply has all the time in the world and no longer must rush through each day as though she needs to put out a fire. Or maybe she has arthritis or another physical illness that is slowing her down. There’s nothing wrong with being more cautious about movements and slowing a bit as we age. However, for some people, a slow gait, particularly an uneven gait, could be a sign of brain disease such as Alzheimer’s.
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 14, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Emotionally Descriptive Words Lose Meaning with Semantic Dementia
Personality change is the hallmark of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but a small percentage of people with FTD experience an additional problem. They lose the ability to understand the meaning conveyed by words that describe emotion. People who love someone with this variant of FTD, which is called semantic dementia have to live with increased heartache knowing that their loved one is now unable to understand emotionally expressive phrases such as "I'm sad" or "I love you."
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 13, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Has Dementia Turned Your Spouse into a Stranger?
Although Alzheimer’s disease is likely the most common and well-known dementia, the reality is that there are many other types of dementia. One lesser known but increasingly recognized dementia is frontotemporal. FTD generally presents itself as a baffling change in a loved one's personality.
Read more on HealthCentral about FTD and how it can affect a marriage:
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“I hold onto your book as a life preserver and am reading it slowly on purpose...I don't want it to end.” Craig William Dayton, Film Composer
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Source: Minding Our Elders - July 12, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Dementia Caregivers Grief Soul Deep, Defies Labeling
When a beloved elder dies, we may have varying reactions, frequently changing moment by moment. Naturally, there’s grief and the realization that we’ve seen the last of our loved one’s physical presence. Often, however, if the death follows a long illness or significant pain, we can also feel a sense of relief that their suffering is over and we can get on with healing. It’s often the in between time – the caregiving years – that are the most difficult to label. (Source: Minding Our Elders)
Source: Minding Our Elders - January 22, 2014 Category: Caregivers Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
