Caregiving Articles with Tips and Recommendations

Discharge planning from a hospital starts upon admission of the patient. This means that as your parent's advocate, you will learn what he or she needs during the hospital stay.

Roberta Temes, PhD, is a noted psychotherapist who has taught classes in death, dying and bereavement at schools such as Downstate Medical School and CUNY. She is the author of several books, including the award-winning Living with an Empty Chair: A Guide Through Grief and The Tapping Cure.

Many of us experienced it from our parents on an everyday basis without even realizing it–those special moments that soothed, comforted and pleased us through their actions, gestures and smiles. Now it's our turn to offer aging parents some special moments of their own.

Communication between younger and older generations is the key to successfully encouraging children to connect with their elders.

Voting is a right and a duty that can be difficult to exercise if you’re a senior. Here are ways loved ones can help on election day.

One of the most important relationships for seniors is the one they have with grandchildren. GrandCamp Adventures helps families nurture the grandparent and grandchild relationship.

Many older adults are capable of driving safely, even into their 70s and 80s. But people age differently. Several factors place seniors at much greater risk for road accidents and affect seniors’ driving ability.

It is undeniable that drugs do save lives, but few prescription medications are completely free of risks or side effects. Naturally, the more drugs that are taken at the same time, the greater the risk of adverse interactions and potentially devastating side effects. This problem of “overmedication” is increasing to almost epidemic proportions among the elderly. Take for example a recent Washington Post article that described an 83-year-old grandmother who wished to remain anonymous.

Traditionally, people bring flowers to sick people. But this type of patient care may do more than just cheer them up. According to a study in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, the physical environment has important implications for the disease process.

There are few things more difficult than saying goodbye to a dying parent. In between talking to doctors and family members, not to mention trying to cope emotionally, what affairs do you need to get in order?

It makes us uncomfortable to talk about, so any discussion of end-of-life care needs gets pushed under the rug for as long as possible, sometimes for so long that it’s too late to take meaningful steps to ease the transition.

A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that despite all the attention to better end-of-life-care and death with dignity, a majority of people who receive life-extending care in the last week of their life had previously expressed their desire to receive only symptom relief and comfort care.