Througout our lifetime, we often end up caring for, or “parenting,” more than our children. I became the caretaker for my mom and my aunt.  I helped care for my dad and my uncle.  I assisted with my mother-in-law.
We don’t think, when we’re raising our children that we may become caregivers for those who once cared for us.  We don’t make plans for this and it often hits unawares.
Auntie became my responsibility after my mom could no longer care for her.  She lived with my parents for more than a year when another relative couldn’t cope with Auntie’s Alzheimer’s …read more

AlzheimersNotes.com
  When I read Carol O’dell’s blog post, Did I Attract Caregiving? where she relates about caring for her mother, it touched a cord.  I began to wonder: 
Did I attract caregiving when it became my responsibility to care for Mother and Auntie, both of whom had Alzheimer’s.  Somehow I also became responsible, along with a family friend, for my uncle who never married. 
“What would have happened if I said I couldn’t care for Mother?” I once asked another friend. 
“But everyone knew you’d do it,” she said.  So I guess it was a non-issue as the “everyones” went on with  their …read more

AlzheimersNotes.com 
I was excited by the invitation to write another guest post, Should We Track Alzheimer’s Patients Electronically, at AGIS CareStation.  This is a blog where you’ll find information and resources to help family and caregivers cope with aging, disability, and eldercare issues.
I’m pleased to share with their readers and think this also is a resource Alzheimer’s Notes‘ readers will find helpful.
My previous post at CareStation was Resolutions Aren’t Static in an Alzheimer’s World.
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

                            
 It’s difficult enough when you family member has no health problems other than Alzheimer’s  But when there are other issues, such as diabetes, their care becomes more complex for family caregivers and for staff at a nursing home.
Here are 7 tips which hopefully will make diabetes care for Alzheimer’s patients a bit easier:
 1. Learn about diabetic diets, especially if you’re the one preparing the food.
2.  Learn about your family member’s  medical needs.
3.  When your family member resides in a nursing home, make sure you note this on the forms you fill out.  Diabetes should show up in their health records, but …read more

Picture books focusing on Alzheimer’s help youngsters (and adults) learn more about this disease as it affects the people in their lives.  Yvonne  Russell calls this book to our attention, as well as Australia’s National Dementia Awareness Month. 
 By Guest Blogger – Yvonne Russell
Australia’s 2007 National Dementia Awareness Month runs from 17 September to 17 October. This is Alzheimer’s Australia’s national community education campaign. Let’s mark the occasion, by sharing one of Australia’s most famous and best loved picture books, which deals with Alzheimer’s.
  Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge & Mem Fox
Australian author, Mem Fox, is world renowned as a great …read more

Here’s another book that’s made it’s way onto my list of ‘must reads’.
People react to the death of a loved one in many ways. Lauren Kessler’s way was to try and understand more about the disease that killed her mother. To do so, she got a job as a caregiver at a residential Alzheimer’s facility in Oregon. Her book, Dancing with Rose, documents her time spent there as a caregiver to patients with various degrees of Alzheimer’s.
Read these essays by Lauren…
Bridging the Gap
Seeing Instead of Watching
Check out these book reviews…
Life in the land of Alzheimer’s
Seeing Mom’s Humanity First, Instead …read more

An article in the Manchester (England) Evening News, “Plans to Tag Dementia Patients,” introduces the idea of tagging older, or dementia affected, people so they can be tracked by satellite.  This proposal has been met with mixed reaction.
Balancing freedom and safety becomes the issue.  If someone has cared for a family member with Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia, they would be more likely to favor a tracking monitor.  If a person never has, they might consider this restrictive and repressing the person’s freedom…a form of unnecessary control.
We had a friend, in the mid stages of Alzheimer’s, who left his wife …read more

The article, “Compensating Family Caregivers,” raises interesting points that might cause concern among some family members.  In fact, the article states, “Here’s a question likely to spark some sibling debates.”
Should a family member receive payment or some type of compensation when caring for a parent with a disease like Alzheimer’s?  Some people would say, “Absolutely not!  They should do it out of love.”  However, often the sibling or relative stating this doesn’t want to interrupt their life to be a caregiver.
In other instances, family members would realize the amount of work and often sacrifice of job and family life that is …read more

One challenge of caring for Alzheimer’s patients is their tendency to stay up all hours of the night, sleep during the day, or alternately catnap and putter around the house 24/7.  This becomes increasingly difficult when they no longer can occupy themselves with reading, handiwork, watching TV.
“Lights out” time came to mind when an elderly gentleman mentioned he could no longer stay up until 2 A.M. doing genealogy research or writing at his computer.  He now lived with a daughter and her husband who insisted on “lights out” at 11 P.M.  When he visits another child, her husband wants the lights …read more

When do you decide that someone with Alzheimer’s or other infirmity shouldn’t live alone?  Some don’t mind at all moving in with children or going to assisted living.  However, the majority of people, as they grow older and can’t do everything themselves, resist moving from their home and becoming dependent upon family members or others.
This isn’t an easy decision.  Most of the time there isn’t a convenient answer.  Families usually aren’t set up to care for someone in their home.  Perhaps both work outside the home.  There may be children to consider.  And the increasingly dependent person wants to remain in …read more