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End-Stage Dementia: Care Options and What to Expect

Dementia as a general condition is broken into seven stages, according to the Global Deterioration Scale for Dementia (GDS), a comprehensive tool used to assess patients’ emotional and physical symptoms. Stages 6 and 7 are the final stages of dementia. Stage 7 is the last before death, and here, the person with dementia experiences a rapid decline in most abilities.Education, empathy, and attentiveness to end-stage dementia signs are crucial to compassionate dementia care. Learning how your love...

Colonoscopies in Seniors: Guidelines, Risks & Alternatives

Doctors with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend that adults aged 50 to 75 have a colonoscopy screening, even without symptoms. Colonoscopies in people age 76 to 85 should be limited to a case-by-case basis due to higher risks associated with this procedure in the elderly. This age group should consider alternatives to colonoscopy, like stool sample tests and CT colonography.[01] The following are the guidelines for the frequency with which these screenings should be performed:[01]...

UTIs in the Elderly: Symptoms, Treatments, and Prevention

Seniors may not notice a mild UTI infection right away, as the physical symptoms may be more subtle in older adults. Physical symptoms of a UTI include: Burning, painful sensation with urinationFrequent, intense urge to urinate even when there’s little urine to passA feeling that the bladder is not completely emptiedBlood in the urineCloudy or foul-smelling urineSometimes a senior may not have physical symptoms at all until the infection has become severe.[01] For instance, burning during urinat...

Elderly Skin Bruising: Causes and Prevention

Bruising in seniors is primarily caused by the skin’s reduced thickness and resilience due to certain conditions of aging. As we age, skin cells don’t reproduce as quickly as before. This can result in thinner layers of skin and the loss of protective connective tissue, making veins and capillaries more open to damage. The aging process might also involve a higher intake of medications and a reduction in the ability to absorb nutrients. This also makes the skin more vulnerable to bruising. Elder...

Pneumonia in Seniors: Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention

Seniors 65 and over are at an increased risk of death from pneumonia, especially if they have preexisting health problems. If a senior has chronic health conditions, like heart or kidney disease, pneumonia can progress rapidly and become increasingly difficult to treat. In extreme cases, doctors might discontinue all treatment and put the senior on hospice.[01,02] It’s suspected that the following health conditions and factors increase the risk of death from pneumonia in adults over 65:[03] Hear...

Memory Care for Aggressive Patients

Staff who work in memory care communities or care homes are often trained in dementia care techniques for managing aggression and calming residents. They use a person-centered approach to care and communication that helps center and soothe the individual. David Troxel, former president and CEO of the California Coast Alzheimer’s Association, explains: “The best facilities and programs develop an individualized care plan that focuses on remaining abilities and strengths. I believe 90% of the time...

Memory Care Classes: How to Become a Memory Care Specialist

In order to find the right memory care community or caregiver for a loved one, it’s good to know what qualifications memory care-specific staff are required to have in your area. Most states require some specialized training for caregivers in memory care-licensed facilities. However, requirements vary greatly from state to state. While some states may require intensive hours of ongoing caregiver training, others have no mandated training at all. More than half of all states don’t require memory...

Siblings Fighting Over Elderly Parents: Problems and Solutions

Adult siblings don’t always see caregiving needs the same way. One child may have the impression that a parent is doing fine at home, while another feels they need help. Or, the adult children realize that their loved one needs care, but the parent refuses to see it as an option. These decisions can lead to a divide between siblings. Solution: Get a professional assessmentHelping seniors make the right decisions for their care needs can be difficult when siblings are fighting. That’s why an outs...

What to Do After a Dementia Diagnosis: 10 Steps

Understand what to expect with a dementia diagnosis. This can help you feel more confident and empowered to create a dementia care plan that fits your relative’s needs and improves their quality of life. Learn about proven lifestyle changes, like exercise (physical and mental) and brain-healthy diets, clinically shown to slow the progression of dementia. There’s no cure for Alzheimer’s or dementia, but specialized dementia treatments are available to help with symptoms. Things like behavior mana...
Electric Literature •

Decolonize Your Bookshelf With These Books by Native American Writers - Electric Literature

Since Thanksgiving is a time when the collective American imagination envisions a peaceful meal shared between colonizer and colonized, where both appear to share a mutual understanding and benefit, why not make this fantasy a reality by exercising some empathy-for-the-other muscles and read literary works written from their perspective?

My list has no blood quantum standards and is complete with rez and urban, past and present, perspectives alike, which I feel is the best way to represent the...
Electric Literature •

Samantha Hunt Transforms the Mermaid Myth into a Feminist Allegory - Electric Literature

The Seas, Samantha Hunt’s first novel, is as disturbing as it is beautiful. It is a literary equivalent of the Rubin vase, the ambiguous image, multistable perception that shocks us back and forth between two possible realities of a story all dependent upon the gaze of the reader at particular moments. Our narrator is either a real mermaid or a schizo-affective depressive circling down the drain of a heavy mental breakdown. We think we have to choose between these sides of perception but we don’...
Electric Literature •

Tommy Orange Gives Voice to Urban Native Americans - Electric Literature

Tommy Orange is the author of There There, a novel that circles the lives of Oakland, California-based urban Indians. Tommy’s work offers varied interpretations of Native life, culture and inherited trauma, lived in and through the city. He spoke to me thoughtfully about the potential social implications of his book, so needed right now for urban Natives — living too long as ghosts in the American city.

We grew up not far from one another. I am only an hour further east, inland to Stockton, Cal...