If you as a family member feel that you just cannot put all of the pieces together on how your loved one is doing with rehabilitation or on just what you need to be planning for the discharge, do not hesitate to request a family conference with the treating team.

The Chartered Care Collection (01/19/2021), provides a review of the latest, pertinent publications from the medical literature on aging. I have selected interesting articles that describe some of the most current research that may be relevant to the loved one in your care.

Taking care of elderly parents at home. There are solutions that will allow your aging parent to remain in your home or theirs. If you are at a point where that will not work, there are different levels of care at specialized facilities that can be just what you need.

Taking care of our aging family members in the latter years of their lives takes a lot of time regardless of a dementia diagnosis or not. The average number of care hours per week in the final year of life for someone with dementia is right around 34 hours

Dealing with our aging family members that have been through some sort of traumatic, life-changing event is certainly no laughing matter. Sometimes, though, laughter is just what we need in order to get through tough and stressful times.

In receiving the vaccination, I have also struggled with the question of why I get to be at the head of the line. What about all the others that are at risk providing an important service?

Who is best to make the decision and how is it best to have the conversation .

The inability to safely take medications has been enough to keep someone from returning to home without assistance.

What are the options of where to go after acute rehab?

Can I safely gather with family for Thanksgiving?

Learn what to expect those first few days after the knee surgery and just what is involved in the decision making process.

Beyond the surgical procedure itself, I like to pay attention to the outcome of the surgery. Was that elective hip or knee replacement worth the risk of the surgery and then the recovery process? Did he or she gain any improvement in her quality of life?

Senior assisted living facilities are a wonderful option for those that can move around, mostly on their own, but need the added option of someone to be present should the resident need extra assistance at times.

A stroke is a very serious medical diagnosis that has a very broad range of symptoms and a highly variable prognosis/recovery.

Memory care stages. Finding the right care at the right time will improve quality of life for all.

Is isolation of the elderly during the pandemic the right decision? Arguments for and against isolating the elderly. As the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched on, we have gone to both ends of the spectrum in the case for and against isolating our loved ones in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

End of life care at home. In some cases acute rehabilitation can get you there.

“24/7 care is going to be needed for your mom.” What? How can that be? What am I going to do?!

Therapists and nurses commonly use the FIM scale, which stands for Functional Independence Measure. The FIM scale is a tool used by therapists, physicians and nurses to assess the amount of assistance one requires to perform the various ADLs. It is used to determine a person’s level of independence at the current moment and then to gauge one’s progress with rehabilitation.

What is the meaning of ADLs? You might have heard the three letters “ADLs” used frequently when someone from the hospital is talking to you about how your loved one is doing in regards to his or her function. Those letters stand for Activities of Daily Living. There are two overall categories of ADLs--the Basic ADLs and the Instrumental ADLs.