Balance an Elder's Sense of Purpose and Dignity with Their Safety

By Carol Bradley Bursack

Seniors need to feel useful, by doing activities and hobbies they enjoy. When should caregivers interfere if they see danger in elders' activities?

Joe was in his 80s and lived in his own home. He was my first care receiver. Joe was totally deaf, so to communicate with each other, he spoke and I wrote on a large legal pad. 

One day, when I hurried into his house through the back door at my usual visiting time, I sensed something odd. Generally, Joe would be sitting at his kitchen table waiting for me. This time, there was no sign of him.

I ran down the basement steps, since he'd fallen down there before. No Joe. Then, back upstairs, I heard a rustling noise coming from his bedroom. There was Joe, whose gait on a flat surface was wobbly at best, standing halfway up a metal ladder. He was jabbing, with needle-nose pliers, at a light fixture in his closet. There was no bulb in the fixture and the electricity was on. Dangerous territory. Joe saw me and gleefully screeched, "Hold the ladder, honey! I'll be down in a minute."

Needless to say, I was frantic. I grabbed the tablet and wrote in big letters "GET DOWN!" He just laughed. This scene ended with me turning off the fuses in the fuse box so he wouldn't electrocute himself. He eventually tottered down off the ladder and we had some laughs. Joe couldn't understand why I was upset. He was just trying to fix the light. It was his house, after all.

A question on the AgingCare.com forum brought this scene back to my thoughts. The person wrote, "My 81-year-old father still thinks he can do handyman duties around the house (including climbing ladders, using power tools, etc.) How do I convince him this is dangerous and he must stop?"

Indeed. How do we get elders to stop doing "handyman" tasks, doing yard work that should be hired out or even extensive kitchen work? Everyone needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning. If a person has no purpose in life, why go on living? For elders whose bodies – and sometimes minds – seem to betray them more each day, this becomes an issue.

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National Alzheimer's Plan Unveiled

As part of the government’s national plan, unrolled today, to fight Alzheimer’s, is a new Department of Health and Human Services caregiver website, www.alzheimers.gov.

Along with information (legal, financial, medical), resources, strategies for dealing with daily challenges, and tools and links, the government website has a caregiver section with tips for caring for yourself as well as video conversations with caregivers.

This site stems from the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), which President Obama signed in January 2011. Many specifics of the plan, crafted with input from aging and Alzheimer’s experts, were unveiled today.

The collaborative approach to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s involves federal, state, private and non-profit groups. The national plan is geared to support research, and inform and educate clinicians, caregivers, and the public.

To further rev up results, the president’s proposed FY 2013 budget provides a $100 million increase for Alzheimer’s, including $10.5 million in caregiver support.

Currently, 5.1 million Americans have Alzheimer’s or other dementias, and the rate is rapidly rising as the country’s 78 million baby boomers age.

Besides the website, more highlights of the NAPA plan include:

• The funding of two clinical trials by the National Institutes of Health that will use new technologies and approaches in clinical testing. The aim: to come up with novel ways to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s.
• Monies through geriatric education centers to train healthcare providers to better recognize and manage Alzheimer’s.
• A TV media campaign launching this summer to reach family members and anyone else who needs information on Alzheimer’s and dementia.

The caregiving component of the NAPA plan is further recognition that caregivers are also deeply impacted by the Alzheimer’s diagnosis and need support, too.

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A Culture Change is Coming to Texas

 In the United States a movement has begun that is changing the way long term care communities are being operated. This exciting culture change has taken off across the country and is slowing making its way into long term care institutions of Texas. The Eden Alternative model revolves around creating human habitats that promote growth and purpose for both Elders and their caregivers. 

          It all started when the founder, Dr. Bill Thomas, began serving as a local nursing home doctor. As he was making his rounds one day, he asked one of his aging patients if there was anything he could do for her today. Her response was, “Doctor, I’m so lonely!” He went home that night and scanned every medical index in existence in search of a treatment for loneliness, but there was nothing. The following day, Dr. Thomas went to the nursing home and observed the environment. What he saw were his Elders suffering – not from physical ailments but from plagues of the human spirit: loneliness, helplessness, and boredom. He began to imagine a different kind of world … a place where humans could actually live and not sit around waiting to die. And so began the story of The Eden Alternative.

The core concept of The Eden Alternative is simple. Through a set of principles and training strategies, this alternative can help transform the places where Elders live, and create places where these Elders will live and thrive.

Currently there are over 300 communities nationwide that have qualified as Eden Registered homes. Texas, however, is home to only three of these Eden homes. In Flower Mound Texas, there is a community that has recently began their Eden journey  in hopes of becoming the only registered Eden Alternative assisted living in the entire state. Kim Geron, the Administrator at Flower Mound Assisted Living said, “When I personally began looking for a home for my aging parents, it became very clear to me that these senior ‘institutions’ were just that … institutions. Institution being a word that is commonly associated with white walls and locked doors. I knew they deserved more! The Eden Alternative is an amazing culture change that was developed to give Elders the kind of life they deserve. A life that is full of purpose, meaning, spontaneity, laughter, companionship, and growth.  Just because you become older, doesn’t mean you are done living.”

Flower Mound Assisted living is hosting a training for anyone interested in becoming an Eden Associate on June 12^th, 13th, and 14^th at their community. They are inviting leadership teams, organizations, and anyone along the entire care continuum, who are interested in initiating a positive culture change and journey into their organization, to please join them. If you would like information on this exciting training opportunity, contact Tiffany Smith at 972-539-9444 or on their website at flowermoundalf.com.

Changing Live's

3rd Annual Car Show

Helping Aging Parents (and Ourselves) Avoid Scams

Read the FBI senior fraud prevention suggestions.

Read Prime Targets for Spam Artists, Paula Span’s April 20, 2012 column over at the New Old Age Blog. The fact that victims may not report fraud due to embarrassment is troubling and of special concern to adult children. Span posted her second column on the topic, with fraud fighting suggestions, on Monday, April 23, 2012,

In response to the huge number of phone calls and strange e-mails received by my parents and my husband’s parents, I’ve written a number of times about scams and seniors. Our family’s most irritating scam interactions are the phone calls made by Rachel at credit card services, though I suspect “she” has changed her name, given the large amount of venting about these calls on the web.

To learn more you can read some of my past blog posts about scams.

• Scams and Seniors
• Scans and Seniors Redux 
• Scams of Springtime
• Seniors: Avoid Fraud Online
• Protecting Aging Parents from Telephone Fraud – 5 Tips

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Alive Inside: Brings Music to Elders with Alzheimer's

Being New

When is the last time you were the ‘new kid’? Was it when you started a new job, attended a new church, or perhaps it was while attending a new school? We all have been in this position and remember the awkwardness of not knowing what the ‘norm’ was. Not knowing what we should do, where we should go, or what lunch table to sit at.

In Dr. Bill Thomas’ book Into the Arms of Elders, he shares about wise leadership and how it makes a difference for someone coming into a new place. In the book, Bill and his wife Jude are shipwrecked and washed ashore on an unknown island, where an elder inhabiting the island, takes the couple in. All of a sudden, Bill and Jude, who were independent people, have to depend on strangers to survive. Thrown into the unknown, where everything is new, they have no choice but to lean on their caregiver and other villagers that share similar pasts. Guided in their journey by the wisdom of others.

Proving that wise leadership is vital in creating a caring  and welcoming community.