When we talk about summer, it automatically connotes hot weather and well, fires. If there’s one thing I fear, it’s fires, whether it is a natural occurrence or a product of human ignorance. Just the same, if you are a senior with very limited range of motion, you would want to avoid fires as much as possible too. Seniors and children are at highest risk when it comes to fires [...]

A study done by SAMSHA or Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration discussed the hazards of overmedication and how seniors are more prone to such health risk. The study also found out that most seniors are unintentionally overmedicating themselves either they were too confused to know that they indeed overmedicated or they were given doses that are not suitable for them. Not only overmedication is risky but it can [...]

I’ve always discussed on this blog how a person from a younger generation or perhaps your partner can be your caregiver but seldom do I write about a grandparent as the caregiver however, these past few years there has been a significant rise on reported cases in which at least one grandchild was left to be cared for by the grandparents. Sad but true; it seems that grandparents are the [...]

Suddenly you found yourself straddled with unplanned caregiving duties, and you still have your day job to contend with, now what? It’s fair to say that both “duties” are hard enough to fill by themselves however, some caregivers may actually find themselves juggling these two amongst others. If you do, then you deserve a pat on the back. Work responsibilities and caregiving duties rarely compliment each other especially if you [...]

Stroke, indeed, has a deep and immediate effect on both senior and their families. However, an attack is only the beginning of a long, and sometimes painful journey. If you ask me, the scary part of having stroke is life after it since there will be many drastic changes that most of us are not even ready for it. Going home may feel like you’re on your own now, and [...]

I must remind you all seniors to please take a night off sorting your medicine cabinets—if you haven’t done that already—as the 2nd National Drug Take-Back Day will be held Saturday, April 30, 2011. It is a nationwide effort of the government to prevent prescription drug abuse and theft. Sites are scattered all over the nation and will be open from 10am to 2pm. Make sure you bring all those [...]

Let’s keep it light today shall we? While doing my regular volunteer work for a nearby care residence which houses a couple of really, really old people left abandoned by their families and friends (if they still have any surviving), I encountered a new “recruit” and I must say, this new recruit is not a happy one, either. I knew from the moment I laid my eyes to this new [...]

I just got off the phone with my friend from Australia. Sadly, some parts of Australia are still submerged in water and worse, some families are not even prepared for the flood, some didn’t even see it coming. Lucky are we whose hands of Mother Nature didn’t reach but one can’t help but think:  for how long? It has always been my personal vow to look after my fellow seniors, [...]

If you ask me, I find it silly when a patient gets the barest information about his or her condition when it’s their bodies the doctor will be fixing up. In a senior’s case, you’ll find that the doctors and health care providers are most likely to inform a patient’s relative way before they even approach the patient himself. I tried asking my doctor about that, the second time I [...]

The things that transpired over the weekend truly saddened me to the core. I was busy monitoring the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi as well as the ongoing search and rescue operations held in New Zealand since the powerful earthquake that shook them late February when the news of Japan experiencing their strongest and most damaging earthquake came in. A day later it was the tsunami, an expected after effect of [...]