Wisdom Wednesday: Aging Wisdom's Podcast
Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday, a short, bite-size podcast offering weekly wisdom and insights for aging well, caring well, and living well.
Do you have a plan for the time when home is no longer safe and supportive for your parent/s, your spouse, your partner, or you? Families are usually pragmatic and understand that an older adult who is living with a dementia or Parkinson’s diagnosis, for example, will eventually need to move to a safer, more supportive environment in the future.
Don’t we all need a ray of sunshine or a beacon of hope when life gets challenging?
An Aging Life Care Professional (aka geriatric Care Manager) is a health and human services specialist who acts as a guide and advocate for families who are caring for older relatives or disabled adults.
Families often seek our care management services when they know a parent needs help. And it’s not uncommon for the parent to resist assistance or support.
Worried about your parents and fighting with your siblings over their care? When it comes to mom and dad, even families who get along well will experience disagreements from time to time.
The systems that families encounter as they help a loved one navigate health and memory changes are dysfunctional.
As Amy Cameron O’Rourke reflects in her book The Fragile Years: “Most adult children are poorly prepared for the life-changing events that send their once-independent parents and loves into the fragile zone.” (p. 15) It’s not unusual for families to experience a roller coaster of emotions.
Every business has an origin story. Here’s ours: Lisa Mayfield, Aging Wisdom’s founder and principal, shares how she came to understand the challenges of dementia from an early age.
As Lisa shares, part of the process of helping your parent is assessing the landscape and determining if their living situation is really a crisis and requires you to act. Or is there something you can do to make their home safer; an opportunity to insert a little bit of help by starting small?
An Aging Life Care Professional, also known as a geriatric Care Manager, wears many hats and at all times serves as a guide for anyone planning for and/or navigating changes that often come with aging.