- Advanced Directives
- Dying with Dignity
- Hospice & Palliative Care: The Difference
- Hospitalization
- Injection How-to’s
- Living Wills
- Medicare & Hospice
- Pain Management
- Powers of Attorney
- Terminal Illness
- Aging in Place
- Alzheimer’s & Dementia Care at Home
- Bathroom, Eating & Drinking Aids
- Emergencies
- Hiring Homecare
- Hiring Home Health Care
- Home Modification
- Home Safety & Fall Prevention
- Hospital Discharge
- Housework, Dressing & Eating Tips
- Positioning & Exercises for the Bedridden
- Senior Driving Issues
What Is…Palliative Care?
Palliative care reduces the amount of pain or suffering from a disease or illness. Often palliative care is administered when the actual disease course cannot be treated—or when treatment of disease(s) will result in unwanted additional health issues or problems. Many recipients of palliative care are in hospice, but they do not have to be....Read the rest of this article »
Side Effects of Common Medications & How They Affect the Aging Body
Last month we discussed how our bodies change as we age. Aging also makes us more prone to having side effects from medications. So what medications should be avoided in the elderly? Dr. Mark Beers, writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1997 and in 2003, identified medications that are potentially inappropriate for older adults. The Beers Criteria are now widely used by physicians and pharmacists to identify medications that require special monitoring in the elderly. Following is a...Read the rest of this article »
The Role of Hospice Care in Pain Management
A major fear people have of dying is that they’ll be in pain. Hospice eases that fear by providing palliative care with an emphasis on pain control. The main objective is to relieve symptoms that interfere with one’s quality of life. Hospice manages emotional and spiritual pain in addition to physical pain. By using a combination of medications, counseling and therapy, hospice has a very high success rate of easing a patient’s pain. Some families worry about their loved...Read the rest of this article »
