Throughout the year, we had many great contributions from our community outreach team and members of our clinical staff, as well as the occasional post from colleagues and caregivers. Many of those posts resonated with our audience, so to celebrate we’re conducting a 2014 Rewind, looking back at five of the year’s most popular posts.
Occupying the top spot as the single most-read post this past year, perseveration (and the repetitive speech and/or actions that comes with it) is clearly a source of frustration for caregivers. This post answered questions regarding what can trigger perseveration and what a caregiver can do when a loved one coping with dementia engages in this activity.
From unauthorized account creation and use to misuse of personal information for a fraudulent purpose, identity theft and elder financial exploitation are on the rise. While this post helped to educate seniors and caregivers about some of the more “typical” scams out there, we always recommend you use common sense to help guide you and your loved one.
Fairly new on the health care scene (within the last decade or so), palliative care is often confused with hospice care. While some of the main principles are shared, like comfort and management of pain or symptoms, palliative care is its own distinctive offering — and a great one at that! Unlike hospice care, you do not have to be dying or stop curative treatment to receive palliative care and all of its benefits. This post explored the unique hallmarks of palliative care and who might seek it, providing additional links to resources that may help you determine whether palliative care is right for you or a loved one.
Each day, nearly 42 million Americans withstand the enormous pressures of caring for a loved one while simultaneously managing the demands of a full-time job. If you’re a caregiver, you may eventually find yourself looking to secure additional help; this can be confusing as you try to match available resources with the needs of you and your loved one. This post lays out the differences between two service options: home health care and private duty care.
As dementia progresses, communicating with a loved one with dementia becomes increasingly challenging. Motor skills, memory, and language are some of the areas that decline as dementia advances. Family and caregivers need to be aware of these changes and prepare to deal with them as proactively as possible. By focusing on keeping distractions at a minimum and allowing for positive interactions, this post may help you connect with your loved one with dementia.
This post marks our last for 2014. We can’t wait to kick off 2015, showing off some new features on the blog as well as bringing you even more tools, tips, and resources for aging seniors and their caregivers.
Happy New Year — we hope you’ll continue on the journey with us!
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