009 – Q&A: Answers to Your Questions on Helping Older Parents

Better Health While Aging

English - April 14, 2016 15:00 - ★★★★★ - 109 ratings
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Previous Episode: 008 Helping Families with Memory Loss: The Care to Plan Online Tool

Next Episode: 010 Choosing a Wearable Medical Alert System for Older Adults

Dr. K answers nine audience questions related to helping aging parents and coping with family caregiving. This episode touches on managing dementia behaviors, finding the right residential facility, helping parents who are refusing recommended advice, helping a mother with bipolar disorder, mild cognitive impairment, bad breath, and coping with caregiver stress. Related links are in the episode's show notes, at BetterHealthWhileAging.net/podcast

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In This Episode:

Dr. K answers nine audience questions related to helping older parents:

How to find a facility for an older father with dementia who is a “two-person assist”? How to make sense of the jargon on care levels and how are facilities classified?

How to help an older mother with bipolar, especially if she seems to be going into a manic phase?

How to maintain sanity and better respond to an older father with Alzheimer’s disease, who gets agitated and angry in the afternoons and evenings?

Whether to worry about withdrawal symptoms, after an older mother is hospitalized and treated with haloperidol for delirium

How to keep assisting without losing hope, in the context of a mother with Alzheimer’s and an older father with Parkinson’s and sleep problems

What to do when it’s hard to get an older mother to take her medications, and how to get her to understand the importance of recommended procedures such as cataract surgery

What to do if both you and your elderly mother have been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, and how to handle caregiving issues

Whether anxiety can cause abdominal pain and shortness of breath in someone with dementia, and how to improve bad breath that has been attributed to acid reflux

What can be done if an older father with mild cognitive impairment has been refusing to leave the house for several months

Expert contributors to some answers:

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elderlaw Attorney, AgingParents.com

Mary Hulme, LCSW, Licensed Geriatric Social Worker, MoonstoneGeriatric.com

Related Resources:

Eldercare Locator (Use to find your local Area Agency on Aging)

Assisted Living Levels of Care

Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance: Helping Others Throughout Their Lives

Symptoms, Signs & Effects of Bipolar Disorder in Seniors

Durable Financial Power of Attorney: How It Works

Family Caregiver Alliance: Caregiver’s Guide to Understanding Dementia Behaviors

Alzheimer’s Association Care Training Resources