Under scoring system, those who have difficulty walking and eating still may not qualify for nursing home care. After more than a half century of marriage, Joost Koenig and Joann Koenig don’t take care of each other as well as they used to. She’s a retired nurse who can’t remember her own medicine regimen, let […]

The man complained of memory problems but seemed perfectly normal. No specialist he visited detected any decline. “He insisted that things were changing, but he aced all of our tests,” said Rebecca Amariglio, a neuropsychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. But about seven years later, he began showing symptoms of dementia. Dr. Amariglio […]

Agencies and private firms are rolling out new tools and services to help the growing number of men taking on the role of family caregiver—many of whom are still trying to hold down their day jobs. Although the traditional stereotype of a family member taking care of an elderly relative is a wife, daughter or […]

Your comments over the past couple of weeks have been filled with useful and practical strategies for managing day to day caregiving. More importantly, many of your ideas and strategies arise from the ingenious creativity that only caregivers can offer. For example, Pat bought an executive desk chair with wheels for her husband (she says […]

A rising number of elder abuse cases threatens to overwhelm inadequately staffed adult protective service agencies in many states, according to a report released on Wednesday by the federal Government Accountability Office. At a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Kay Brown, director of education, work force and income security at the accountability […]

Most elderly women today never worked outside the home, while most of their daughters did or still do. Members of these two generations approach the question of how to spend their days with very different skill sets. An elderly woman may have successfully navigated life as a mother, wife and guardian of home and hearth. […]

TWO years ago my father, then 83, became very ill. Until then, he had been living alone in a pleasant one-bedroom apartment on the Hudson River, an hour’s drive from my home in Brooklyn. After a couple of months in the hospital it became clear that my dad, Harvey Alderman, could not return to solo […]