Chicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence – Since 1991 • care management solutionsChicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence

I Miss the Scams That Used to Be Easier to Spot
It was probably ten years ago that my husband’s mother was caught up in a telephone scam on her...
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September 26, 2023
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Lessons from Margaritaville
Jimmy Buffet has left a multi-faceted legacy…his distinctive musical style and lyrics, his upbeat and his laid back lifestyle...
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September 12, 2023
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How Old You Really Are
One of my staff worked with a senior community in upstate New York near Elmira a number of years...
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August 8, 2023
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Update on Dementia – part 1
You may have heard the noise about a new drug for treating Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. It would...
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June 6, 2023
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It’s About You
This is personal! Yes, it’s about you! I’d be willing to wager, however, that most of you haven’t thought...
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April 18, 2023
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Follow Your Gut…You’ve Got No Choice
It was back in the sixties and seventies that so many folks embraced the mantra: “You are what you...
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April 11, 2023
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Spring Tips for the Holiday Caregiver
We all know that that Spring in the Midwest isn’t on a straight line from Winter toward Summer, but...
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March 28, 2023
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How (NOT) to Worry, Stress or Be Anxious
It’s not so much whether you’ll have worries, be stressed or feel anxious…it’s how you’ll manage your worries, your...
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March 21, 2023
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Scammer v. 23.1
Call it Ocean’s 65+…instead of Ocean’s 8 or Ocean’s 11…but it doesn’t have a caste of Hollywood stars, and...
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March 7, 2023
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Another Side to the Story
It was just a year ago that Bruce Willis’ family disclosed that the actor would be retiring from acting...
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February 27, 2023
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In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

The COVID pandemic is not yet done with us in the United States, and the story certainly is different country by country, but there is a great deal of attention currently with “Long COVID.” Whose list of Long COVID symptoms do you buy: CDC’s list of 19 symptoms, United Kingdom’s NHS list of 16 symptoms, Yale Medicine’s count at 22 symptoms or Mayo Clinic’s count at 10 symptoms. Let’s keep it focused with Mayo Clinic’s roster, but you can peruse the other pedigrees if you wish, but you may not see a lot that Mayo does not already cover with its Top Ten. Most people recover from COVID-19 within a few weeks of first testing positive, but some have symptoms of what Mayo calls “Post-COVID Syndrome” which can carry on for more than four months, but may linger for as much as a year. What are the potential characteristics of this syndrome according to Mayo: (The Most Common)
1. Fatigue is at the top of the list, and it simply doesn’t go away lasting as long as the one year I mentioned.
2. Fever may not be scorching high, but it, too, may persist well beyond the acute phase of the condition.
3. Respiratory issues may persist in a variety of manifestations like shortness of breath, coughing or just difficulty breathing.
4. Recurrent symptoms after mental or physical exertion
(Other Symptomatic Contenders)
1. Brain fog is what some label the difficulty thinking or concentrating, headaches, sleeping difficulties or dizziness, “pins and needles” or loss of smell or taste, depression or anxiety.
2. Joint and muscle pains may feel like having had a physical workout or being beaten by a bully.
3. Cardiac symptoms that may mimic a genuine heart attack…racing heart rhythm or pain in the chest area.
4. Digestive issues that may seem like “something I ate” which cause diarrhea or pain in the stomach.
5. Clotting in the vascular system that can cause serious blockage in the legs or in the lungs.
6. “Other” which may be unusual for a virus like rash or menstrual cycle changes.
It’s important to track such symptoms, what precipitates them, when they started, how long they last and what tends to exacerbate them. And if it is a loved one, help them with this journal and bring the notes you make to a visit to a physician, and if you’re visiting a primary care physician, don’t be afraid to ask for a referral to an infectious disease specialist, a cardiologist, or pulmonologist. This may require a team, but keeping notes and asking the right questions will get you and your loved one to the other side of recovery. By the way, in a 19-month long study women with a “healthy lifestyle” were 49% less likely than women with less healthy lifestyles to develop Long Covid. Check out the healthy lifestyle activities in which you should engage so you don’t have to sleuth your symptoms here. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.
In my first of this two part series, I talked about how Thanksgiving as well as the holidays that follow can be opportunities to give a helpful wellness check on an older loved one's home. A lot of my suggestions were focused on preventing falls around the home for an older loved one who may not be as nimble as they once were, and home may actually be less safe with the natural wear and tear in an aging household. But there are other health risks for aging adults in America, with dementia, depression and dietary insufficiency forming the three D's for caregivers. Starting with dementia, less than 1 percent of adults between 60 and 64 years of age suffer from some sort of dementia. But by the time adults reach age ages 80 to 84, that prevalence is about 12 percent, and it doubles once they exceed 90 years of age. Depression is one of the most common conditions of aging adults with estimates of about one in five adults over age 65 suffering at some point with clinical depression. Diet can be even higher than this with one group of researchers pegging the prevalence of malnutrition among older adults at nearly 23% across 12 developed countries. So, if you are a caregiver visiting an older loved one during the holidays, look for the following signs:
- Dementia...
  - Without being prying, check your loved one's refrigerator; look for how well-stocked it may be as well as signs of decay or mold
  - Take note of their overall hygiene; are they bathing with enough frequency or laundering their clothes regularly.
  - If your loved one owns a pet, how well groomed and fed is the pet; note also, however, that your loved one may be taking better care of Fido than themselves.
- Depression...
  - This one also encourages a trip to the frig to see if the low supply may indicate a loss of appetite; in fact a lot of what may appear as dementia in the list above actually may be masking a depression.
  - Talk to them about their sleep patterns; inability to sleep through the night or difficulty falling asleep may be signs.
  - Get a sense of how active your older loved one is; are they staying active socially, are they still involved in clubs or hobbies?
- Diet...
  - The refrigerator should be a stop on this check-up as well; an older adult may not admit they cannot afford all that they should eat - but an under-stocked refrigerator may be a tell.
  - Share more than one meal with your loved one; sometimes malnutrition can be attributed to lack of appetite (refer to signs of depression here as well as medications that may be suppressing appetite or causing nausea)
  - Note any more pronounced weight loss; clothes that appear to be looser particularly around the collar or waist band.
  - Be alert to bruises or wounds that are not healing well or problems with teeth; regarding teeth, be sensitive to particularly bad breath that may be a clue to poor diet or tooth and gum decay.
Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to info@creativecaremanagement.com.
Some have called it an epidemic. And it’s particularly virulent within the senior population. The epidemic leads to even more serious conditions. But the cure is simple, and it distills down to three words: “Never Cry Alone!” I’ve written many times about the isolation that so many older adults in America face as they age. And then comes the COVID pandemic and all the rest of us who are not yet of an age got the chance to experience isolation first hand, and social media assaults, and out political climate, and out climate climate…the list goes on. It’s a feeling of loss that sets in and in many cases becomes full blown depression so much so that mental health tops the list of the health care issues threatening our society. It’s Simon Sinek that offered the simple message based on years as an inspirational author and speaker: Never Cry Alone! Ironically, Sinek doesn’t talk about loneliness or depression as something to deny or from which to create as much distance as possible. It’s part of being normal, he says. Resilience is the goal, not just happiness. Surround yourself with friends … or at least a friend … whom you can call when you just need to say, “This is not just a bad day; can we talk?” What does that good friend do, because remember friendship is a two way street? A truly good friend is not there to “fix things” for you, and a truly good friend is not there to “cheer you up.” A truly good friend is there to listen. That may sound simple enough, but extremely few of us are “good listeners” without some training. In fact, a psychologist named Kenneth Haugk, Ph.D., started an entire movement called Stephen Ministry in 1975, based on this simple premise of “active listening” to others with a problem, a tough situation or just in need of a sensitive ear. So, it’s just listening? Well, it’s all about active listening. I have a go-to phrase with my family when they come to me with problems: “Do you want me to problem solve or just listen?” With listening in motion, the active piece comes into play with additional questions that may sound like:
- I’m sorry to hear that; how are you feeling now?
- How is that working for you?
- You mentioned ____; talk to me about that.
- You’ve given this some thought; what do you think?
And maybe based on Mr. Sinek’s advice, you learn to allow your friend to cry and simply provide the tissue. And keep listening. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.
You’ve all probably heard the old joke about why a flamingo stands on one leg…and we have all seen these lanky birds if we’ve ever been to a zoo. The answer is simply, “If they lifted the other leg they’d fall down.” Now, why would a person stand on one leg…and do so for 10+ seconds? According to recent research, it is to test their health and expectation for longevity. You’ve seen or heard it in the news that people in their mid- to late-life who cannot maintain this one-legged posture have more than twice the risk of death in the next seven years over those who can do the pose. That’s a very big differential. To fill in the rest of the research that may not have come across on your evening news or in your online news feed, medical researchers have noted for a long time that agility like this is tied to risk for cognitive decline or other cerebrovascular damage. About 13 years ago, researchers took this a bit farther with a panel of 1,702 patients who would be followed from 2009 forward. Their average age at the outset was 61.7 and 68% of them were men. Over one in five failed the test from the get-go, and as you can imagine, the failure rate was higher among older participants. More than half of the 71 to 75 year-olds could not pass the test. These individuals were followed for a median of just over 7 years and 7.2 percent had died by this next measurement date. But mortality was not equal across the board. Just under 5% of those who could do the one-legged stand in 2009 had died seven years later, but more than 17% of those who could not balance earlier had died. Scratching beneath the surface, there were more factors than simply balancing in play. The researchers found that people who could not balance also:
- Were more likely to be obese;
- Were more likely to have heart disease, hypertension or dyslipidemia; and
- Were three times more likely to have type 2 diabetes.
The study cannot say that there is causation between these factors and death, but these are differences worth paying some attention. So, getting more agile is probably a healthy thing to do, but there likely is more. Getting to a lower weight, managing physical activity to burn calories, taking medications to reduce cholesterol and managing other lifestyle factors to bring one’s long term blood glucose levels down are all pretty sound pieces of advice. Chances are that if a person follows these lifestyle management recommendations that it also may become easier to balance on one leg. The payoff for all of these, then, is pretty obvious. And I think we could add one more. The chance of a fall will be greatly reduced if one gets their nimble back as well, so where will you stand on this issue? Charlotte Bishop is a Caregiver Coach, an Aging Life Care Advisor, a Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.
As a geriatric care manager, we have knowledge of Alzheimer’s Disease and its progression, less about its causes and its treatment, but we cannot know Alzheimer’s like a patient with the condition can. I recently was introduced to the writings of an “expert” who has gained his insights by being an Alzheimer’s patient since he was first diagnosed with dementia which has been presumed to be Alzheimer’s at age 58. Now 65 years old, Richard Taylor, Ph.D., a psychologist, has written a book titled Alzheimer’s from the Inside Out, and he issues a monthly newsletter on the subject. The following is an excerpt from his most recent newsletter. For those who are caregivers or family members of a patient with Alzheimer’s, this may offer some sense of living with the condition from the patient’s point of view:

“I am Richard, an individual living with the symptoms of dementia, probably (maybe) of the Alzheimer's type. This is my monthly newsletter for February, the month of my birth (Chicago, Illinois/Jackson Park Hospital 4:30 PM), at least that is what my Mom told me. This really isn't a newsletter; it's more like a report of what's happened to me in the past 30 or so days. It is sort of like my book, Alzheimer's From the Inside Out, except this newsletter is free and without charge (at least for now). It will soon be published in five languages - the newsletter that is. Through it, I have made and maintained friends with kindred spirits all over the world.

We all share more than a failing memory and slipping cognitive skills. We all want to know as much about what we "have" as possible. We all want to understand the research that is going on. We all to a greater or less degree are hoping for a cure - whatever the hell that means to each of us- within our lifetime, affordable to our families, with side effects that are significantly less than the symptoms of dementia with which we now live, and oh, by the way, could it reverse at least some of the more intrusive symptoms of this or that form of dementia.

I have spent a lot of time this month thinking and writing about this. I am not a researcher; I am not a physician or a pharmacist. I am just, Richard, a tall guy with a beard who is living with the more and more intrusive and more insoluble symptoms of dementia with which I have to cope if I want to live a purpose full, joy filled, love filled, and complete life. Most times this is much harder than I want it to be. It's not fair, it's not right, it just is. So I most times try to cheerfully embrace today, live in it as fully as I can by myself, and live in it more fully as a result of the enabling support of my family and those who love/like me.

Welcome to my inner and outer world more and more defined by dementia, probably (maybe) of the Alzheimer's type.”

Richard

Please check out Dr. Taylor’s newsletter and more about his book on his web site Richard Taylor PhD

Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Case Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families throughout metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to Charlotte Bishop.

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