Chicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence – Since 1991 | Chicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence

Singing is a Breath of Fresh Air for Caregivers
Associate Care Manager Gregory is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP) whose work focuses on...
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February 12, 2018
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A House is Not a Home (Part 3)
At CCM, home and safety are as important to us as to you, so it’s no surprise that it’s...
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June 18, 2017
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A House is not a Home (Unless You’re There)
At CCM, home and safety are as important to us as to you, so it’s no surprise that it’s...
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June 5, 2017
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In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

I like Simple. If you do also, then you will like the American Heart Association’s and American Stroke Association’s “Life’s Simple Seven.” In short, what they find is: what works well for cardiovascular health also shows the promise of working really well to stave off dementia caused by strokes, vascular dementia, and even Alzheimer’s disease. If you have an older loved one whom you would like to see have a healthier heart, you will get the added benefit of a healthier brain by encouraging the Simple Seven. And there is a bonus...it also will work for you! The seven steps that have been recommended to improve heath health now also are considered as important to improving your brain’s health. "Life's Simple 7" are considered to help prevent dementia caused by strokes, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. They have been chosen by AHA and ASA as metrics to help confer brain health. "…the same risk factors that cause atherosclerosis are also major contributors to late-life cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease," commented Philip Gorelick, MD, Mercy Health Hauenstein Neurosciences in Grand Rapids, Michigan, chair of the advisory writing group. The seven steps are a combination of individual characteristics and behaviors that help to foster better brain as well as heart health: 1. Don’t smoke 2. Be physically active 3. Maintain or reduce body mass index to less than a 25 on the scale 4. Have a healthy diet – there are guidelines for this 5. With a combination of exercise/reduced weight have a blood pressure of <120/80 mm Hg 6. Without meds (but with diet and exercise), have a total cholesterol <200 mg/dL 7. Maintain an A1C (fasting blood glucose) < 100 mg/dL Before this most recent analysis, researchers tended to look at brain health and heart health as pretty much different conditions caused by different lifestyle or health behaviors. But "over time we have learned that the same risk factors for stroke that are referred to in Life's Simple 7 are also risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and possibly for some of the other neurodegenerative disorders," Dr Gorelick noted. All of this is a step toward better brain health while at the same time promoting better heart health. This is one of those fortunate opportunities where a person can get two for the price of one. Take better care of your heart and you get better brain health as a bonus. Take better care of your brain, and your heart also gets a benefit. Not a bad bargain for anyone who is a bargain shopper…no coupons required. Be healthy. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, 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.
You may be familiar with the statistics on breast cancer in America. One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes, and even some men develop breast cancer. You probably also know that early detection is really key in order to combat the disease and there are even genetic markers that can help to detect breast cancer in its earliest and most treatable stages. And you probably also know that there is a risk for breast cancer to resurface even after a seemingly successful treatment regimen. What you may not have known is that once a patient has been diagnosed and even successfully treated for breast cancer that they are now at greater risk for cardiovascular disease. That just seems wrong, but the facts are there and in fact, the breast cancer survivors will potentially develop a more difficult cardiovascular problem than the heart patients who did not have breast cancer. So, scientists set out to determine how breast cancer survivors can catch a break. They carefully matched two groups of women who had managed to beat breast cancer. The women in the two groups were similar ages, had undergone similar treatments and had approximately the same BMI, a measure of weight and fat. One group, however was introduced to a fairly aggressive program of weight training, aerobic exercise and stretching. They exercised with an instructor for 60 minutes twice a week and exercised on their own for two more 60 minute sessions for a total of 240 minutes a week. The other group just had their normal activities of daily living. Both groups were tested at baseline in a way that competitive athletes often are by measuring how efficiently their bodies use oxygen, a test call the VO2 MAX test. The VO2 MAX for the group getting physical training was up only .3% at the end of a year, but the less active group was down by 3.8%. The difference was even more pronounced in women who were continuing on chemotherapy. Comparing exercise with the non-exercise groups using a standard cardiac risk measure that cardiologists call the Framingham Risk Score (takes into account blood pressure, LDL cholesterol and more), the exercise group did 11% better than the non-exercise group in reducing their risk. The odds of that happening just by chance are one in one thousand. So, if a woman beats the odds on breast cancer, the smart money on getting a healthier heart in the deal certainly favor exercise. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, 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.
The beginning of a new year is certainly a time for resolutions, but it also can be a time to take stock of the "big picture" if you are a caregiver to an older loved one. Your older loved one may be "doing well." But the following are brief descriptions with links to postings of their own on some of the dimensions you should track along with resources you may find helpful if you are family member or caregiver to an older adult.

8 Tips to Prevent Senior Home Fires. The question of how an older parent is doing physically is as much about their residence as it is about their personal health and well-being. Last year I devoted some time to talking about how to make an older adult's home safe from fires.

3 Tips to Avoid Scams Targeting Seniors. In the past I also have devoted some time to talking about the inevitable predators who may look to scam older adults and how to be financially vigilant on behalf of your loved one.

Making the Most of Medical Face Time. Caregivers are not expected to diagnose or prescribe unless they are a health care professional. But as caregivers, I have talked about ways to make productive use of medical face time to get answers to important questions about your loved one's health.

3 Elder Care Suggestions for Depression. And of course, health and well-being are not simply how well a person's body is functioning. It also is about their mental health. Rates of depression escalate as individuals age and they face losses and physical decline, and a caregiver should take note of how mom or dad may be doing psychologically.

Independent Living for Your Parents. While for some, being active is about physically getting out and about, being socially active can be every bit as important for aging parents or other loved ones. Caregivers may benefit from a two-part series I had posted last year about considerations in independent living.

Watch For Signs of Elder Abuse. Caregivers along with all the family members also need to be advocates on behalf of older adults who can be victims of physical, psychological or financial abuse. Here are some tips.

What is a Geriatric Care Manager? Finally, I had started this blog about two and a half years ago talking about what a geriatric care manager (GCM) is. Please check out that first post as it talks about GCMs as elder advocates and care coordinators, or as I like to describe the profession: "GCMs are the Option-Makers for the Decision-Makers."

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 in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to ccbishop@creativecasemanagement.com.
There is a lot of news about the "older market" or other stories featuring someone who has reached the landmark age of 100 years and more. In my geriatric management experience, while working with elder adults and their families, all of what I see in the news is just snapshots of people at a certain age. What I have found is that who a person is at 80 or 90 is really a product of experiences that preceded the present. A long term study of aging by the Harvard Study of Adult Development followed a cohort of Harvard sophomores along with a group of young men in Greater Boston since the 1930s. My title stretches their findings a bit, because of course no one lives forever, but the study did offer some great insights into living long and living well:
1. Get rid of the cigarettes. The Harvard Study showed that men who did not smoke clearly out-lived those who were smokers. Other research continues to show that giving up smoking is a positive influence on health and longevity at almost any age.
2. Practice competent coping. It is not about the hand that life dealt these study subjects; it is about how they played the hand they were dealt. People who adapted to the events of life overall have lived longer than those who did not.
3. Waistline leads the lifeline. The researchers found that those subjects who maintained a "healthy waistline" and weight fared better than their obese counterparts. It is not about being stick thin, but it is about avoiding the other extreme.
4. Regular exercise contributes. Any kind of regular exercise improved both the physical and mental health of the men the study followed. Exercise also likely contributed to that healthy waistline and positive attitude.
5. Be mentally engaged. It starts with pursuing an educational degree, but those who lived longer also always seemed to have something they were excited to explore whether it was keeping a journal or studying a new subject. Intellectual activity seemed as important as physical activity.
6. Make and keep friends. That also includes the person one marries. The researchers found that those who were the most socially engaged also tended to live longer.
I have not talked about how old one's parents lived or one's cholesterol. These factors did contribute to longevity, but the researchers noted that they contributed less than expected. Even stress in a study subject's life was not a negative predictor of longevity as much as how the subjects coped with the stress. Charlotte Bishop is certified in geriatric management and founder of Creative Case Management, led by professionals who are advocates, resources, counselors and friends to elder adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to ccbishop@creativecasemanagement.com.
I recently spoke with one of the financial advisors we list on our Geriatric Care Management Support Tools page, Andy Vass, Advisor with Planning Works Chicago. He raised a point that we tend to take for granted, and that is that Boomers have begun to retire. Even though they are caregivers to older loved ones, they also could benefit from some tips on Medicare. He offers the following advice to Caregivers who may be looking at their 65th birthday in the not so distant future:
- "You don't have to wait to be 65 to sign-up; you can sign-up for Medicare three months before you turn 65, and you can receive benefits starting the first day of your birthday month.
- Most boomers will not pay for their hospitalization insurance (Part A), and Part B coverage is only $104.90 per month unless the retiree's income is above $85,000.
- Medicare has deductibles, copays and coinsurance, and there is no limit on what a participant may expect to pay out of pocket.
- That leads to the need for what they term Medigap, or supplemental, insurance to Medicare. You must sign up within six months of your birth month, and no insurer can say no to you.
- Your first physical under Medicare is free, and when you have this physical you also can learn about all the preventive services available to a retiree.
- With the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act, many of the preventive services are now free to Medicare beneficiaries. This includes bone mass measurements and breast exams.
- Beware about what Medicare does not cover like routine dental care and dentures as well as vision care and hearing aids. Medicare also does not cover long term care in a nursing home or assisted living facility. There is separate commercial insurance for that.
- Government had been setting aside enough to fund Medicare, but they slipped into the red in 2008. These funds are projected to run out by 2024."
Andy Vass and his associates provide Life Insurance, Guaranteed Lifetime Income and Long Term Care insurance, representing 40 insurers. They provide solutions to the Retirement Perfect Storm:
1. Market Risk
2. Longevity Risk
3. Government Policy Risk
4. Inflation Risk
5. Spending Risk.
You can reach him at Planning Works . Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Management professional 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.

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Singing is a Breath of Fresh Air for Caregivers

A House is Not a Home (Part 3)

A House is not a Home (Unless You’re There)

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