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

There is an ‘I’ in Caregiver: 5 Tips to Avoid Burnout
We all have heard of coaches exhorting their players to work together by saying “there is no ‘I’ in...
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September 25, 2018
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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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What to Look for When Your Loved One Needs You But Can’t Ask
Associate Care Manager Gregory Peebles returns with a talk about hidden signals of aging that need our attention. Gregory...
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July 31, 2017
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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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Plug In and Light Up the Holidays
Who doesn’t love indulging during the holiday season? Rich food, delicious drinks, and decadent desserts make every gathering something...
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December 16, 2015
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Respite Care – The Holiday Gift to Yourself
Be honest if you’re a caregiver and you can answer YES to more than one of these questions. Sit...
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November 23, 2015
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In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

I had the good fortune recently to meet Jennifer Muskat, the Director of Client Services for San Diego Home Care Assistance. She shared some helpful perspectives on the importance of geriatric care management services for older adults who need emotional support. "The physical obstacles that your aging parent or loved one encounters in old age are often the most noticeable. While you can easily observe their struggles with walking or daily chores, it is much more difficult to recognize, understand and empathize with the emotions they experience on a day to day basis. Your elderly loved one will be forced to deal with a handful of life-changing events as they age. Retirement, forfeiting the right to drive, and the loss of a spouse, sibling or close friend are just a few examples of inevitable changes that accompany aging. Without emotional support from family members during life’s new and unfamiliar events, seniors become vulnerable to depression and often suffer from a decreased quality of life. As an adult, your sense of worth comes from your ability to provide for your family, perform your job well and most importantly, function as an independent individual. Whether from frailty or age-related illness, seniors lose these abilities, resulting in an increased dependency on their adult children. When this role reversal occurs, many seniors experience feelings of worthlessness and a lack of self esteem. Becoming dependent on their children, who once relied on them for everything, is difficult to cope with emotionally. When neglected, these negative feelings can result in depression in seniors. They feel alone and helpless and that no one understands their situation. To ensure the health and wellbeing of your loved one, it is crucial that you are aware of how your loved one may feel. If they seem withdrawn, upset or have just suffered the loss of a close friend or family member, take the time to talk with them. Listen with patience and compassion and try not to criticize their feelings. By letting your elderly loved one know you are by their side and are available to offer emotional support, you can help combat depression and enhance their overall happiness and quality of life. Also recognize that seniors become socially isolated in their later years and encourage your loved one to pursue new hobbies and stay in touch with old friends. Participation in these activities offers another channel for emotional support. We often do not look beyond the physical ailments of our aging parents and fail to provide the emotional support and encouragement they once provided us as children. However, it is never too late to help. Reach out to your elderly loved one and let them know you are there for them as they enter this new stage of life." Jennifer Muskat is the Director of Client Services for San Diego Home Care Assistance. She offers geriatric care management services as an advocate for senior health and wellness. By constantly developing new programs, she ensures Home Care Assistance caregivers can provide optimal quality of life for senior clients. 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. We provide elder care services to those in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to ccbishop@creativecasemanagement.com.
But in this particular case, it is not about the firmness of a mattress; it is about how much time you spend on your mattress. We all probably knew that too little sleep is a bad thing. Never mind that it makes us feel pretty awful and act pretty grouchy when we do not get enough sleep. It also reduces our cognitive function if we get too little sleep. But researchers now report that the other extreme is not healthy for cognitive function either. People who sleep overly long also show statistically significant decline in cognitive ability later in life. So, it is the zone in the middle of too little and too much that appears to be the sweet spot for normal brain activity. The zone that is “just right.” Dutch researchers have found that people who have sleep disturbance in their middle years are more likely to show signs of the amyloid deposits that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s Disease later in life. They liken this process to a kind of fast forward of the amyloid in the brain. They tracked nearly 3,000 people, most of whom were in their mid-forties, from 1995 forward. They established a baseline of overall cognitive function as well as their self-reported sleep patterns. They then contacted them about every five years to repeatedly assess their cognitive patterns. By about 2007 they charted cognitive capabilities by sleep duration and found that it traced something of a U-shaped curve with the people at the lowest and highest sleep duration patterns showing the greatest compromise to their cognitive abilities. The people on the low sleep duration side probably need the most help, because staying asleep is more difficult that setting an alarm to waken earlier. Experts suggest the following for better sleep hygiene:
- Don’t take your cell phone to bed with you. The light is stimulating and texting and reading with the artificial light of the phone are far from ideal for winding down.
- Television in the bedroom also has the same effect on winding down. It is best to shut down any electronic stimulation at least 30 minutes before settling down to sleep.
- Avoid certain sleep agents like diphenhydramine (Benadryl) that may be associated with an increased risk for dementia or Alzheimer’s later in life. Doctors recommend melatonin as an alternative.
- Think about bed-time back in the middle of the day by stopping your caffeine intake by 1pm or maybe 2pm in the afternoon. The effects of the caffeine linger into your evening and will agitate your sleep patterns.
I add one more – make a list of what you’ll do tomorrow well before lights out. You don’t want your brain working out tomorrow while you’re trying to shut down today. 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.
Okay, "Grain Brain" is not something that immediately tells you what it is all about. Grain Brain is the phrase that neurologists and other brain scientists are using to describe a link between blood glucose levels from high carbohydrate consumption and dementia. A book by the same name is going into its 15th straight week on the New York Times bestseller list, so the concept is getting a lot of attention. But what does it mean for you or an older loved one in your orbit? In a scientific study recently published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, researchers followed a large group of men and one of women for an average of almost seven years. During this nearly seven years they regularly measured the individuals fasting blood glucose levels. At the end of the study they found that people with higher blood glucose levels were more at risk for developing dementia that those whose levels were not as high. They found this to be true even with people who did not have diabetes. It is true, that this kind of study cannot say that increased blood sugar levels actually cause dementia, but the link is sufficiently clear that the New England Journal would publish the findings. Scientists also find that not all grains have the same negative effect on cognitive ability. Those with the highest gluten content seem to be the worst offenders. This is not the first research to show negative health outcomes associated with elevated blood sugar. Researchers have well-established proof that a high carbohydrate diet and the associated elevation of blood sugar poses a risk to one's heart and to the immune system. And there are other studies. in a 2012 study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, researchers reported that risk for cognitive decline was 89% greater among those on a high carb diet; those on a high fat intake diet saw a 44% decrease in their risk for cognitive compromise. And researchers in another British journal, Lancet Neurology, estimated based on their findings that as many as 54% of the cases of Alzheimer's Disease in the United States could be avoided with exercise, weight reduction and steps to reducing blood pressure. This last study really drives home a great point. If you are a caregiver to an older loved one, you both will see great returns on a few basic investments of time and effort. Increase the daily amount of exercise, reduce the carb intake and the rewards will be weight loss, reduced blood pressure, a healthier heart, a more vigorous immune system and more acute cognition. Sounds like a really great return on investment to me. So, will you and your older loved ones be among those who avoid the "grain brain?" 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.
Over the years I have devoted a lot of space to talking about what a Geriatric Care Manager (GCM) does. And that is because we as a profession have a long way to go before people know what we do as clearly as they know what a doctor, lawyer or accountant do. In this post, I am going to give two examples of when to call a Geriatric Care Manager, because unfortunately we often get the call later than we could. The call comes after a family crisis instead of before a crisis when we could have been the professionals who help avoid the crisis. Here are two examples of when... The Big Fall. After age 65 approximately one in three older adults will take a fall, not just a stumble or a trip, but a fall where they hit the ground hard. Beyond the age of 80 the chances increase to fifty percent. As geriatric care managers, we certainly can be part of the team who helps your older loved one recover, rehabilitate and get safely back on their feet. Much of that process will be in the hand the medical providers who may repair the broken hip, arm or other bone. And the physical therapists will do a wonderful job of helping to rehabilitate your loved one back to full or nearly full recovery. What a GCM can help with is putting together the lifestyle recovery plan with the family. We assess not just the individual, but also the home in which they live. We help the family to get everything for the recovering loved one that they perhaps used to do for themselves. We also help to make home a safer place for getting about, eliminating further fall hazards and helping everyone to navigate the path to recovery. But, what if the family had called when they first noticed that their loved one's gait had eroded from a stride to a shuffle, and what if the GCM had received the call to come by your loved one's home and help make it safer for getting about and avoid the fall? Dementia. Older adults fear losing their mental capacity more than they fear dying itself. As geriatric care managers we can certainly be called upon to counsel the family in how to manage a crisis once your older loved one has actually wandered away from home and given everyone the big scare. We can give family members by coaching in how to deflect instead of confront a confused older loved one during conversation. And much more. But we can be more effective if we get the call before your loved one has walked aimlessly into the night. We can help the family to make your loved one's home safer against "breaking out" just as you would want security from burglars breaking in. There are also ways to sharpen mental acuity at the first signs of confusion through social engagement and other intellectually challenging therapies. Working toward social engagement in meaningful ways is a high priority. The list is longer than just these two crises to which GCMs respond. How is your older loved one's driving? How safe is home from fires? How safe is your older loved one from scam artists? Is your older loved one getting the best medical care and support for a chronic medical condition? and much more. I would be remiss if I did not also add where you can find a professional Geriatric Care Manager. There are a lot of people who offer services to "help older people," but many lack training or certification. The best place to find a GCM is at the professional association's web site. Click on the button that says: "Find a Care Manager" to locate a professional near you. 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@cr eativecaremanagement.com.
It’s not a new story that the internet is a potentially hazardous place to conduct financial transactions. You may have warned your kids and even your older parents. Beware of the companies who may be hacked and your older loved one’s (or your) credit card information is compromised…or the companies that ask for your mom’s or dad’s social security number and now someone has access to your loved one’s identity…an identity that can be used to build new credit requests, run up dollars of debt and more. Well, all of this has now gone from bad to worse. Think of the Web – the place we go to learn the stats on our favorite teams, what size shoes the presidents have worn or picking a gift that can be delivered in two days to our door. There is transactional activity here and some risk to our credit, but a lot is manageable. But there is a layer beyond this called the Deep Web. This is where social media like Facebook call home or where your bank hosts your information so that you can access your checking account, make recurring purchases and store really big files for sharing…DropBox and others. Bad guys can lurk around either of these levels of the Web, and they can hack your information. So, okay, they get your credit card details and go on a shopping spree – you can call your credit card company and contest the charges. It’s a headache, but it’s a one and done and you’re then back to business as usual. A lot of what is stolen on the Web and the Deep Web can be auctioned on the Dark Web. Why not take that credit card – and password – information that you just hijacked and sell it at an auction site on the Dark Web to anyone who can spend less than ten dollars for it…but there will be thousands of buyers? And even if the bad guys get just part of your loved one’s identity like their social security number, and they can go on-line and do searches for anything that matches that information. They soon can have a credit card number, a home address, a mother’s maiden name and more. You can help your loved ones and yourself with just three basic safeguards:
1. Monitor your loved one’s accounts. Ideally, they should be going on-line regularly to check their credit cards, investments or bank accounts for activity. Most accounts also allow for a feature that sends text alerts when there is activity…perhaps in excess of a certain dollar amount that your loved one can establish.
2. Place a security freeze on all your loved one’s accounts. They can do this by reaching out to one of the three credit reporting agencies. This will stop anyone from applying for a new credit card, securing a loan or otherwise misusing your loved one’s information.
3. Secure your passwords. Discourage your loved one from making everything tied to a sequence of numbers that are their birth date or anniversary. Even go so far as to use a secure online vault that will create really complex passwords and keep them secure. Passwords can also be changed quickly if security is suspect.
So, instead of buying grandma a new Chromebook or iPad for the next birthday or holiday, enroll them in a secure vault and work from there on steps they can take to be both tech savvy and safe! 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.
Okay, so it has been five days since you received that box of chocolates from your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. And if you did not consume truly massive quantities of chocolate all at once, how do you feel? The answer is you should feel the calm that comes from lower blood pressure. This, according to a group of physicians headed up by Dr. Dirk Taubert who did a clinical study on generally healthy people who had elevated blood pressure to find out what happens to their blood pressure if they eat dark chocolate over a period of time. Very simply, they found that it statistically significantly lowered the people’s blood pressure. I bring this up because as a geriatric care manager, a lot of the clients I see have blood pressure that is above what it should be. And I can tell them that the doctors say they should have a diet that regularly includes some amount of dark chocolate. People with dietary restrictions, however, need to check with their physicians.

This dietary recommendation does not take the place of the other recommendations we routinely get from medical professionals about fruits and vegetables and maintaining reasonable portions, but it does offer us a chance for a “healthy” dessert. And the science in their clinical study is pretty solid. Most other studies that have cited the beneficial effects of chocolate have done that based on simply observing some people over time, but Dr. Taubert and his colleagues actually set up a clinical trial with a placebo group and all the customary scientific controls.

This study was particularly relevant to me as geriatric care manager because all the study subjects were 56 to 73 years old. Half the group received 30 mg daily of polyphenol-rich dark chocolate, and the other half of the adults got no polyphenol in their chocolate. Polyphenol is the stuff in dark chocolate that is supposed to confer the benefit. Well, 18 weeks later, Dr. Taubert and colleagues found what a lot of people have been claiming all along. Without any changes in their body weights or their lipid or glucose levels, the group who got the good stuff in their chocolate had their incidence of hypertension decline from 86% to 68%.

To add to the credibility of Dr. Taubert’s research, it was published in 2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. You can click on Cocoa Intake and Blood Pressure to see the article. But seriously, don’t eat chocolate just to lower your blood pressure. Do like I do: eat chocolate and savor the flavor.

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…and Happy Belated Valentine’s Day.

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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