Chicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence – Since 1991 • crisis managementChicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence

Your Flight to Nowhere is Boarding
You have probably put off a vacation or most any travel for more than a year with the threat...
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July 22, 2021
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Breaking News for Alzheimer’s … part 1
The big splash on the medical news this past week gratifyingly was not COVID-19, but instead an approval of...
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June 15, 2021
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To B or Not to B12?
I have written a lot about dementia over the years as well as other issues that can mimic the...
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May 11, 2021
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Three Milion More Victims…
We see the numbers on a daily basis. How many have died from COVID, to date, we all probably...
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April 27, 2021
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Everything to Lose
Not a day goes by that the sun does not linger a bit longer, that the landscape gets a...
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April 20, 2021
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Three Steps to the Now Normal
Yes, it has been a long year, maybe in part because it has been more than a year of...
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April 6, 2021
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As If COVID Were Not Enough
We’ve all heard about COVID’s symptoms…the GI upset, the shortness of breath, the fever, the added symptoms of the...
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March 30, 2021
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Diseases that Mimic Dementia…But Are Treatable-part 3
As you can tell from now a third installment about other medical conditions that can mimic dementia, it’s not...
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March 22, 2021
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Can I Have A Hug?
I doubt there is anyone who does not have something that they have not been able to do during...
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March 4, 2021
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A Game Where Everyone Wins
Pick your metaphor. If you want your knife to slice easier, you sharpen it. If you want to improve...
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March 2, 2021
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In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

Of the estimated seven million Americans who have been full-time workers and caregivers, about six percent left the workforce for at least some amount of time to devote themselves full-time to caregiving. If you are one of these caregivers who are now rejoining the workforce, you may be wondering how "caregiving" fits on your resume.

First of all, appreciate that mothers or fathers of newborns or adoptees have been leaving the workforce and returning after raising children for years now. Having raised multiple children from birth to teen years, many of them have had much longer time away from work than a caregiver who takes leave for an older parent. That said, here are some lessons learned for how to dust off a resume:
1. First, don't lie about what we may refer to as your "caregiver gap;" trying to stretch earlier career positions to cover these months or years just will not work when a potential employer can check your story.
2. Make an explanation of this period that is comfortable and to the point; too many details can be a distraction and euphemisms just sound odd.
3. Include volunteer work that you may have been engaged in as well as any coursework you completed, conferences you attended or anything else to keep current.
4. Adapt your experiences for the specific jobs for which you will be applying; one size resume will not fit all applications.
5. There is a month for everything, and yes, September is International Update Your Resume Month, so check out resources on line (http://www.pongoresume.com/blogPosts/588/win-free-pongo-services-during-update-your-resume-month.cfm )
Resume in hand, start with these steps:
1. Restart your business network by tapping appropriate contacts within your social network like Facebook.
2. If you do not have a LinkedIn account, get that started as well with your business contacts from Facebook or your earlier jobs, and reach out to contacts of your contacts.
3. Call your former employer to see if they have freelance work available or new openings; a returning employee can "hit the ground running."
4. Check out college or continuing education courses that will get your skills current for today's job market.
5. Volunteer for a position in a non-profit that will use of the skills you have; such a position becomes a fresh line item for your career story.
6. And just as you may have done in your very first job search, seek out "informational interviews" with employers in your industry.
Throughout all of this, keep reminding yourself that what you did as a caregiver was important and valuable. And it was a full-time job, so you are not really restarting; you are just moving along your career path to your next job.

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 ccbishop@creativecasemanagement.com. Read more about Our Story and Charlotte's mission.
Just to be right up front about it, there presently are no cures for Alzheimer’s Disease. There is some evidence to encourage taking vitamin D to help stave off some forms of dementia, but it is not the rigorous sort of clinical evidence that offers much more than an elusive promise presently. Some tout the virtues of gingko biloba as a memory booster, but there is no evidence that it works on dementia. At this writing, FDA has approved five drugs to treat - not cure - Alzheimer’s:
- Aricept is able to claim that it can slow the cognitive progression of Alzheimer’s and modestly improve confusion, memory and awareness.
- Exelon claims to address the memory loss of both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
- Namenda claims to treat the moderate to severe confusion of Alzheimer’s disease, but is to be used in combination with one of the other agents.
- Namzaric combines an extended release form of Namenda as well as Aricept in one pill to address the symptoms each addresses individually.
- Razadyne claims to improve the ability to think and even remember by increasing brain levels of acetylcholine, a beneficial enzyme.
There is, however, some good news for caregivers at the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian Hospital. For about three years now they have been tracking individuals who have not started with any cognitive or memory issues. That may sound odd if they are looking to identify what works in treating a memory condition like Alzheimer’s but it really strikes to the heart of the issue. No one begins with Alzheimer’s Disease. It only emerges slowly from very subtle changes into increasingly dramatic deficits that eventually take away everything but the present. The Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic sees patients who initially are not at all symptomatic, and the interview them, record a rigorous family and medical history and get very granular with the information. They are looking for what may become leading indicators or risk factors and markers, but they also are looking for something more. They are looking for ways to begin to categorize all these patients according to risk factors that can be quantified. They also use a range of computer-assisted and traditional pencil and paper cognitive tests to grade the patients. From all of these they tailor a personal regimen using what nutritional, behavioral and physical programs are thought to offer some benefit. They then continue to chart everyone’s progress, and they will continue with this over the long run. They are looking for changes in key biomarkers, beta amyloid levels in the brain and blood glucose and glucose metabolic levels in the brain. What they identify as departures from the norm or from what is calibrated as healthy, they will carefully examine to see what may have precipitated these turns. And what has yielded positive outcomes as well. It is the goal of this program to evolve new, personalized health plans that can help future patients toward even better outcomes. Consider it to be a disease prevention program that succeeds by closing off all the access points through which the disease invades healthy bodies. Avoid illness through better health! Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Professional and 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.
In my last post, I gave you some tips on distance caregiving that arguably could be called the 30,000 foot perspective on distance caregiving. But even from afar caregiving is deeply personal and the caregiver needs to be as much a focus as the care receiver. You might call this my “do unto yourself as you do unto the other” post. I’ll start with the “other:”
1. Caregiving is a team sport – to be successful you have to be part of your care receiver’s team. Most health care providers, especially the residential ones, have what they call a “Care Team.” That could include a nurse, a physical therapist, a social worker, and a physician, and this last could include any number of specialists. You are part of the team, and you do not have to have power of attorney to be a team member…but you do need your care receiver’s written permission for the rest of the team to talk with you.
2. Successful teams bond with one another – you need to have a relationship with key members of the Care Team. And everyone needs to own their position on the team. Regular check-ins happen…well…regularly. Everyone keeps notes and lists of “to do” items. You also need to get into that habit.
Now, about you.
1. Take care of you - If you know anyone who is a therapist or social worker seeing clients in an office, they do not work all their hours in one-on-one therapy. They take time to process, and they take time to recover. In short, they take care of themselves. The lesson here is that self-care is very important to successful “other-care.” I recall an individual who confided in me that he had gone from six hours of uninterrupted sleep a night caring for his mother to six hours of interrupted sleep a night caring for mom. That is not good self-care.
2. Avoid burnout - When you have a call with your care receiver or members of the care team, set a time limit as you begin. Make notes following the calls, and these include assessing how you feel about what you have heard. Have the local care team take care of what happens locally…you cannot.
3. Set loving limits – I followed this advice when I was raising my children as well. You have to recharge your batteries. Some people workout, others write in a journal, some people go to the art museum, and some listen to their favorite music. Do what feeds your spirit so that your spirit will be there for both you and your care receiver.
In the end, everyone on the team wins. If you are a caregiver, it’s important to be part of a winning team. 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.
Back in May I posted about how May used to be called National Geriatric Care Manager Month, but with a change in our association’s name it has become National Aging Life Care Professional Month. People have asked me what has changed, and I am reminded of a columnist here in Chicago who used to write for the Sun-Times, but switched over to the Chicago Tribune when the Sun-Times changed ownership. When people asked him what he changed with that move, Mike Royko replied, “My socks!” Aside from the fact that “socks” are not my idea of a fashion statement, I would have to echo what Royko said those many years ago. Aging Life Care Professionals – you can still call us Geriatric Care Managers – still deal with the aging person and their families and the challenges of aging. I say families here, because almost invariably the person who gives us a call is the adult child of an older mother or father…or uncle or aunt…for whom they are a caregiver. And what weighs upon that caregiver most heavily is not just a medical diagnosis, but a quality of life issue. So we most often are focused on reducing the worry, stress and time the caregivers must take from their day jobs…or their family lives…or their personal lives. So what does an Aging Life Care Professional actually do? The short answer is: Whatever it takes. But let me elaborate; it is the same as we formerly did under the label Geriatric Care Manager: • Assess and Monitor-does the older loved one’s current home and their current capabilities work together, or are we seeing the kind of rehabilitation from a fall or illness that we should rightfully expect? • Plan and Problem-Solve-if home is no longer a good fit for the older loved one’s capabilities, what can be done to make it so or what are the alternatives to the current environment, or if an older loved one’s medical condition is not responding to current treatment, what are the options? • Educate and Advocate-when an older loved one does not feel they can ask their physician the important questions or when the living facility is not delivering appropriate care or service, who should be informed and who will stand up for that person? • Coach Families-this is most families’ first time down the path of aging, and a professional with training and experience can help everyone find optimal solutions and facilitate the best outcomes. • Option Making-and as I always tell our clients and our staff, we are not the decision-makers; we are the option-makers for the decision-makers. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Professional and 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.
We all have seen the news stories in which older adults who are in a senior residential facility or dependent upon caregivers who come to their homes are intimidated by the people charged with their care. It can be physical abuse, emotional abuse, abuse by neglect or theft of the older residents' valuables and money. But we do not often think of identity theft as an abuse targeting older adults. If you are a caregiver to an older loved one, you need to be a vigilant advocate and be prepared to report any suspicious behavior. How can identity theft pose a threat to an older adult? Because someone has to look the part to get away with that, right? A growing number of cases nationwide suggest that older adults are perhaps even more likely as targets of identity theft than other younger people, and the reason very simply is that the person using a credit card in any number of transactions will rarely be asked for photo identification as they use the card. Even so, there are just too many "faceless transactions" for photo identification to pose any kind of barrier to abuse. Filling the tank at a service station or making a purchase on-line or purchasing by phone order are just a few examples. But why target seniors? Well, that is where the money is. By the time one retires, the house typically is paid off and they have accumulated their nest egg for the "golden years." And seniors are not likely to be making those big purchases for which a credit check is necessary, so they are not vigilantly tracking their credit scores nor is a lender. They may also not be using their credit card daily, so if it goes misses from a purse or wallet, it may be days before the loss is discovered. There also are more interactive scams that can defraud seniors. There are fake phone solicitations by what seem to be worthy charities or the call from someone posing as a grandchild or other family member with an urgent need while in another town. There are investments for which they may be "prequalified" with rates that will always be above what the older investor is earning from bonds or other safer investments. And who has not had an opportunity to help retrieve prize or inheritance money from someone in western Africa? As a caregiver, how can you help protect your older loved one?
1. Warn your loved one to the possibility of this kind of abuse.
2. Be alert to caregivers in your loved one's home and limit their access.
3. Suggest a credit card statement audit by a money manager who can spot fraud.
4. If your loved one is already having difficulty keeping up with bills, step in to help organize their finances and give everything due scrutiny.
5. If not you, personally, there are daily money managers who can fill this role (check the top listing on our resource page). 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.
Therapy dogs work, because we all – as the saying goes – get by with a little help from our friends. It may be a cliché and it may be a good basis for a song, but it also works. Moreover, recent research shows that those who happen to have the companionship of furry friends have better medical outcomes. The research among chemotherapy patients demonstrated that patients who had the benefit of a dog with them during their treatments scored statistically higher on measures of “social well-being.” In my experience companion animals in assistive care settings make a difference for all the residents who get the benefit of a pet or a stroke of the furry worker dog. On my son’s campus, they also bring therapy dogs on the rounds during finals week. But do not just take the scientists’ word for it; dogs are mammals, and mammals emote. I know you can talk to some people who claim their pets know what they are thinking or when they are having a “bad day.” We don’t want to project too much intellectual capacity to our four-legged friends, but mammals emote. Reptiles and amphibians don’t. I understand that it has something to do with the physiology of their brains. If you have a pet these holidays – and it is well-behaved around strangers – don’t hesitate to share the warmth…even if the warmth also brings a bit of residual fur along with it. Everyone benefits when you share that love…and I believe even the dog will benefit. Speaking of which…the picture that accompanies today’s post is of a Jack Russel mix. The reason is that we have an orphan within our service community. Her name is Annabelle, and she was orphaned just this week after a number of years of faithful service to her master. She is only seven years old, and if you or someone you know could give her your love, she promises she will return the favor. She is only 15 pounds and she runs on regular fuel, so you will get lots of great miles per ounce. Please reach out to me or click on the link for info@creativecaremanagement.com . What better time of the year than now to share the love? Have a great holiday season and a very happy new year! 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.