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...
Read more
September 26, 2023
0
1
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...
Read more
March 21, 2023
0
0
Another Side to the Story
It was just a year ago that Bruce Willis’ family disclosed that the actor would be retiring from acting...
Read more
February 27, 2023
0
0
Treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease
September is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, and this is the third of four posts we’ll offer on the subject. I...
Read more
September 20, 2022
0
1
When the IRS Calls…
How about a show of hands regarding the Internal Revue Service (IRS)… Have you ever filed a tax return...
Read more
March 8, 2022
0
0
The “Other” Health Concerns for Older Adults
It was just two weeks ago that I underscored the fact that “older adults have a greater fear of...
Read more
February 1, 2022
0
0
Password Protected?
I often offer advice on how to help your older loved one with challenging tasks or how to protect...
Read more
October 26, 2021
0
0
Your Older Loved One’s Greatest Health Risk?
As our loved ones grow older, we probably are more acutely protective of their health and well-being, especially if...
Read more
September 14, 2021
0
0
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...
Read more
August 10, 2021
0
0
Everything to Lose
Not a day goes by that the sun does not linger a bit longer, that the landscape gets a...
Read more
April 20, 2021
0
0

In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

COVID 19 was not in my calendar for 2020, and I strongly suspect it was not in yours either. I often have said that family life crises don’t make appointments; they just show up. And I am usually talking about how to be prepared for the inevitable call from or about an older loved one in your orbit…AND how to be prepared for your and their next steps. Well, this time, preparing for a crisis could be closer to home, because all of us need to be prepared so that the people who may get the call that we have taken ill can be prepared. What do you need to do to make a Plan? When I have spoken in the past, some people back off from talking about a loved one in a crisis. This list is about you, so please forgive me for getting “personal.” Here is my “short list” of the documents you need to have and make them available to your partner, your kids or other close friend … sometimes with no notice:
- Medical Release – the document you need so your medical providers to speak with your loved one’s about your health status, medications and prognosis.
- Power of Attorney (POA) for Finance - a legally binding document that gives a person (referred to as the “agent” or “attorney in fact” permission or power to act on your behalf in matters of property or finance.
- Power of Attorney (POA) for Healthcare - a legally binding document that gives a person power to act on your behalf in matters of medical treatment. The “power” typically is in force when it is deemed the person in question can no longer act for themselves or if they are not conscious.
- Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) – a document (varies state by state) that specifies in advance what measures you wish to have in the event you cannot expressly grant permission yourself. These orders typically revolve around life-saving measures; they are sometimes referred to as advanced directives and are placed in your medical files. The forms are downloadable at your state’s web site.
- Health and Life Insurance Policies – the health policy will help everyone involved understand what is covered and which physicians and other providers are available to you. The Life insurance policy should be in a safe place so that it can be readily accessed should that become necessary.
- Estate Plan – is (potentially) a wide-ranging document that let’s everyone know how any real estate or other holdings are titled and what the “plan” is for when your will is executed.
- Trust documents – help to identify how your estate is to be transmitted to beneficiaries. Trust names need to be consistent with life insurance, will and holdings in order to be in effect.
- Last Will and Testament – the legal document by which you express your wishes of how property is to be distributed at death, and names one or more persons, the executor, to manage your estate until its final distribution.
- The Grab and Go – This is a list that typically is sealed in a plastic bag. It includes your medical insurance documentation, a list of allergies, a list of medications, primary care physician contact details and in case of emergency (ICE) contact information.
Please email (info@creativecaremanagement.com) me with any questions on any of these…as well as how to take the next steps which is your plan. Do yourself a favor…don’t wait. 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.
Free White Paper: What to Expect from Alzheimer's
If you're caring for someone with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, we understand the difficulties of seeing a loved one through often times drastic mental changes. We want to help caregivers further understand Alzheimer's and how to best care for the patient in their orbit.

Inside "Roadmap to Alzheimer's"

Learn the difference between forgetfulness and Alzheimer's symptoms

Prepare ways to best care for your loved one when they become aggressive

Discover methods to improve mental health
Get the Support You Need Now! Call 847-869-5118 x511
Contact us with any question. Receive our FREE white paper:"A Caregiver's Roadmap to Alzheimers."

Full Name:*

Phone Number:

Email:*

Your Question:

Type the Characters Shown:*

To use CAPTCHA, you need Really Simple CAPTCHA plugin installed.

Personally committed to you and your loved one's well being.
Proudly serving the greater Chicago Metropolitan area SINCE 1991! Learn More >>
Caregivers tend to be very dedicated to caring for others, typically an older parent or disabled member of the family, but they often do not do so well in caring for themselves. It is not that caregivers do not need at least a bit of help themselves, but it can be a very conflicted issue for a caregiver to ask for help. It may stir up guilt about not caring for mom or dad or inadequacy at not being able to do it all. And it is not that caregivers are alone. They have other siblings, they have friends or neighbors, and they also have respite care available to help. Respite care is not just one type of service, it is a whole continuum of in home care services as well as out-of-home services available in most communities. For at home care, respite care can provide a needed break for the caregiver who needs to also work a day job, run their own personal or household errands or simply have some time to recharge. Family, friends or other volunteers can be crucial in giving this time to the caregiver as well as providing stimulation, conversation or some fresh energy to care for the receiver of care. Personal care or skilled care providers also can assist with the "heavy lifting" like activities of daily living (ADLs) such as bathing, dressing, toileting and more. Area residential care facilities can provide an even wider range of support where caregivers can drop mom or dad for short breaks, overnight care, or short intervals to cover vacation time. For more comprehensive needs of those who need help with ADLs, there are facilities in most communities for adult day care that may be a full 9 to 5 or 7 to 7 to help with caregivers who also have work responsibilities. If you are looking to recruit an individual who will be coming to assist in senior care for mom or dad in the home, be sure to ask for references. Also be clear about services you expect, make certain of compensation (and no prepayments), and even consider a background check so that everyone has peace of mind. If you are going though an agency, go through the same process as well as ask about bonding and other assurances you and your loved one will be secure. If you will be looking to a facility with its own personnel, you should ask about:
And you may ask to spend an afternoon or a day at the facility to observe how well they deliver on their promises. Don't be afraid to ask questions of caregivers in order to really assess if the people in place are engaged in the service they provide. People who like what they do will do a better job than those who just have a job. 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. Read more about Our Story and Charlotte's mission.

Geriatric Care Plans

At Creative Care Management, we understand that adjusting your life to provide care for a loved one can be confusing and stressful. Building and managing a geriatric care plan alone is overwhelming, and you may be asking yourself: What sort of care do they need? Are they safe alone? What happens as their condition progresses? That’s where we come in. We are a top rated in Chicago geriatric care management provider, which means we serve as a resource and a guide through the process of developing and managing a senior care plan designed specifically for you and your family.

Developing a Geriatric (Senior) Care Plan

Through our four step process, we personally take you through assessing your loved one’s needs, creating an all encompassing plan for their care and then setting that plan in action.

Step One: Meeting and Assessment

To begin the process, we meet with you in order to fully understand your unique situation and concerns. At that first meeting, we conduct a thorough assessment of the physical, mental and social health of your loved one to determine their current and future needs. We also look into their current living arrangements, and decide which steps can be taken to assure their safety at home. If you are concerned with the safety of your loved one at home, we suggest you take a look at our Home Safety Checklist to identify common hazards in and around their living space.

Step Two: Creating a Care Plan

Based on the assessments in Step One, we collectively develop a Geriatric Care Plan covering all aspects of caregiving in order to suit your specific needs. Although no plan is identical, here’s an example of a Geriatric Care Plan for you to better understand our process.

Step Three: Setting the Plan in Action

Once we have a solid plan, we work with you to set it in action. We facilitate connections with quality elder care service providers to meet your needs. We want the best for you and your family, so we only recommend providers and facilities that meet our high standards. Recommendation of care providers and facilities are based on 3 key factors:

Responsiveness of the provider to a client’s needs.
Reliability and consistency when it comes to the provider’s quality of service.
The established level of training and certification required by the provider for their facility and/or employees.

Step 4: Overseeing the Plan in Action

We understand that elder care is an ongoing and ever changing process, which is why our geriatric care plans always include the option of our continued involvement and oversight. As conditions change, we are there to help you make the necessary adjustments. Geriatric care management is about helping you and your older family member find the best care possible, without the stress of handling everything on your own. If you are concerned for a loved one but aren’t sure where to start, we can help you get organized by creating and implementing a care plan built specifically to meet the needs of you and your loved one.

Get a FREE Consultation with a Certified Care Manager

CALL: 855-455-5118 x512 or just fill out the form.

Recent Client Praise

For the Caregiver
Make Care Giving Work
Peak Over the Wall
The Caregiver Blues

For the Family Caregiver

For the one leading the charge, the drains are not always visible.
Care giving can be just as demanding as a full time job. Days are long and it is hard to take a break. This is why it is so important to watch for your own symptoms as a caregiver. You want to be as good for yourself as you are for your loved one who depends on you.

Are you…

missing a lot of work?

not exercising and instead eating a lot of unhealthy foods?

having nightmares or disturbing dreams?

feeling lethargic or maybe even depressed?

angered by minor issues, or are you impatient with your loved one?

MAKING CARE GIVING WORK

While keeping yourself and your family strong
Family care giving is the single biggest contribution to an older adult being able to stay in their own home and age in place. Caregivers do everything from transporting the older adult to and from medical appointments to coordinating the services of other medical providers, managing multiple medications and advocating on behalf of their family member. It takes time and weighs heavily on the caregiver who still must balance everything against a full-time job, parental responsibilities and a marital partner. Caregivers often don’t get much explicit attention as part of the tremendous contributions. The most recent report on family care giving published by AARP is required reading for caregivers and their families. It provides a sense of the huge and important work that caregivers are providing for their families in America today.

Creative Care Management recommends three points that cannot be repeated often enough.

One, caregivers’ contributions need to be appreciated by the entire family who benefits.

Two, the whole family also needs to help in caring for the caregiver.

Three, it takes a village for all of the above.

PEEKING OVER THE WALL

After surviving the climb

5 Steps Towards becoming a Better Caregiver:

Become educated about your loved one's condition in order to be as effective as you can be.

Recognize that you are not superman or superwoman; set some limits on what you and others can expect from you.

Do not beat yourself up about feeling angry, afraid or even resentful; instead find ways to vent

Talk is important as a principal way to vent – especially to a therapist, counselor, clergy member, and even trusted friends.

Lift smart. As a caregiver, be smart about not hurting your back when lifting, pushing and pulling; keep yourself in shape and use an assistive waistband if your physician recommends it.

For more tips for the caregiver, Chicago IL care resources and more, don't forget to visit Charlotte's Blog and please make sure to learn more about what we do at elder care services page.

THE CAREGIVER BLUES

Building a Prevention Strategy
With the amount of stress and pressure caregiving can produce, many choose to ignore signs of caregiver depression. The sad irony is that the caregiver feels guilty about even talking about the dark cloud that seems to be hanging over them, guilty that they do not feel the fulfillment of taking care of the parent who once took care of them. This, despite the fact that the caregiver of an older adult more often than not has other family responsibilities already. More than 20 million Americans suffer from depression, and family caregivers are more likely than the average person to get something that is not just the "blues." We all recognize the time and work that a caregiver puts in to help an older adult, but they also may be giving up the time they would have been spending with their spouse or significant other –or the nights out with friends and acquaintances, the moments during any given week that would give a break from the routine, make them laugh or fulfill them.

Love, Live, Laugh

Tips for Caregiver Blues

Include you; make time each day to do something that delights, relieves or distracts you.

Make lists; prioritize your caregiving duties, make lists and you will see you are making progress even when there remains more to do.

Request help; appreciate that it is gratifying to the others whom you may ask for help to be of help to you and your elder.

Leverage your abilities; the others who can give you respite are actually better equipped for what you may delegate than you are.

Make yourself laugh; hard work like caregiving can seem devoid of fun, so you have to take time to have some fun.
If you’re a musician, you want to be busy, because gigs represent a better living. If you’re an actor you want more roles in more productions, because more visibility means better contracts. If you’re a working professional, you want to be busy, because being more billable makes for a better salary. If you are a caregiver, the question becomes how busy do you want to be. And how busy is healthy for you. I had a conversation with a caregiver a while back who described his life this way. “I have gone from five hours of uninterrupted sleep a night caring for my mom to five hours of interrupted sleep a night.” This is a classic case of how we describe what we do will define how we think about what we do. Experts call it “linguistic determinism.” Does this person sound like a fulfilled or happy caregiver? Caregivers more likely than not will be busy people, but how do they feel and what are they really accomplishing? The person who is “too busy” certainly may seem like a valuable person, but in reality the caregiver who is “too busy” probably just has a consistent feeling of “time deficit.” If caregiving were breathing, this person would constantly be breathless. Being this busy also has a way of becoming a habit where the caregiver is trapped in the cycle and may even feel that there is no alternative. Who wants to admit they don’t love mom or dad or not measure up to what the caregiver perceives as everyone’s expectations? They want to measure up. Not being busy helping mom or dad must mean they don’t care, so the beat goes on. Being too busy also means that a caregiver loses sight of the goal, and they get so caught up in being busy that all the little things of mom’s or dad’s lives become the focus. All the while this is going on, the “busy caregiver” continues to take on more, not realizing that always being available actually diminishes the value of what they do and who they are. So, how does a caregiver break the cycle? It starts with language. Instead of being “busy,” perhaps the caregiver can begin talking about what gives them “satisfaction” or “fulfillment?” Instead of preparing three meals a day and cleaning house for mom or dad, perhaps a caregiver’s time can be better spent sharing stories with mom and dad with the other tasks being delegated. Or maybe there is something that the caregiver’s unique skill set allows them to bring to mom or dad that both they and their care receivers will find fulfilling…sharing photos of the grandkids, playing music together, going for a walk and conversation? And at the end of the day, the best thing caregivers can do when they reduce their frenetic “busyness” is to offer a role model to the next generation as well as others. Remember, kids are more likely to be influenced by what they see than by what you say, and ultimately they take away how what they saw made them feel. So, increase your happy and decrease your busy…and there will be a multi-generational benefit. 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.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced her five steps of grieving for a loved one who has died four decades ago in her book On Death and Dying. A couple of new authors, Barbara Okun and Joseph Nowinski, have revised these five steps in light of our present day experience of dying which tends to be a more protracted process. As a geriatric care manager, I find myself spending more time helping caregivers prepare for the death of a loved one than helping them after death has occurred.

The very practical fact is that people simply do not die in the same way they did nearly half a century ago. We do not hear of folks just “dropping dead” as much as ultimately succumbing to a terminal disease from which they have been suffering for some time. Modern medicine has given us more warnings of life-threatening conditions and more tools to forestall the assault of terminal conditions like cancer or heart and lung disease. With that change in how we die has come a need to address the anticipatory trajectory of caregivers as they attend to an individual and as they prepare to say good bye.

Okun and Nokuski offer a psychological road map for caregivers anticipating the demise of a loved one in their book, Saying Goodbye: How Families Can Find Renewal Through Loss. The authors help readers to develop the communication skills to address the old family issues that will surface during the protracted caregiving a terminally ill individual will require. It is a self-journey handbook for the caregiver to address the inevitable emotional challenges they will face, and I recommend it.

An important counterpoint to the emotional navigation aid Okun and Nokusi offer is the guidance that Dr. Kevin Pho offers. In his blog posting, KevinMD, Dr. Pho offers advice on how to navigate what he calls the “medical maze,” how to interpret medical speak, ask the right questions, be proactive. For any of you facing these end of life passages, I strongly encourage you to check out both of these resources. We all need to be willing to “stop and ask directions.”

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.,geriatric care manager Chicago, geriatric care Chicago

Copyright ©2011

As a geriatric care manager, the most common comments I get when I speak to groups seem to start with “I wish I had known you when…” The “when” is usually followed by a family story of mom’s fall and broken hip, dad’s dementia diagnosis, a dear friend who has THAT diagnosis. We may call it care management, but Dr. Phil calls it “crisis management,” and in his recent book titled Real Life, he says: “For most of us, our formal education and other life experiences don’t give us any information about crisis management, problem solving, or even problem recognition.” So, in an age when you can Google anything, most people do just that when the crisis hits. But when you Google anything, that is just about what you find…anything. Not only that, but it rarely is just one crisis that caregivers to older adults have to address. In interviews with three dozen Care Managers in 2016 and 2017 we asked them to talk to us about their clients. Their experiences with families going through crises of caregiving fall into the following categories:

TYPE OF CASE	%
Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia	66.2
Home Safety	66.2
Medication Questions, Complications	58.2
Acute Medical Crises	50.3
Inadequate Self-Care	48.0
Chronic Medical Condition	46.8
Family Support	45.5
Residential Transition	39.9
Patient Discharge, Home Care	38.6
Financial Challenges	33.7
Other	34.5

What is the important takeaway from this table? It’s the numbers. We asked the Care Managers whom we interviewed to tell us what percentages of their clients fall into each of the categories you see. It may be no surprise that clients may have more than one issue going on at a time, but the sum total of what you see here is well over 500%...527% to be precise! It gets complicated when more than one thing is going on at the same time. The older parent of this family is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, but in all likelihood this person also is at risk for what professionals term elopement, or wandering. They may just wander off, and not recognize where they end up. Hopefully they will be fortunate and be found by a well-intentioned neighbor or police officer who can help them return to the safety of home. So, right off the bat we have dementia and home safety issues, but they also may not be compliant with their medications for a chronic cardiac or respiratory condition because they do not remember. They may have been victimized by a telemarketer to whom they have given their credit card information which is how the family identified that dad has memory issues in the first place. And now the family reaches out for help to find a secure residential option. So, it rarely is just one issue that creates a crisis for the new caregiver; it’s a five alarm fire. Okay, I share this brief example not to scare you to death, but rather to get your attention and let you know what the caregiver reality is all about. What caregivers need to do is first, realize they do not have to go it alone. Second, it can be really helpful to find someone who knows the good options from the bad options, because Google offers options, but does not know the difference. 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.

In the meantime, we invite you to download the below featured FREE white paper - offering both personal and professional advice for those who care for the elderly or people with special needs. Make sure to come back and visit us for more great FREE resources.

A Caregiver's Guide for the HolidaysHoliday stress is tough for everyone but especially for caregivers. Find out how to care for both yourself and your loved ones while managing these hectic seasonal times with friends and family.Download
Because health care – particularly long term care – can be expensive for elders and others with special needs, it is critical that anyone looking for Medicaid qualification take action before June 14, 2011. As a geriatric care manager, we help elders and special needs individuals as well as their caregivers to navigate Medicare, Medicaid and the other entities that provide safety nets for those who qualify.

There are changes in store for Medicaid that may affect who qualifies and how they qualify after June 14 of this year. I had the benefit of sitting in recently on a presentation by an elder law attorney in the Chicago area, Janna Dutton, who helped shed some light on the subject.

Medicaid is mandated by the federal government, but the details of how it applies and how it is financed are the domain of state government. I will be talking in this posting about what we know now about Illinois law as well as what we do not know. So, let’s start with an individual who is seeking to apply for Medicaid in Illinois.

First, of course, that person must be a legal resident, but that part is simple. For Illinois, a resident simply is someone in Illinois (for no specific duration) with no intention of leaving. There is no duration of residency required. To qualify for Medicaid, however, an individual cannot own a home outside Illinois, not even a vacation home. And the individual must be over age 65 or be eligible for Social Security Disability benefits.

Presently, a person will qualify for Medicaid only if they have no more than $2,000 in liquid assets, but this does not include a home (which can be valued at no more than $750,000 if the applicant plans to return home after their stay in a nursing home). State government has a “look back” period of 36 months prior to application. That is, they will “look back” three years at an applicant’s finances to see if there were any expenses or “gifts” that may appear to be efforts to deplete funds for the sake of qualifying for Medicaid. Any suspect monies expended will be added back to existing assets. Anything over the qualifying amount then will be spent before Medicaid contributes to the person’s care.

Exceptions may include “gifts” that have been a longstanding pattern of giving by the applicant (for instance, dollar amounts consistently given to grandchildren upon marriage, graduation, etc.) The date from which the spend-down starts presently is the date of the gift that forced assets to exceed the $2,000. Asset qualifications for applicants may be what will most change after June 14. After June 14 it may be as much as a 60-month look back, and the ineligibility may start at the date of application rather than the gift.

The financial scrutiny also extends to accounts that may be held jointly with a caregiver or relative. The joint account will be considered the exclusive asset of the applicant unless there have been regular deposits to this account by the non-applicant. For this and all accounts, the responsibility for documenting paperwork is that of the applicant.

This is some of what we know, but it is what will change after June 14, 2011, that we cannot fully know. I recommend you seek counsel from a qualified Illinois attorney, and I particularly recommend you go to Janna Dutton’s website for helpful information and advice about this and other elder law issues.

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 Charlotte Bishop.

See all Testimonials »

…which is to say that there is new research that shows exercise can help keep the brain healthy and able to produce and retain memory function! I have had a number of posts over the years on the importance of diet and exercise and their beneficial effect in helping to avoid medical issues or just in being healthy. This one is back to the healthy effects of physical activity in actually reducing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Recent research presented at the last meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association showed a direct link between regular exercise and an improvement in blood flow as well as reduction in the amyloid and tau levels in the brain that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s erosion of cognitive function. All of this works to not only stave off the debilitating cognitive impact of Alzheimer’s disease, but other forms of vascular dementia as well. Every 67 seconds in America, another person is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, so how can exercise help in warding off this condition? Research reported by scientists in Perth, Australia, followed individuals and their “brain amyloid load,” a measure which increases with the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. They grouped these patients into two types based upon level of exercise. The exercise group was comprised of those who exercised 150 minutes or more a week, and the low exercise group was those individuals who reported fewer minutes of exercise weekly. Overall, there no differences in amyloid between the two groups, but when researchers looked specifically to those who had the genetic potential for Alzheimer’s, they found that those with this genetic marker in the low exercise group were significantly higher in their levels of brain amyloid. As they more closely examined both exercise groups across those with and those without the markers, it appeared that those who exercised more were able to slow the accumulation of amyloid despite having the genetic predisposition. All of this is preliminary information, and it is yet to be seen if exercise can really delay the ultimate onset of Alzheimer’s among people who have the genes that predispose them to the condition…or for how long and by how much. It also is yet to be determined what kind of exercise may be most beneficial, but it appears that cardiovascular exercise may show the most promise. One physician at the conference also adds that so far there are no side effects from exercise which is a lot more than can be said of most FDA-approved medications for cognitive impairment. That this kind of rigorous exercise also manages blood sugar levels is an additional benefit, but the lower blood sugar levels may also be reducing another risk factor for reduced cognitive ability – reducing risk for type 2 diabetes. There is more “lifestyle” research in motion, so please stay tuned…more to come. These early results show real promise. 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.

You can imagine that I follow a lot of clinical news feeds, and I keep files. I have files for dementia, files for residential living options and yes, I have a file for research that gives us insights into how people who live longer got there. There is no one secret to living longer, but there are some things that people who live longer do that can help us all: • An 80 year-long study that tracked people and their mental habits found that people who are more thoughtful and “plan-ful” live longer. • Multiple studies have consistently shown that people who have more friends or are more socially-active live longer. (They probably also have more fun…) • But choose your friends carefully, because their habits rub off…do your friends work out or do they smoke, do they make good food choices or eat junk? • In the “friends” vein, people who are married or have been married (divorced or widowed) live longer than those who have stayed single. • Napping is good for you; those who nap regularly have a 37% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. • That extends to your overnight sleep also; people who get less than 5 hours of sleep a night are simply less healthy…if you snooze, you WIN. • Eat more fiber and fruits and vegetables; the end result is a much reduced risk for obesity … especially the belly fat that is the greatest risk. • Regular exercise to the tune of at least two and a half hours a week helps fend off heart disease, depression and some kinds of cancer. • If you drink alcohol – one drink a day for women and one to two for men; moderation reduces the risk of heart disease more than even than those who don’t drink at all. • Be chill – people who don’t carry a grudge or who are not always crabby or who are less stressed have lower rates of heart disease as well as other health issues. • Have a purpose in your life – you will live longer and reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. These are the big issues to use as your guide to a longer life. As you read them, you may find that many of them make for a happier life as well. That probably is not a coincidence! Live well. 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.

See all Testimonials »

elder abuse

Free White Paper: What to Expect from Alzheimer's

If you're caring for someone with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, we understand the difficulties of seeing a loved one through often times drastic mental changes. We want to help caregivers further understand Alzheimer's and how to best care for the patient in their orbit.

Inside "Roadmap to Alzheimer's"

Get the Support You Need Now! Call 847-869-5118 x511

Geriatric Care Plans

Developing a Geriatric (Senior) Care Plan

Step One: Meeting and Assessment

Step Two: Creating a Care Plan

Step Three: Setting the Plan in Action

Step 4: Overseeing the Plan in Action

Get a FREE Consultation with a Certified Care Manager

Recent Client Praise

For the Family Caregiver

For the one leading the charge, the drains are not always visible.

Are you…

MAKING CARE GIVING WORK

While keeping yourself and your family strong

Creative Care Management recommends three points that cannot be repeated often enough.

PEEKING OVER THE WALL

After surviving the climb

5 Steps Towards becoming a Better Caregiver:

THE CAREGIVER BLUES

Building a Prevention Strategy

Love, Live, Laugh

Tips for Caregiver Blues

Contact

Newsletter Sign Up

Areas We Serve

Accreditations

Connect

Careers