Chicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence – Since 1991 • elderly careChicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence

How to Say No to Cancer
Who would say “yes” to cancer, you may be thinking, but saying “no” means you’re committed to the lifestyle...
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July 23, 2024
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What’s Your Complaint?
If you grew up in a family as I did we were taught not to, or shown role models...
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June 11, 2024
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Medicare’s Surprising Cost Savings
Medicare has been one of those political footballs where both sides of the aisle have had an entrenched position...
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September 5, 2023
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Follow Your Gut…You’ve Got No Choice
It was back in the sixties and seventies that so many folks embraced the mantra: “You are what you...
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April 11, 2023
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Spring Tips for the Holiday Caregiver
We all know that that Spring in the Midwest isn’t on a straight line from Winter toward Summer, but...
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March 28, 2023
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Another Side to the Story
It was just a year ago that Bruce Willis’ family disclosed that the actor would be retiring from acting...
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February 27, 2023
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Ain’t No Sunshine…
…When She’s Gone.” Or how about, “You are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine?” or “Here Comes the Sun?” or...
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February 21, 2023
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Long COVID’s Long List of Symptoms
The COVID pandemic is not yet done with us in the United States, and the story certainly is different...
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February 7, 2023
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To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
No, this isn’t a refresher course on Shakespeare and the famous Hamlet soliloquy. (Spoiler Alert – Hamlet was ranting...
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January 2, 2023
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A Viral Trifecta?
To get to the question in the email first, the Spanish flu of 1918 did not get its start...
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December 13, 2022
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In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

I don’t know how many of us would like to live full-time in Disney World, but most of us have some very fond memories of maybe the early days with the Mickey Mouse Club or a trip to one of their theme parks. But there is something new from the Imagineers of Disney, and it’s a senior residence designed for those 55 and older. The first of these “Storyliving Communities” is being built in California where they are preparing a community that in their terms “is a little more magical.” This is not a pitch for this megacorporation’s next big way to engage the market with a bit of fantasy. It’s my way of saying that as your older loved ones approach retirement and move into it, encourage them to “reimagine” the next phase of their lives. If you go to your search engine and type in “how to retire,” you will get a ton of advice on how to save, what are the financial vehicles and how much is considered enough to last…and of course, some tips on planning for long term care, etc. But what about how to get to retirement and then find a life that can be fulfilling? Allow me to offer some suggestions for those nearing retirement to anticipate as well as for those already retired to perhaps do some rethinking and tweaking of their plans. Consider:
1. Mind your diet so that you preserve your health and your quality of life.
2. Plan and then refine a daily plan that keeps you busy – at your pace.
3. It’s not a light switch…you can ease into retirement gradually.
4. Exercise your mind as well as your body.
  1. Mind: take on a language, join a book club, embrace puzzles.
  2. Body: your personal record may be behind you, but set goals.
5. Make new friends, join a club, volunteer for a good cause.
6. Get to know your health care provider better…before an emergency.
7. There are two ways to stop working – screaming or smiling.
  1. Don’t obsess…get professional help to let go, if need be.
  2. Keep your work friends…they’re still friends with whom you can share.
8. Don’t make a bucket list…make a pamper yourself list.
9. As we all look at relaxing travel restrictions…relax your own restrictions and get away.
10. Invest in your community – lots of needs can reward your effort with lots of thanks.
It’s really easy to get caught up in what we can’t do as we once did, but don’t fall into that trap. If you need an excuse to do more walking, get a dog who will take you farther and show their appreciation in return. Try some new recipes, plant some new flora, see a new part of the world…and learn just enough of their language to immerse. 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.
In our book, How Do I Know You?: A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia, we say: Alzheimer’s remains the only disease in the top ten causes of death in the United States that cannot be prevented, cured or slowed. Stop the presses. New research suggests that there may be ways to slow the onset of the disease, if not prevent it. Let me repeat that. Some early results from a cognitive training regimen show that it may be possible to delay or slow the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. It may even be preventive, but that will take a very long term waiting game to see if the delays that are evident in the clinical studies can be sustainable. The results from this research show that a computerized cognitive training program in which patients were enrolled was able to reduce the risk for onset of dementia by 29% at ten years! In scientific jargon, that’s not nothing! Here is the other great part: those subjects who engaged in the most training got the most benefit. Does that sound like what we see in professional athletes …or professional anything? Those who put the most work into the program get the most out of it. Please let me tell you the rest of the story…Existing research has demonstrated that mental training that focused on retaining memory or processing did not reduce any risk for dementia. This present research was a study in Toronto among nearly 2,800 older adults whose average age was 73.6 years and who were living at home. They were assigned to three groups with three types of cognitive training: • memory, • reasoning and • processing speed. It was the processing speed groups which showed the results. Compared with a control group, those who went through this training had a 29% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. The memory training and reasoning groups were not different from their respective control groups after 10 years. All of this held true even after the investigators adjusted for any differences in other conditions or characteristics like gender, diabetes, depression or cardio-vascular health. Researchers are not sure why processing speed works this way, but it may be that working on processing speed builds up mental reserve. Maybe it’s like interval training for athletes. Mastering speed…bursts of work…grows their overall capacity. When the dementia erodes some of their cognitive capacity, they simply have more capacity on which they can draw. Clearly, a couple next steps will include following these people longer…but also trying to tap into what really is happening in the brains. That said, it stands to reason that if you can work on your “processing speed,” you will retain more ability over the long run. Get processing! 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.
Associate Care Manager Gregory Peebles returns with a series on the Internet and older adults. Gregory is both a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP) whose work focuses on helping aging adults and folks with limited independence by providing resources and support to help them discover and lead their best life. Gregory has been a part of CCM, Inc. for over a decade. – Charlotte The Internet is a safe place if you know how to navigate is safely. It’s user-friendly if, like the youngest generation, you grew up using it all the time. Most, however, have not had that advantage. We learned on our own, and any self-taught amateur will tell you that without a teacher, you can learn a lot of things wrong. There’s no shortage of helpful information on scams directed at older adults who have ventured onto the Internet. At CCM, we try to feature this type of content as it becomes available. Today’s post, however, is about common, globally unsafe habits from which we’ve witnessed our clients and their families struggle to recover. Have these conversations with your older loved one before you have to clean up a digital mess or reclaim a stolen identity.
1. Passwords. Plural. There should be a different password for each online account, and they should change with some frequency. It’s annoying, but at least it’s easy. You know the “best practices” – upper and lower case letters, numbers and even the “other” characters (@, #, etc.).
2. The Not-So-Funny Joke Forward. Sometimes a dangerous link gets inserted into those joke message forwards. Anyone curious/unlucky enough to click on it gets a nasty surprise. Tell your loved ones Don’t click on links unless they are in a personally directed communication from a trusted source.
3. Oversharing. Social media encourage us to tell everyone everything, first among which is how we feel, where we are, what we’re doing. Older adults - not as fluent in the standard practices of safety - are most likely to fall prey to those seeking to benefit from oversharing, an example of which might include updating a status about leaving town for a while. Predators are looking for exactly this type of information, especially if they know their prey’s address already.
4. Oversharing: The Sequel. Similarly, older adults are much more likely to give out personal information casually in a public forum (as in a comment). Not only will it overwhelm your loved one with junk mail, placing them at higher risk for scams, but someone looking to take advantage can get an incredible amount of information from just a name, a phone number, and an email address.
5. Shopping the Black Market. Non-secure websites don’t even pretend to protect your information. How can you tell if a website is secure? Nothing is 100%, but if the URL you’re shopping at does not begin with [https:], leave immediately. The extra “s” is for “secured”, and without it, online shopping becomes a huge risk. Noting this one thing can save lots of money and trouble.
Internet safety could be its own series, but with these five tips, we’re confident your loved one will be safe exploring all the Internet has to offer. 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.
A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office created a bit of a stir among geriatric care managers, because it predicted that the dollars spent on nursing homes and longer term care will amount to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by the year 2050. It is true that in the most recent year for which there is data, Americans spent $192 billion on these living environments, or about 1.3 percent of GDP. This past May, the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers asked its members if we had an opinion on older adults moving into nursing homes in such numbers. However, there are alternatives:
1. The best thing older adults can do is make a plan. We all make vacation plans and maybe even retirement plans; we need to make plans around aging in place while still preserving quality of life.
2. Next in line is taking stock of home. It is easy to not see that the home in which parents raised a family just doesn't work as well for older adults who may have some mobility issues - hint: an elder care manager can help.
3. With an objective picture of the home layout, set about making home a safer and easier place to live than it is now. Grip bars in a bath room, extra lighting in the halls and ramps instead of stairs can be a start.
4. And it is important to remember who actually is going to live in the home. Well-intentioned children of older parents may want to come in and do a "home-makeover," but it is really important to help mom or dad lead the team.
5. And just as it takes a village to raise a child, there are resources and people in your older parents' community who can provide support. If you don't know what services or agencies can be brought in, again ask a professional. (We also have some listed on our "Support Tools" page of this web site.)
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.
No, this isn’t a refresher course on Shakespeare and the famous Hamlet soliloquy. (Spoiler Alert – Hamlet was ranting about death, not slumber.) Do you find that despite how tired you feel, you still can’t get a full night of restful sleep? You’re not alone, because the older one becomes, the harder it is to get a good night’s sleep. Dr. Abhinav Singh, the medical director of the Indiana Sleep Center, suggests we view our sleep as if it were an older car that just doesn’t work quite as well as it once did. Ready for a tune up? As we age…especially if you’re a woman, it takes longer to fall asleep, we may have more wakeful times throughout a night and we may make up for these by napping during the daytime. Older adults’ sleep is not as deep and rejuvenating as younger people’s sleep, and that negatively impacts our immune system, our brain’s ability to organize memories and our ability to grow or repair bones and muscle. And all of this cascades into some real health issues the older one becomes. How about you? Is it trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or just feeling refreshed when waking from a night’s sleep? It may owe, in part, to checking out of the workforce which means we no longer have the demands or structure or early risings of work life. It also may be attributable to the loneliness or loss or just plain depression that can become part of the older brain. Older adults may also have medications for their blood pressure that give a nightly wakeup call to visit the bathroom. Women also have menopause that will exacerbate all of these elements that affect both men and women. Here are some tips from those like Dr. Singh who have devoted a lot of focus on what can go wrong with healthy sleep and what can be done to make your sleep more … well, restful and restorative:
- Recreate a daily routine that has you waking and sleeping at the same times;
- Avoid late afternoon caffeine – my husband makes 2pm his cut-off point;
- Walk every day with a goal your phone can track…10,000 steps maybe;
- Exercise more aerobically for 40 minutes 4 to 5 times a week;
- Soak up sunshine or use a Seasonal Affective Disorder lamp daily; and
- Schedule breakfast, lunch and dinner around the same time each day.
And maximize the effectiveness of your sleep time itself by:
- Ask your doctor about CBD or melatonin or other aids to a good night’s sleep;
- Keep your phone off and away from your bedside;
- Stretch and/or do some yoga each night prior to hitting the bed;
- Replace your pillow with one that truly supports your neck and head; and
- Purchase a new mattress that supports you and doesn’t squeak.
Some folks even recommend an upgrade to your sheets or a white noise machine to cancel disruptive night sounds. Wow, that’s an exhaustive list…maybe we all can sleep better having laid all the issues to rest? Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.
Associate Care Manager Gregory is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP) whose work focuses on helping aging adults and folks with limited independence by providing resources and support to help them discover and lead their best life. Gregory has been a part of CCM, Inc. for over a decade. – Charlotte Lots of people play simple games on their phones while waiting. On this blog, we’ve often mentioned that any game play encouraging cognitive and spatial orchestration is great for the player’s cognitive future. But what if there were a fun game whose results also helped doctors learn more about dementia? That would be especially helpful, keeping our own brains sharp while we contribute to research. That sounds like double duty! Well, set sail at full mast, because that game exists. At first glance, “Sea Hero Quest” [iOS/Andriod link] is a fun mobile game like any other. It is special, however, because it exists to provide researchers with more data on 3D spatial cognition, often a first casualty to a dementia diagnosis. In the game, the child of a parent suffering from dementia sets out on an odyssey to recover their parent’s lost memories. On the path to discovery, there are navigation, orientation, and chasing adventures. The ways that the players advance levels is precisely the kind of valuable information hoped for; and the more people that play the game, the more information to help. Alzheimer’s Research UK is a major player in supporting the data obtained from gameplay, and it is hoped that the information gathered will make inroads towards early detection and consequent treatment. In addition to the regular mobile version, there is also a Virtual Reality (VR) release which combines the game with scene immersion. It tracks head movement and provides even more data to researches about how players obtain information about their environment. So, if you’re a mobile game player of any sort, consider the introductory video below, download, and start gaming! You just might have a great time helping your future self.