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

It’s Never to Late for Hip
We’ve had a nice trend over the recent years, a trend in which hip fractures in America had been...
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November 28, 2023
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The New Pandemic That Has a Cure
I’ve been hearing it from my clients, from my friends, from my family and from virtually every channel on...
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October 23, 2023
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Would You Want to Know?
National Geographic has a new documentary series, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, starring, of course, Chris Hemsworth of Disney’s Marvel...
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November 29, 2022
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Planning for the Holidays is More than a Menu
The latest news reports suggest only about 10 percent of American Adults have received their seasonal booster for COVID. ...
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October 24, 2022
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What’s Scarier than Halloween?
The short answer to this question is cybersecurity breeches. First, how do you know if that spam in your...
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October 18, 2022
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Become a Dementia Detective by “Talking the Talk”
Today we have a guest Post from Christina Padilla, a speech-language pathologist and Certified Dementia Practitioner living and working...
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September 27, 2022
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Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease
September is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, and this is the second of four posts we’ll offer on the subject. A...
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September 13, 2022
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Dementia, Distraction, Delirium and Depression
September is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, so we’re going to be sharing four posts that will help everyone with what...
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September 7, 2022
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Before or After the Fall
I came across an informative piece in the Washington Post about a week ago, and it brought to light...
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July 26, 2022
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Age and “Long Covid”
There seems to be a cliché for everything, so we’ll start with this go-to for COVID: “We’re not out...
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June 7, 2022
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In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

We all have heard report after report about how we should stay active, especially as we grow older. It builds endurance in general when we exercise for 30-45 minutes five times a week. It helps prevent body muscle loss if we exercise regularly – the “use it or lose it” notion. It can help stave off bone density loss if we exercise regularly, and we just feel better because exercise releases endorphins which are the “feel good” hormone of the body. While you are thinking about all of that, exercise will help … that is, exercise will help you actually think! Research recently reportedly by scientists from the University of British Columbia demonstrated that those who exercise just three times a week over a six month period scored substantially better on a measure call the Cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS). Notice I said “substantially” better on this scale. We see a lot of studies that make it to the popular press that show differences between people who do X or Y or Z versus those who do not. This study actually took the scientific approach and compared two different segments of a group of 70 people who already early signs of Alzheimer ’s disease. That is, they demonstrated an measureable improvement in the subcortical ischemic vascular cognitive impairment among people who exercised those three times a week versus the other segment who did not. The researchers point out that it would take a 3-point improvement on this scale to be statistically significant, and their measured difference was just less than two points. But the non-exercise group was also receiving an educational program to stimulate them mentally plus normal care and they still fell behind on this scale. Who would turn down a nearly two point improvement…not a slower rate of decline – an actual improvement. The exercise group, however, did show significant improvement in their “6-Minute Walk Test” and their blood pressure. So if you pick up the exercise program you can expect to be more fit, perhaps even lower your blood pressure medication needs. Consider the cognitive improvement to be a bonus. One of the researchers also comments on how exercise has “minimal side effects.” You cannot say that about too many medications. I also see another hidden bonus in that with the added exercise, I can maybe have a portion of dessert. Now that is statistically significant! 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.
I am sometimes asked why we have that phrase on our brochure and web site that says "Your Sister in Chicago." The Chicago part is not where the question arises, but some ask why we talk about the "sister." Well, we have discussed that among our own staff, but it really comes down to how roles sort out when it comes to caregiving. Aside from the fact that research shows that it is spouses who are more often the caregivers to one another than anyone else, it most often is the daughter than the son who is the caregiver to an older parent who needs the help. The University of Michigan collects data from Americans every two years in what they call their Health and Retirement Study. It's a survey of more than 26,000 adults over age 50 in America, and some of the recent findings shed some light on how caregiving sorts itself out by gender among adult siblings. The averages begin to tell the story. Daughters, the survey shows, perform 12.3 hours of caregiving to an older adult in an average month compared with fewer than 6 hours for the average son in a family. And when there are both a son and a daughter in the sibling mix, this sibling gender mix reduces the sons' average hours while it increases the hours the daughters will spend in caregiving. According to this survey, the pattern has remained essentially unchanged for more than two decades. There has been a consistent gender gap, and it is more pervasive that just elder caregiving. If you look to see who the stay at home parent is when families sort out responsibilities, women still outnumber men as the stay at home caregivers to children. The authors of the research suggested that it is not up to the daughters of America to more actively recruit their brothers to be involved in caregiving to mom or dad. They argue that the brothers ought to assert themselves into the mix as a remedy for the stress that daughters will experience as the disproportionate caregivers. Women may provide more care to the parents, but they also take on a larger share of the caregiver stress. Yet, this gender gap is not always because men do not step up. We see cases in our own sphere where it seems that the sons' voices do not get heard as much as the daughters, so maybe adult siblings of all genders need to do a better job of sharing the family caregiving responsibilities. But until we can proudly say that we are your "sibling" in Chicago, we will continue to be a sister to both the daughters and sons who are looking for a care navigator to help them with their care receivers. 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.
Chicago Home Care Service Experts
When looking for Home Care service in Chicago area for an elderly loved one, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and vulnerable. That is where Creative Care Management comes in. We work with you to completely understand your elder loved one’s needs and then manage the process of selecting and placing your loved one with the right kind of care from a reliable and trustworthy provider.
Finding the Right In-Home Care
Our four step process allows us to guide you from our first meeting to the continued monitoring of your loved one’s in-home care, by developing a thorough Home Care Management plan that is unique to your specific caregiving needs.
Step One: Meeting and Assessment
Everything starts with a meeting. By establishing a personal connection during our initial meeting, we aim to fully understand your concerns. We conduct an assessment of the physical, mental and social health of your loved one to determine the ideal type of elder care service at the moment.
Step Two: Creating a Home Care Plan
Based on our assessment, we work with you to collectively develop a Home Care Management plan that covers everything from the type of care provider required to preparing for changes that may occur in the future.
Step Three: Setting the Plan in Action
When we recommend a care provider, we only offer the best. We hold our providers to the highest standards in regard to responsiveness to a client’s needs, consistent quality of service and level of training and certification required of the provider’s employees. We provide recommendations for a wide range of in-home care options including, but not limited to:

Home companion

LPN (licensed practical nurse)/LVN (licensed vocational nurse)/ CNA (certified nurse’s assistant)

Live-in caregiver

Step Four: Overseeing The Plan
As in-home care is an ongoing process, the Home Care Management plan includes our continued involvement and oversight in the care of your loved one. When conditions and needs change, we will be there to help with any necessary adjustments to the plan. If you are concerned for a loved one, but feel overwhelmed tackling caregiving on your own, our geriatric care services are exactly what you need to lift that weight from your shoulders. Contact us today for a free initial consultation.
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Recent Client Praise

If you are a caregiver to an older loved one or a person with a disability who may be sent to physical or occupational therapy, you need to know about Medicare's new rules on medical necessity. For the past decade Medicare spending on outpatient therapy has been increasing at a rate of more than 10 percent a year, but the number of patients receiving therapy has been growing at less than three percent a year, so there have been about 1300 pages of changes.

       It really all comes down to the physical therapist. Even if your physician writes a prescription for outpatient therapy, it is up to the physical therapist to determine if the therapy satisfies the Medicare requirements. So that your loved one does not end up paying for service (because they can have therapy on demand), understand what the therapist looks for:

1.    Therapy must be aimed at addressing a functional deficit (such as the patient being restricted in some vital activity of daily living).

2.    The therapy has to be something that actually requires a therapist - that is, it could not be a self-improvement home effort.

3.    The therapy is not for maintaining good function; it has to be directed to - and make progress toward - improved function.

4.    Therapy must focus on improving something that makes a difference in the patient's daily life; Medicare will pay for efforts aimed at self-care around their home, but not for training for a marathon.

5.    Therapy has to have a chance of succeeding; the therapist must determine that there is a strong likelihood of achieving goals that have been set forth.

       The guidelines are fairly clear and the therapist's documentation must speak to these issues for the program to be covered. And it is important to appreciate that Medicare's governance will not object to any legitimate use of therapy; they just set the standards so that physical therapy is more than simply "going through the motions." You don't have to read the whole 1300 pages of Medicare's guidelines to appreciate how the revisions will affect therapy. Check out what the American Physical Therapy Association says about making the guidelines work for the beneficiaries (click the link).

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.

Dr. Oliver Sacks explains neuroplasticity in his editorial, “This Year, Change Your Mind,” in the New Year’s Day editorial page of the New York Times. As a geriatric care manager, I have encountered clients whose injuries have induced deficits of some sort from which recovery plans are designed and executed. Physical injuries such as lost limbs, vision, hearing or others have fairly clear rehabilitation trajectories, and the injured individual can learn and work through them to recover as much of a productive life as possible.

Neurological injuries like those Dr. Sacks offers as examples require remolding an organ that we do not see from injuries that also may be invisible.  As Dr. Sacks explains, neuroplasticity offers the means by which the brain can remold itself to overcome a deficit. For a geriatric care manager, the deficits do not have to be as dramatic as a spinal cord injury, the onset of blindness or even a stroke. We see every day the consequences of older adults’ inactivity and the cumulative deficits that can grow out of the under stimulated life. The brain does lose some of its pathways through natural attrition, and it is critical for a vibrant life for the aging individual to keep working in order to maintain the pathways they already have as well as to create new ones as some of those may become unavailable. A colleague likens it to commuting in the brain. There may be detours and rerouting, but an active individual will always find a route home.

There is a case of a 70+ year old client whose spouse is suffering from Alzheimer’s inexorable progression. While there is little to do to forestall that condition, he takes it upon himself to exercise at his facility’s gym three times a day, he is a voracious reader and he is an active participant in his wife’s care team so that he can be both physically and mentally able to care for his wife to whom he is entirely devoted. Or the 90+ year old woman who will keep up with her grandchildren when they come to visit – as exhausting as it may be. She is a brilliant conversationalist, she rarely repeats herself and she completes the New York Times crossword puzzle. What do they have in common? They both push the boundaries of the envelope.

They both are pushing the plasticity of their brains.

Dr. Sacks exhorts us to “change our mind” this year as part of our 2011 resolution. I would expand that to include all of those on whom an elder or person with special needs depends, and encourage those caregivers to help push the envelope for those in their care in order to effect a change of mind and a robust life in 2011 for all.

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.

Copyright ©2011

Everybody forgets something! There is a heightened awareness - even fear - of Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia especially as we all advance in years, but simple forgetfulness does not inevitably lead to a dementia. And if you are a caregiver, the older adult in your orbit may be very self-conscious or worried at having misplaced the car keys. Or maybe it is blanking on a favorite author or the name of a friend that they happen upon on the store. No one of these events means that dementia of any sort is encroaching on their faculties, but sometimes it is not enough to reassure an older adult that it is not what they fear. It can be helpful, however, to take specific actions that are known to help keep one's brain healthy and sharp.

            Let me share five helpful tips from a well-regarded neurologist named Dr. Majid Fotuhi. You may have seen him on Dr. Oz, if you follow the program. Some say Dr. Fotuhi's advice can even prevent Alzheimer's; you be the judge. At the very least, these steps can help to strengthen the brain of virtually anyone who puts in the effort.

1.    Cross-Train: Anyone who exercises routinely knows that it is important to trade off the activities of your work out; they call it cross-training. Try changing which hand you use to comb your hair or take a different route to the store or use a soup spoon with your non-dominant hand. It is not easy, but it challenges your brain to learn something new, and as the brain adjusts to this shift it rises to the challenge by using areas of the brain that may have been under-utilized before.

2.    Relax: Stress is not just bad for your cardiovascular system; it is harmful to the brain because it releases a stress hormone called cortisol. So, several times each day, go to a quiet, darkened room and practice deep, slow breathing. Change out of clothing that may be restrictive and remove your shoes to signal your brain you are serious about relaxing. Do this for seven minutes.

3.    Mnemonicize Something: Okay, so the real word is simply "mnemonic. Challenge your brain to remember five spices from a recipe by making a word out them: Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Tarragon, Sage. See how long you can make the word or use the first letters to make a silly sentence.

4.    Increase Blood Flow: If your doctor says you are sufficiently healthy, walk up and down the stairs a few times, do ten push-ups, or do twenty sit-ups. All of these will raise your heart rate and increase blood flow to the brain, and that will grow new brain cells.

5.      Infuse DHA: There is a nutritional supplement called docosahexaenoic acid which is an omega-3 fatty acid which just happens to make up a large part of your brain matter. You can get it from fish that come from colder sea water, and it also can be purchased in your drug store or health food store. It has been shown to promote a healthier, even younger brain.

If you want to learn more about any of this, Please check out Dr. Oz's web site.

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.

It is not just because of the housing collapse that many seniors have decided to stay in their existing homes instead of moving into a senior community in recent years. It also is because it is easier to make home changes to keep up with the needs of older adults who wish to "age in place." In this two-part series, I am going to take you on a walking tour of an older adult's home with an eye to how to make life a bit easier and safer. If you are a caregiver to an older adult or someone else with special needs, think of it as a checklist room by room.

Front Door. Don't think of those few steps that lead up to the front door as a stairway; think of them as barriers to entry and exit. Recall from an earlier post that osteoarthritis becomes increasingly common with age, and what used to be four easy steps can now become a big challenge. Then, add an armful of groceries or a dark night when things are not as easy to see clearly, and you have an accident waiting to happen. Consider as alternatives either a no-step rehab to the entry way or a long ramp; I say long ramp, because it is important to keep the grade modest to accommodate a wheelchair, a walker, crutches or a cane. And get rid of the threshold - that strip of wood or molding that rises up between the outer wall of a house and the inner wall.

Garage Entry. For the older adult who still drives or is a passenger to someone who drives, getting from the garage to the house can be as daunting as those stairs in front of the house. Consider a hydraulic garage lift, especially if someone requires a wheelchair to get about.

Halls and Floors. Once in the home, turn on the light. Especially at night an older adult will find the abrupt transition from the bright porch light to the dark interior will make it hard for one's eyes to adjust, an invitation for trip or fall. For ease of use consider also replacing old light switches with rocker switches that are much easier for older, less facile hand to manipulate. Then, look at the floor surface as a potential obstacle. Throw rugs are just waiting for an older adult with unsure footing, and a fall is the outcome. Of if the carpet has been aging with the resident in an older home, there may be edges coming loose or seams that may trip the older adult who treads there. For any longer corridors or internal stairways, also consider hand rails for both walls. These rails can be the first line of defense for an older adult prone to slipping or tripping.

In the next installment, I will continue with a room by room walk through as you consider how best to refit your older loved one's home. I'll also add a web site that is full of useful resources for anyone looking to make it easier for older adults to remain at home and independent.
            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.
It was about two and a half months ago that we posted about the diagnostics telling Chris Hemsworth he had the APOE4 genes that predispose a person to Alzheimer’s disease. Clearly Mr. Hemsworth has embraced, and will continue to embrace, specific habits to deny Alzheimer’s Disease an opportunity to take over. An article recently released in The British Medical Journal has documented six healthy lifestyle habits that you don’t have to be Chris Hemsworth to follow…good thing, because no one can really compete with Thor. Without getting too granular, the researchers recruited nearly 30,000 individuals with a mean age of about 72 years and no evidence of dementia and then followed them from 2009 to 2019 with measurements every two years. They measured participants’ statuses on six “lifestyle factors”…factors that are within the control of participants and therefore modifiable: Exercise, smoking (or not), alcohol consumption (or not), healthy diet, cognitive activity and sociability. Here is a link to the research if you want to drill down into what comprises “exercise,” “healthy diet” etc. Take a moment to rank these from most important to least important before I share the results! The first four are all significant at the p<.001 level…translated, this means that the odds that these factors do not influence cognitive health are less that one in a thousand. Lower levels of significance, like those for the last two lifestyle activities are at a p <.05. In other words, the odds that they do not influence cognition are about one out of twenty were one to replicate the research. From most impact to least – but all statistically significant:

Healthy Diet – a daily measure of consumption of 12 food groups such as products like dairy, fish, vegetables, fruits and such;

Physical activity – measured as the participants’ weekly amount of time devoted to cardiovascular exertion;

Cognitive Activity – consists of reading, playing games like chess or mahjong and writing…I think Wordle and crossword puzzles also apply;

Social engagement – includes participation in meetings, clubs and even parties as well as travel or even online chatting;

Smoking - simply ranked as “never,” “former” and “current” smokers is among those activities that count for something, but appreciably less than the top four;

Alcohol consumption – is measured by categories: “never drank,” “drank occasionally,” “low to excessive drinking,” and “heavy drinking,” and it has the least impact of the six categories.

Okay, we’ve moved beyond New Year’s resolutions, so maybe these are part of what can be our commitments to retaining our cognitive function? Worth the effort? 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.
Mr. Rogers Told You…but were you listening? And it wasn’t just once that he shared the message; it was every episode for 31 seasons. You probably thought Mr. Rogers was talking only to kids when he sang:
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor, Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Actually, we all should have been listening, because his message was for all of us. According to research reported recently by Axios, the majority of us don’t know our neighbors, and among those of us who do know our neighbors, we barely communicate. Some of this, we can admit, owes to about two years of being “confined to quarters.” Pandemics, we have found, pretty much disincentivize socializing, but we have passed through that stage. But the numbers suggest that it may not be the pandemic that has gotten in the way of being good neighbors. According to a recent PEW Survey, nearly three in five of us report we know only some or none of our neighbors, and that rate climbs to 72% of people between 30 and 49 years of age and 78% of those who are younger. In neighborhoods where neighbors do speak, recoveries from natural disasters are faster, crime rates are lower and the people are healthier.  I’ve written a number of times about the risk or isolation to those of our older loved ones and how isolation leads to depression as well as dementia. Getting to know one’s neighbors is even more important for older adults, and the same PEW survey showed that people are twice as likely to strike up a conversation with a neighbor in person than online. How does one set the stage for that in-person chat? I don’t recommend going out and knocking on doors, but taking a stroll in your neighborhood on a nice day will produce any number of chance meetings. Encourage your older loved ones to do exactly that or maybe find a “walking buddy” with whom they can pass the time? Here is our walking buddy. All the neighbors know Tami by name…even if they may not remember our names. 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.

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The Boomers are aging, and that means the percentage of adults 65 years of age an older has now surpassed 13% of the population and growing. It also means that the number of older adults who suffer from physical, financial or mental abuse along with neglect is rising with this tide. But there is a second level of elder abuse that will also be rising, and it provides the added insult to the injury of abuse of those older adults less able to care for themselves. The second level is comprised of those who see abuse and don't report it as well as those who receive the reports of abuse but fail to act. In research conducted by the National Center on Elder Abuse, 45% of patients in nursing homes report being abused in some fashion and 95% report being neglected or seeing another resident suffer from neglect. Yet, we do not see this prevalence in any of the other "official" statistics, because it is either not reported or not acted upon. If you are a caregiver to an older loved one, you can do something about it. 1. If you see something, say something. I am borrowing this one from the TSA, but it works here also. Regardless of the age of the older adult whom you know, if you suspect active abuse or passive neglect, report it to a health care provider, social worker or law enforcement professional. These are what are termed "mandatory reporters" who must file, but sometimes they do not. Medical providers may not wish to be seen as violating the confidence of a patient, but that is patently wrong. Keeping silent only allows the perpetuation of this predatory behavior. 2. You do not have to see it to ask about it. Especially neglect may be incredibly subtle, and the abused victim may be hesitant to report a caregiver or even a spouse who is abusive for fear of reprisals. But inquiries have become part of the standard procedure for a lot of health care providers these days. I recall being a bit taken aback when on a doctor's office visit my older parent was taken out of my earshot by the provider and queried about whether she felt safe at home. That provider was doing her job. 3. Make sure there is action. Reporting abuse or neglect is the first step, but the professional to whom the report is made needs to act on the information. This is where it can get a bit murky, especially if this report is about a nursing home facility or chain that carries weight in political circles. The state of California has passed what has come to be known as the Elder Abuse Act which is intended to counter the potential obstacles to protection that political clout can create. Closer to home, the state of Illinois last year passed a law prohibiting anyone with a history of violence against older adults from holding a job in a position of care for an elder. Legislative changes are certainly important steps, but it also comes back to my rule about the village. It takes a village to support a senior just as it takes a village to raise a child. It is part of everyone's job description. 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.
If I were to ask you to make a New Year’s Resolution for your own happiness, what would your resolution be? Perhaps go on a long-anticipated vacation to France? Drop some of that weight that would help you get about on your own more easily? Or, just win the lottery and become an overnight millionaire?

According to a group of Harvard scientists who have been following a panel of 724 individuals and their families for 85 years, a happy life is not about things, places or money. It’s about nurturing strong relationships over the long haul. Relationships, they point out, are like sports training. Training to be physically fit is not a one shot affair. It’s about working and stretching and building your muscles and endurance. It even takes a team to make that kind of fitness happen.

People who have a durable network of friends, and perhaps even a “best friend” over the long haul, have quantifiably happier lives. It’s a kind of mental health and physical health insurance policy that helps people weather personal loss, ward off depression or memory loss and even live longer. Think of the alternative. We all know folks who are socially isolated…no surprise that the rates of depression among isolated individuals is high. During the protracted quarantines of the initial wave of the COVID pandemic, it was the folks who did not have people to whom they could reach out or from whom they could expect outreach who suffered mentally and had the poorest health outcomes from sickness.

So, how does a person strengthen relationships?
- It’s not just more friends; it’s also the quality of those relationships…the people in whom you can confide and who, in return, will share innermost thoughts, desires and fears with you. It’s not just a numbers game.
- It’s not just for extroverts; it’s also the small book club or the community garden team or a hiking friend with whom you can talk as well as walk. It may be just a few one-on-one relationships you have that will support you far more than a community club or such.
- It’s not too late to make those strong friends; it’s about what you do today to reach out and make yourself as available to “new friends” as it is about retaining your lifelong friends.
Making and keeping friends is an ongoing process, and the outcomes may surprise you. In welcoming new folks to your community club or church or condo association you may find the next strong relationship that nourishes both you and the new friend. People with whom you have lost contact may be as delighted as you when you reach out to renew acquaintances. The person you know with a different political leaning may be just what you need in a friend if you both can look beyond the politics and find the commonalities. Or when you go to the next gathering of whatever group and make a simple commitment to talk to three new people before you allow yourself to seek a safe corner to settle or call it a day. And, like physical training, strength comes from repeated effort and mixing up the routine in new ways that make our muscles work harder. Think strong!

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.
Stan Lee, the 95 year old co-creator of The Guardians of the Galaxy and the rest of the Marvel Comic Book series was in the headlines of the Hollywood Reporter this past week. But the story was not about Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America or the Guardians of the Galaxy. It was alleged this past Tuesday that he was the victim of elder abuse! A radio station in Orlando, Florida, amplified this by calling it a “captive situation” and that unnamed people were keeping him under lock and key to control his assets. Mr. Lee, who is a co-creator of one of the most successful comic book franchises, a franchise that has also spawned a hugely successful box office sensation, lives in an LA neighborhood where houses go for tens of millions of dollars. He has a net worth of about $50 million and has Miros, Picassos and more hanging on his walls…amid some empty hooks with faded shadows where something used to be. That’s not all that a recent visit from a New York Time reporter found to be missing. There are reports of more than a million dollars in wire transfers and a designer bag of cash and other valuable items seem to have “walked away” from the house. Some of this is under investigation. If you are thinking that because your older loved one is not worth millions that you have less to worry about, think again. Kerry Peck, a Chicago-based elder law attorney, famously states that we should all have someone looking out for us who loves us more than they love our money. I have five suggestions for those of you with older loved ones as well:
1. No matter where your older loved lives, you or someone you know should drop in frequently...and sometimes unannounced…and at different times to see how mom or dad is doing and who is visiting;
2. If your loved one requires home care or home health be sure that it is with a bonded and insured agency…and check references;
3. Know your loved one’s friends and be wary of “new friends” in their lives…especially friends for whom mom or dad may be doing financial favors;
4. Either personally or through a bonded professional monitor your loved one’s financial transactions, credit card and bank statements…look for changes;
5. And this is really #1, start the conversation early with your loved one…the conversation about how they want to live and where they want to live and whom they trust to help them.
It’s never too early to be a guardian of your loved one’s galaxy. 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.