Collective Memories
Milwaukee is trying to become more dementia-friendly, allowing the aging to live at home longer.
Sound Prescription
By Carolyn Kott Washburne In your late teens and early 20s, what was your favorite type of music? Rock ’n’ roll? R&B? Jazz? Heavy metal? If you’re now “of a certain age,” you might want to dust off those old records (or cassettes or CDs) and develop a playlist of your faves. Down the road, it just might help you fend off dementia. Nursing home staff members have long observed the devastating effects of dementia – depression, agitation, aggression, anxiety, apathy, withdrawal. They also know playing music can yield positive results – calming agitated residents, re-engaging withdrawn ones. Gerontology researchers…
Spreading Thin
There’s a growing number of adults caring for their parents and their own children. The experience can be all-consuming.
Sensing a Pattern
The indicators are not always obvious, but they could signal mental distress in an aging loved one.
Checks and Balances
There are number of legal precautions to take in your later years. And they don’t have to be painful.
No Place Like Home
Nursing homes are remarkably expensive, costing an average of $111,325 a year for a private room in the Milwaukee area, according to a survey by Genworth Financial, a life insurance company. Shared rooms aren’t much cheaper and still cost about $101,500 a year. “Assisted living” developments run about $50,500 annually for a one-bedroom unit in the metro area, and a full-time home health aide costs about the same, according to the Genworth survey. How does anyone afford such costs? The truth is, most people don’t. According to a review by the University of California-San Francisco, about 80 percent of all…
Honor thy Father and Mother
Things can’t get much worse,” I thought as I took my father’s limp penis in my hand and tried to guide it into the small plastic urinal. “This is just not right.” The year was 1985 and it was my weekend “on duty” with my dad, Roland Kott. My mother, Shirley, was visiting her sister and brother-in-law in Florida, taking a much needed break. In 1977, Dad had suffered a stroke that paralyzed his left side. At first, after months of inpatient and outpatient rehab, he was able to hobble around their condo with a cane, get food from the…