When you moved out of the family home and set off on your own, your mother likely went through a mix of worry and excitement for you. Your challenges were new, and you were bound to make some mistakes on your way to figuring out adulthood. Now that she’s living alone and facing the challenges […]
Continue ReadingThere isn’t a single thing we do that isn’t based at least somewhat on memory. Even things that are instinctual, like eating, are tied up with how we remember; we remember what food we like to eat, how to prepare it, where the forks are, how we were taught how to hold a knife, how […]
Continue ReadingBeing a caregiver means balancing a lot of emotions and contradictions. When taking care of an older loved one, especially someone who has significant functional limitations, one of the most pressing issues is a contradiction of time. The contradiction is this: there are never enough hours in your day to take care of everything, and […]
Continue ReadingSometimes aging adults need someone to step up and advocate for them because of communication barriers and other disabilities. But it’s also true that our aging community needs proactive advocates because our own culture and social constructions tend to undermine the independence and dignity they deserve and underestimate the resources they should have access to.
Continue ReadingCaregivers have enormous amounts of responsibility when caring for an aging adult on a daily basis. But these responsibilities eventually boil down to two important issues: how to fill the day, and how to fill the day productively and meaningfully. Time, and the weight of it, balances with the responsibility to better the life of […]
Continue ReadingIt was a dream come true for Laura when she was finally able to move out of a San Mateo nursing home back into her own apartment. Thanks to the Community Care Settings Pilot (CCSP) program through Institute on Aging, her inpatient rehabilitation after a major car accident didn’t go on longer than it needed […]
Continue ReadingOne of the problems with aging in America is that, for various reasons, your world can become easily constricted. Streets and sidewalks aren’t designed with the needs of older adults in mind. Friends move away or pass on. Driving becomes more difficult. And for some reason, as a society, we feel that increased isolation is […]
Continue ReadingWhere does creative power come from? Does it spring from the tempest-tossed genius, slashing at the canvas with a paintbrush? Or is it found more in the inner world of the introvert, working away in a small, dingy studio? It can come from many things, but we tend to imagine the ability as being innate. […]
Continue ReadingWhat does the world look like when you’ve never seen it? How do you express what’s inside of you when you can’t see what’s outside? How do you capture emotions on paper when you can’t remember what colors look like? For most of us, even trying to think of answers to these questions would be […]
Continue ReadingOn January 28th, the year turned over to 4715, as one of the world’s oldest cultures celebrated the birth of a new year. All across San Francisco and the Bay Area, celebrations rang forth as thousands poured into the street to ring in the Chinese New Year. For some, it was a party, a magical […]
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