A conversation with Dr. Elena Mucci on Frailty. What it is, how to avoid becoming frail.

Frailty is an aging-related physiological decline syndrome characterized by significant vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. Awareness of frailty and associated risks for adverse health outcomes can improve care for this most vulnerable of patients.

Until I spoke to my brand new guest host, Dr. Elena Mucci, I didn't know that frailty was a medical thing. Additionally, it's something that we can avoid or improve. Once we run out of physical reserves, the smallest injury or illness can send us into a very negative state.

Joining me on the podcast is Dr. Elena Mucci. She is a gerontologist in the UK caring for older adults and helping them to age well. With this in mind, she gave me a list of topics that all of us should understand if we want to age well and avoid dementia. 

Dr. Elena Mucci on Instagram

Be Your Own Doctor YouTube Channel

TRANSCRIPT
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Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

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Dame Cicely Saunders is the founder of Palliative care.

We're talking today all about Palliative care. Palliative care focuses on improving the overall wellness of individuals with serious illnesses. It addresses both the symptoms and the stress of living with a chronic disease. It may also involve support for loved ones or caregivers.

Palliate comes from pallium, the Latin word for ‘cloak.’ To palliate is to cloak, or cover-up, the symptoms of an illness without curing it. This meaning grew into the idea of alleviating or reducing suffering. Interesting, yes?

In this episode, you'll learn the difference between hospice and Palliative care. There is a time and a place for each type of care, understanding the difference is beneficial.

We discuss the difference between Palliative care for people living with a disease like cancer versus Alzheimer's. It's a bit more difficult to know when to initiate Palliative care for someone living with dementia. By learning the differences in care options early you'll have a better idea of when the time is right.

Being a caregiver to someone living with Alzheimer's can be a very long journey. Deploying all the help you can get when you need the extra assistance will help you keep your loved one home.

Palliative Care Music

Check out this link to the American Palliative Music Council (APMC), they have recordings of music specifically designed for people in Palliative care.
Transcript
Related Episodes
Health Care Advocacy for Seniors!

Talking with Psychology in Seattle Podcast
Help Support Fading Memories
We have partnered with Caregiver Chronicles to bring you a comprehensive 8-week course. This course covers diagnosis to transition. To learn more or to sign up go HERE

Friday Live Chats    Meeting ID is:  784 8232 5915     Password is:  Zd11VN

Some details about the course.

Payment options include: PayPal or Venmo @dryvette-jackson
Join Fading Memories On Social Media!
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers!  You'll find us on social media at the following links.

Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can see me in “action” and watch the bonus videos I share.

Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 

We're doing aging wrong. Our healthcare system delivers quick interventions that act as band-aids but fail to include the entire family. Our medical model focuses on the body yet neglects the mind and soul; both are essential to our healing and comfort. Older adults are often scared and alone when they need more attention, support, and love.

If you Google “How To Age Well,” there is a lot of advice about diet, exercise, wearing sunscreen, but very little advice that focuses on our entire well-being. Aging well should also focus on our mind and soul. There is minimal discussion about how to stay mentally healthy, engaged in society, and continue to have a purpose that fulfills us.

These are the thoughts of today's guest, Stephanie Erickson.

Stephanie founded Erickson Resource Group and provides online consulting services for caregivers throughout North America. As a Family Caregiving Expert, she regularly discusses caregiving with a focus on seniors' health and well-being.

Stephanie is passionate about sharing her experience and knowledge and encouraging others to control their health and advocate on behalf of vulnerable populations. As a mom and entrepreneur, free time is hard to find. Yet, Stephanie always carves out time to train on the flying trapeze. She lives in Montreal with her husband, two children, and her energetic golden retriever.

Plan To Age Well Book
Transcript
Help Support Fading Memories
We have partnered with Caregiver Chronicles to bring you a comprehensive 8-week course. This course covers diagnosis to transition. To learn more or to sign up go HERE

Friday Live Chats    Meeting ID is:  784 8232 5915     Password is:  Zd11VN

Some details about the course.

Payment options include: PayPal or Venmo @dryvette-jackson
Join Fading Memories On Social Media!
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers!  You'll find us on social media at the following links.

Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can see me in “action” and watch the bonus videos I share.

Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

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Lacking the knowledge of how to best care for someone with Alzheimer's is common for most family caregivers. Each person is unique, and the disease affects them in their own ways. The differences in how each person reacts to their condition make it more challenging to get solid advice from other caregivers.

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Letting Go With Love – Supporting the dying process for someone with dementia.

How can we manage “letting go with love” when our society views death as a failure? Dying is a process we will all go through, and it is a very personal experience.

Understanding how to support someone with dementia on this last journey is essential. It is difficult for us, but it is necessary. Understanding the dying process will help us help our loved ones. Letting go with love is the ultimate gift we can give.

In this episode, you will learn about the dying process, what to expect, and how to navigate the last days. People with dementia are at risk of receiving inadequate care because they cannot say what they want. Maintaining your verbal and non-verbal communication is essential.

Be aware of their eating and drinking. Changes in their eating is a significant clue. People at the end of life may stop eating and drinking. It can be very distressing to watch, but it is normal for people approaching the end of life.

Consider the environment in which they reside. It's best to maintain the same living arrangement whenever possible. Bring in whatever you need to keep your loved one comfortable as they go through the dying process.

Supporting people with dementia at the end of their life requires a team approach. Often, there will be many people involved in the person's care at the end of their life. Good communication and information sharing help to ensure the person receives the care they need.

BK Books

TRANSCRIPT

Related Episodes

Moving On After Caregiving

Take Back Your Life – Coping with Change
Help Support Fading Memories
We have partnered with Caregiver Chronicles to bring you a comprehensive 8-week course. This course covers diagnosis to transition. To learn more or to sign up go HERE

Friday Live Chats    Meeting ID is:  784 8232 5915     Password is:  Zd11VN

Some details about the course.

Payment options include: PayPal or Venmo @dryvette-jackson
Join Fading Memories On Social Media!
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers!  You'll find us on social media at the following links.

Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can see me in “action” and watch the bonus videos I share.

Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Paperwork isn't sexy – a list of documents caregivers need.

Paperwork isn't sexy, In the eighties, promises of four-day workweeks and paperless offices were made thanks to the desktop computer. This promise has never happened, and despite cloud storage, paperwork is an endless chore we must all endure.

As caregivers, the endless piles of paperwork are one more tedious task that we must tackle. What is essential, what can we toss – it's an infinite cycle, to be sure.

My Dad had a spreadsheet of his medications, allowing us to inform the hospital precisely what doctors had prescribed him. Having access to this document, however, wasn't as easily achieved. Thankfully, my husband knew how to find the prescription spreadsheet on Dad's computer.

In this episode, I talk to Roz Jones, a professional care provider, about all the documents we need as caregivers. We also get into the nitty-gritty of what legal documents we all need. We're starting a brand new year (hopefully, much better than last year), so now is the perfect time to ensure our documents are in order.

Making paperwork sexy, if you will.

Related Episode

Estate Planning for the Sandwich Generations
Help Support Fading Memories
We have partnered with Caregiver Chronicles to bring you a comprehensive 8-week course. This course covers diagnosis to transition. To learn more or to sign up go HERE

Friday Live Chats    Meeting ID is:  784 8232 5915     Password is:  Zd11VN

Some details about the course.

Payment options include: PayPal or Venmo @dryvette-jackson
Join Fading Memories On Social Media!
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers!  You'll find us on social media at the following links.

Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can see me in “action” and watch the bonus videos I share.

Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

 

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Anticipatory grief has benefits of which we're not aware.

Is it normal to feel grief for someone when they're still alive? We may not realize that's what we're feeling. Many people assume it's a form of depression and treat it as such.

What we're feeling is actually called anticipatory grief. Millions of people deal with this feeling every day. It's not unique to those caring for someone with Alzheimer's.

In this episode, I talked with Harriet Hodgson about anticipatory grief. Harriet has been a freelance health and wellness writer for 38 years, but more importantly, she has experienced more than her share of suffering.

Harriet and I talk about the many forms of early grief, how the process can be beneficial, and how you can add it to your coping tools.

Harriet's book also tackles; grief as a reaction to change, early grief's symptoms and stages, response to early grief, and when early grief gets complicated.

Dying and grief are not topics most people want to discuss (or listen to), but I know you'll find this conversation enlightening and beneficial. You can also check out Harriet's book, Smiling Through Your Tears. Understanding the emotions, you're experiencing is another healthy step caregivers should take.

Smiling Through Your Tears

Related Episode

Moving On After Caregiving
Transcript
Help Support Fading Memories
We have partnered with Caregiver Chronicles to bring you a comprehensive 8-week course. This course covers diagnosis to transition. To learn more or to sign up go HERE

Friday Live Chats    Meeting ID is:  784 8232 5915     Password is:  Zd11VN

Some details about the course.

Payment options include: PayPal or Venmo @dryvette-jackson
Join Fading Memories On Social Media!
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers!  You'll find us on social media at the following links.

Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can see me in “action” and watch the bonus videos I share.

Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

 

 

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Caregiver Carols – a self-help book in song format

Caregiver Carols A Musical Emotional Memoir is a book with a unique twist. It focuses on dealing with the emotional aspects of caregiving. In this episode, my guest is Don Wendorf, who, like most of us, tackled caregiving, knowing he could continue his psychiatry practice, manage his care team, and do it all perfectly.

We know how that ends. One of Don's coping techniques is playing music. Don is not a huge fan of self-help books, so being a musician, he wrote his self-help book in a more lyrical fashion.

We're all aware of how songs help us remember things, so why not put caregiving tips into song format? He started by writing down thoughts as his caregiving got going, which led him to the emotions, behaviors, and all that he was feeling.

The book's idea is to help other caregivers with the emotional aspects that they are going through. Not surprisingly, while he was writing the book, he found the process cathartic. By sharing his writing with his wife, they grew closer and shared a deeper bond.

The other benefit of writing the book was seeing a pattern in his emotions and understanding the trial he was going through. Sharing these his journey with others helped them, and in turn, they could help him.

This episode is a delightful way to learn more about caregiving's emotional aspects and methods to cope with them. Stick around to the end, and you'll hear a special treat.

Don's Banjo Fund (book link)

Related Episode
Transcript
Help Support Fading Memories
We have partnered with Caregiver Chronicles to bring you a comprehensive 8-week course. This course covers diagnosis to transition. To learn more or to sign up go HERE

Friday Live Chats    Meeting ID is:  784 8232 5915     Password is:  Zd11VN

Some details about the course.

Payment options include: PayPal or Venmo @dryvette-jackson
Join Fading Memories On Social Media!
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers!  You'll find us on social media at the following links.

Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can see me in “action” and watch the bonus videos I share.

Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

As a new caregiver or one who has been caregiving for a while, you're going to hear how important it is to take care of yourself. Take care of yourself first. I'm sure, like most people, you think, “yeah, right! When am I supposed to do that?”

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We never know when it's our time for death. In just over four years, or 2025, the first of over 77 million baby boomers will turn 80. Our 8th decade is when frailty becomes common; memory loss affects 25% of us, and most will need help to get through the day.

Dementia and other diseases can affect personality, turning warm and friendly people argumentative, anxious, and self-centered. Dementia is not an individual tragedy. It is a family illness, rippling out in ever-widening circles that affect finances, cause physical burden, exhaustion, and anticipatory grief.

The pace of dementia moves so slowly that many linger in lockdown residences. Stolen from them is the option of natural death. Factors involved in this situation happen organically and without malice; Ill-conceived medical interventions, the need for care companies to break even, and families who are unwilling or unable to understand how to allow for a natural death.

There is a way to have our wishes known even if dementia makes it impossible for us to communicate them when needed. An Alzheimer's living will is a supplement to your advanced medical directive. It specifies how you want to be cared for if and when certain physical situations present themselves.

Get Your Alzheimer's Living Will
Related Episode
Caregiver Grief – A Practical Discussion
Transcript
Help Support Fading Memories
We have partnered with Caregiver Chronicles to bring you a comprehensive 8-week course. This course covers diagnosis to transition. To learn more or to sign up go HERE

 

Some details about the course.

Payment options include: PayPal or Venmo @dryvette-jackson
Join Fading Memories On Social Media!
If you've enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with other caregivers!  You'll find us on social media at the following links.

Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. There you can see me in “action” and watch the bonus videos I share.

Want to learn from Jennifer in person (or virtually)? Wherever you'd like a training session, Jen is available. Contact her at fadingmemoriespodcast@gmail.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download