Aging

Angela Reynolds knew her mother’s memory was slipping, but she didn’t realize how bad things had gotten until she started to untangle her mom’s finances: unpaid bills, unusual cash withdrawals, and the discovery that, oddly, the mortgage on the family home had been refinanced at a higher interest rate. Looking back, Reynolds realizes her mother […]

BOULDER, Colo. — Ilyse Streim views massage for people in hospice care as “whispering to the body through touch.” “It’s much lighter work. It’s nurturing. It’s slow,” said Streim, a licensed massage therapist. Massage therapy for someone near the end of life looks and feels different from a spa treatment. Some people stay clothed or […]

You’ve reached a standstill with your mother and father, who are in their late 80s. You think they need some help in the home, but they vigorously refuse. You’re frustrated because you want to make their lives easier. They’re angry because they think you’re interfering in their affairs. Can negotiation and dispute resolution techniques used […]

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. On Alcohol Abuse: Seeing a Double Standard I have done quite a bit of research on alcohol-related deaths and I track reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, […]

For Aida Beltré, working remotely during the pandemic came as a relief. She was taking care of her father, now 86, who has been in and out of hospitals and rehabs after a worsening series of strokes in recent years. Working from home for a rental property company, she could handle it. In fact, like […]

It was a regrettable mistake. But Kim Sylvester thought she was doing the right thing at the time. Her 80-year-old mother, Harriet Burkel, had fallen at her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, fractured her pelvis, and gone to a rehabilitation center to recover. It was only days after the death of Burkel’s 82-year-old husband, who’d […]

Fue un error lamentable. Pero, en ese momento, Kim Sylvester pensó que estaba haciendo lo correcto. Su madre, Harriet Burkel, de 80 años, se había caído en su casa en Raleigh, Carolina del Norte. Se fracturó la pelvis y fue a un centro de rehabilitación para recuperarse. Ocurrió pocos días después de la muerte del […]

Medicare coverage for at-home covid-19 tests ended last week, but the scams spawned by the temporary pandemic benefit could have lingering consequences for seniors. Medicare advocates around the country who track fraud noticed an eleventh-hour rise in complaints from beneficiaries who received tests — sometimes by the dozen — that they never requested. It’s a […]

La cobertura de Medicare para las pruebas caseras de covid-19 finalizó hace pocos días, pero las estafas generadas por este beneficio temporal podrían tener consecuencias persistentes para las personas mayores. Los defensores de Medicare que realizan un seguimiento del fraude han observado un aumento de quejas entre los beneficiarios que recibieron pruebas que nunca solicitaron. […]

Friends sitting around a table, talking and laughing. A touch on the arm, as one of them leans over to make a confiding comment. A round of hugs before walking out the door. For years, Carole Leskin, 78, enjoyed this close camaraderie with five women in Moorestown, New Jersey, a group that took classes together, […]