People who enjoy pets such as cats and dogs know the special bond and warm feelings of interacting with them. So it’s no wonder that pet therapy is popular, including among older adults. Pet therapy, also known as animal-assisted therapy (AAT), involves the use of trained animals to help improve the physical and emotional well-being Read More
How’d you sleep last night? It’s an innocent question, but, unfortunately, it’s also a sore subject for some older adults. While the lack of quality sleep plagues people of all ages, natural changes in our bodies and other factors affect sleep as we age. The month of March, with the change from standard time to Read More
Helping seniors downsize can be stressful and time-consuming, especially if they’re a person with hoarding disorder. Downsizing or moving a person with hoarding disorder involves a certain degree of knowledge, understanding, and patience. Here’s everything you need to understand hoarding and how to successfully help an older adult who hoards downsize. What Is hoarding? Hoarding Read More
Let’s say you’re the primary contact or caregiver for a family member, perhaps a parent or a sibling who is living with a physical or cognitive disability. You are seeing signs that your loved one is having difficulty managing themselves or their affairs. What do you do? Many people think first of obtaining a power Read More
An important part of our overall resilience in life—our ability to cope with and survive great challenges—is our cognitive reserve. “Cognitive reserve is the idea of building up additional abilities to compensate for the possibility of declining memory or thinking,” explains Esther Heerema, MSW, who works with people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. “Think Read More
Thriving and enjoying both physical and mental health: these are our goals for all our clients. Mental health challenges can interfere with overall wellness, so it’s important to address them head-on at any age. Fortunately, if you’re on Medicare, CMS (the agency that runs the program) is attuned to the importance of both physical and mental Read More
Illness, physical limitations, mental health issues – aging services professionals work with clients who are living with a range of challenges. Sadly, for some clients, those conditions are made worse – and in some cases, caused – by race-related stress: “Race-related stress occurs when an individual experiences or witnesses racist incidents that evoke social and Read More
The months of November and December can be stressful, what with holiday prep, shopping, and gatherings. But January can also be a stressful month. Many people experience a post-holiday “let down” once everything has quieted down and the long, dark days of January stretch ahead. There may be loneliness, and of course frustration with the Read More
May is Mental Health Month, a reminder that mental health is essential to everyone’s overall health and well-being, and that mental illnesses are common and treatable. At Windward, we’re happy to be able to offer our aging clients – especially those living with dementia – the expertise of Dr. Raisa Yagudayeva, a geropsychiatrist. It can Read More
Nearly 1 million people in the United States are living with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This disease damages the central nervous system and causes a range of symptoms throughout the body, including muscle weakness, chronic pain, impaired vision, and problems with thinking and memory. Unfortunately, there is not yet Read More