I
t’s a popular misconception that people who have dementia will have to be cared for in a residential facility sooner or later. Certainly, many people assume that there is a point at which admission to an aged care home is the inevitable conclusion to their loved one’s life with dementia. In the absence of discouragement from the managers of… Continue reading →
Platinum’s carers
Not every client that Platinum cares for is a senior requiring assistance to stay at home. While a large number of Platinum’s clients are indeed elderly people, this is probably a reflection of the increasingly large ageing population. Today, in Australia, there are more than 3.5 million people aged 65 and over. That accounts for about 15% of Australia’s population,… Continue reading →
Dementia: a positive filter
While the search for a cure for dementia continues, there is little we can do for our loved ones, other than make sure they take their prescribed medications on time, and mourn the loss of the minds they once had.
Without a doubt it is sad to witness the deterioration of a mother or father who used to run their home like a tight ship. Immaculate, perhaps, with everything neatly in its place, and according to a decades-old system. A man who used to manage people, a woman who managed whole schools: dementia has been indiscriminate in the past, with who it might attack. Certainly it is upsetting to view the changes in a much loved person as a deterioration, but when the changes are inevitable, and there remains no cure, we might be better off celebrating some of the changes that occur through a more positive filter. Continue reading →
Sharing the care of elderly parents between siblings: the harsh reality
You didn’t get along with your siblings 
when you were ten, and while you’ve managed to let a lot of water flow under the bridge since then, the heightened tension that occurs when you have to make major decisions for your elderly parents is likely to reintroduce those fractious and childish behaviours that you’d thought you’d grown out of… Continue reading →
Reversal of memory loss in mice in studies with mefenamic acid
A treatment for Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of dementia among older people – that reverses memory loss is the ultimate goal for both researchers and people who are living with the disease. While many of us are beginning to live much longer lives, the extra years we gain are of little use, if our ability to enjoy them as fully independent seniors, is inhibited by memory loss.
The latest research, published this week in Nature Communications, by scientists from the UK’s University of Manchester, reveals an exciting secondary effect of Mefenamic Acid, an NSAID which has long been used to treat period pain by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins. Continue reading →
Compassion fatigue: what is it, and how to survive
Compassion fatigue: the eventual by-product of caring for someone. Everyone gets it – if they’re doing their job well. Nurses get it. Doctors get it. Even some new parents get it at that most intense of times when they are suddenly responsible for a new and entirely vulnerable little life. It’s nature’s way of making sure you survive what can be an emotionally, physically, and intellectually exhausting job. Nature is telling you to take a break, because if you don’t, you’ll lose your own fitness, and ultimately, neither you nor your charge will survive.
Palliative care and how complementary therapies can be safely used
With a possible sense of powerlessness about the approaching end to a loved one’s life, many caregivers wish to consider complementary therapies alongside palliative care methods, to guarantee t
he comfort of their loved one.
Clinically, end-of-life care focusses on pain and symptom management, and ensuring the comfort and dignity of the patient. However, at such a difficult time as this, good planning and effective working relationships between family and health professionals, will contribute to a positive experience for both the person and the family that will be left behind.
If care-giving family members wish to seek other strategies for managing pain and symptoms, it’s important that clinicians are aware of their implementation – particularly if complementary herbal remedies and supplements are being used alongside biomedical treatments: the chance that adverse reactions or interactions may occur must be ruled out.
Making time for your elderly parents
As much as we would all like to see our elderly parents regularly – particularly as they get older and more dependent, and more in need of care 
– sometimes it just isn’t that easy. Life can be hectic: full-time jobs, children, grand-children, maintaining a busy household of your own, and staying socially connected in your own right, are… Continue reading →