Dementia Tablet Computer Research, Free Alzheimer's App, Video 4:20

Do you like using tablet computers?  I know I do. What about people with dementia? Do nursing home residents with dementia experience similar enjoyment when they use them? Yes, they do, and many people with dementia are using them. In a study of nursing home residents with dementia using tablet computers, residents responded well to therapy after using them three times a week over a three-month period. In fact, they showed a high degree of acceptance. The two greatest benefits for them were easy handling and the variety of multifunctional applications (apps).

Suvien: Free Tablet Computer App from iTunes Connects Families

The following video features Suvien, a free tablet computer app that helps families, friends, and people with dementia make positive connections. It was initiated by a group of volunteers working with the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario. Families upload content (messages, events, pictures, video, music, questions, etc. to a secure website. The person with dementia is comforted and stimulated by familiar images and other content. Likely most effective for Alzheimer stages 3,4,5,6, the free app can be downloaded from iTunes. Below is a video demonstration of how it works:

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Centenarians: Longevity, Marriage, Surprises (Research, Video 2:20)

If you haven’t already done so, many of you reading this post may become centenarians living at least 100 years. Reaching this formerly rare milestone has become common nowadays, not only because of genetics, but also due to advances in healthcare with people living longer. But these are not the only factors that impact how long people live. Surprisingly, marriage and living arrangements play important roles.

Research based on the lives of 3,000 centenarians born between the years 1893 and 1903 were used to reconstruct their marital history and living arrangements during their later lives from ages 60-100.

    1)   From age 60 to 100, male centenarians lived twice as long with their wives as female centenarians did with their husbands.

    2)   Female centenarians lived alone for more than half of their lives.

    3)   Male centenarians had younger wives and female centenarians had older husbands than non-centenarians.

    4)   More than half of the widowers remarried and did so with a woman who was generally more than 10 years younger.

    5)   Most centenarians ended their lives in a nursing home but entered it very late in life.

What does this say about marriage and living arrangements of centenarians? Apparently, living with a spouse during old age is more beneficial in terms of longevity for men than for women. For women, living alone is more advantageous than living with a spouse. Results of this study seem to confirm that generally men are often not able to live well by themselves, whereas women seem to have fewer problems living on their own. This video highlights 10 surprising facts about centenarians:

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order: Should DNR Order of Terminally Ill Patient Attempting Suicide Be Denied? (Research)

Healthcare providers often find themselves immersed in making ethical decisions about their patients' lives. For example, emergency physicians encounter patients who have attempted suicide. These physicians may be faced with the dilemma of either honoring patients' DNR requests or intervening to reverse the effects of potentially fatal suicides. Because terminally ill individuals have a right to refuse life-sustaining treatment by signing a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order, should their DNR requests be withheld if they attempt suicide? What should doctors do? 

These are doctors' options regarding DNR and attempted suicide: 

1)  Should doctors presume that patients who attempt suicide lack the capacity to make that decision due to acute mental illness and not honor these patients' requests not to be resuscitated? This could reverse the effects of attempted suicides.

2)  Should doctors presume that competent patients have reasonable preferences to not be forced to live in unbearable, terminally ill conditions?

States that do not have legislation allowing physicians to assist in dying have physicians who struggle with these decisions on a case-by-case basis. Some physicians say that patients have a right to refuse life-sustaining treatment when there is limited life expectancy and no concern that the patients have psychiatric illness as the primary cause of suicidal actions. What do you say?

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Loneliness: Another Older Adult Stereotype (Research, Video 1:22)

People often don't realize that loneliness is another older adult stereotype in the same way that beliefs about their having no sex drive, being helpless, boring, unproductive, and in poor health are. This doesn’t mean loneliness isn’t real when it is experienced. In fact, too much loneliness can be destructive. But it’s still one of many ageism stereotypes that are assumed to be necessary parts of aging.

A common belief is that the majority of older adults are lonely and abandoned by families and friends, but this is not true. While family and friends may help influence whether or not they are lonely, older adults are very rarely abandoned by society. A University of California study on the growing trend of older people living alone determined that 1in 4-5 older adults lives alone mainly due to the loss of a spouse. There are 3 times as many women as men who live alone, and 2 out of 3 experience loneliness.

But what about the loneliness stereotype? The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) research project on loneliness studied the  association between expectations and stereotyping of loneliness in old age and actual self-reported loneliness status 8 years later. Researchers used data from 4,465 participants over age 50. Results showed that stereotypes and expectations related to loneliness in old age were significantly associated with reported loneliness 8 years later. They also concluded that interventions aimed at changing age-related stereotypes in the population may have more impact on reducing loneliness than individually based services. While there are conditions in our lives that we can’t control as we age, we can still be more positive in our expectations. Eliminating the self-fulfilling prophecy of loneliness and other older adult stereotypes can greatly impact how we age. We often get exactly what we expect. 

The following video has 10 quotes about being alone that have nothing to do with being lonely. They are all by famous people. Think about them. Be the person you want to know best. Solitude can be a good friend.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog