It’s easy for anyone to overheat in the summer months. Older adults, especially, are more sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. It’s important to stay aware of how you’re feeling during hot weather, or you can quickly overheat and be at risk for a serious—and potentially dangerous—heat illness.

Why is Hot Weather Dangerous for Older Adults?

People age 65 and older typically do not adapt easily to changes in temperature, particularly the sudden and extreme bouts of heat that we’ve been seeing in recent years. Unlike younger people, older adults don’t have the physical resilience to adapt quickly, produce sweat and regulate their body temperature.

There are few reasons why this happens. including:

Do you feel like you are having to keep tabs on your aging parent? Are you second guessing if mom or dad should still be living on their own and may need more supervised care? There are several hidden warning signs that can be indicators an aging parent needs assisted living care.

• Forgetfulness 
• House is a Mess
• Changes in Mobility
• Poor Personal Hygiene 
• Not Engaging in Day-to-Day Activities

When observing your older adult parent in their living space, you’ll want to keep tabs on the following warning signs to assess whether or not they can continue to independently care for themselves and their home. You may want to keep a notebook, so you can see patterns of behavior and can share this information with your parent and their physician. This information will be helpful for decision making and for engaging with assisted living counselors when you start evaluating residential options for your parent.

When you are making notes about these changes in your aging parent, you’ll also want to observer how they respond to the changes themselves and how they respond to you when you try to discuss these things with them: 

We’ve covered a great variety of health topics on our blog—most of which focus on encouraging older adults toward an active lifestyle to support their social, physical, and emotional wellbeing. This month, in recognition of National Men’s Health Month, we want to focus on a topic important to men’s emotional and mental health: depression in men. To be clear, depression is not a part of the normal aging process. Depression in older adult men can be overlooked when other health conditions are present, such as dementia. This makes it all the more important to understand and be able to recognize depression in older adult men.

The experience of depression can be quite different for men compared to women. It’s important for loved ones to be able to understand a man’s unique experience of depression so they can best provide support for coping with this serious mental health condition. 

Who Suffers from Depression?

Of all the mood disorders, depression is the most common, afflicting over 21 million Americans from all ethnic groups, ages, and backgrounds each year. Annually, over six million men suffer from depression. In general, men (compared to women) have been less open about reporting symptoms of depression to a healthcare provider. In recent years, thanks to high profile stories of men speaking openly about their mental health and a movement to de-stigmatize conditions like depression, men have been more forthcoming about their struggles with depression.  

When Mom resides in an assisted living facility, Mother’s Day might look different than celebrations in years past. However, you can bring a unique Mother’s Day activity to her at her residence. Take a look at our list of festive ideas to inspire how you share this special day with your mom.

Planning a Special Mother’s Day in Assisted Living

Before you make plans, be sure to check with the staff regarding updated policies and procedures at the assisted living community. This is especially important if your mom happens to be taking medications or has had a recent change in their health status that could affect her mobility, energy level, or social skills.

If your original plan requires accommodations, ask the staff to assist you in accordance with your mom’s needs and the facility policies.

Spring is blooming all around us and as soon as the chill leaves the air, you’ll be wanting to step outdoors to recreate. Older adults can keep the spring in their step and prevent falls by maintaining a simple routine of balance and strength building exercises.

If you’ve felt unsteady around your home during the winter months, or if you (or a beloved older family member) have a history of falling or being unsteady, it’s important to step into physical activity with extra caution. Though it is tempting to venture out on a long walk on the first warm day of the spring season, not being physically ready for the increase in physical activity can lead to a potentially devastating fall or other injury. Older adults want to pay attention developing and maintaining balance, coordination, and strength in the legs as well as their core muscles around the midsection. 

“Having good balance can help older adults avoid both the frequency and the severity of their falls, reducing the the likelihood they will suffer a serious injury that will lead to a significant and permanent change in their quality of life. That is why exercise is so important on a daily basis!”

Is forgetfulness, faulty memory, or even dementia hardwired into the brain’s destiny as we age? 

Some scientists think that terrifying idea may hold some truth; but hope lies with scientists who are studying just the opposite question: 

What can we do to protect brain health, particularly as we get past age 40 and progress into the older adult years? 

Older adults can celebrate Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month by treating their senior sweetie to a heart-healthy treat: Dark chocolate. 

More than just an indulgence, nutrients found in dark chocolate can support cardiovascular health, which is important for aging adults. But not just any ole’ dark chocolate; you want to indulge in dark chocolate with a high cacao content. What’s so special about cacao? Glad you asked! 

Cacao: Raw Chocolate, Food of the Gods!

There are many simple ways for an older adult to make, and keep, a New Year’s resolution. Whether you want to exercise more regularly, drink less soda, or learn how to draw, the following tips can help you be successful with your resolution for 2024.

Resolution Making: Getting Started

First, kudos to you for recognizing it’s never too late to make a change, try something new, or otherwise enhance an area of your life.

Perhaps the most important thing to know is that change is a process. The more ready you make yourself for it, the easier it can be to follow through to successfully keeping your New Year’s resolution.

Finding the time for holiday shopping, selecting the right gift for each person at the best price – it's enough to stress out even the jolliest of shoppers. When you have a loved one in assisted living, it can be difficult to know what to gift that person. To help you avoid defaulting to baked goods and gift cards, try the suggestions on our list: “Mindful Gift Giving for Loved Ones in Assisted Living”.

What is Mindful Gift Giving?

A mindful approach to gift giving can ease your shopping stress, help you find greater joy in the giving process, and provide your loved one in assisted care with a more meaningful holiday experience.

To give mindfully, you must give some thought to what you know about your loved one in assisted care and pay attention to what is important to them or needed by them. Mindful gift-giving also requires that you slow down and give thought to why you are giving the gift. You can discern this by engaging in the following simple, pre-shopping exercises:

Caregiving for a family member who has a chronic health condition is taxing for even the most resilient individuals. If you are a family caregiver, it is essential for you to take steps to support and maintain your own wellbeing.

With the aging of the U.S. population, more people find themselves in the role of caregiver for an older adult who has a chronic health condition such as dementia, physical disability, cancer, and other serious illnesses. Consistently, those in a caregiving role report high levels of stress. This stress is compounded for those individuals who have careers and families of their own. 

Whether the caregiving role is one you’ve prepared for and willingly taken on or is something that comes as a surprise addition in an already busy life, the stress of caregiving is very real. Fortunately, there are things you can do to prevent caregiver burnout and support your own wellbeing, including

When it comes to Halloween, you’re never too old to pretend to be something or somebody else! Older adults, and their caregivers, can enjoy a safe, fun, and memorable Halloween through a variety of activities.  

The Halloween activities we’ve chosen for older adults are not only fun, they provide several benefits including:

• enhancing creativity
• encouraging positive social interaction
• improving cognition, memory & learning
• inspiring playfulness & humor
• supporting positive emotional states
• improving problem-solving skills
• strengthening hand dexterity

Taken together, these benefits support an older adult’s social-emotional and physical well-being, can provide moments of meaningfulness, and foster a sense of belonging. 

Ahh…Autumn in New England. It’s the perfect time of year to fall into the pages of a good story. 

What’s your reading pleasure? Is it a heart-pounding thriller or a poignant romance? A perilous adventure story or a hilarious whodunnit? Maybe you’re one for historical fiction or true crime? 

No matter the genre, stories are a powerful vehicle for transporting you out of real time and into imaginative places and encounters. But there’s more power in reading than just spurring the imagination: Older adults who are avid book readers are doing a lot to support their health—and they may live longer lives as a result!