Older people need various degrees of assistance with financial matters. Some need minimal help; for example, help with reading the fine print on bills and financial forms or preparing checks for signature. Others, who are homebound but able to direct their personal finances, may need someone to carry out their...
This publication isdesigned to help you:
❏ Understand depression and factors related to its onset in later life
❏ Recognize signs of depression and potential suicide
❏ Learn about treatments for depression
❏ Know what you can do if you suspect an older family member or friend is depressed or...
Family members who play a major role in caring for elderly relatives frequently ignore their own needs. Some find themselves virtually homebound and consumed by caregiving tasks. When caregiving is prolonged over months and years, the self-sacrifice is particularly harmful. We have prepared this publication to help you maintain your...
Adults often find an aging parent needs support at a time when their own lives and responsibilities are the most complicated. You may feel pulled in several directions—raising your children, being supportive to a spouse, helping parents, and/or working outside the home—all at the
same time. It’s not unusual to...
Although there are no easy answers to the nursing home decision, this publication gives some guidelines for making decisions, assessing family and community resources, selecting a quality care facility, and dealing with your feelings and those of your older relative. It also looks at ways to maintain positive contact with...
Despite the challenges, in-home help may be the best option even for a short time. However, deciding what help you need and selecting a worker is a sizable task that requires careful thought, planning, and research. This publication is a guide through
the maze of finding, screening, and hiring an...
This publication is designed to give family and professional caregivers a fuller understanding of dementia in later life and ways to cope more effectively with the changes resulting from it.
In addition to general care guidelines, the publication outlines approaches for handling specific problems —driving, wandering, money management, hiding items,...
It can be difficult to talk to an older family member or friend about their driving safety or to know what to do if an unsafe driver continues to drive. If you’re older, at some point you yourself may face a decision to limit when or where you drive or...
Published January 1973. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Revised October 1993. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
The action of a medicine may be less predictable in an older person and its intended action may be altered. Sometimes the effect is insignificant; other times it can be dramatic.
The later years of life often have been distorted by
myths. You may have heard some of these myths
stated as “truths.” In part, this may be because we
tend to focus on the problems and negative aspects
of aging. Most myths have some basis in fact, but
generally they...
Published April 1993. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Designed to help you understand loss and grief and respond to the grief of others; emphasizes losses experienced in later life, however most information is equally applicable to grief throughout adulthood. Covers the fundamental steps involved in the grieving process—accepting loss, experiencing grief, adjusting to change, and reinvesting emotional energy...
Life is filled with changes. Sometimes those changes involve loss. When we lose someone or something important to us, we grieve. Although the death of a loved one is generally the most intensely and deeply felt loss, many life changes can involve loss and cause us to grieve.
Medicines today are powerful chemicals that are more effective than ever before. Used carefully they can work wonders. However, both prescription and over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicines can create problems, especially if misused or abused. You probably try to find out about movies and restaurants before going to them, how to use...
Explains normal bladder habits and the urinary system. Discusses how bladder habits and control are affected by various physical changes associated with aging, drugs, illnesses, and mental changes. Covers types of incontinence, including urge, stress, overflow, functional, iatrogenic, total, and mixed incontinence. Provides a list of warning signs of an...