As a culture, we have adopted a sort of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy about sexuality, which, of course, stifles dialogues about sexual health for almost everyone at any age. To complicate matters, we also place a high social premium on youthfulness. So naturally, conversations about sex and aging represent the paragon of taboo in this country.
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Living life day to day it is easy to forget that ideas can change the world sometimes much faster and more profoundly than we expect.
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This week I received a guestblog submission from a wonderful ChangingAging reader who is writing a book on graceful aging and submitted a post listing her Top 15 Books on
Continue ReadingAnother year, another ailment. And nobody ever tells you to expect them.
So there was Crabby Old Lady last Thursday afternoon sitting in the place she can most frequently be found – in front of the computer. She doesn’t recall what she was doing when, with no warning, there were a bunch of black strings and spots in front of one eye.
She blinked. She blinked some more. The strings and spots remained swirling here and there as Crabby glanced from side to side.
Continue ReadingWithout much fanfare, the Senate Special Committee on Aging released a report earlier this month on the subject of how the U.S. is progressing in caring for older adults diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The committee compared health-care infrastructure with that of Japan, Australia, France and the United Kingdom – countries chosen because they have demographics and economies similar to ours.
The report found that these countries were all ahead of us on the Alzheimer’s care front. But as Judith Graham points out in a sharply observed piece today on the New Old Age blog, the study also unearthed statistics that suggest that long-term care for America’s elderly in general is lagging behind the rest of the world’s standards.
Continue ReadingIn the little space between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Jude and I are putting together a fun new project. We are calling it First Fest and it is the first edition of what we hope will become an annual Ithaca tradition. The idea is to create an evening of music, art, theater, dance and […]
Continue ReadingTwo major studies about aging dominated the headlines this week presenting drastically opposing views on what old age has to offer — years of painful suffering or increased wellbeing and happiness?
Continue ReadingLast week, the first of three multi-day events took place in Nashville, TN, focusing on the reduction of anti-psychotic drugs (see Chris Perna’s recent post for the details). This collaboration between The Eden Alternative and the Tennessee Department of Health, Division of Health Care Facilities has the potential to make an important impact in Tennessee, […]
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