When the Health Storm Comes: Why Every Family Needs a Plan
Preparation Does Not Prevent the Storm
This is not about convincing ourselves that if we organize enough paperwork, nothing bad will happen.
Life does not work that way.
A plan would not have prevented my cancer. It would not have prevented my grandson’s heart condition,
my friend’s husband’s fall, or my husband’s heart attack.
Preparation does something different: it gives us a place to begin when everything suddenly feels out of
control.
In a medical emergency, families are often trying to answer important questions while frightened,
exhausted, and overwhelmed. What medications does Dad take? What dose? Does Mom have an
allergy? Who is her cardiologist? Does she have a healthcare proxy? What insurance does she have?
What was she able to do independently before this happened? What would she want if she could not
speak for herself?
Those are much easier questions to answer before the emergency department is asking them.
Low Vision at Home: Simple Changes for Safety & Independence
Most of us don't think much about how vision affects our ability to move through our homes.
We reach for the coffee mug, find the light switch, read the settings on the microwave, step from one flooring surface to another, sort medications, prepare a meal, and walk down the stairs without giving much thought to how much visual information our brains are processing.
When vision begins to change, however, an environment that has been familiar for years can suddenly become more difficult—and sometimes less safe—to navigate.
The good news is that losing vision does not automatically mean losing independence.
As an occupational therapist, one of the things I love about aging-in-place work is discovering how relatively small changes to the environment can make everyday activities easier and safer.
Palliative Care vs. Hospice: Understanding the Difference
When someone you love is living with a serious illness, words like palliative care and hospice can feel frightening.
Sometimes families hear either term and immediately think, “They’re giving up.”
But that isn’t what these types of care are about.
Both palliative care and hospice care focus on comfort, symptom management, quality of life, communication, and support for patients and families. The important difference is when these services are appropriate and what other treatment may continue at the same time.
Understanding that difference before your family is facing a crisis can make difficult decisions a little less overwhelming.
The Power of Positive Affirmations: Why the Words We Speak to Ourselves Matter
Self-affirmation has been studied for years, particularly in relation to stress, health behaviors, academic performance and how people respond when information feels threatening to their sense of self.
More recent research has continued to find modest benefits for several measures of well-being.
But here's something I find especially important: an affirmation needs to have meaning to the person saying it.
Researchers have found that extremely positive statements can sometimes make people feel worse when those statements are so far removed from what they currently believe about themselves that their mind immediately argues back.
That makes sense to me.
If someone is struggling deeply with their self-worth, standing in front of a mirror and saying, “I am the most amazing person in the world!” may not feel empowering at all.