Quality conditions and service vary significantly among Senior Care Centers. (Here we refer to Assisted Care, Memory Care, Nursing Homes, Skilled Nursing facilities, etc.) Usually the satisfaction of the resident is directly associated with the quality and effectiveness of that care. And that is usually attached to the overall costs charged back to the resident.

Quality care, however, even in those top of the line centers cannot always be presumed. Most such centers, not all, are profit making. This, as in any enterprise, drives the cost to service ratio. In smaller communities, even mediocre care can be expensive. While some residents enjoy both subsidized care and/or long term care insurance, the costs usually are such that additional resources must be called upon.

Expense, obligations, family and other considerations aside, what would it be like to choose travel as a lifestyle? Obviously the foregoing considerations would eventually have to be weighed and planning done accordingly. But, for the moment and for the fun, let’s assume going for it. Let’s put ourselves into the category of those who have the resources and other matters in place allowing for such an opportunity.

Recently, a post on the ten best places to live drew the most traffic in one day ever. Let’s posit that those ten places are open for business and not only can you choose them, but any others you might wish to explore.

Here are some considerations deserving of review:

First, what are your choices for travel. Are you a nomad who prefers commerical travel, airlines, ship cruises, train, private

Our cousin has been in our home following surgery for a little less than a week. He is a person to whom other people gravitate. His warmth, genuineness, sense of humor all magnetically draw people out and soon they are friends, dear friends, with deep affections.

As a result numerous persons are requesting opportunity to visit him during his recovery hiatus at our home. He has cancer. The surgery was both complex and involved. His health is quite good otherwise and thus his recovery from the surgery is moving along nicely.

His friends are requesting time

We’ve said it before and we will say it again, the best fix for Social Security is easy.  It’s simple arithmetic.  Social Security is not contributing to the deficit.  In fact, the Social Security Trust Fund has loaned billions of dollars to the Federal Government, and has Treasury Notes to prove it.  Social Security is [...]

If you have a stereo or some other electronic musical instrument in your home, try remembering to put on some music while going about your routines every day. Choosing music which reduces stress is likely most desirable. Find ways to allow your mind and disposition to be affected by the pleasant strains of calming melodies. Chase out the tendency to get too overly inolved in your day, let the tunes of the masters penetrate your mood and mind. Listen. Even stop for a moment to catch the invading sounds and allow them to absorb you.

Maybe now, it will be holiday music or some particularly enjoyed pieces that you have long found speaking to you. Music has been shown to have a restorative effect on people. Identifying music that creates a sense of calm and peace (and that’s different for each of us) can reduce stress, introduce emotional respite and

Within the last year we addressed here an experience in senior citizen communal living. After a year of living with extended members of our family, it is time to revisit the pros and cons of such an arrangement.

Simply put, communal living is an arrangement by which persons choose to live together in a shared domicile. The dimensions, agreements, contract, understandings have all been agreed to. The partners in the agreement choose to live out a specific period of time together.

We knew we were embarking on a trail that had little if any directions or maps. We knew there was almost nothing available to tell us how to create a communal living arrangement. We were three sisters and husbands of two of the sisters. We knew we would have fun, challenge, convenience, and irritating moments. Communal living offers all

Living in a gated complex with our mail boxes located at the gate often means carrying along a bag to bring home the mail. The reason for that is the continuing unsolicited mail that comes daily. Even with the USPostal Service facing growing deficits, like everything and everybody else, they continue to give huge breaks to all kinds of advertising and unwanted pieces coming our way. They report that this is one of the ways that helps keep their bottom line a little further up from the bottom.

Sometime ago I decided it was up to me to take action against all the advertising pieces that ended up in my box. The reality hit hard when we were away on trips and we had to sort through all the junk that had been held for us.

It turned out to be a very simple process. Each

My primary care physician referred me to physical therapy recently, after I revealed my own concerns over issues of imbalance and fear of falling. She was spot on. The facility to which I was referrered turned out to be a first class, well coordinated, staffed and highly professional operation. The therapist assigned to me could not have been more competent, sensitive, helpful and well aware of my issues and needs.

Each session lasted an hour. There were days when I had wished for more. There were nights when I realized the achiness in my bones and muscles. Eventually, it was all worth it. Each session included a variety of exercises which assisted the increase in my strength, confidence and overall interest in committing to and experiencing improvement.

This is a subject we have visited before. One of my dear friends, having read my column on preparations for death sometime ago, questioned the wisdom of having addressed this subject so early in SCJ’s history. It did not “kill” us. We are still here some almost 1000 articles and thousands of visitors later. So, we have come back to this subject, which, by its definition, is not one many enjoy approaching. However, eventually, approach it we must. A number of authors have helped to make edging up to this subject somewhat more palatable. Some religious or spiritual traditions have begun bringing the matter out in the open for appraisal and deliberation.

Our pastor recently preached a series of sermons on “How to be a Good Dead Person.” An article, based on that series, has appeared here recently (10/18/10). You might want to look it up. So it is possible to wade into the

Some recommendations appeared this past week that we senor citizens need to study carefully.  The Co-Chairs of the Fiscal Commission on the deficit released their recomendations for dealing with the serious deficit issues facing the United States.  The report isn’t supposed to be delivered for another three weeks, but Co-Chairs Bowles and Simpson delivered the abbreviated list on [...]