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As we age, there are many things that can impact our nutrition. Dementia or cognitive decline can result in struggling to recognize feelings of hunger, as well as make cooking less safe. Medications come with many side effects—nausea and lack of appetite are two of the most common. While our aging family members may need fewer calories as they become less active, eating enough (and well enough) is an important key to staying healthy. It can also be a great way for our aging loved ones to maintain some independence, even if they need assistance with some aspects of preparing food. Here are some tips on maintaining good nutrition for seniors.

Residents at Beaver Lake Lodge enjoyed a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus this Christmas! There were lots of laughs and plenty of sweets to go around. Look at all those smiles! From all of us at As Life Goes On, we are wishing you happy holidays and success in the New Year.

Juggling the medical needs of yourself, your immediate family members, and your senior loved one can be difficult. On top of this, you cannot always trust your senior loved one to take medications reliably, on time, or even as prescribed. Because of this, it’s sometimes in the best interest of everyone involved for you to partake in the administration of medications for your elderly loved one. Remembering to take your own medications as well as your senior’s can be difficult. We have some tips to help you stay on top of medication management for your elder.

Holidays with loved ones can be a joy, but memory loss can create a lot of stress for everyone involved. You might be worried about an aging family member; children might be confused as to why a grandparent doesn’t seem as engaged as they expect; an elderly guest or host may be confused by all the unfamiliar activities. With a little planning, you can make decisions that create a holiday season that is safe and happy for everyone. Check out these tips to make your holiday visit a success:

Our residents had a great weekend celebrating Halloween at Beaver Lake Lodge! We wanted to share with you pumpkins carved by one of our creative residents. We can’t get enough of it!

As our parents age and we begin thinking about things like assisted living, dementia, and other elements of aging, many of us are also raising children. Often children can cope with major life changes more easily than we expect—and in many cases, the reactions of adults in their lives can be the hardest thing for them to deal with. At the same time, changes to a beloved grandparent’s attitude, memory, and personality can be difficult for a child to comprehend. We’ve put together three tips for talking to your child about dementia and helping them adapt to the changes it may bring.

Caregiving is an important role in many of our lives, but it can be emotionally and physically exhausting. It can also take up every moment of “free time.” When we are caring for a loved one, the idea of taking time away from those duties can feel selfish.  The fact is, you probably can’t be as good of a caretaker if you never let yourself have a break. Check out these tips for helping to take care of yourself as well as your loved ones.

Earlier this year, we started a short series of posts about having difficult conversations with your aging loved ones. In the first post, we discussed how to prepare for potentially stressful conversations. In the second post, we moved on to the day of your difficult discussion, with ideas of how to start and end the conversation with minimal stress. However, when talking about stressful topics like health, aging, or finances, conflict is sometimes inevitable. In our final post in this series, we’ll offer some suggestions for how to respond to conflict when it arises. Resolving Conflict With the STATE Method The book Crucial Conversations outlines the STATE method, as a way of working through conflict outside of being “right” or “wrong”. Check out this article for a more in-depth examination of the book and the STATE Method. Share Your Facts, THEN Tell Your Story The STATE Method separates out the facts from your interpretation of them. When conflict arises, taking a moment to identifying the facts of the situation ensures that you can separate your emotions and opinions from specific events. After that, you can share your “story”: how you interpreted the facts and how they made or are making you feel. Ask Another To Share After you have explained the facts, emotions, and impacts that you experienced, ask your parent to share their own facts and story. If emotions are very high, you may both wish to start by writing these pieces down, and then you can swap, read,…

On June 22, some of the residents at Beaver Lake Lodge showed off their gardening skills. The team created beautiful planters full of bright summer flowers.  Enjoy these pictures of our residents sharing smiles while making their home a little brighter and more colorful!

Boutique senior living residences offer smaller numbers of guests and often more home-like environments. While it’s important to find the right match for your parent, this means that they can be a great place for your aging loved one, and especially those with memory loss. These five reasons to consider a boutique senior residence include quotes from Atul Guwande’s book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Happens in the End.