Aging

Corralling Hard-To-Reach Voters With Traveling Voting Machines

In advance of the Super Tuesday primary, California’s Los Angeles County is rotating new touch-screen voting machines among 41 locations, including adult day care centers and jails, to increase voting among populations with historically low turnout.

Nursing Home Outbreak Spotlights Coronavirus Risk In Elder Care Facilities

The spread of coronavirus disease to a skilled nursing facility in Washington state underscores the risk the deadly new virus poses in elder care facilities, where illnesses caused by more common pathogens, like seasonal influenza, often spread rapidly.

U.S. Medical Panel Thinks Twice About Pushing Cognitive Screening For Dementia

Because seniors are at higher risk of cognitive impairment, proponents say screening asymptomatic older adults is an important strategy to identify people who may be developing dementia and to improve their care. But the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force cited insufficient evidence the tests are helpful.

Stalked By The Fear That Dementia Is Stalking You

For those worried they have an elevated risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, testing is an option. But words to the wise: It’s hardly foolproof and could even backfire by heightening your fear of memory loss.

Finding Connections And Comfort At The Local Cafe

For Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers, social and emotional isolation is a threat. But hundreds of “Memory Cafes” around the country offer them a chance to be with others who understand, and to receive social and cognitive stimulation in the process.

What To Do If Your Home Health Care Agency Ditches You

If you’re told Medicare’s home health benefits have changed, don’t believe it: Coverage rules haven’t been altered and people are still entitled to the same types of services. All that has changed is how Medicare pays agencies.

Why Home Health Care Is Suddenly Harder To Come By For Medicare Patients

Medicare has changed how it pays for services. In response, agencies across the country are firing therapists, limiting physical, occupational and speech therapy, and terminating services for some longtime, severely ill patients.

Terminally Ill, He Wanted Aid-In-Dying. His Catholic Hospital Said No.

Neil Mahoney had terminal cancer. He also had a legal right to aid-in-dying. But his faith-based hospital called it “morally unacceptable.” So he turned to a network of Colorado doctors to fulfill his last wish.

Patients Want A ‘Good Death’ At Home, But Hospice Care Can Badly Strain Families

Fewer Americans are dying in a hospital, under the close supervision of doctors and nurses. That trend has been boosted by an expanded Medicare benefit that helps people live out their final days at home in hospice care. But as home hospice grows, so has the burden on families left to provide much of the care.

Diagnosed With Dementia, She Documented Her Wishes. They Said No.

Across the U.S., people with early dementia are signing new advance directives to confirm their end-of-life wishes while they still have the ability to do so. But doctors say the documents may offer a false sense of security.