Dec 17, 2013 | Caregivers, Legal Issues/Financial Abuse
One of the most common complaints I encounter doing eldercare house calls is this: “My—father/mother/aunt/uncle/grandmother—will not cooperate with care. We’re just trying to help, and our loved one fights us every step of the way!” There are so many reasons that the...
Nov 22, 2013 | ElderConsult Core Principles
This is the first question I ask of the patients I see as a geriatrician doing house calls in the San Francisco Bay Area. So often, I consult with the children of patients who are incredibly worried about their parents. They want their parents to be safe. They don’t...
Oct 21, 2013 | Caregivers, Health
“Normal pressure hydrocephalus” (NPH) sounds complicated, but it’s simply an abnormal build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain’s ventricles or cavities. It occurs if the normal flow of spinal fluid through the spine and the brain is blocked in some way. This can...
Sep 24, 2013 | Caregivers, Health
Recently, as I was doing house calls in the San Francisco Bay Area, I visited a patient whose dentures were caked with plaque. Those dentures spoke volumes. Often, a patient with dementia will not let caregivers near their mouth. After a hospitalization of several...
Sep 16, 2013 | ElderConsult Core Principles
I was recently corresponding with David Tate, a San Francisco Attorney who specializes in estates, trusts and elder/disability litigation. He told me that he’s seeing more cases of conservators having to justify the need for dementia care, and also the kind of...
