I have vivid memories of the seniors picking on each other many years ago while I was an Admissions Director at a Continuing Care Retirement Community. If they weren’t fighting over the seats at Bingo that had been “saved,” they were sniping at each other in the line for flu…
Chicago Senior Living Advisors Blog
Long-term Care Was The Most Important Insurance My Mother Had…Listen To The Experts
When I placed my mother in a long-term care community at the age of 95, the cost of her care in assisted living was about $6,000 per month. That was over 3 years ago. Now the cost of assisted living can run between $6,000 to $9,000 per month depending upon…
A Gun May Not Be The Deadliest Weapon In Your Senior Loved One’s Home
A lively discussion about gun control with friends and siblings brought back a memory about an instance a case where an adult with dementia and other psychiatric issues endangered the life of his spouse of over more than 50 years. My client hired me because her husband had been hospitalized…
The next time a client says, ‘Religion isn’t important to my making a move,’ I won’t take it on faith!
My client is the lovely granddaughter of a woman who was 99 years old when we met. They are of the Jewish faith. The granddaughter had contacted me over concerns that her grandmother was running out of money while living at home and paying for 24-hour caregiver services. The services…
A Funeral Director Should Help Ease The Burden Of Losing A Loved One, Not The Opposite!
I lost my husband to cancer of the appendix in April of 2015. I had been a member of the local chamber of commerce in Riverside, Illinois, and chose a funeral director that I knew because he was president of the chamber. When I called him at 6 A.M. the…
Radio Interview WMRN 1410 AM Discusses Senior Housing, Non-medical Home Care and Trends For 2018
I recently had the wonderful opportunity to be interviewed on the Silver Solutions Radio show. It airs on WMRN 1410 AM in Elgin, Illinois. It is hosted by Jeanette Palmer, Jim Wojchiechowski, and Kathleen Wetters, who each independently own a Right At Home non-medical home care agency. During the interview,…
Before You Take Your Loved One to a Holiday Party, Let Relatives Who Are Unaware of a Person With Dementia (PWD) Diagnosis Be Made Aware of It
The holidays can be a profoundly stressful time for a Person With Dementia (PWD) and his/her family members. To avoid even more stress and any potentially awkward or embarrassing situations, family members who don’t know about the PWD’s diagnosis should be made aware of it. That way, you will avoid…
He Left It All To The Dogs!
The worst part of my business is that I sometimes have to say “Good-bye” to my favorite clients. In the past several weeks, I have had two favorite clients pass away, and one move out of state to be closer to her son. Today, I am going to share a…
Without Andrea Donovan Senior Living Advisors, It May Be Too Easy To Make the Same Mistake Twice
My clients were a very pleasant, alert, 90 year old woman and her son. The son had been gainfully employed by a major corporation and had been transferred to a state out west. He liked the new location very much and remained there once he was retired. His mother had…
The Costs of Aging: Medicare’s Inflation Rate
In this month’s newsletter, I share with you advice from my colleague Renee N. Duba, a certified financial planner with Sonder Private Wealth Management. Inc. In a recent article about the impact of inflation on purchasing power, authors at Sonder observed that, in 1916, nine cents could buy a quart…