Community Blog

Dementia Care at Home in Ann Arbor: What to Expect, How to Prepare, and When to Ask for Help

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion I see in families caring for a parent with dementia, and it doesn’t look like ordinary tiredness. It looks like something quieter and more layered. It’s the exhaustion of loving someone who is slowly becoming less recognizable, while also holding the grocery list, the medication schedule, the doctor appointments,...

How to Choose a Home Care Agency in Ann Arbor: 12 Questions Every Family Should Ask (and the Answers You Want)

After a decade of walking families through this decision, first as a hospice chaplain, then as a home care agency owner, I’ve come to believe that the families who choose well are the ones who ask better questions. Most families comparing agencies ask about price and availability, which is understandable but not enough. The right...

Hospice at Home: What I Wish Every Family Knew (From a Former Hospice Chaplain)

Before I owned a home care agency, I was a hospice chaplain. Before that, I was a hospital chaplain through the first year of the pandemic. And before either of those, I spent more than a decade in church ministry. I say that not as a credential but as context for what follows, because the...

The Holiday Visit: What to Watch For When You Go Home This Year

Every January, my phone starts ringing more than it does the rest of the year. The calls all sound roughly the same. Someone flew home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, spent three or four days in the house they grew up in, and came away with a feeling they can’t quite shake. Mom seemed off. I...

How Much Does In-Home Care Cost in Ann Arbor? (And How Real Michigan Families Actually Pay for It)

The first time most families ask me about cost, they ask it in a half-apologetic voice, like the question itself is rude. It isn’t. It is the most reasonable question in the world, and you deserve a real answer, not a brochure, not a “well, it depends,” and not a sales pitch. So let me...

Michigan Winter Safety for Seniors: What Ann Arbor Families Should Prepare For

Anyone who has lived through a Michigan winter knows that the season asks something of you. The ice comes early and stays late. The sun sets before dinner. The stretch between January and March can feel considerably longer than eight weeks. For an older adult living alone, that season asks quite a bit more. Every...

Home Care vs. Home Health vs. Hospice: What Michigan Families Need to Know

The single biggest misunderstanding I see when families call me is the assumption that Medicare covers in-home care. Sadly, it doesn’t. Not the way most people think it does. That one misunderstanding has put thousands of Michigan families into a position where they are scrambling at the last minute, stressed out, trying to figure out...

When Is It Time for In-Home Care for Your Aging Parent?::::8 Signs Ann Arbor Families Often Miss

When I was a hospice chaplain, I sat with a lot of families who, at the end, said almost the same thing to me: we didn’t notice it was getting that bad. That isn’t a failure of love. It’s just how aging at home tends to work, and it usually doesn’t show up as one...

November Drive Through

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