Community Blog

Fall Prevention at Home: A Room-by-Room Guide for Ann Arbor Families

A fall can change the rhythm of life at home very quickly. A family may be thinking about hospital discharge, a parent who has become afraid to walk, or a small change that makes getting around harder. The home is one place to begin. Clear walking paths, better lighting and a conversation with the care...

Respite Care in Washtenaw County: How Family Caregivers Get a Real Break

A family caregiver may be looking for something very simple: one night of sleep without listening for a parent who might need help. Another may need an afternoon for a medical appointment, or a few days to recover from their own illness. When care takes up most of the day and part of the night,...

Caregiver Burnout in Washtenaw County: The Signs You're Past Your Limit and Where to Find Real Help

The phone calls I take from family caregivers usually happen at odd hours: late in the evening after the parent has finally gone to sleep, early in the morning before the day starts, or in a quick call from the car after leaving the pharmacy. There’s a particular tone to those calls, and after a...

How to Talk to Your Aging Parent About In-Home Care (Without It Going Badly)

Many of the families I talk to don’t call me because they can’t afford care or because they haven’t been able to find an agency. They call me because they haven’t figured out how to have the conversation with their parent, and the not-having-the-conversation is slowly wearing them down. If that’s where you are —...

Does Medicare Pay for In-Home Care? What Michigan Families Should Know Before Open Enrollment

One of the first questions families ask me, often in the first five minutes of a phone call, is whether Medicare will pay for the care their parent needs at home. They ask it hopefully, because their parent has paid into Medicare for a whole working life, and it seems reasonable that it would cover...

When It's Time for Mom or Dad to Stop Driving: A Gentle Guide for Michigan Families

Of all the conversations families bring to me, this is one of the hardest to begin. A daughter calls about her father’s memory, or her mother’s balance, and near the end of the call, almost as an afterthought, she says, and I’m not sure she should still be driving. Then she goes quiet, because she...

After the Hospital: A Practical Guide for Ann Arbor Families Bringing Mom or Dad Home

The call I take most often goes something like this: “My mom was fine two weeks ago. She fell. She has been at Michigan Medicine for four days. They are telling us she is getting discharged tomorrow and she can’t be alone. We don’t know what to do.” If that’s where you are right now...

VA Aid and Attendance: How Michigan Veterans and Their Spouses Can Get Help Paying for Home Care

There’s a conversation I’ve had more times than I can count, and it goes almost exactly the same way every time. A family calls about home care for their father. We talk through what he needs and what it would cost. There’s a pause while they do the math in their head, and then someone...

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,...