Answers For Elders Radio Network

Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about setting up your estate plan and the people needed to complete various documents, such as powers of attorney, wills, living wills, revocable trusts, and irrevocable third-party trusts. This segment covers Powers of Attorney. Agent : Probably spouse (unless spouse cracks under pressure of making decisions for others) First successor agent :...

Kelley Smith from CarePartners Senior Living joins Suzanne to add insights and advice to the fifth and sixth of Teepa Snow 's six tips for making holidays successful for those who have Alzheimer's and dementia, providing advice and insight. Tip 5: Accept General Comments. Kelley says, "If mom and dad have some memory issues, help them. Teepa gives an example, if you're Jewish, of setting the menor...

Kelley Smith from CarePartners Senior Living joins Suzanne to add insights and advice to the third and fourth of Teepa Snow 's six tips for making holidays successful for those who have Alzheimer's and dementia, providing advice and insight. Tip 3: Be Ready to Hear the Same Story Multiple Times. Kelley says, "This is also a good way to connect with mom and dad. What if, while dad was telling your...

Kelley Smith from CarePartners Senior Living joins Suzanne to share Teepa Snow 's six tips for making holidays successful for those who have Alzheimer's and dementia, providing advice and insight. Tip 1: Smaller, Simpler, Shorter. Kelley says, "I've always said I'd rather break bread with friends than eat wagyu with strangers. It's not about the meal, it's about the company. The best times in my l...

Kelley Smith from CarePartners Senior Living joins Suzanne to share Teepa Snow 's six tips for making holidays successful for those who have Alzheimer's and dementia. As many of you are driving to family locations, maybe listening in the car, you may be wanting to know how to deal with a loved one who has dementia. You don't necessarily know what to expect, and there's a lot of questions about how...

What does a family do when faced with having to pay for a senior loved one to move into a senior care community? In this segment, Emily Schwarz with ElderLife Financial joins Suzanne to share some success stories and various examples of ways that ElderLife has helped families, courtesy of MorningStar Senior Living . Emily says, "we recently had a family down in Florida that was looking for a bridg...

There are many financial resources for families that they may not know about. And Emily, I'm very interested in you touched on it earlier, but I would say probably 80% of people that have aging parents have no idea about what's called Aid and Attendance benefits or VA benefits. Their loved one may qualify for a benefit from the military based on certain criteria. Emily Schwarz, VP of Sales for Eld...

What does a family do when faced with having to pay for a senior loved one to move into a senior care community? Emily Schwarz with ElderLife Financial joins Suzanne to talk more about solving this financial conundrum, courtesy of MorningStar Senior Living . Emily says, “The last two years, we've been seeing homes fly off the market, so it was very easy for someone to decide they're moving into se...

What does a family do when faced with having to pay for a senior loved one to move into a senior care community? Emily Schwarz with ElderLife Financial joins Suzanne to talk about solving this financial conundrum, courtesy of MorningStar Senior Living. "A family might have a home to sell, maybe they're eligible for VA benefits, maybe they have a long-term-care insurance policy. They have ways to p...

Joining Suzanne this hour is Lianna Marie , founder of AllAboutParkinsons.com , who has written a new book called "The Parkinson's Path." In this segment, Lianna talks about adjusting our personal expectations around the holidays, which she learned from 30 years living with her Mom through Parkinson's. Lianna says, "We create this massive set of expectations for holidays, then we're wondering why...

Joining Suzanne this hour is Lianna Marie , founder of AllAboutParkinsons.com , who has written a new book called "The Parkinson's Path." In this segment, Lianna provides some Parkinson's caregiver advice, talks more about what she could have done different, and what she learned from her 30 years living with her Mom through Parkinson's. Lianna says, “In my mom's case, she was in her 40s, so obviou...

Joining Suzanne this hour is Lianna Marie , founder of AllAboutParkinsons.com , who has written a new book called "The Parkinson's Path." Asked what it was like when she first heard her mom had been diagnosed, Lianna says, "I was in my mid teens at the time, and I had not noticed anything "wrong" with my mom, so when she told us she had Parkinson's disease, it was an absolute, complete shock. As a...

Lianna Marie is the founder of AllAboutParkinsons.com and has just written a new book, "The Parkinson's Path." Parkinson's may be a snowflake illness — unique for everyone — but the emotional journey that people go on when they're living with a chronic illness like Parkinson's has many commonalities. People share the same frustrations, sadness, and loss. Reflecting on her 30 years living with her...

Suzanne is joined by Rebecca Bomann , CEO and founder of SASH Services (Sell a Senior Home), to talk about how to best facilitate a home sale with a loved one who is there with Alzheimer's or dementia. Previous segments have talked about the journey leading up to mom or dad leaving, not trying to pack up the home while they're still living there, finding a good place for them to move, and having t...

Suzanne is joined by Rebecca Bomann , CEO and founder of SASH Services (Sell a Senior Home), to talk about how to best facilitate a home sale with a loved one who is there with Alzheimer's or dementia. Rebecca says,“Don't start packing up the house and putting things in boxes while mom or dad is still living there. Give them the comfort of the familiarity of their own home the way they've always l...

Suzanne is joined by Rebecca Bomann , CEO and founder of SASH Services , to provide encouragement, guidance, and tips for families selling the senior home of a loved one. First: get your legal paperwork in order. Rebecca says, “We can't emphasize it enough. People do not want to have these conversations, because it means that there's gonna come a time when you're very competent, bright, active, at...

Suzanne is joined by Rebecca Bomann , CEO and founder of SASH Services (Sell a Senior Home), to provide tips, guidance, and encouragement for families that may have a concern about the care of a senior loved one who has progressive dementia or Alzheimer's and can no longer take care of themselves anymore. Their home is usually their biggest asset to pay for round-the-clock care that mom or dad nee...

Suzanne is joined by Dr. Paul Winner , the Senior Director of the Premiere Research Institute and Attending Neurologist at Palm Beach Neurology in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Winner says, “We've been through research for a very long time. Most of our patients and research are actually the patients from our practice. We've been doing the best we can to try to help them. It has been hard. It has n...

Suzanne is joined by Dr. Paul Winner , the Senior Director of the Premiere Research Institute and Attending Neurologist at Palm Beach Neurology in West Palm Beach, Florida, to talk about advances in Alzheimer's research. Dr. Winner says, “There's definitely a lot of optimism for patients with Alzheimer's. We've started to understand this disease a little better. We understand a lot more about amyl...

Suzanne is joined by Dr. Paul Winner , the Senior Director of the Premiere Research Institute and Attending Neurologist at Palm Beach Neurology in West Palm Beach, Florida. When family members see that mom may be fine, but maybe Dad starts to have some memory issues. How do you start the process of having the conversation to get them tested? Dr. Winner says, “I think you want to let people know th...

Suzanne is joined by Dr. Paul Winner , the Senior Director of the Premiere Research Institute and Attending Neurologist at Palm Beach Neurology in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Winner addresses various lifestyle changes to help avoid developing dementia. He says, “There are risk actors. You want to avoid this as best you can. You don't want this to happen, even if you're predisposed genetically to...

Suzanne is joined by Dr. Paul Winner , the Senior Director of the Premiere Research Institute and Attending Neurologist at Palm Beach Neurology in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Winner emphasizes, “Memory loss is not normal in aging. That is very clear to us now as we study this. When we forget something in our 20s or 30s, we don't even think twice about it. When we get in our 50s, 60s, 70s and we...

Carol Rosenstein, the founder of Music Mends Minds, joins Suzanne to talk about Rotary programs and other ways you can get involved with the program. Carol explains their partnership with Rotary International: “If you're a Rotarian, please give me a call. We can talk about you creating a music group through your club as a community outreach program, and you will take that into an adult community s...

Carol Rosenstein, the founder of Music Mends Minds, joins Suzanne to talk more about how her program expanded during COVID. Carol explains, “COVID closed us down, and it was a nightmare. And a board certified music therapist hired to participate in our in-person groups said there's something called Zoom. Zoom? Let's Zoom. So seniors showed up on Zoom, and we started to connect with people from all...

Carol Rosenstein, the founder of Music Mends Minds, joins Suzanne to talk more about how music transforms those suffering from Parkinson's disease, dementia, or Alzheimer's. Carol wants to bring our attention to two important takeaways. First, there are cells in our brains that have to do with music memory storage. Those cells are generated when a fetus in utero is six months old. They're already...