What Is Conscious Eldering?

It's wonderful to see organizations like this one showing up more and more. There seems to be a new set of values and insights emerging regarding aging and elderly wisdom. This group, called 'The Center for Conscious Eldering', supports a healthy perspective on aging as a paradigm which recognizes and builds on the importance of lifestyle choices and the potential for new careers in the senior years, but moves beyond these.

Conscious Eldering holds that, built into the human psyche, is a call to the archetypal role of elder, that true “elders” are urgently needed in today’s (and tomorrow’s) world, and that “elder” is a role that is consciously chosen and requires preparation at all levels—physical, psychological and most importantly, spiritual.

The following are the core beliefs of The Center for Conscious Eldering

• Age brings both diminished ‘and’ peak experiences.
• Senior years are a unique stage of life that bring opportunity for deep fulfillment.
• Elder-hood can be a time of passionate engagement and service in our communities. Elderhood is the result of choices that are consciously made. 

If this organization is near you, contact them! If not, why not start one of your own? After all, we are what we eat, both in body AND in mind. Change your mind, change your sense of well-being. Elder-hood is an honor. Lets encourage our aging loved ones to start thinking and acting that way. And watch how their wellness, or at least their sense of well being, changes for the better.

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Theresa Tucciarelli
Elder Specialist

aMoveMadeSimple.com

(831) 539-1000

 

Limited Information Available for Families Looking for Residential Elderly Care

It’s important to be educated on issues that can arise when seeking living centers for your loved ones. Most of us end up learning the hard way. So some of my posts, like this one, address things to watch out for so you can ask good questions when looking for care solutions for your family elders.

Some states have scant information available for families looking for residential elderly care. Be sure you probe deep enough to find out whether the care home residence you want to place your mom and dad into is solid by checking in with state agencies. Problem is, you may have to do more than a little digging because, as in the California case talked about in this article, the state's website on residential care homes provides very limited and even outdated information. More so, people are turning to privately run websites but are not necessarily getting useful information there either.

Moral to the story: Don’t assume what you find on the web, or in your first round of research, that what you see is up to date. Dig a little further. After all, what we are doing is making sure our family members are well taken care of.

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Theresa Tucciarelli
Elder Specialist

aMoveMadeSimple.com

(831) 539-1000

Facilitating Independent Living with Home Health Care

When faced with the choice between living in an elderly care facility or aging as independently as possible at home, home health care is almost always the more desirable choice. Still, it’s not always easy to build a feasible support system for aging seniors who wish to retain as much independence and dignity as possible by continuing to live in their own homes.

There are ways to assess your situation. This articles takes a look at tangible issues that can help you make the right choice for your aging family member, including

• Realistic Evaluation of Need
• Benefits of Home Health Care
• Creating a Feasible Alternative to Facility Living

Family care can be a far less expensive alternative in some situations, but isn’t always feasible. Here’s some good advice toward helping you make the right decision.

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Theresa Tucciarelli
Elder Specialist

aMoveMadeSimple.com

(831) 539-1000

Any of You Just Realize You’re Now a Senior Citizen?

Often we don’t prepare for those big changes that come with getting older. So many things change. Not just our bodies don’t work as well, but society repositions itself around our age.

So I grabbed these 'senior citizen' links off the website. I guess I'm suggesting that it’s worth giving a little thought into making our later years happy and healthy. Starting with knowing of resources that are available to us as we enter our years of elder-hood.

• If you’re in my area, here’s a link to senior citizen resources within the Santa Cruz, CA area. (click here) 
• And here are resources at the .gov federal level. (click here) 

It’s a couple places to start anyway. Let me know if you find any golden nuggets and I’ll try to post them for all to see.

Theresa Tucciarelli
Elder Specialist

aMoveMadeSimple.com

(831) 539-1000

A List of Senior Living Communities in the Santa Cruz, CA Area

I live in Santa Cruz, CA, which offers more than 30 senior housing options. For those of you in my area, you might want to try these Senior Living Advisors who offer personalized assistance, financial resources and advice. Looks like they’ve been around for awhile, helping 2,313 families in the Santa Cruz area to find senior care and living community options to match unique needs and budgets.
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I also found this Senior Housing Network, which has listings in our area for senior living. It could give you a head start in finding mom and dad that just right place for their senior years.
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And for those who just need some extra help with elders in the home, Santa Cruz Senior Home Care might have the right person to give you some support.
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Theresa Tucciarelli
Elder Specialist

aMoveMadeSimple.com

(831) 539-1000

The Trials and Tribulations of Caring for Elderly Parents

I found this set of short stories at ‘The Huffington Post’ that I moved me. The stories address the blend of emotional and mental exchanges that arise regarding being cared for and ‘doing’ the care taking. I find that the closer we can read real stories, the more we can prepare ourselves for both the hell and the heaven of dealing with aging. Becoming at peace with the trials it delivers.

• Moving My Kicking-And-Screaming Elderly Parents 1,600 Miles To Be WIth Me
• What It's Like To Watch My Mother As Alzheimer's Creeps In
• A Pain Unlike Any I've Ever Experienced
• Why The Best Years Of My Life Were The Last Of My Parents' Lives
• Are You Caught In The Middle?
• Recognizing When Your Elderly Parent Has Dementia
• The Parent Left Behind
• Long Distance Caretaking: Assisting Elderly Parents From Afar
• As Our Parents Age, We Boomers Must Work Together

I think these articles help us to recognize that, in a way, we’re all grieving together as we encounter the final years with a parent. So we might as well lock arms and do it together. Because it’s the only way we'll make it through.

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Theresa Tucciarelli
Elder Specialist

aMoveMadeSimple.com

(831) 539-1000

The Dilemma of Taking Care of Elderly Parents

It has become the baby boom generation’s latest life crisis: What to do when our parents, can no longer take care of themselves? But even more so, what if you’re one of the 60-year-olds reading this who has one or more living 80-year-old parents? You may want to scan this article, as it might help you come to terms with the reality that our new longevity being both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because we live longer, healthier lives. A curse because sometimes our own aging may be happening right along with our even older parents.

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Theresa Tucciarelli
Elder Specialist

aMoveMadeSimple.com

(831) 539-1000