May 6-12 is National Nurses Week, a time that reminds us to celebrate the transformative power that nurses and members of nurse-led care teams have on the lives of so many vulnerable Americans. For the chronically ill, the very young and very old, the isolated, the depressed, the...

Home health aide Elaine Bigio came to work one recent morning in a large public housing building in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood. She knocked on Isabel Rodriguez's* door, prepared to fix breakfast and get her 80-year-old patient's day going.

There was no answer. Elaine was worried but knew she...

Manning the Frontlines of Care

Lilly Hill spent the days before Hurricane Sandy trying to persuade elderly residents in a windswept housing complex on Seagirt Avenue in Far Rockaway to evacuate. But, mindful of what they saw as fruitless and disruptive evacuations during the less-intense Hurricane Irene, many remained in...

"There are always options for moving." -- Gretchen Reynolds
New York Times Phys Ed columnist
Author of The First 20 Minutes

For Mrs. P., the second fall was one fall too many. Once an active octogenarian, she had fallen and broken her...

When Sandra Santos*, who is frail and elderly, fainted in her kitchen, her home health aide Angela knew just what to do, calling 911, initiating CPR, and remaining calm throughout. "She didn't leave my mother's side," marveled Mrs. Santos's daughter. "She handled the situation until help arrived and continued to...

A Troubling Study on Eldercare

Finding qualified, compassionate people to care for our aging parents, spouses and ourselves as we grow old is an undeniable challenge of our era. Americans are living longer, and those with chronic, debilitating conditions are increasingly likely to remain at home -- which...

Click here for "Home Health Aides: Dementia Care Means Expecting the Unexpected (Part One)"

One of the few constants with dementia is change. Levels of memory loss and general awareness can fluctuate greatly. Sometimes, a person will not remember names, faces, or how to get from the bedroom...

Estelle Kearon, who is in her 90s and suffers from Alzheimer's disease, was insisting that she had to hurry out of her New York City apartment to catch a No. 2 subway train -- something she had done decades ago. Unable to dissuade her from leaving or to coax her...

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A jazz singer walks into a senior center...

It was far from a joke when Zena Foster -- passionate jazz singer, compassionate home health aide -- gave a noontime show one recent Wednesday with her band at the

One recent morning, a clinical manager who helps train aides at the home care agency where I work, shared with me a lighthearted comment that she'd overheard from one of her newest trainees. "Who knew making a bed was so complex?" the aide had said. That got me...

Every day across the United States, health aides walk into the homes of people in need, often people who live alone and are unable to take care of themselves, whether they are recovering from illness or injury or require long-term assistance to remain at home.

By the year 2050,...

Christine Mitchell has worked since she was 17 years old. Last year, at age 68, she finally retired. But not for long. "I couldn't take being in the house," she says. "I'm always on the go, always working. I had to get out."

She jumped back into the workforce with...

'Like Associated with Like'

95-year-old Roz spent all her life in Westchester County in the company of Jewish people like herself. She was not strictly religious, but she grew up in a time and place when, as she said, "like associated with like." She still recalls one evening, some 70...

For many people, a diagnosis of diabetes seems to bring nothing but limitations and restrictions. But for 82-year-old Sandra, a diabetes diagnosis has translated into a great array of mealtime options. That's thanks to her home health aide, Betty.

Every morning, on her way to Sandra's Manhattan...

When Sylvie first came to the door, it seemed to take her a full minute to say "Hello." Jane, the home health aide who would care for her over the weekend, immediately knew why. Sylvie did not have hearing or cognition problems. She had multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic, often...

One recent morning, David Sanchez arrived at the Manhattan home of Professor Acton, just as he had done every morning for nearly seven years. David, who spends 12 hours a day six days a week caring for the 87-year-old retired professor, knew something was wrong the instant he stepped inside...