Moving into assisted living or a memory care community can be hard on both the person and their family. The good news is there is much family members can do to ease the transition. Here are eight tips that will bring more ease into the initial assisted living experience.

If you're worrying about your mom falling and needing help, one of the most frequently used products over the years for seniors living alone is a medical alert device -- also known as a personal emergency response system, or PERS.

Caregivers are an invaluable volunteer army drafted into service to help loved ones remain at home rather than in facilities and institutions.

This is going to sound really odd coming from someone with a book about aging at home, but sometimes, aging at home is not the answer.

Our grandparents had arthritis; we'll have arthritis. The difference is we'll live with it longer. The difference is we've had fewer kids. The difference is we may have higher expectations. The difference is that there are vastly many more of us.

The last surviving member of the Stanford class of 1933, Dr. Ephraim Engleman, is turning 102 in a few weeks. He serves as a shining example of healthy longevity -- he continues to work part-time and has no intention of retiring.

When my dad sees me, he gives me a big smile through chocolate-stained dentures. He's just finishing a cookie. There are crumbs on his lap and on the floor surrounding his wheelchair. His fingers are speckled with chocolate. He is thoroughly enjoying that cookie, and the mess doesn't bother him.

SPECIAL FROM Next Avenue By Joan M. Burda Here’s how LGBTs can find housemates after 60 -- and avoid legal problems and personality conflicts...

I was furious about all of it -- my mother's incapacity, my daughter's teenage angst -- and the fact that I couldn't fix any of it. I am the oldest child, after all -- the hero, the one who tries to fix everything.

We know that if there is one thing that everybody in this wide, diverse and sometimes contentious world shares, it's their mortality. That is something that all of us will go through with the people we love and then ultimately with ourselves.

Sometimes the signs are right there in front of you -- whether you can spot them immediately or not. For me, it was during the holidays, when my dad wandered away from a family gathering and emerged hours later, disheveled and upset.