CareConnection Expert Dan Taylor shares CareConnection management news and commentary at CareConnection.com. The HealthCentral Network, Inc. (www.HealthCentral.com) is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380 http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380 http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/32328/giving-simpler Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:43:00 -0400 Dan Taylor I marvel at our health care system from moment to moment.  We can diagnosis dementia and Deng Fever with equal ease and accuracy.  At the same time the partitioned and fractured system of delivery channels and professionals almost guarantees a suffocating level of complexity and confusion.   It really doesn't have to be and in this article I'm going to show you how to simplify your care giving tasks.   The first... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/32328/giving-simpler http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/28530/mom-today-mother Wed, 21 May 2008 21:38:00 -0400 Dan Taylor If my mom were here today I wouldn't do too much differently than I ever did on Mother's Day but I would do the things I did more intently and with greater deliberateness and add some things:   I would call her earlier instead of on my way home from somewhere as an afterthought.   I would not forget that she hates cut flowers and loves wild ones so I would stop and pick some..   I would remember that she loves her children... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/28530/mom-today-mother http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/26915/attention-parents Sun, 04 May 2008 13:13:00 -0400 Dan Taylor If you substitute the aging of America for hurricane Katrina and substitute every city in the country with New Orleans you will have an idea of what the aging of America is going to do to the political, financial, and municipal structure of cities and towns as we go forward.  Just as with the Katrina situation any help from the states and federal government is going to come too late, in the wrong form, with unnecessary delays and burdensome... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/26915/attention-parents http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/24099/wont-crafts-age Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:07:00 -0400 Dan Taylor When I was growing up my grandmother was the pianist at a little Methodist Church in Bluefield, West Virginina. Every summer when my brother and I would visit her we would inevitably come when they were having something called Vacation Bible School. At VBS, in the Methodist Church anyway, we would go in the morning, sing some worshipful songs, pray, and depending on the age group either color, put together at skit for the grand VBS finale, or do... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/24099/wont-crafts-age http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/20785/care-giving Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:59:00 -0500 Dan Taylor One of the first things you come to realize as a care giver is that the minutes go by much faster than before. It becomes very apparent very quickly that merely good intentions to get something done is not enough. This is never more true than when your own family and responsibilities seem to be coming a distant second to the care giver role. Without a sense of focus and a structure to organize all those extra activities you become your own... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/20785/care-giving http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/19787/home-equity Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:42:00 -0500 Dan Taylor There are a number of interesting forces aggregating out there to make the protecting of the equity in your parent's home even more challenging. Make some good decisions here and you will reap the benefit. Make bad decisions and you will deal with them for years to come. Here's how all this is playing out: Real Estate Values: The value of your parent's home may be stabilized or continuing to drop at this writing. In overbuilt... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/19787/home-equity http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/19099/guy-thing Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:32:00 -0500 Dan Taylor There are going to be lots of articles in the near future about old folks driving. That's because there will be lots of old folks ... well ... driving. Eighty million Boomers moving toward sunset on Rt. 66 in Shelby Mustangs, Maserati's, Porsche 911's and F-250's. A virtual army of people who from moment to moment won't know whether they've got one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake, or one foot in their mouth. The... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/19099/guy-thing http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/18622/years-caregivers Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:00:00 -0500 Dan Taylor I love January the first. It's like the greatest day of the year. First of all, it's the great "do over". No matter what the last 365 days were like the first of January is the Great Eraser. Everyone gets a new start. So, if you're a caregiver and had a good year or you're a caregiver and had a bad year, here are my thoughts for the next year for you and your parents:BE KINDER -- Parents didn't ask to get older... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/18622/years-caregivers http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/17937/ten-mom-dad Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:16:00 -0500 Dan Taylor Christmas is a fairly binary experience for most families: it works or it doesn't work. Part of not working is the absence of connection and communication. Most of working is the abundance of those two things. Below are some questions to get the connection between you and mom and dad going when the last piece of pie has been eaten and nap time is looming large. Both naps and football games have a way of making everyone invisible even though... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/17937/ten-mom-dad http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/17182/work Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:54:00 -0500 Dan Taylor What do you get when you combine years of wisdom and experience on the job with technology capable of transporting that wisdom and experience anywhere and anytime in HD sound and video plus a shrinking workforce? You get the Seniors Full Employment Act of the 21st Century. Here's how I think it's going to work. Unless you just arrived here on the planet you have to know that somewhere around 2020 we are going to have a labor... http://www.healthcentral.com/caregiver/c/5380/17182/work