I know that sometimes I must sound like a broken record, but an incident in a Vermont nursing facility underscores why it is so important for nursing personnel to actively manage patient interactions. In Bennington, Vermont an 84-year-old woman suffering from dementia walked into the room of a 58-year-old man. The man was heard yelling, and ...

In the November/December edition of Scientific American-Mind, one of the feature articles discusses an often misdiagnosed illness called Frontal-Temporal Dementia (FTD).  Formerly called Pick's Disease, a disease that has been known about for a number of years but not often diagnosed, it is a form of dementia that obliterates the ...

Although I am a veteran of both the US Air Force and the US Army, I don't consider myself a hero. I never saw action. I never had people shoot at me. I never did anything but the duty I was given. However, my parent's generation certainly did. My father, who has now passed, flew B-19s over Germany in World War II. He was so ...

In her blog post, ''Respecting Elders'' at http://transformingcaregiving.blogspot.com/2010/10/alive-n-kickin-respecting-elders.html, Holly Whiteside writes: ''I recently gave a keynote address to a local caregivers' expo. During the Q&A, one woman raised her hand and said, ''What do you think about the way people talk down to old people?'' I ...

Did you know that this is National Gerontological week? Here are some ways to celebrate, courtesy of the NGNA. Obtain a proclamation from the mayor of your town proclaiming October 1- 8 as National Gerontological Nurses Week. Develop a calendar of events. Plan to honor your colleagues with a recognition award (certificate or plaque). ...

The countdown is on to AAHSA 2010, which will be held in less than a month in Los Angeles. I'm looking forward to my first trip to the city of angels. What about you? Are you making the trip, too, or is the economy putting a cut in your travel budget this year?  If you're still undecided, it's not too late to register for the conference, ...

Together with several other associations, The American Geriatrics Society developed a ''Tip Sheet on Prescribing for Controlled Substances in Long Term Care,'' according to an AGS news release.   The groups created the tip sheet to help physicians and other prescribers meet Drug Enforcement Administration regulations for prescribing ...

 As people age, they lose some ability to detect and interpret signals coming through the central nervous system to the brain. The study ''Symptom Recognition in Elders with Heart Failure'' divided 29 people who had been diagnosed with chronic heart failure for at least six months into two groups: those who were younger than 73 year, and ...

To prevent what it calls ''a global aging crisis,'' an expert panel convened by the LifeStar Institute, recommends that the U.S. and other countries collaborate to use their public health agencies to inform citizens about how they can improve their lifestyles so that they can live longer and healthier lives. The panel also identified a ''need to ...

''We ... have to start asking ourselves uncomfortable questions about the opportunities we provide residents. Why, even in program-rich environments, do only 20-30% of residents regularly participate in offerings? Are we providing what we can-what is logical based on expectations-or what potential residents really need and want? Do we ...