Category: August – September 2020

  • Need Help With Medicare Plan?

    There are many Medicare options available to seniors that will ensure that your medical costs and healthcare needs will be covered in your retirement. But Medicare is complex and difficult to navigate on your own, so it is important that you select a local advisor who knows the Hawai‘i market and will find the right…

  • A Toolkit for Choosing Health Plan Options

    Preparing yourself with the proper tools helps to make any job a bit easier. If you are baking, you need the proper ingredients. When building something, you need hammers, nails and other related items. It’s the same when you are preparing for your Health Plan Open Enrollment session; or if you are a caregiver, for…

  • When is it Time to Move Mom and/or Dad?

    Deciding when is the right time to find senior care for your kupuna can be an intimidating task. You want to provide the best care possible for them, but how do you know if it’s the right time; where do you start? First, understand and identify the level of care your senior needs to conduct…

  • Partnerships in Dementia Caregiving

    Hiring a home care aide represents a major transition in family caregiving, especially when the care recipient is a person with dementia (PWD), less able to express his or her needs. Initial encounters may stress both sides.

  • When’s the Right Time for Memory Care?

    Memory care communities that first began appearing in the 1990s are an important care option today for the growing number of families caring for a person living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia. When considering memory care, look for a community with a rich and lively activity program, and staff who are well-trained in dementia…

  • Alzheimer’s & Time

    Time can stop when memories are lost for a person with Alzheimer’s disease. At certain stages, the brain loses its recent (short-term) memories. The brain — and therefore, the present — is in the past for those with memory loss. Current thoughts are drawn to distant memories.

  • Reflections on a Caregiving Journey

    Having been exposed to what it takes to be a care manager at a very young age as I watched my mother tend to disabled clients in our home, I followed in my mother’s footsteps. I pursued a social work degree from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and eventually worked at HMSA as a…

  • Stay Independent

    Each year, one in four seniors suffers a fall, leading to injuries and emergency room visits. Although they are preventable, falls can lead to a loss of independence.

  • Regain Your Posture as You Age

    Forty years ago, medical exercise specialists Debbie and Norm Compton met in Hawai‘i and made fitness the key element in both their personal and professional lives. Personal training, stunt work, injuries and their continual quest for excellence compelled them to write Stacking: Your Skeletal Blueprint for Posture. In their book, the Comptons share techniques for…

  • Sugar is Bad for Your Teeth & Mind

    I love sugar! Sugar makes desserts, candies and drinks taste wonderful! The bacteria in our mouth love sugar, too. Eating foods that contains sugar instantly activates bacteria for 20 minutes. As bacteria devour the sugar, their waste is acid. Acid is one of the few things that can destroy your enamel and may contribute to…