There’s no doubt dementia diminishes the ability for effective communication between the patient and caregiver. When people can’t comprehend what is being said, or can’t find the words to express their own thoughts, it can be painful, embarrassing and frustrating. How a caregiver sets the tone for the conversation can…

HOW CAREGIVERS FOR PARENTS WITH DEMENTIA CAN IMPROVE COMMUNICATION Children are moving their dementia-afflicted parents out of long-term care facilities due to fears about COVID-19’s high fatality rates, and/or because they recognize that imposed isolation is accelerating their parents’ cognitive and physical decline. In becoming the primary parental caregiver, children…

Should Family Members Be Compensated for Caregiving? We’re a nation of busy, burdened people. Holding home and hearth and body and soul together during this turbulent time takes more energy than we ever thought we could muster. Living with the undercurrents of fear, grief, and uncertainty depletes our energy reserves…

Last Friday, May 3, when one of Bill Maher’s guests suggested Democrats needed “someone larger than the president” (not in waistline, in stature) Bill Maher said, “I’ll tell you who.” He then told a story about going to a party “way up in the Hollywood Hills,” where every guest had…

I wrote the following blog for Huffington Post in June, 2016, largely touting Wendy Davis’s epic filibuster, and warning that it was time for women of every generation to stop taking choice for granted. I had written a book, Moral Infidelity, about an anti-abortion governor whose mistress became pregnant, and…

Hundreds of hours of enjoyable phone conversations, decades of sharing confidences and seeing each other through tough times, years of giving and receiving special notes and birthday cards, frequent visits and vacations that fostered closeness…these are the foundation for friendships that last a lifetime, right? I certainly thought so, until…

I happened upon a blog on Medium that caught my attention because it was about The Male Gaze, which is something I recently realized has gone missing in my life. The author said that when she was 19 she became very ill, and as a result, very skinny. She compared…

What amazes me most about the Women’s March is that it was so brilliantly organized for the day after one of the worst days in American history — the inauguration of…oh, you know. It was certainly one of the worst and most surreal days of my life. I, a political…