Was My Mom Abused?

Editor's note: This piece originally appeared on Trish's AARP Blog On July 2, USA Today reported that more than 20 former employees of a Georgia Alzheimer's care center are facing dozens of criminal charges after a three-month state investigation uncovered allegations of cruel treatments of patients. The cruelty ranged from physical abuse - slapping patients and throwing water on them - to outright neglect and financial exploitation. Other abuse included shackling patients to their beds with sheets and 'double diapering' so the staff wouldn't have to change soiled diapers so often. As it turns out, various staff members had prior

We Are Women, Hear Us Roar

Editor's note: This piece originally appeared on Huffington Post Impact Okay, so here is the Alzheimer's disease reality: Women are twice as likely as men to have Alzheimer's. Women are also twice as likely as men to be caretakers of Alzheimer's victims. Have I gotten your attention yet? We of the gentler, weaker, more adaptable sex are screwed. We're talking big numbers -- of the 5,100,000 victims of this fatal disease, 3,400,000 are women. Of the 15,000,000 caregivers, 10,000,000 are women. Many of these women have to quit their jobs because tending to Alzheimer's patients is a 24-7 job with

For Mom, My Heroine, on Mother’s Day

My mother had a cleft palate. It was fixed when she was three years-old, and you could never tell anything was wrong by looking at her, but it left her with two impediments: her speech and her mother. Because of my mom’s speech impediment, my grandmother told my mom she would probably never get married. Really? Is that the way you bolster your child’s self-confidence? Maybe she thought she was protecting her daughter from the harsh realities of life. To me, it felt like my grandmother was priming my mother for failure. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so judgmental. I mean

Chicken Little and the President

Chicken Little was in the woods. A seed fell on his tail. Chicken Little said, The sky is falling.” So he ran to tell the king and everyone in the kingdom. That got me to thinking about looming research budget cuts caused by sequestration and pondering, is President Obama the Chicken Little of Sequestration? Maybe he’s just making a big deal about the slash in medical funding for research. Or maybe Republicans are right – it’s all just Gloom without the Doom. So I started looking for answers. I looked through less than a month’s worth of news clips. Not

The Lady with All the Answers

Dear Abby: I have always wanted to have my family history traced, but I can’t afford to spend a lot of money to do it. Have you any suggestions? — M. J. B. in Oakland, Calif. Dear M. J. B.: Yes. Run for a public office. Such was the incisive wit of Pauline Friedman Phillips, known to millions as Dear Abby. Affectionately nicknamed “Popo” by friends, Dear Abby was the advice maven of a generation – or rather, generations. Dear Abby: Are birth control pills deductible? — Bertie Dear Bertie: Only if they don’t work. Admittedly not an expert in