Author Archives: anthony

Nursing Home Deficiencies – Enforcement is just part of the answer

More bad news for nursing homes. A Health and Human Services report issued this week shows that more than 90 percent of U.S. nursing homes in each of the past three years were cited for violating federal standards. For-profit facilities had a higher percentage of violations – 94 percent compared...

read more

God Rest St. James

I have written and spoken about the fact that my 87-year-old mother has a boyfriend. His name is Jim and I called him St. James for having the patience of a saint to put up with my mother. (I love her dearly but she can be a stubborn Italian!) Oh...

read more

Ageism

I have to admit that this Harris Interactive study surprised me. The long held belief has been that the Asian cultures have far more respect for their elders and caring for them is an expected rite of passage. Seems it is not so. In the 20 countries included in the...

read more

My Mom and St. James

My mom is 87. Has a boyfriend in Philadelphia. Oh she lives in FL. They shack up, I mean get together a couple of times a year.

read more

Rocket Robin

In my keynote The Meaning of Life I note that we do not take enough time in our lives to just let our hair down and have fun. So for three minutes I get the people to tweet like birds and flap their wings. Enjoy.

read more

The Healing Power of Music

Music therapy has been practiced for decades as a way to treat neurological conditions from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to anxiety and depression. Now, advances reveal what’s actually happening in the brain as patients listen to music or play instruments. Music therapy can help restore the loss of expressive language in...

read more

112 Year Old Artists Shows That You Always Have Purpose

A touching story found on cnn.com shows that no matter what your age or circumstance you can lead a quality of life if you have purpose. Frank Calloway, 112, paints murals at a nursing facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He has been institutionalized since 1952 after a diagnosis of schizophrenia. His...

read more

Nursing Home Arbitration Act

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial Law and Administrative Law just approved the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2008, moving the Act one step closer to becoming law. The Act prohibits the signing of an arbitration agreement as a prerequisite to nursing home admission. This bipartisan legislation protects...

read more

A Toast to Independence

Sorry I have not written in a while. This article caught my eye. Barbara Brotman of the Chicago Tribune writes about how her mother needed rehab in a nursing home and when she requested some things be brought to her from her daughter, vodka for her Bloody Mary was on...

read more