Nursing Homes

Get over feelings that prevent you from visiting the nursing home
Sometimes people avoid visiting their elderly parents in a nursing home because of guilt, stress or other emotions. Learn how to deal with these and what you can do if you feel reluctant to visit an elderly loved one in a nursing home.

Is your parent safe in the nursing home?
Nursing home safety is improving, and many nursing homes have technology and procedures in place to ensure the safety of elderly residents.

Have nursing homes changed to shed their bad reputation?
Nursing homes of the past were known as institution-like environments, where people went to die. Today's nursing homes have been modernized and are comfortable home-like settings.

Is the nursing home over-medicating your elderly parent?
How do caregivers know if the nursing home staff is over-medicating their elderly parents? And are these medications needed, or used to sedate patients to make the staff's job easier?

When an elderly parent in the nursing home says "I just want to go home"
How does a caregiver convince an elderly parent that the nursing home, assisted living center or other senior care center is home?

Checklist: Finding a Nursing Home for Your Elderly Parents
To help caregivers find the best nursing home or assisted living facility for their elderly mother or father, here is a list of basic questions to ask about the facility.

Younger Seniors and Older Elderly: How Nursing Homes Need to Adjust
There's a culture clash happening in nursing homes: younger seniors (60s) versus older residents (80s).

"I Promised My Parents I'd Never Put Them in a Nursing Home"
The time has come when you can no longer safely care for your senior parent at home. Should you break the promise you made and put them in a nursing home?

Nursing Home Horror Stories: Are they true?
Separating what may be true and what may be untrue when a senior parent needs skilled medical care at a nursing home.

Elders and Sex: Who Gets to Decide What is Proper?
What happens when your elderly, single mom or dad falls in love with another single senior at the nursing home or assisted living facility?

Mom has Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home. I get physically ill at the thought of visiting. How can I cope with this?
Cindy Laverty answered: Your reaction to visiting your elderly mother in the nursing home is normal and you should be comforted in that knowledge.
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I recently placed my mother, who has Alzheimer’s, in a nursing home. I would like to give her possessions to family members. Is it too soon?
Cindy Laverty answered: Giving your mother’s belongings to others in the family after she goes into a nursing home is a kind and loving gesture.
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