Articles (2)

Concerned about Falls? This article is designed to help you decide which (if any) is the best Fall Prevention Program for you. And to help you choose between the Fall Prevention programs available in your town, state and country.

At a conference organized by San Francisco's Institute on Aging, I ran an interactive "exploration", in which we asked attendees to vote on "Senior Apps they Like", or to submit ideas they have for "There should be an App for that". We got quite a few interesting ideas, and this article reports the results of the session.

How do I determine my personal degree of "risk for falls"? Should I worry about falls at all? Do I need to use a cane or a walker? How would I know? We all face these questions as we age.

Reading under poor lighting conditions is a common problem, not only for reading menus, but also for reading in bed, or seeing small type in a poorly lit space. What is needed is some type of lighted magnifier. There are four categories of solutions for this common problem. The pro’s and con’s of each solution are detailed below, as well as in the individual product listings we link to.

Earlier this month we invited the inventor of a new type of walker to come along to one of the Longevity Collective circle meetings and show the older adults members of our circle the prototype of her invention and get their feedback. It was pretty interesting. This article is about the experience.

Over the last 18 months I have talked with literally hundreds of people who have realized they now have an extra "job" that they were not expecting: engaging one way or another in looking out for an aging parent. Many of them wanted a "guide" to Caring for Aging Parents, and asked for recommendations. Sure enough, there are a number of books on aging parents on Amazon. I decided I wanted to find the most popular, and then read them and see whether I could identify a handful of them to recommend next time someone asks for a Guide to Aging Parents. This article is the first installment in my journey and focuses on which are the top selling books in this category (presumably the ones others have found most relevant).

My mother has severe short term memory loss.  As her caregiver, I have found that her short term memory impairment has many adverse consequences. My experience with my mother has made me concerned about how I could avoid the horrors that come with short term memory loss when it inevitably hits me in the future.  

While I cannot prevent short term memory loss, I do believe that I can mitigate the confusion and anxiety that comes with not being able to mentally track my daily activities.  My solution is a simple technological memory prosthesis – a “wearable” calendar. This article describes my idea and how I am implementing it.

We have been looking for  good arthritis clothing solutions. These products range from various special shoes for arthritis to a special type of arthritis bra. This article uses videos from around the web to demonstrate some of those solutions, and we add our comments and questions. 

Whether by accident, injury, amputation, disease or any other cause, functional challenges continue to cause problems with regard to dressing fashionably with minimal assistance. Born of the marriage of the occupational therapy and fashion design disciplines, not unlike Tech-enhanced Life's Freedom Wear initiative under the Longevity Collective, the MIT Open Style Lab is assembling teams to tackle problems of fitting clothing for people with limited dexterity.