Video Chats With Family and Friends Offer Mental Health Boost

Anne Whitley lives 800 miles from her grandchildren’s home in Florida, but she still sees them daily. On her iPhone’s FaceTime app, Whitley catches up with her five-year old granddaughter, Cairo, who might show off a new toy, and her year-old grandson,… Continue reading

Beyond Mobile Health Apps

In a recent Next Avenue story, we examined the ubiquity of mobile health apps. Now, our focus shifts to a more expansive view about digital health technologies and on how these technologies are not only playing out today, but what their impact will be … Continue reading

Danger Ahead: Privacy Concerns With High-Tech Caregiving Devices

One of the most exciting sectors in the elder care market is the technology industry moving into the caregiving business. High-tech devices and support services are being built around smartphones, voice-activated devices, artificial intelligence (AI) a… Continue reading

If Health Care Was Designed Just for You, What Would Need to Change?

(Editor’s note: This story is part of a series for The John A. Hartford Foundation.) When was the last time you felt truly satisfied with a health care experience? If you’re lucky, maybe you live in a state or an area with exceptional access to the hig… Continue reading

What the Retirement Community of the Future May Be Like

(This article previously appeared on MarketWatch.com.) Louise Rausa, 72, lived in world-class cities including Paris and New York, and she spent part of her adulthood in co-housing communities in the western United States where residents shared a kitch… Continue reading

A Home for Grandfamilies

Sometimes Sabu Waters grows wistful when he thinks about how he used to sleep. These days, the alarm sounds early for the 67-year-old, who has two grandsons to rouse and get ready for school in Washington, D.C. “I have to make sure these boys are dress… Continue reading

Love for Cats Connects Mother and Daughter

Why is it, no matter how old we are, there’s a part of us which continues to seek our parent’s approval? My mother never was the kind of parent who believed that everything her child did was extraordinary or brilliant. A couple of years ago, I wrote a … Continue reading

Life With Cheeta the Chimp

The late Hollywood animal trainer Tony Gentry put it in his will that when he died, his best friend, Jiggs, who ­­he lived with and took care of for decades, was to be euthanized. Jiggs was better known to the public as Cheeta, Johnny Weissmuller’s com… Continue reading

Why ‘Women Rowing North’ May Be the Next Boomer Bible

Resilience. Authenticity. Bliss. These are important words in Mary Pipher’s new book Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age. And then there’s schlimmbesserung, a German word that means “to be worsened by improvement.” … Continue reading

Next Avenue Readers Speak Up About Elderspeak

A story based on the power of words and conversations regarding “elderspeak” provoked a robust conversation of its own on Next Avenue’s Facebook page in January. The Negative Effects of Elderspeak generated more than 2,600 reactions (from those who agr… Continue reading