Course instructor Deborah Bier, PhD (photo, below right) has been a health care educator, author, and wellness coach for over 20 years. She holds a doctorate in therapeutic counseling, and has helped hundreds of individuals and families to live better with chronic illness and disability. She is the director of the Concord, MA office of Caring Companion Home Care. (www.CaringCompanion.Net) and has lived in Concord for 30 years.

Middlesex Community College's MILES Program (Middlesex Institute for Lifelong Education for Seniors) offers intellectual stimulation, interaction, and friendship for adults ages 50+. Some of the topics explored through MILES include history, politics, arts, fitness, health, safety, music, computers, internet, travel, business, psychology, law, poetry and opera. Courses have no term papers, exams or grades, and are held at their Bedford campus. They are facilitated by individuals with expertise in topics based on professional, educational or personal experience. Semester membership fee of $95 includes access to all MILES courses. MILES is an afffiliate of the Elderhostel Institute Network.

For more information or to register, call 781-280-3570 or e-mail Chris Lindsey at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Find a list of all their courses here. To reach the instructor, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Being able to stay in the home we've lived in as we've aged is a real blessing, and almost always preferred by elders.  But some homes are just not set up for aging in place -- too many stairs, bathrooms and bedrooms in the wrong part of the house to fit the elder's needs and mobility.  Home modification is an option, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts makes low- and no-interest loans to modify the homes of elders and individuals with disabilities where there is income qualification.

Monday, January 31 at 7PM at the Gleason Library in Carlisle, MA, there is a meeting about this program. I just noticed it in the Boston Globe, following a Facebook pointer from our State Representative, Cory Atkins (isn't life in 2011 strange??!) -- you can fit in this meeting before the next snow storm starts. Download a program brochure here.

A client wrote to us recently after we had provided caregivers for her mother while Mom visited.   Mom loved Mary Ann,

one of our wonderful Caring Companions, and "the online reports are GREAT. As I’m sure you know, it’s wonderful to get a sense of what Mom has done during the day, how she’s been feeling, etc.  I have cut and pasted the reports and sent to my siblings so they can get a sense of it too ..."

And I laughed.  It's so much easier than that!  You don't need to cut and paste, or do anything at all to inform the rest of the family.  Those days are over, if you want them to be.

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