Literature Review

Teen barber giving back with free haircuts [and raising money for local hospice] BBC News, East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, UK; by Lara King; 9/17/26 A young barber is combining a new career with fundraising and free haircuts for people in need in Cleethorpes. Connor Lancaster went into the profession after teaching himself with a pair of clippers. The 16-year-old is now training at a barber shop in the North East Lincolnshire town. ... The teenager, who works at KL Studio, has also raised £300 for St Andrew's Hospice. ... St. Andrew's Hospice in Grimsby holds personal significance for Connor. It provided support after he was injured in a scooter crash and helped with respite care for his younger sister. "I've raised £300 for the hospice and I'm also raising money for The Trin Centre in Cleethorpes, and I'm hoping to be going to a different country to cut poor kids' hair there," he said.

When a friend becomes a caregiver HealthDay; by Paula Span; 9/14/26 ... “The number of older adults who have never married or are divorced has been increasing, so we have more people aging alone,” said Deborah Carr, a sociologist at Boston University who has investigated these trends. “The proportion who are childless, by choice or not, is also growing,” she added, and families with children have fewer of them than in past generations. Geographic distances or family estrangements also fuel the need for other kinds of caregivers — roles that friends or neighbors can fill. How commonly do friends step into caregiving gaps? A recently published study in JAMA Network Open, led by researchers at the University of Michigan, looked into friends and neighbors serving as caregivers, usually in supplementary roles. ...

[United Kingdom] Dad who hates sand to take on Sahara trek BBC News; by Emma Stanley; 9/13/26 A dad who hates sand is trekking the Sahara Desert to raise money for the hospice that cares for his son. Andrew Privett, from Leyland in Lancashire, is one of 31 adventurers who are preparing to trek 30 miles (48km) across Morocco's Erg Chegaga Dunes over six days in November. They will face extreme temperatures, challenging terrain and long days beneath the desert sun, in the first overseas challenge for Chorley's Derian House Children's Hospice.

Sandwich generation caregiver shares how she cares for her mom with Alzheimer’s at home KVVU-TV Fox 5, Las Vegas, NV; by LeAnne Gendreau and Sondra 'Sam' Cradduck; 9/10/26 Ty Lewis, a dementia practitioner, takes care of her mother, Gertrude, who is in the end stages of Alzheimer’s while raising her children. She has been sharing her journey online with a community of more than 120,000 people online. Lewis, a member of the “sandwich generation,” sat down with Aging Untold expert and gerontologist Sam Cradduck to talk about what it takes to care for two generations and what the online community means to her family. 

[United Kingdom] Stirling University expert helps design dementia friendly flat for F1 legend Jackie Stewart's wife Lady Helen Edinburgh Evening News, Edinburgh, England; by The Newsroom; 8/28/26 An architect from the University of Stirling has helped design a dementia-friendly apartment for Lady Helen Stewart, wife of former racing champion Sir Jackie Stewart. Lady Helen was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2012 and Sir Jackie has become a passionate campaigner raising millions of pounds for research through his charity Race Against Dementia. The couple celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary today, Friday, August 28. ... Dementia-friendly features in the renovated apartment include: low-level counters to allow Lady Helen to interact and participate in cooking; a see-through and easily accessible fridge; visible open cabinets and front-facing clothing in the bedroom; integrated lighting for personal items; subtle and custom-made medical, cleaning and disinfection areas; and private medical areas for Lady Helen and her care providers.

Opinion: Family caregivers in NH need stronger support Concord Monitor, Concord, NH; by Julia Stone; 8/25/26 Every day across New Hampshire, family caregivers quietly hold our system of care together. Most never call themselves “caregivers,” they simply see themselves as doing what families and friends do. They are your 50-something coworker with a busy career and home life who cares for an aging parent, not only visiting regularly, but also managing their healthcare, daily needs, finances and more. And they are your elderly neighbor who still cares for an adult child with disabilities while navigating their own health challenges, and the older couple trying to go about life as usual while one of them slips deeper into dementia. As New Hampshire’s largest non-profit home health and hospice agency, our team members at Granite VNA witness these real scenarios and many others across the state every day. And they see the toll it takes on caregivers. ... While resources for caregivers exist, many do not seek help until they are overwhelmed. New Hampshire’s ServiceLink Aging and Disability Resource Centers offer information, counseling, respite services and connections to community resources, yet many families are unaware these programs are available.

My grandparents wanted to age at home. Eventually, their care cost $4,000 a week. Business Insider; by Erin Dentmon; 8/25/26 My grandparents lived at home until dying in their 90s in 2024 and 2025. Like many people, they had no desire to leave their shared home at the end of their lives. ... Through great sacrifice, my mom and her siblings worked to make that happen for them. My grandparents, a rural, middle-class couple, benefited from an increasingly unique set of circumstances: Their end-of-life illnesses were relatively short. My grandfather's pension provided financial security. Most importantly, they had six adult children ready to pitch in to make it happen. Even with all of these advantages, caregiving was complicated.

Pittsburgh Caregivers get federal lifeline as dementia cases swell across Allegheny County hoodline; by Ryan Miller; 8/21/26 Caregivers looking after loved ones with dementia in Pittsburgh now have a new federal tool to lean on, and it is already showing up at a day center in Squirrel Hill. The Anathan Club, run by the Jewish Association on Aging, has begun connecting families to the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, a Medicare program that can cover up to $2,500 a year in respite care for qualifying beneficiaries. The Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model, known as GUIDE, was developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and launched nationwide on July 1, 2024, as an eight-year voluntary pilot running through June 30, 2032, according to CMS. Nearly 390 provider organizations across the country are participating. 

JRMC Hospice Memorial Service NewsDakota.com, Jamestown, ND; by Steve Urness; 8/14/2026 Caregivers, families and friends gathered Aug. 11 at Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC) to remember loved ones during a hospice memorial service. Attendees came together to honor and reflect on those who have passed and concluded with the planting of a maple tree in JRMC’s Kornovich Healing Gardens. Members of JRMC Home Health and Hospice, including chaplains, social workers and nurses, spoke during the ceremony. ... Registered nurse Chelsey Duffy. “Hospice is about living every remaining moment with comfort, dignity, peace and love. It is about making sure no one walks this journey alone.” The newly planted maple tree will serve as a living tribute to those remembered during the service, representing both remembrance and renewal.

What to say to someone who is dying, according to hospice workers Time; by Angela Haupt; 8/5/26   In the weeks before Her father died, Sydney Mishkin kept trying to figure out what she still hadn’t told him. She felt desperate to identify the words she might one day regret leaving unsaid. ... “How do you sum up a lifetime of loving somebody into a sentence or two?” she says. ... The answer, according to people who spend their careers alongside the dying, is that you don’t have to. There are words that can bring comfort, invite honesty, and help both of you find peace. But there’s no perfect script—and your presence likely matters more than anything you manage to say.

The living dead among us - a call to recognize social death ehospice; by Aizaq P. Davis; 8/5/26... In healthcare, we often focus on physical symptoms.