Laura Nathan, event and marketing coordinator with the Housing Bureau for Seniors, was on our radio show this past weekend. Laura has been very busy the past many months getting everything ready for Senior Living Week, which runs May 6 through May 15.

This year’s event promises to be bigger and better than ever. This is truly the big annual senior event in Washtenaw County.

It all kicks off with the Senior Living Week Expo, on Friday, May 6, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at the Morris Lawrence Building at Washtenaw Community College. The expo features almost 70 vendors representing senior residences, home health care providers, legal and financial services, as well as a variety of medical and non-medical products.

The workshops are another important aspect of the 10-day event. Laura told herself last year, when they had 17 workshops, that they’d never try to organize that many again. But Laura can’t say no (not to helping seniors), and this year there are 19 workshops! They cover a huge variety of topics, from social media to dealing with hoarding concerns.

The final major component of Senior Living Week is 26 open houses at residential communities across Washtenaw County. This is a terrific opportunity to explore and learn all about wonderful local housing options. To learn more about this event, the best resource is the website med.umich.edu/seniors. It’s also useful to listen to the full 12-minute discussion with Laura. Click here:

For any questions, and to confirm space availability for any of the workshops, please contact Laura or the Housing Bureau for Seniors at 734-998-9336.

Anne Dann joined us next. Anne is a business development manager with Family Home Health Services. The company is based in Plymouth and is growing, with offices in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, as well as five offices in southern Michigan (they are a vendor at the Senior Living Week Expo).

Family is a Medicare provider of skilled medical in-home assistance. The company's staff includes registered nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists to help patients with their specific needs. To qualify for Medicare in-home visits, a patient needs to be considered home-bound, simply meaning it’s ‘taxing and difficult’ to get out of the house.

Anne provided good insights on vestibular therapy, which is not well understood. Many elderly folks have balance or dizziness issues, and this can be caused by problems in the inner ear. The calcium carbonate crystals in the vestibular area may have become dislodged.

Through vestibular therapy, the crystals can likely be moved out of the semi-circular canal. This therapy is non-invasive, using physical manipulations to resolve the problem. It is not a long-term therapy program but a fairly quick process. Once the crystals are relocated, the physical therapist will continue to work with the patient, to help reset the patient’s equilibrium to their new normal.

To listen to the 12-minute talk, click here:

If you would like to contact Family Home Health Services, call Anne Dann at 734-756-6840 or the office at 1-800-901-3447, or go to the website fhhs.us.

Alan Caldwell and Sheila Doeden co-host Everything Elderly every Saturday morning at 8:30 on 1290 WLBY. In their day jobs, Alan and Sheila co-own and co-manage Senior Helpers, providing in-home care services, primarily to the elderly. Both can be contacted at homecareexcellence@seniorhelpers.com, or at 734-927-3111.