The Center for Mental Health & Aging blog is your “go-to” resource for mental health and aging. Each article contains helpful information to deepen your understanding of aging, mental health in older adulthood, dementia, caregiving, family dynamics, and so much more.
April 15, 2026
Imagine waking up every day not knowing whether to grieve or to hope. Whether to set a place at the table or quietly put the extra plate away. Whether to…
April 1, 2026
What if I told you that nearly half of all older adults — not a small, extraordinary handful, but almost half — actually improve their cognitive and physical functioning as…
March 25, 2026
I want you to picture someone I'll call Margaret. She's 74 years old, sharp-witted, funny, and deeply engaged in her community. But lately, she's been misplacing her keys more…
March 18, 2026
Imagine sitting across from an 82-year-old woman who has survived the death of her husband, two of her children, and now — a diagnosis that threatens to reshape everything she…
March 10, 2026
If you spend any time on social media, you have probably seen it — a well-meaning post, shared thousands of times, warning that caregivers are so depleted, so selflessly devoted,…
February 25, 2026
Have you ever caught yourself lying awake at night thinking, "What if I get dementia and don't even recognize my own children?" Or maybe you've had a health scare…
February 18, 2026
Recently, a 73-year-old journalist reached out with a question I hear often in my work as a geropsychologist, but rarely see reflected in our culture: what do we do with…
February 4, 2026
Living alone is a choice many of us treasure—the independence, the comfort of familiar surroundings, the dignity of managing our own daily rhythms. But what happens when dementia enters this…
January 27, 2026
Social Withdrawal or Healthy Social Selectivity? Your 83-year-old client’s daughter calls you concerned that her mother just quit her book club after three years and is concerned that her mom…
October 28, 2025
If you work with older adults, you’ve probably heard this question more times than you can count: “What can I do to keep my brain healthy?” The Global Council on…
October 16, 2025
What happens to a person’s sense of self when memory begins to fray? I often describe dementia as a fragmentation of self. And yet, even within that fragmentation, traces of…
September 30, 2025
Suicide Risk Spikes After a Dementia Diagnosis: Here’s Why Receiving a dementia diagnosis changes everything. For many people, it brings relief—finally, there’s an explanation for the confusion, memory lapses,…
