Family caregivers face a substantial amount of stress, the caregiver burden, from carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. Not only are family caregivers responsible, or so it feels, for the livelihood of their senior care recipient, they might be overwhelmed by their many responsibilities. Between caring for their own family and children, working out of the home, managing a household, and looking after a senior, caregivers have a lot to deal with and little time to themselves.

To reduce the stress they feel as caregivers, those responsible for the care of a family member can use simple techniques to make their job easier, reduce the caregiver burden, and allow them to focus on their own well-being.

1)    Use assistive technologies that promote safety
2)    Ask for help from family
3)    Hire an in-home, non-medical caregiver
4)    Use services to help out with housekeeping (caregivers often do light-housekeeping, and agencies can assist with yard work and more strenuous chores)
5)    Attend caregiver support groups to talk to others in similar situations
6)    Enroll the senior in rehabilitation therapy to improve their mobility, and remember your own health
7)    Communicate with the care recipient and your family about your experiences
8)    Try to maintain the relationship that existed before caregiving when possible, both with your family and care recipient
9)    Take time out for yourself
10)    Don’t get yourself down if the care recipient’s condition seems to decline; you can help them, but can’t control it all!

Sources:
1.    Extension
2.    AARP

Image: metacures.biz

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

As a caregiver with Home Instead Senior Care, I try and get to know my clients, their personal interests and find things that we have in common through conversation. By sharing mutual interests, I’ve found that I’m not only there to provide care for the senior, I’m finding pleasures in the things in life you forget you enjoy or take for granted. I truly enjoy the time that I spend with the 87 year old senior I care for. When I started as a Texas caregiver, I thought that I would only be interested in working a couple of days a week; but I am with my elderly client everyday for four hours and wouldn’t change that.

One of our favorite senior activities that we do together, some may find it strange, but we both share a love for houses and real estate; so to get out of the house, we often drive around different neighborhoods in Austin and discuss what we like and don’t like about the houses, the landscaping and other aspects of the homes. While driving along at 5 miles per hour, we chat about our mutual interest; meanwhile, paying additional attention to the traffic and street signs on the road around us to ensure that we both remain safe while pursuing our mutual hobby. For a little bit of extra excitement, we’re even planning a trip, with permission from my client’s family, to drive an hour and a half down to Johnsonville from Austin to tour different neighborhoods that are unfamiliar to us. Looking at houses is a great way to get out of the house; which gives us a change of scenery, something new and interesting to talk about, and promotes physical mobility for my client when getting in and out of the car.

It’s the simple things that we’ve learned to really appreciate when in one-another’s company. When running errands, we’ll stop for our favorite drinks, Coke or Dr. Pepper, instead of having them at home, so it makes for a great treat. Or we’ll pick up stale bread from Meals on Wheels and go down to the lake by my client’s apartment to feed the ducks. To keep activities at home fresh and interesting, I like to take my client to Toys R Us or other local craft stores to pick out activities she would like to do during our time together, like weaving or painting.

When I was initially hired to work with this client, who struggles with mobility and short-term memory, I thought I would just be there for company, for transportation to her appointments and for light-housekeeping. What I didn’t anticipate, is that we would become such great friends who have grown to enjoy each other’s company immensley. With a little creativity, and an effort to find shared interests; I think that any caregiver providing elder care can not only create, but have their own positive experiences from working with a senior. And for me, it’s also a chance to be grateful for the things I’ve had in life and think about how I’d like my life to be when I get older.

Mary Louise Polman: Home Instead Senior Care, Texas

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

Hiring a professional caregiver to help out a senior at home, can be a big decision. Hiring a caregiver from a professional caregiving agency has its benefit over hiring a private caregiver for a number of reasons. Even though caregiving agencies can be more costly, the piece of mind a caregiving agency can offer is well worth the expense. A professional caregiving agency, like Home Instead Senior Care, helps mandate the care provided by its caregivers; it dictates exactly what role the caregiver will play in the home and care of a senior, and helps to select a caregiver that will best fit the care recipient’s lifestyle, needs and personality. With a professional caregiving agency, elderly home caregivers receive comprehensive training in non-medical care techniques, so families can feel confident that their seniors are receiving quality care.

While hiring a private caregiver might sometimes save money, the hassles that come with making that care decision aren’t generally worth the savings. Unless you hire a private caregiver who files their taxes as an independent contractor, families become the caregiver’s employer, which requires that you pay Social Security, Employment and payroll taxes.

Sources:
1.    Caregiver’s Home Companion
2.    Elderlaw Cincinnati

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

According to a report published by the AARP, in 2007 the economic value of family caregivers would have been $375 billion if they had been paid for their home care assistance. However, it is the value of family caregivers that cannot be measured monetarily that makes a far more substantial impact on the lives of seniors they provide home care for.

Family caregivers sacrifice greatly to provide help to their senior relatives in need. A great majority of family caregivers are men and women with full or part-time careers, which they balance along with their in-home senior care responsibilities and providing care for their immediate family and often, young children. Family caregivers sacrifice in order to better the lives of their senior relatives or parents, by identifying the aspects of home life that seniors are struggling with and providing their assistance; allowing seniors to remain at home with some resemblance of an independent lifestyle that doesn’t require them to live in a community living facility for the elderly.

Sometimes seniors become resentful of their caregivers, and forget to place value upon what they’re sacrificing to improve the senior’s lifestyle, because they are resentful of the loss of independence that has occurred due to the aging process. So seniors asking for help from their families or hiring a caregiver need to remember just how valuable a contribution a caregiver can make to the life of a senior.

Sources:
1.    AARP
2.    National Family Caregiver’s Association

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

According to a report published by the AARP, in 2007 the economic value of family caregivers would have been $375 billion if they had been paid for their home care assistance. However, it is the value of family caregivers that cannot be measured monetarily that makes a far more substantial impact on the lives of seniors they provide home care for.

Family caregivers sacrifice greatly to provide help to their senior relatives in need. A great majority of family caregivers are men and women with full or part-time careers, which they balance along with their in-home senior care responsibilities and providing care for their immediate family and often, young children. Family caregivers sacrifice in order to better the lives of their senior relatives or parents, by identifying the aspects of home life that seniors are struggling with and providing their assistance; allowing seniors to remain at home with some resemblance of an independent lifestyle that doesn’t require them to live in a community living facility for the elderly.

Sometimes seniors become resentful of their caregivers, and forget to place value upon what they’re sacrificing to improve the senior’s lifestyle, because they are resentful of the loss of independence that has occurred due to the aging process. So seniors asking for help from their families or hiring a caregiver need to remember just how valuable a contribution a caregiver can make to the life of a senior.

Sources:
1.    AARP
2.    National Family Caregiver’s Association

Image: Texas Tech - Garrison Institute of Aging

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

With no known cure for Alzheimer’s, the senior healthcare profession is constantly searching for methods to improve the cognitive skills of senior Alzheimer’s patients. Research studies completed by the University of California and other Alzheimer’s experts have discovered not only that music therapy is an effective way to allow seniors to express themselves when verbal communication becomes impossible; music also stimulates the memory which can prevent further development of the cognitively crippling disease.

According to the study completed by the University of California, seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s can listen to music soundtracks of their past to evoke memories and emotions locked away. The pre-frontal cortex, the region of the brain which seems to be responsible for linking music to memories seems to be the least affected by Alzheimer’s, shows the positive affects that music has upon the disease. Senior healthcare professionals hope that by playing seniors music they are familiar with, they can stimulate the memories of seniors with Alzheimer’s and prevent development of the affects of the disease.

Music therapy is a common treatment used upon senior patients; music therapy can help seniors communicate, even eliciting physical responses in seniors with late stage Alzheimer’s. It can also reduce agitation, coordinate motor movements, and create positive interactions with others. There is no doubting the positive benefits of music on memory and senior well-being, and with these positive developments; home caregivers and medical professionals are using music therapy as a common treatment method for seniors with Alzheimer’s.

Sources:
1.   prnewswire.ca
2.    The Telegraph: Richard Alleyne
3.    Music Therapy Association of BC

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

We know you appreciate everything that your long-term caregiver does for your aging family member, and believe that sometimes it’s appropriate to say thank you with a gift. If a family caregiver is responsible for senior care, sometimes the best gift to give them is a break. By providing them assistance with their responsibilities, they will have the opportunity to focus on themselves for a change. Everyone deserves a break; so offer to take your elderly relative shopping, prepare a meal. Another welcome gift for family caregivers is to pre-pay for a service that is typically an expense from their own pocket; buy a gift certificate for grass cutting, or house keeping to save them the expense.

If you want to show a senior caregiver hired from an agency that you appreciate them, first check with the agency for their policy on gift-giving. Many senior care agencies do not allow their caregivers to accept monetary gifts, but a small token of your appreciation; like flowers, a gift basket or a gift certificate for a nice meal can be great ways to say “thank you” to a long-term senior caregiver if they can accept the gifts.

Whether a caregiver who cares for an elderly family member is paid for their services or not, it’s important to remember how great their impact is on enhancing the lives of seniors; it doesn’t take much to say “thank you”, even if only in words.

Sources:
1. Area Agency on Aging
2. Caregiver’s Care Station

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

When it comes time to make decisions regarding senior care services for your aging parent, one of the major factors to consider is affordability. Believe it or not, in home care services are one of the most affordable options for seniors who are struggling to live independently in their own homes. Hiring a caregiver to help out in your aging parent’s home can cost anywhere from $12 to $25 an hour, depending upon the services provided by the agency and the state that you live in. Compared to a traditional nursing home or long-term care facility, which cost on average of $153 per day in the United States, the costs of in-home care are substantially lower, especially because of the flexibility it offers. With in-home caregiving services, families can decide the amount of care required by an in-home caregiver, which can start at a few hours a week to 8-hour long caregiving days. This can be determined both on care requirements of the senior, and the finances they have available for home care.

In order to determine if senior services are affordable for the senior in your family, take a close look at both their income and expenses; ensuring that their budget allows them to continue to put away 10% to fund future medical and housing needs. Medicare and Medicaid do not typically cover in-home care services, but many private insurance policies do; so ensure you determine which home care costs would have to be paid out of pocket and make sure that all the numbers add up to figure out if home care is an affordable option.

Sources:
1. Business Week, Beth Piskora
2. The Federal LTC Insurance Program
3. Senior Living Today

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

Choosing the right caregiver to assist an aging family member at home requires that you understand the type of care they require. Two main types of home care are available; home care and home health care, and while the senior home care terms may sound similar, they have very different meanings.
Home care refers to non-medical in-home care for seniors. This type of elderly home care is provided by a professional caregiver who is not medically trained. Home care professionals, like caregivers from Home Instead Senior Care, provide in-home assistance with non-medical tasks including:

• Light housekeeping
• Assistance running errands
• Cooking and meal preparation
• Medication reminders (but not administration)
• Transportation
• Home care assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s)
• Companionship for seniors

Home health care on the other hand, refers to home nursing care administered by a medically trained caregiver, nurse or doctor. Typically, home nursing care providers help a senior with their medical needs, although some home health care organizations may provide a combination of services that include some ADL’s assistance (bathing, personal hygiene) as well as more traditional medical care. Home health care providers are typically responsible for the following:

• Administering medications
• Changing bandages or attending to wounds
• Assistance with Activities of Daily Living
• Some light housekeeping (depending upon the service provider)
• Specialized care, like rehab and physiotherapy services

Source:  The Gilbert Guide

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefers to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.

Most Americans understand the importance of saving money to fund their retirement once they stop working, however, most do not know just how much they’ll need to pay for their basic living expenses or fund the retirement lifestyle they desire.

There is no magic retirement amount that will allow seniors to survive financially during their retirement. According to financial planners, the amount of savings needed for retirement all depends on lifestyle, standards of living and goals during retirement. Since life expectancy rates are increasing in North America, seniors should estimate their retirement funds based on life expectancy to age 90.

So how much do seniors need to put away for their retirement during their careers? Retirement financial planners say that 15 times your regular income should fund your bare bones expenses up until age 90; however, you can’t expect to have any money left in the bank or live the luxurious retirement lifestyle you’ve dreamed of. For those seniors who hope to travel, or maintain a less-modest lifestyle during retirement, and still have money left over; at least 22 times your regular income is required.

Financial planners say that retirement planning should start as early as the 20’s or 30’s, so that a sufficient amount of money is available to fund retirement when the time comes, and only a small portion of monthly income needs to be put aside in order to reach retirement goals.

Source:  Retirement Cash: Will You Have Enough? (Stuart Foxman)

Home Instead Senior Care Dallas - Your elderly loved one prefes to live at home and our CAREGivers are trained to help them remain safe and healthy at home. Call us at 972-239-3934.