Q – My dad was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The symptoms he’s exhibiting today are minimal, but I know that things won’t stay that way forever. As a family we’ve decided that the best thing for him is for me to care for him in his own home, but what can I expect and how can I deal with the emotional affects of being a family caregiver for a senior with Alzheimer’s?

A – People often underestimate just how difficult it can be for families of seniors who have received an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Often the affects upon them can be even more grave than for the seniors who are actually experiencing the changes, because you witness someone you love changing before your eyes; transforming into someone that you might not even recognize. As a caregiver, you will deal with these affects, and will be under a great deal of stress that comes with the responsibilities of providing physical care. You need to make sure that while taking care of your loved one, that you take the time to take care of yourself as well. Educate yourself about Alzheimer’s so you know what to expect, don’t be afraid of getting help from a home care agency for respite care when you need to escape, and join a support group for family caregivers like you so you can talk about what you’re dealing with emotionally. Becoming a family caregiver for a senior with Alzheimer’s is both the best and the hardest thing you’re likely to do in your life.

Sources:

1. Health and Age

2. ProQuest

Image Source: pro.corbis.com

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.

How do you know when it’s time for your Dallas senior to seek in home senior care help? While there are a number of ways that a professional caregiver can benefit seniors by helping them out around their Dallas homes, there are some seniors that are prime candidates for care who can also benefit the most from the senior care services.

• Seniors who struggle with Activities of Daily Living – seniors who struggle with dressing, bathing, preparing meals, taking their medications, or keeping up with chores around the home are ideal candidates for in-home senior care

• Seniors with declining mobility – seniors who are having changes with their balance and mobility may be at a greater risk of falling or having an accident in the home when trying to perform ADLs . By hiring a caregiver, safety issues can be addressed and prevented through additional help

• Seniors who have had to give up driving – seniors who no longer drive for whatever reason, would greatly benefit from the help of a caregiver who can take them to run errands or to appointments

• Seniors who don’t have family nearby – seniors who have the above problems but do not have family nearby to help them can benefit from in home care when there’s no one else out there to help them

• Seniors who have come out of the hospital or rehab – after seniors have been released from the hospital or rehab program and are in recovery, it’s better for seniors to have the help of a caregiver so they don’t put too much of a burden on their bodies by trying to care for themselves or their homes

• Seniors who suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia – safety may be an issue for seniors who struggle with their memories

Sources:

1. Elder Issues

Image Source: Home Instead Senior care

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.

Today there is an increased availability of home care for seniors suffering from all forms of aging related issues and illnesses. While many families believe that it’s not possible to care for seniors with Alzheimer’s at home, there are home care agencies in Dallas that can help keep even seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s living with some independence in their own homes with assistance. Home Instead Senior Care is one Dallas senior home care agency which specializes in providing in home care for seniors with Alzheimer’s. One of the best places for seniors with Alzheimer’s to live is in a place that’s familiar to them, and there’s nothing better than their own home. In order to accommodate this, Home Instead Senior Care provides the following Alzheimer’s care services in the home:

• Maintain a safe environment

• Manage changing behaviors

• Provide nutritious meals

• Provide mind-stimulating activities

• Create social interaction

• Supervise daily activities

When calling a home care agency to inquire about Alzheimer’s services, don’t hesitate to ask some questions to determine if they offer the services that are right for your loved one who is living with Alzheimer’s. A reputable and experienced senior home care agency that is comfortable dealing with Alzheimer’s, like Home Instead Senior Care should be more than prepared to put your mind at ease by answering the following questions.

• Does your staff have Alzheimer’s specific training?

• Does the agency cater to a large number of people with Alzheimer’s? How Many?

• Can the senior with Alzheimer’s spend some time with a prospective caregiver to make sure they are a good match before they are contracted for time?

• Can I check references of your agency regarding specific Alzheimer’s care experience?

Sources:

1. Alz Info
2. Home Instead Senior Care

Image Source: pro.corbis.net

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 my mother turned 75, she finally admitted that her home was becoming too much for her. Our family knew how much the memories in her home meant to her, especially since that’s where she had lived with my father during their retirement before he passed away. She didn’t want to give up her lifestyle or her memories, but she felt she would have to move on for the sake of her health. After talking to her primary physician about the situation, he suggested that it was possible to have the best of both worlds by hiring a Dallas professional caregiver. He said that rather than moving my mother into a nursing home or assisted living home in Dallas, she could maintain her lifestyle and independence by getting help at home in the areas she was struggling with. Sure enough, after hiring a caregiver to help my mother out, we saw fast changes and the stress had been lifted off my mother’s shoulders. Who knows what the future may bring, but for now my mother is happy and healthy, and she’s had the chance to keep her life!

- Susan, 49, Dallas

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.

After a senior has suffered from a medical emergency or accident, the last thing they need to worry about when returning home from a hospital or rehabilitation center is to worry about how they’re going to manage to take care of themselves and their Dallas home. After retuning home from the hospital, Dallas seniors need to focus on their recovery, regaining their strength and health so they can get on with their lives; however, this is a process that just cannot be rushed as much as they might want it to be. In order to help seniors with the transition from hospital or rehab to home, Home Instead Senior Care in-home caregivers can ensure that all seniors need to focus on is getting better and that they don’t take on any unnecessary burdens that might compromise their recovery.

Bringing a caregiver into a senior’s home can help them through the recovery process; Home Instead Senior Care’s caregivers can help seniors with dressing and bathing, getting in and out of bed, and can even help them to complete any assigned physiotherapy exercises. Having a caregiver help a senior around the house, also ensures that they don’t need to worry about maintaining their home, since caregivers can take care of those tasks; from light-housekeeping, to laundry, cooking and errand running.

Hire a home caregiver for your aging loved one when they leave the hospital, and know that all they need to worry about is their recovery.

Sources:

1. Caring.com

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 many home care agencies, you never know who’s going to turn up on a Dallas senior’s doorstep each day of their scheduled care. But what this means is that seniors never have the opportunity to trust, bond and form a friendship with their senior caregivers. At Home Instead Senior Care, we know that the right caregiver is one that a senior can get to know, begin to trust with their home and their care, and someone who will become an important companion. Every day a senior has home care scheduled, we send the same caregiver to provide consistency and because through our process we ensure that the caregiver sent is one that meshes with the senior’s personal needs and personality.

When we send a new caregiver to a senior’s home for the first time, we complete an in-depth assessment to evaluate the needs of the senior and the type of caregiver who would be best suited for the role. However, just because a senior has been sent a caregiver, doesn’t mean that they’re stuck with them forever. If a senior or their family is not satisfied with the caregiver, we will be happy to send a replacement that better meets the request.

Once the right caregiver has been matched with a senior, you’ll never be able to separate them!

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.

Image Source: happyhippy.vox.com

It’s known that at least 5% to 10% of Dallas seniors suffer from elder abuse, but many choose to suffer in silence, especially when their abuser is a family caregiver. Some seniors may be reluctant to report the abuse because they fear the consequences, which for some might be loss of support from the family, loss of independence, or a move to an undesired residence like an assisted living facility. Since many seniors won’t speak up when they’re being victimized by elder abuse, it’s our responsibility to look for the signs and speak for seniors when it comes to elder abuse to give them a voice.

How to Detect Elder Abuse

• The senior is showing physical signs of injury, including bruising, sprains and cuts

• There are bedsores on the senior’s body, which may show signs of neglect

• The senior seems to be tense and argumentative around his or her caregiver

• The senior has withdrawn from many social activities that they once enjoyed

• The senior’s general attitude has changed

• The senior refuses to seek treatment for any issues with drugs, alcohol or depression

• The senior tries to avoid the topic of his/her care

• The senior appears to be losing excessive amounts of weight

• The senior’s caregiver seems “too good to be true”, if you get the impression, that may very well be the case. A good caregiver should be open and honest about their dealings with a senior.

Sources:

Planning for Eldercare

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.

It’s no secret that when you are stressed, you’re more likely to get sick. During times of stress, Dallas seniors in particular, but people of all ages as well, find themselves more susceptible to colds and even more serious health problems like cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal problems and even some forms of cancer. But while it seems to be common knowledge that stress can make you sick, no one seems to know exactly why it occurs.

According to a recent study, Dallas seniors are getting sick due to stress because or a hormone called neuropeptide Y (NPY) which prevents proper immune system functioning. According to Professor Fabienne Mackay, lead researcher on the study, “During periods of stress, nerves release a lot of NPY and it gets into the bloodstream, where it directly impacts on the cells in the immune system that look out for and destroy pathogens (bacteria and viruses) in the body,”

In addition to the physical effects of stress, naturally, there are a number of emotional ones that older adults may face, including depression and anxiety. For many seniors, anything that causes change in their life can be a cause of stress; and this can occur in great numbers since much is uncertain in the lives of older adults, so appropriate stress management is important to prevent more serious health complications.

Sources:

1. Medical News Today
2. Medicine Online
3. The American Institute of Stress

www.inmagine.com

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 asked our readers in Dallas to share their worst doctor’s experiences when bringing their senior care recipient in for a medical consultation, and discovered that many caregivers have gripes about the doctor’s inability to speak to them in a language they understand. To help decipher medspeak, there are a few great online resources like The Medical Library Association and MedicineNet which define common and atypical medical terms in a way that’s easy to understand. To help take control of your senior’s medical care and understand the health information presented by a doctor, consult the above resources; but for now, enjoy one of our reader’s humorous horror stories about a visit to her mother’s doctor and a breakdown in communication.

Last year, I escorted my elderly mother to her family physician to have a rash looked at. During our first visit, the doctor was uncertain of the source of the rash; but by the second visit, she began to refer to it as “static”. Until we returned to the office the next time, we thought the doctor was blaming my mom’s rash on static, it turns out she was trying to refer to the fact that the condition of the rash had not changed. Meanwhile, I was trying to find a fabric softener that would reduce the static in my mom’s clothing!

Julie, 53

Sources:
1. Medical Library Association
2. MedicineNet

Image: www.marcumsmith.com

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.

Spring is approaching, and you know what that means? Time to start your spring cleaning! This year, when you go through each of the rooms in your house to declutter and get rid of items that you no longer need, keep that important senior in your life in mind. Seniors on a limited budget might find treasure in what you conceive as trash from every room in your home.

When going through your wardrobe and cleaning out your closest, consider the clothing items that you could donate to your elderly mother or grandmother. While you might feel some of the items are outdated because they no longer meet the season’s trends, the senior in your life might be concerned more about function than fashion. If you are looking to get rid of furniture during spring cleaning, this also might be appreciated by a senior. Even a gently worn couch can be brought to life with a creative slip cover and a few cushions, so to a senior, it’s like getting all new furniture.

If during your spring cleaning you decide it’s time to trade up your home electronics, like a computer, television or CD player to something more technologically advanced, don’t throw them away! While a senior might not invest in modern technologies, a computer can enhance their lifestyle and they can get their hands on more current electronics without the expense.

Spring cleaning in Dallas means starting new – so give your senior a fresh start, too!

Sources:

1. Michigan Home Care Blog

2. About.com

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.