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What Are the Benefits of Elder Care for Seniors with Chronic Health Issues?

Chronic health issues are ones that continue for a long period of time and that can seriously limit your senior’s activities of daily living. Some chronic health issues are serious and progressive, like COPD or heart disease. Others, like arthritis, may bring good days and bad ones. Whatever chronic health issues your senior is facing, elder care professionals may make a difference in how she experiences life. They can do this by offering various types of support depending on your senior’s needs.

Improved Quality of Life

Chronic health issues take a toll on your senior’s overall quality of life and often in an unpredictable way. It can be a lot more difficult to do regular daily tasks, like preparing meals and even driving to appointments, for instance. Elder care professionals can make all of those tasks much easier on your elderly family member. They are also able to offer emotional support and companionship that helps your elderly family member to feel a lot less alone when she’s facing difficult days.

Increased Safety

Home care professionals also understand what types of safety issues to watch out for in your senior’s home. They’re able to address simple issues, like correcting tripping hazards and unhygienic conditions that can contribute to your senior’s health concerns. They’re also able to ensure that your senior is able to be safely mobile in her home and when she’s out and about. All of this provides great peace of mind for your senior and for you.

Lowered Stress Levels

Living with a chronic health issue is incredibly stressful. Depending on the health complications your elderly family member is facing, she may find that it’s challenging to make even simple decisions like what to eat next. Working with caregivers helps your elderly family member to be able to hand off some tasks to someone else who is there to make her life easier. Just knowing that there is someone there can allow your elderly family member to rest more often and feel a lot less pressure.

Greater Levels of Independence

It might sound counterintuitive to hear that having help from elder care professionals can lead to greater levels of independence, but it’s true. Your elderly family member may only need a little bit of help in order to conserve her energy to be able to keep doing the things that she can still do on her own. That is a huge relief to her and can allow her to continue to handle much of her daily needs personally. When she does need help, it’s right there for her.

Elder care professionals offer your elderly family member a chance to remain in her own home, safely and comfortably, even while she manages her chronic health issues. If she does need more assistance with her daily tasks, caregivers are there to offer that additional support to make her life easier. As her family caregiver, you have got tremendous peace of mind knowing that your elderly family member has the help that she needs.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING ELDER CARE IN MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY. (408) 317-4969

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Five Facts to Know About Aspergillosis

February 1st is World Aspergillosis Day. As this isn’t a disease that is routinely tracked, it’s hard to know just how many people have it. The CDC estimates that 14,000 hospitalizations in 2014 were caused by aspergillosis. It’s also been estimated that 4.8 million people with asthma also have aspergillosis

Aspergillus Is Everywhere

What is it? Aspergillus is a mold that’s commonly found in households and outdoor environments. It’s in the soil, grass, moss, etc. Some people have minor symptoms that are no different from common allergies. People with weakened immune systems may experience troubling symptoms.

There Are Six Types of Aspergillosis

In general, there are six types of aspergillosis.

  • Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis – Aspergillus causes lung inflammation.

  • Allergic Aspergillus Sinusitis – Aspergillus irritates and causes inflammation in the sinuses.

  • Aspergilloma – Aspergillus grows within the lungs and forms a “fungus ball.”

  • Azole-Resistant Aspergillus Fumigatus – Aspergillosis becomes resistant to medications commonly used to treat the disease.

  • Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis – Aspergillus creates pockets in the lungs to create long-term illness.

  • Cutaneous Aspergillosis – The mold gets into a burn, cut, or scratch on the skin and causes infection.

  • Invasive Aspergillosis – Aspergillus gets into a person with a weakened immune system and greatly impacts the lungs and can spread throughout the body causing multiple infections.

Symptoms Are Commonly Found In Other Conditions

One of the biggest problems with aspergillosis is that the common symptoms are found in your common cold, allergies, or flu. A runny nose, sinus congestion, and cough are the most prevalent. Sometimes, fever, difficulty breathing, weight loss, and fatigue are also present. It’s often not until someone is coughing up blood that they seek medical care.

If your mom’s home or yard is particularly moldy, it’s best to ask her doctor about the chances of aspergillosis being present. It won’t impact her much unless she has a weakened immune system. At that point, she may need to take antifungal medications.

Higher Rates of Aspergillosis Are Found In People With Other Conditions

Generally, people never realize they’ve been exposed to these mold spores, but some people with weaker lungs or a weakened immune system do show signs of having aspergillosis. This includes people who’ve undergone organ transplants, have cystic fibrosis, or had COVID.

It’s Difficult to Avoid Exposure

As aspergillus is found in the soil, on plants, and even in the air when people mow lawns, till the soil, or remove moss, it’s hard to avoid exposure. Your mom can wear an N-95 mask when outside, stop gardening, and use an air purifier within her home. It’s still not guaranteed that she won’t breathe in these mold spores.

If she has a weak immune system, she should talk to her doctor to make sure her allergy, cold, or flu symptoms aren’t something more. If it’s determined she has aspergillosis, hire senior home care.

Your mom will want to take it easy. Hire caregivers to clean her home, do the laundry, and change air purifier filters as needed. Call a senior home care specialist to discuss schedules and prices.

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/aspergillosis/statistics.html

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING SENIOR HOME CARE IN CAMPBELL, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY. (408) 317-4969

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How to Choose the Home Care Services Your Mom Needs

Your mom lives alone, and her ability to properly take care of herself concerns you. She wants to age in place, but you want to keep her safe. Home care services are the best compromise.

While it’s clear your mom needs help, it’s harder to know exactly what services best meet her needs. Here are some of the best ways to decide what help she needs.

Spend a Day With Her

Spend a day with your mom and keep a mental list of the things she’s unable to do on her own. When you have to take over a task, note it for one of the home care services she’d need.

Take her out driving, if she’s still allowed to. While you’re out assess her braking distances, how quickly she reacts to sudden obstacles, and whether she stays in her lane or not. Is she stopping in time for lights and taking corners tight enough? If not, it’s time for her to give up her keys.

See what she’s eating. If she tends to eat more frozen pizzas and canned soups than she does a home-cooked meal, it’s time to consider making meal preparation services part of her weekly routine.

Explore Her Home

Take time to look around your mom’s home. Be as discreet as you can to keep from upsetting her. You’re looking for how well she’s keeping up with things like laundry, sweeping, taking out the trash, and stocking her pantry, fridge, and freezer with the foods she should be eating and the household supplies she needs.

Are her bills organized and paid on time? Do you see any late notices or disconnection warnings? How are her bank accounts? If she’ll let you, get access or even added to her accounts so that you can monitor her spending for situations like overdrafts, bounced checks, or unusual payments that can be a sign she’s falling for scams.

Make sure her home is free of safety issues like torn carpeting, loose railings, and burned-out lightbulbs. Replace bulbs if she needs any of the replaced, and fix loose railings to prevent falls on the stairs. Check her bathroom and see if she has grab bars installed. If not, they should be.

Ask Her for Input

Ask your mom what she struggles to complete each day. If she had help, what would she want her aide to take care of? She might want someone else cooking meals and cleaning her home. She may hate going grocery shopping on her own. Her caregiver can do all of this for her.

Arrange Home Care

Home care services make a big difference in your mom’s life. Make sure you arrange the services she needs to maintain her independence as she ages at home. A specialist can answer your questions, explain pricing, and schedule the services your mom needs.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING HOME CARE IN LOS GATOS, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY. (408) 317-4969

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What Can Your Senior Do to Maintain Her Hair as She Ages?

As your elderly family member grows older, she’s likely to experience changes in how her hair grows and what it needs. Finding the best ways to take care of your senior’s hair might mean trying out some techniques that are new for her as well as making other changes to her routines.

Keep Genetics in Mind

If your elderly family member is frustrated with something she’s experiencing with her hair, like breakage or loss, it’s helpful to consider aspects like genetics. Some of these hair characteristics can be connected to family history, and there might not be much your aging family member can do to avoid or reduce the impact of genetics on her hair health. Accounting for those genetic issues can help her and you to make better decisions about her hair care going forward.

Dietary Choices Affect Things Like Hair Health

As with every other area of your senior’s health, what she chooses to eat and the nutrients that she gets have a lot to do with how well her hair is going to fare. Hair is not alive, of course, but at the point where it starts to leave her scalp, your senior’s hair is going to be greatly influenced by what she’s eating. So, finding ways for her to eat the healthiest meals possible can help somewhat. Personal care at home can take a lot of the frustration out of cooking healthy foods.

Take Gentle Care of Her Hair

Most people don’t realize the different factors that cause hair damage. And for aging adults, it’s even more important to be gentle with fragile hair. Dragging a brush roughly through tangles is likely to create a lot of damage, so it’s important to do everything possible to avoid breaking hair. Comb hair gently, using either conditioner while the hair is wet or detangling spray if the hair is dry. Avoid hairstyles that tug the hair or that put stress along the hairline. It’s also a good idea to avoid bleaching hair or using other chemical processes.

Prioritize Reducing Current Damage

Some damage just can’t be undone with hair, which is why frequent trims to remove dead and split ends can be a good idea. Scalp massages can help to stimulate hair growth while also relaxing your elderly family member. Using gentle cleansing and conditioning products on her hair also helps quite a bit.

Get Help with Hair Care from Personal Care at Home

The truth of it is that caring for your senior’s hair can feel complicated for you and maybe impossible for her, depending on her health issues. Personal care at home can make hair care so much easier and even safer for your elderly family member. Caregivers can make quick work of hair care for your elderly family member while also pampering her and helping her to feel her best.

Keeping up with your senior’s hair care needs is a crucial part of daily hygiene. That’s a lot easier with the right techniques and the right assistance.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING PERSONAL CARE AT HOME IN LOS GATOS, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY (408) 317-4969

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How Family Members Can Help Seniors After Surgery

If your senior loved one has recently had a surgery and is now at home, you may be wondering how you can support their recovery. Post-hospital care for seniors who are recovering at home is something that is strongly recommended after they come home from having surgery. There are some things that only skilled medical professionals can do for your senior loved one and post-hospital care is the best way to make sure that your senior loved one doesn’t need to return to the hospital. Some of the ways that post hospital care supports seniors who are recovering from surgery are:

Transferring Safely

Seniors who are recovering from surgery will very likely need help to get safely out of bed. Whether they are going to sit on the couch or in a chair or just need to get up and go to the bathroom it may be painful and difficult for them to get up. A skilled medical professional can help your senior loved one safely get up and around no matter what their size or what surgery they had. There’s a big risk of your senior loved one falling or becoming injured if they don’t get care from a trained medical professional after a surgery.

Wound And Incision Care

After a senior has surgery it’s very important for someone with medical training to clean their incision site and any wounds that remain. If the incision side or any wounds become infected your senior loved one may need antibiotics or other medications. And if the incision isn’t healing well the doctor may want to examine it but only a trained medical professional can tell if the incision is healing well or not.

Medication Management

After surgery your senior loved one probably has a lot of medications that they need to take, including pain medication that has to be given under very specific conditions. Post-hospital care includes medication monitoring as well as things like calling in prescriptions to the pharmacy and watching for any potential drug interactions with medications that your senior loved one was already taking. Because the medications given after surgery can be very potent it’s best to have a medical professional monitoring their use to make sure your senior loved one is using them correctly.

Medical Monitoring

There are a lot of medical complications that can pop up after a surgery. In order to make sure that your senior loved one gets medical attention right away if a complication comes up having post-hospital care at home around the clock is important. If your senior loved one develops a blood clot or has some other medical situation that needs immediate medical attention a medical professional will be on site to take care of it or get emergency help if your senior loved one needs to go back to the hospital. Having a skilled medical professional in the home with your senior loved one will give you and your senior parent peace of mind.

 

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING POST-HOSPITAL CARE IN SANTA CLARA, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY. (408) 317-4969

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5 Tips Your Senior Can Use to Age in Place Gracefully

Your elderly family member may have shared with you that she wants to stay in her home for as long as she possibly can. That’s called aging in place and it’s a decision that you might be a little bit nervous about on behalf of your senior. Finding the right answers to meet her needs can mean being a little bit creative and enlisting the help of services like companion care at home.

Look into Smart Home Solutions

Keeping up with household tasks is one of those things that gets more complicated as your senior gets older. Luckily, more and more technological advances help to make life easier, especially for your aging adult. Controlling things like the thermostat or even smart light bulbs from a tablet or smartphone is something that helps your elderly family member to stay in control of her environment without a lot of added effort.

Skip Heavy Cleaning Supplies

In the past, your elderly family member might have had no problem cleaning her home with heavy-duty chemicals. But her needs might be a lot different now, particularly if she has health issues like asthma. Heavy chemicals, especially ones containing bleach, can be too much for her. Using greener cleaning methods, like lemons, baking soda, and vinegar could be a better option. An even better option is for home care professionals to help her out with the cleaning.

Find Ways to Reduce Clutter

Clutter is your senior’s enemy. There are the little forms of clutter that she really needs to avoid, like paper clutter. And then there are the bigger problems with clutter, like piles of items clogging up pathways or items your senior really doesn’t need taking up space in her home. Reducing clutter as much as possible helps your elderly family member to live the life she really wants to live, and on her own terms.

Help Your Senior to Stay Socially Active

As your elderly family member ages, it may become much more difficult for her to be as social as she truly needs to be. Companion care at home is an excellent solution for this problem. Companion care at home stops by and spends time with your aging family member. They can also help her to get where she needs to go if driving is difficult for her.

Make Sure You’ve Got an Accurate Picture of Her Situation

Another way that companion care at home can help your senior to age in place is by keeping you apprised of what’s going on with her. The more accurate your information is about her situation, the more you can provide the help that she needs the most. When you live far away from your senior, you need all the help you can get to assess how she’s doing.

Aging in place is entirely possible, even if your elderly family member is facing health challenges. The key is to make sure that she has the help that she needs to manage those challenges in the most effective ways possible.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING COMPANION CARE AT HOME IN LOS ALTOS, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY. (408) 317-4969

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What are Some of the Benefits of Home Care Services?

It’s extremely common for seniors to determine fairly early on that they want to remain in their homes for as long as possible. This is also called aging in place, and it’s a lot easier when your senior has the right help, especially from home care services and from you and other family members.

Ensure Safer Mobility
A big concern for your senior might be her mobility. Your senior may be starting to have more difficulty walking and managing balance issues. She could also be at a stage of life in which she needs to reconsider activities like driving. Having home care professionals helping with all aspects of safer mobility can be an important addition to her care plan.

Offer Reminders to Stay on Target
There may be a variety of different aspects of your senior’s care plan and daily habits that she wants to make sure she remembers. Caregivers can help her to stay on track with those plans by giving her gentle reminders as needed. Those reminders might involve eating on time, testing blood pressure regularly, or drinking water throughout the day.

Manage Safety Concerns
Safety is something to pay close attention to when it comes to aging in place. Home care providers are able to spot safety issues that you or your senior might have overlooked. If improvements or modifications would help your senior to be safer, it’s important to know what changes you can put in place. Another important safety factor is staying alert for signs of increased fall risks, and caregivers can alert you when they notice something that could be a problem for your senior.

Help with Personal Care Tasks
As your elderly family member’s health and abilities change, she may need more help with activities like getting dressed or taking a shower. These are called personal care tasks and they’re often something that might make your elderly family member consider changing her living situation. A little help regularly from home care professionals can make all the difference in letting her stay in her own home.

Assist with Light Housekeeping Duties
Maintaining her home might be more difficult for your senior as well, and that can be a deciding factor in whether she’s able to stay there in the long run. Caregivers can assist with some light housekeeping tasks while they’re helping your senior with other aspects of her life. Even a little bit of help with household tasks can do a lot for your elderly family member.

Offer a Friendly Face
Your senior’s social life can gradually decline until she’s no longer seeing people as often as she used to. This can lead to isolation and other emotional challenges that are avoidable. When she has home care providers there with her on a regular basis, your elderly family member has friendly socialization opportunities that can help her to overcome those challenges.

What your elderly family member needs in order to age in place may change over time, but senior care providers can help her to find the right balance throughout those different shifts.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING HOME CARE IN PALO ALTO, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY. (408) 317-4969

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Super Caring Star Award

2023 Caring Star
Home Helpers of Santa Clara Valley has been named a Caring Super Star for the fifth year in a row for service excellence in home care by the #1 ratings site in our industry, Caring.com. That puts us among the country’s top agencies! We could not have earned this 5- star rating without our dedicated caregivers, office staff, and amazing clients who allow us to care for them!

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Six Reasons Your Senior Really Does Need to Be More Physically Active

When your elderly family member has a real reason to be physically active, it can be a lot easier for her to embrace that habit and to keep it going. With the help of in-home care professionals, your elderly family member can prioritize moving more and make it a bigger part of her daily routine.

Moods and Mental Health

Exercise and just moving more can do so much for your elderly family member’s mental health, including mood regulation, depression, and anxiety. Your elderly family member doesn’t have to run marathons to seek out a runner’s high but having a regular routine for moving more is a good idea. Always clear any new exercise plans with her doctor to make sure that it’s safe for her first.

Brain Health

Your senior’s brain is also going to benefit from being more physically active. Increasing your elderly family member’s movement can help with memory and can lower the risks of developing dementia and other cognitive diseases later. Again, it doesn’t take a lot of physical activity to reap these benefits.

Functional Health

Functional health involves activities of daily living. That is to say, the activities that your elderly family member needs and wants to do simply because they’re part of life. These are activities like getting out of bed, eating and cooking meals, and bathing. Moving more ensures that your senior can keep doing as much as she can for as long as she can. Even so, having help now and again from home care providers can make life easier for your senior.

Chronic Health Conditions

If your elderly family member has chronic health issues like heart disease, diabetes, or COPD, exercise can help to reduce the impact of that illness on her daily life. It’s important that your aging family member knows exactly what type of exercise and how much is right for her. Her doctors can help her to formulate a plan that works for her needs.

Appetite

Some seniors find that as they age, their appetite shrinks and it’s more difficult to eat as much as they should in order to stay healthy. Being more physically active can help your senior to keep her appetite from decreasing. Having help from senior care professionals is also important in terms of helping your senior to keep eating healthy meals on schedule.

Quality of Life

Being more physically active helps your elderly family member’s overall quality of life because it addresses all of the above as well as simply helping your senior to feel better. When your senior feels better, is stronger, and is sleeping better, she’s more likely to have a happier overall experience in her everyday life. That’s all an important part of living the life that she wants to live.

Setting up a realistic daily routine that includes physical activity as well as her other needs is so much easier for your elderly family member with the help of in-home care professionals. They’re able to keep her on target and help out where necessary so that she can experience as many benefits as possible from being more active.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING IN-HOME CARE IN SARATOGA, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY. (408) 317-4969

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5 Tips for a Senior Living with GERD

Does your senior seem to have heartburn all the time? It might actually be GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease. November 20th through 26th this year is GERD Awareness Week, so it might be a good time to talk with her doctor about what your senior is experiencing. If your elderly family member is indeed battling GERD, personal care at home can help her to deal with some of her symptoms.

Learn What Triggers Her GERD Symptoms

There are lots of different things that can trigger GERD symptoms. For some people, food and drinks can trigger GERD, as can eating too much, lying in the wrong positions, or even wearing tight clothing that restricts bodily movement. Learning what triggers symptoms for your senior might mean doing things like talking to her doctors as well as keeping a journal for a few weeks. Tracking everything from sleep to food intake can help to narrow down some triggers.

Stick with the Care Plan Recommended by Her Doctor

When she’s diagnosed with GERD, your senior’s doctor is likely to put together a care plan for her. This care plan might include recommendations related to diet and exercise as well as medications. If your elderly family member doesn’t stick with that care plan, she’s more likely to have issues related to GERD and her symptoms may become a lot worse.

Make Some Changes at Home

As odd as it might sound, putting some changes in place at your senior’s home can help her GERD quite a lot. For instance, elevating her mattress at night with a bed wedge or switching to an adjustable bed frame can help her to be more comfortable at night. Switching up her meals to include smaller portion sizes and more frequent meals can help her to eat more comfortably. Home care providers can be a huge help in making some of these changes to your senior’s routines.

Encourage Her to Drink More Water

How much water is your elderly family member drinking? You and she might both be surprised to find that she’s not drinking as much as she really thinks she is. And having a little bit more water each day can do a lot to help your senior’s body to have the hydration it needs and also help to reduce GERD symptoms. Caregivers can easily remind your senior throughout the day to sip more water.

Do What You Can to Help Her to Have Less Stress

Stress isn’t great for all sorts of health issues, including GERD. If your elderly family member is dealing with other health issues or with situations that cause her to experience heightened stress, work with her to figure out how you can lower her stress levels a bit. This could involve all sorts of solutions from helping her to embrace mindfulness tools to bringing in personal care at home to make her life easier and safer.

If your elderly family member’s GERD symptoms seem to be getting worse instead of better and she’s adopted some healthier habits, talk with her doctor about what other solutions might be helpful.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING PERSONAL CARE AT HOME IN SARATOGA, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY (408) 317-4969

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