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What Can Your Senior Do to Avoid Falls?

Falls are a much bigger issue for your senior the older she gets. As your elderly family member ages, it’s ever more crucial for her to accurately and fully assess her fall risk and do everything that she can to avoid the possibility of sustaining a fall. Here is information that can help her to avoid a fall, and how senior home care can support her safety at home.

Talk with Her Doctor

The first step for your senior is to talk with her doctor. Your elderly family member needs to fully understand all of her risk factors as well as any complications that may contribute to falling. Her doctor can help her to put the beginnings of a fall-prevention plan in place.

Exercise, if Her Doctor Agrees

One of the major factors that your senior’s doctor may suggest is that your senior should start exercising. Exercise that builds her strength, improves her balance, and helps her to be more flexible can be hugely helpful when it comes to avoiding a fall. The major key for your senior is to find exercise that she enjoys doing so that she wants to stick with it.

Keep up with Other Screening Tests

Your senior may need to visit other specialists besides her primary care physician. Getting her hearing and vision checked, for example, can help to find other possible issues that could contribute to a fall. Understanding what else your senior is battling helps you to put additional safety steps in place to help her remain safe.

Prioritize Home Safety

Home safety is another vital step for your senior. If she hasn’t already, she needs to look at spaces where she can install grab bars, remove any tripping hazards, and overall be willing to make other changes that could prevent a fall. Making changes in her home may feel like something she wants to avoid, but it’s not negotiable if she’s going to stay safe.

Wear Sturdy Shoes at Home

Shoes may seem like an odd safety requirement for your senior at home, but they’re worth looking at more closely. If your elderly family member is in the habit of being barefoot or wearing only socks, that can cause some safety issues for her when it comes to falls. Sturdy shoes with a non-slip sole are a much better option, but they can take some getting used to if your aging family member isn’t accustomed to wearing shoes at home.

Accept Help from Senior Home Care

If your elderly family member has always been fiercely independent, then accepting help from home care providers may feel impossible to her. But the truth is that senior home care can do a lot to ensure that your senior is as safe as possible. They can help her with daily activities and they can also be on the lookout for serious safety concerns that need to be corrected.

Helping your senior to avoid a fall involves looking at a wide range of possible factors that could contribute to a fall. When you and your aging family member are as thorough as possible about this, it’s going to pay off for her.

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

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Five Mistakes Your Senior Might Make After a Fall

No one wants their senior family member to fall, and for good reason. Falls are incredibly dangerous for older adults and they open the door for some very serious injuries that can change her entire life. but it’s easy to make mistakes after a fall, even with good intentions. Here are just a few of the mistakes your senior might have made after a fall or a near miss.

Not Telling You that She Fell

It’s extremely common for seniors to experience either a fall or a near fall and then never mention it to you. You might think that wouldn’t happen with your senior, but there are a variety of different factors that would cause her to make that decision. Either she’s embarrassed by the fall, she doesn’t realize how significant a fall is, or she doesn’t want to talk about what a fall might mean for her. Regardless, not telling you about the fall means you’re not as able to help her as you could be.

Letting Fear Keep Her from Moving Much

Another big mistake that is common after a fall is for aging adults to become afraid of moving in their own home. This is a mistake because it makes whatever caused the fall worse. For instance, medication side effects aren’t dealt with properly, she may continue to lose muscle tone, and she’s more likely to fall again. It’s vital that if your senior has fallen she does what she needs to do to recover and to remain strong to reduce the likelihood of falling again.

Ignoring Pain

Pain after a fall is not uncommon at all, especially if your senior has other health issues like arthritis. But if she’s ignoring that pain, she could be ignoring a big injury from her fall. This is another reason it’s so important for you to know when your elderly family member has fallen so that you can help her to assess possible injuries as quickly as possible.

Refusing to Follow Her Doctor’s Orders

After a fall, your senior’s doctor may recommend that she makes some changes to her life. Those changes might involve medications, using assistive devices, or exercising more often. But if your elderly family member ignores her doctor’s orders, she may inadvertently be increasing her fall risk on her own and that’s really dangerous for her to do.

Not Accepting Help

Hiring home care assistance after a fall is a good idea. Senior care providers are able to assist your aging family member with mobility issues and anything else that needs attention, like reducing fall risk factors. But if your senior is reluctant to accept help, she may be prolonging her own recovery time. Home care assistance can make your senior’s life a lot easier and safer, without restricting her or diminishing her independence.

Recovering from a fall the right way is so vital for your senior. If she’s making some of these mistakes, it’s important to try to get her to understand why she needs to make a change.

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

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What Services Does In-Home Care Include?

Have you ever looked into in-home care? There’s a lot to it. Some care services cover hygiene and grooming. Others are focused on services entailing cleaning and organization. What are the different services included with in-home care, and how do you know what your dad needs help with the most? Here are some of the more popular services.

Companionship

Your dad doesn’t like being alone all day, every day. Companion care aides stop by and keep your dad company. He’ll have someone around he can play games with, watch movies with, or go for walks together.

He might not want to go to his appointments alone. His caregiver can accompany him and sit with him in the waiting room until it’s his turn.

Housekeeping Services

In-home care services cover housekeeping tasks like cleaning floors, washing dishes, and dusting. A caregiver can sanitize hard surfaces like counters, sinks, light switches, phones, and remotes. Floors are swept, and carpets are vacuumed.

Housekeeping services also offer assistance with laundry. Your dad’s caregiver can wash and dry clothing, iron wrinkles out of shirts and pants, and fold everything. When clothes and linens are folded, his caregiver can put items away.

If your dad has a dishwasher, his caregiver can load it, turn it on, and put items away when they’re clean. Caregivers can also make your dad’s bed, change the sheets, and replace dirty towels with fresh ones.

Hygiene and Grooming Services

Sometimes, personal care services are more important. Your dad needs help getting in and out of the shower. He may need someone to wash his hair as shoulder pain keeps him from lifting his hands to his head.

His caregiver helps your dad shave, trim his toenails, and dry off. The caregiver helps him get dressed, style his hair, and apply moisturizer. If he needs help brushing his teeth and using dental floss, that’s another option with in-home care services.

If your dad needs help with toileting, that’s an option. His caregiver reminds him to go to the bathroom before he has an accident and helps him clean up if he does have one.

Meal Planning and Preparation Services

Meal planning services are helpful as your dad sits down with his caregiver and creates a weekly menu. If he needs groceries, his caregiver brings him grocery shopping and assists him in the store. He could also work with his caregiver to place an online order and have it delivered or picked up.

When it’s time to eat, his caregiver prepares ingredients and cooks the meal. While it’s cooking, the caregiver cleans the kitchen. If your dad doesn’t want to eat by himself, his caregiver can join him.

Transportation

Your dad no longer is allowed to drive a car. Instead of rearranging your schedule to be free on appointment days, hire an in-home care aide to drive him around. His caregiver can drive him to medical and dental offices, stores, post offices, and other area businesses.

Once you know what would most help your dad remain independent, call a specialist in in-home care. The representative helps you arrange services and better understand prices and frequency. Reach out to an in-home care agency today.

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

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What Can You Do for a Senior with Insomnia?

Insomnia is a much bigger deal for your elderly family member than she might think. She might even make it worse accidentally by deciding to do things like nap during the day to make up for lost sleep. Getting through those issues is a lot easier with your help, as well as help from her doctor and home care assistance.

Determine What’s Contributing to the Insomnia

Very often there are underlying causes for insomnia that are the actual primary issue. Trouble with blood pressure, cognitive changes, blood sugar issues, and so many other health issues can all be contributing factors to insomnia. Your senior is most likely to notice the trouble sleeping and believe that’s the primary issue, however. Talk with your aging family member’s doctor about possible causes for her insomnia and see if there’s anything that can be shifted or adjusted to make sleep more likely.

Address Cognitive Changes

Cognitive changes are common in people who are dealing with insomnia. If your elderly family member is having new issues with memory or other difficulties, it might be a good idea to talk with her doctor about whether these are normal changes or something more. When you have that answer, you can start thinking about next steps.

Work on Setting Routines with the Help of Home Care Assistance

Home care providers are excellent at helping your elderly family member to embrace a routine that supports what she needs. If the insomnia is caused or worsened by your elderly family member’s chaotic schedule, then having a routine that eases her through all of the high points of her day can help her to naturally wind down and be ready for sleep at a good time for her.

Stick to a Solid Afternoon Schedule

The key to your elderly family member’s routine is often in her afternoon schedule. Avoiding naps and making sure that she’s sticking to foods and drinks that allow her to get the sleep she needs can make a big difference when it comes to the time when your senior wants to start winding down for bed. At first that afternoon schedule may need some tweaking, and home care assistance can be right there.

Put a Solution in Place for Overnight Difficulties

Overnight can be another problem area for your elderly family member. If she is able to fall asleep easily, sometimes the issue is that she can’t stay asleep easily. Elder care providers there with her overnight can help her to remember that she’s got assistance if she needs it. They can also make sure that she’s getting up on time in the morning, which is the other important part of having a sleep hygiene schedule that works well for your senior.

It might be difficult for your elderly family member to find the exact right answer for her right away. With time and a little bit of adjusting here and there, though, she’ll be able to make some headway on getting the sleep that she needs.

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

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Best Ways to Encourage and Help Your Elderly Loved One

You are thinking about all the ways you can help your elderly loved one and you have ended up right here. The truth is that many family members are concerned about their elderly loved ones. They think they are lonely, stressed, frustrated, and possibly going to be unhealthy, too. These things could be true. However, it might be a good idea to focus on the positive, so you can best encourage and help your elderly loved one.

Filling in the Gaps

The best way to encourage and help your elderly loved one is to fill in the gaps. This can be started by having some conversations with your elderly loved one. That way, you can find out what they do, in fact, need help with. You don’t just want to go over to their house and start giving out orders or taking over chores without knowing if they need help. By having these conversations, you can start filling in the gaps where help is actually needed.

Getting Others to Help

Do you have a lot already going on in your life, but you want to help your elderly loved one, too? It can be tough to balance everything, but you don’t have to do it on your own. You can hire 24-hour home care providers to help during the evening and nighttime hours. That way, you can have those hours to take care of other things you need to do. These home care providers can also stay with your elderly loved one in the morning or daytime, if needed, too. You can come over when you have the time.

Good Listening Skills

Another way that you can help and encourage your elderly loved one is by practicing good listening skills. How are you supposed to know what your elderly loved one needs if you aren’t actually paying attention to what they are saying? For instance, people often jump to conclusions when they hear someone say something. You might jump to the conclusion that your elderly loved one can’t live alone, when they are really just saying they don’t want to be alone at night. If that is the case, you can just hire 24-hour home care providers to stay at your elderly loved one’s house through the nighttime hours. That way, they don’t feel lonely or scared staying on their own. This is something that senior citizens generally want after their spouse passes away, but it can happen at other times, too.

Conclusion

Do you want to help and encourage your elderly loved one? If so, the first step is to talk to them and see what it is they need help with. After you have done this, you can work with the 24-hour home care providers to see who is going to help your elderly loved one and when. It would also help to practice good listening skills, so you are fully listening to what it is that your elderly loved one really wants.

Sources

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/aging-place-growing-older-home

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING 24-HOUR HOME CARE IN SANTA CLARA, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY (408) 317-4969.

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Home Care Assistance Helps Seniors Recover From A Heart Attack At Home

If your senior loved one has recently had a heart attack and is being discharged from the hospital or rehab, one essential resource is home care assistance. Home care assistance can provide peace of mind for you and make sure that your senior loved one is getting the rest they need during the important recovery period. After a heart attack rest is usually the most important part of the recovery. Seniors who are aging in place and need to take care of a home, cook meals, shop, and do other tasks can rely on home care assistance to help with all of these things. Home care can also help seniors recovering from a heart attack with things like:

Personal Care

Taking it easy is important for anyone that is recovering from a heart attack. If your senior loved one needs assistance with things like getting in and out of bed, using the bathroom, taking a shower, or getting dressed a care provider can help with delicate tasks that might be awkward or embarrassing for you to help with. If you can’t be with your senior loved one every day after the heart attack it’s a good idea to have home care assistance so that your senior loved one isn’t alone during their recovery.

Household Maintenance

Being in their familiar home can help your senior loved one recover more quickly, but while they are recovering the maintenance of the home still needs to be done. Snow needs to be shoveled, or the lawn needs to be mowed depending on the season. Trash needs to be taken out. If there are pets the pets need to be fed and dogs need to be walked. Cats need to have the litter box cleaned. All of these tasks can be physically demanding and too much for your senior loved one while they recover.

Laundry

Laundry is another hefty household task that your senior loved one will need help with while they recover from a heart attack. After a heart attack seniors shouldn’t be exerting themselves by carrying large baskets of laundry, especially up and down stairs. Lifting wet clothes, towels, and bedding to put them in the dryer can also be very strenuous and physically difficult. It’s best to let a care provider do the heavy lifting and let your senior loved one focus on recovering.

Shopping And Errands

Getting dressed, going to the store, running errands, and carrying the shopping are not recommended for most heart attack patients. While your senior parent recuperates at home, let a home care provider take care of things like shopping, mailing letters, planning meals, and doing other errands. That way your senior parent can recover from a heart attack in the peace and quiet of their home without getting stressed out worrying whether or not the household chores and tasks are getting done the way they should.

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

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Making Sure Your Senior Parent Gets the Support She Needs

One of the challenges family caregivers face is realizing that they can’t keep a promise they made to a parent. You promised your mom that if she ever needed long-term care, you’d be her caregiver. However, you’re facing health or work issues of your own and can’t keep that promise.

You feel like a failure. The reality is that things happen, and it doesn’t make you a failure at all. You can still help her by making sure she has the care and support she needs. These are the steps to take.

Spend a Day With Your Mom

Arrange a full day where you’ll watch your mom. See what she’s able to do on her own and where she asks you for help. When she asks you to help out, take a note of those chores as they’re the areas where your mom needs assistance.

Some of the areas you want to watch closely include what she makes for meals and how often she’s snacking or eating foods that have little nutritional value. If she’s relying heavily on frozen pizzas, granola bars, and flavored yogurts, they’re high in sugar, saturated fat, and processed carbs that aren’t the best options.

You want to see if she’s able to do chores like vacuum the stairs and carpets. If her vacuum is heavier or she trips on the cord, it’s time to address the need for help with housekeeping. Does she change her sheets regularly? How often does she do her laundry?

Take her shopping. Does she buy items she doesn’t need? Is she spending more than she should? She may need help building shopping lists and purchasing ingredients.

Is she taking medications each day? Pay attention to when she takes them. If she forgets about them and realizes hours later that she missed a dose, it may be time to set up a system that reminds her. Medication reminders from a person may be the most effective.

Figure Out What You Can Manage

Now that you have a better picture of your mom’s care needs, look over the list. How many of those tasks can you help her do without impacting your needs? If she needs someone cooking meals each day, it’s not practical to be the one doing this when you have a full-time job.

Other family members may be available to fill in gaps. Work together to build a weekly schedule where your mom has others helping out. When you’re done, see if there are days and times when no one is available. Those days and times are when you want to hire in-home care aides.

Arrange In-Home Care

Once you’ve gone over the tasks your mom can and cannot do independently, make a list of the services you feel would benefit her. From there, call a home care agency and talk to an expert about scheduling and pricing.

You’ll go over your mom’s daily routine, the things you’ve noticed she can and cannot do, and create a care plan together. After this discussion, you’ll book services.

With in-home care services, your mom has the support she needs and you’ve ensured it happens. Call or email a home care specialist to learn more about pricing and arranging in-home care services.

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

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How Can You Talk about Senior Care at Home with Your Senior?

At some point it becomes obvious that your senior needs a little more help than maybe you or other family members can offer. If your elderly family member is resistant to the idea, however, that makes everything a little bit more difficult. Here are some tips for helping her to come around to what you’re trying to do.

Timing Matters, but Sooner Is Better

If your elderly family member has experienced an emergent situation, like a fall or some other serious health issue, then you may not need to worry about choosing the right time for a talk like this. When that isn’t the case, you may feel as if you have to choose your opening carefully. That’s especially true if your senior has been openly upset about accepting help in the past. The truth is, though, that talking about this issue sooner rather than later is really important.

Talk about What Your Senior Needs

Make sure to focus primarily on what your senior needs. If she’s new to having assistance from anyone, she might not have a true idea what she needs. Get to know your senior’s daily activities and what is becoming more challenging for her. When you can drill down to what’s creating issues for her, it’s a lot easier to show her how senior care at home can help her.

Offer Reassurances about What Home Care Isn’t

Lots of times family members worry that this type of care is about quickly moving her to another living situation or taking away her ability to make choices about her life. It’s important to reassure your senior that this isn’t the goal. When she understands what you’re trying to do, it’s going to be a much easier conversation for both of you.

Listen to Her Concerns

Your senior’s concerns and fears are valid, even if they’re not entirely accurate. You may find that it is helpful to offer her validation for how she is feeling and listen closely to her individual concerns. From there, it’s a lot easier to show her how senior care at home can meet her needs without causing those fears to become reality.

Don’t Give Up

In the end, you need to not give up. It’s okay to postpone getting extra help for a short time if your senior is still not convinced. But if you give up, that puts more stress and strain on you and on your senior. Offer alternatives, like a trial run for a short period of time, that enable your senior to experience what elder care can do for her on a regular basis. Once she sees for herself that her concerns are not warranted, it can be easier to make progress.

Needing help is something that makes people human. It isn’t a moral failing or anything to feel bad about at all. If your elderly family member is worried that having help is going to be a bad thing, then that’s going to make it so much more difficult for her to accept. Work with her to get to the bottom of those concerns.

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

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Five Tips for Adjusting to Being a Family Caregiver

As much as your elderly family member has to adjust to receiving help, you also have to adjust a bit to being the one who is there for her and helping her to have the quality of life that you want her to have. These tips can help you to avoid feeling as if you’re adrift when you start out being your senior’s primary family caregiver.

Learn to Accept the Changes in Your Senior’s Life

The hardest part about becoming a family caregiver is often that it’s difficult to see her experience the types of changes your elderly family member is going through. It’s also difficult for her to accept them. If you can both do some work toward accepting what’s happening, it’s a lot easier for you to accommodate those changes.

Face those Challenges Head-on with as Much Information as Possible

Information is definitely your friend. Talk with your senior’s doctors and other healthcare providers about what is happening and what you need to know. There’s probably also a good bit of research you’ll need to do outside of those conversations, too. But all of that information that you gather helps you to make the best possible decisions for your senior and her needs.

Don’t Wait to Bring in Extra Help

So often family caregivers wait to bring in help, but when it becomes difficult for your senior to handle things like getting dressed, home care can make all the difference. Home care can help your elderly family member to feel more secure and comfortable as she’s going through these everyday activities that have become more complicated. Home care doesn’t keep your senior from doing these tasks when she can. Instead, they’re there to support her wherever she needs help.

Take Care of Yourself as Well as Your Senior

It’s vital that you’re taking care of yourself while you’re also trying to take care of your elderly family member. If you’re neglecting rest or eating foods that don’t really give your body what it needs, it becomes more and more difficult for you to keep up with what’s happening. Ultimately, when you take care of yourself, you’re going to be able to give more to your elderly family member.

Re-evaluate Regularly to Make Sure the Care Plan Still Works

Something else to remember is that your senior’s situation is going to continue to change over time. It helps if you understand that at the outset and remember to take time periodically to take a closer look at your senior’s care plan. Evaluate what is working and what is not so that you can take the time to make changes that will prove to be more effective. Over time this allows you to really finetune a care plan that meets all of her needs.

When you’re new to being a family caregiver it can feel as if you’re never making the right choices. But as you learn more and as you find new ways to help your senior in the ways she needs help, those choices get easier.

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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Ease Your Senior’s Loneliness With Companion Care

Around 28% of older adults live alone. Around half of the American women over the age of 74 live alone. It’s not surprising that your mom is on her own as she nears her 80th birthday. What’s important now is to make sure she’s not lonely.

Studies have linked loneliness and isolation to several chronic health issues. They include cognitive impairment, depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity. People who are lonely have a higher risk of anxiety. Take precautions to make sure your mom never feels isolated or lonely as she ages at home.

Visit as Often as You Can

Stop by and check on your mom as often as you can. This is easier when you live nearby. Pop in after work and have dinner with her. Or, visit once a week on a day off and cook meals, take her shopping, or go to a movie together. The more your mom sees you, the bigger the benefits are.

If you don’t live nearby, arrange to have another family member or family friend visit her. When they have, they can fill you in on anything she needs. This is a good way to know if she’s doing okay, as they’ll see things that are easily overlooked in a video chat or phone call.

Get to Know What Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Entail

IADLs are tasks your mom should be able to do on her own, and they usually relate to her comfort and ability to avoid being isolated or lonely. With IADLs, your mom is able to make a phone call or send an email. She can talk on the phone and do things like schedule appointments or order prescription refills.

Your mom should be able to pay her bills on time and manage her finances. IADLs also cover things like remembering when she has appointments, organizing her home, and keeping her house clean.

Driving herself to and from area businesses or arranging transportation if she no longer drives is also important. If she cannot handle these tasks on her own anymore, it’s a good time to address the benefits of companion care services.

Instead of struggling with these routine chores, your mom has a helping hand. She doesn’t have to move to a new location. She ages at home with the help of a trained caregiver.

Hire Caregivers to Provide Companion Care Services

Companion care at home is one of the most important care services for your mom. Arrange to have home care aides stop by, see how she’s doing, and help with household chores she cannot manage on her own. She may need help with housework or someone to accompany her to appointments.

With companion care at home services, your mom never has to feel lonely or isolated. A specialist can walk you through the different options and pricing. Call now.

Sources:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/social-isolation-loneliness-older-people-pose-health-risks

https://acl.gov/sites/default/files/Aging%20and%20Disability%20in%20America/2017OlderAmericansProfile.pdf

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

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