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How to Help Your Mom Come to Terms With Getting Help

One of the most difficult issues adult children confront is reconciling their parents’ independence with their long-term interests, particularly if we believe they are making poor choices. Whether your parents are struggling to maintain their home, manage their finances, or just stay well, there is frequently some disagreement between what parents desire and what their adult children believe they need. How can you assist your parents if they do not believe they require in-home care assistance?

When Do Your Parents Need Help?

If your parents have not yet reached this stage, now is the time to begin taking steps to simplify future care decisions. You can think about in-home care together and figure out what you both think is necessary for the future. You can discuss with your parents establishing a power of attorney while they are still mentally competent, to select someone they trust to carry out their requests for care, finances, and other matters if they become unable to manage such decisions. Here are some things to consider before you keep reading.

Seniors Can Do What They Want If They’re Rational

Unless your parents are declared legally incapable, which is extremely rare, they have the right to make their own decisions. Regardless of how much protection you believe your parents require, you must persuade them, not tell them what to do. If you’re concerned about your parents living alone, managing their money, or needing further assistance, find allies in their clergy, doctors, family and friends, and anybody else who cares about their well-being and get on the same page.

Their Quality of Life Should Matter

Assisting your parents in properly aging on their terms is one of life’s greatest difficulties. Consider it a collaborative, continuing conversation.

Independence Means Different Things To Seniors

For instance, suppose your mother falls at home, injures her foot, and waits a week to see a doctor. You may interpret this as poor judgment, fearful that she may have fractured a bone. She may view it as prudent because she is awaiting the outcome of the injury.

Remember Your Relationship Is Important

For starters, they will always regard you as their child, regardless of how much older and wiser you have become. Simply because you believe the roles are flipped does not mean they do.

When Your Parents Need Help At Home

The indicators that your parents require assistance around the house can be subtle, such as changes in their cooking and housekeeping habits. If you notice that mail is piling up, new clutter is accumulating, or laundry is heaping up in baskets where it was previously neater, this could be an indication that forgetfulness or mobility concerns are taking hold. Another telltale clue that your parents require assistance at home is rotting food. If you frequently discover expired dairy and meat in the refrigerator, as well as pest-infested pantry items, your parents may be unable to read expiration dates correctly or may be skipping meals.This is a sign you should mention the benefits of in-home care for your parent.

If your parent seems hesitant about in-home care, try pointing out all of the things they can do to help the senior so they have more time to spend on things they love rather than chores. This is a good way to help them understand the value of in-home care without making them feel like they are losing their independence.

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

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Learning About Dry Eyes and Low Vision In Seniors

As seniors become older and certain faculties deteriorate, regular visits to the doctor and paying attention to changes become even more vital. That’s why it is important to be aware of the early signs and symptoms of eye disorders. If your senior has been suffering from dry eyes and low vision, it’s time to learn about why this may be causing them irritation.

Understanding symptoms of dry eyes and low vision is one of the first things you should know. Some symptoms are:

  • Keeping reading material at a greater distance
  • Squinting
  • Extra light is required to complete daily duties.
  • Because of dry, irritated eyes, you’re blinking a lot.
  • Night vision problems that appear suddenly or worsen over time
  • Complaints about eyesight spots, halos, or spidery lines

If your senior has been complaining to you about these problems, it is time to take them to the doctor to further understand what you can do. Companion care at home can observe abnormal behaviors and report back to you and their doctor, as well as provide transportation to important doctor and specialist appointments.

Learning About Dry Eye Disease

As people become older, many of them have dry eyes. Although dry eyes may be exceedingly unpleasant and even painful, they are not a life-threatening health issue. In most circumstances, dry eyes are simple to maintain or treat for seniors. Seniors should schedule frequent eye exams to treat issues like dry eyes before they worsen or create more severe eye illnesses. Dry eye treatment is also important for comfort and quality of life.

What Causes Dry Eyes?

You will find there are two main causes for dry eyes in seniors. They may have inadequate tears or not enough water in the tears. This could be due to underlying medical conditions that you are unaware of, side effects from new medication they are on, environment, or just from the natural aging process. Ruling our medication side effects and other medical conditions will be crucial when trying to treat a seniors dry eyes. This is another reason why a senior having communication with their doctor is so crucial.

Understanding Dry Eye Symptoms

Dryness is rather frequent in those over the age of 65. However, if your loved one has KCS or dry eye disease, they may also experience the following symptoms:

  • Eye pain, burning, and irritation
  • A scratchy or gritty sensation behind the eyelid
  • They have the impression that something is in their eyes
  • Vision that is blurry or damaged

Severe instances of dry eye may cause damage to the front surface of the eye, impairing vision. That is why, if you or a senior in your life notices persistent dry eyes, you should get treatment right once.

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

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What Is Personal Care at Home?

Is your elderly family member planning to remain in her own home for as long as possible? That’s called aging in place and eventually she may find that it’s a lot easier to do if she has the right help in place at the right time. Some of the biggest tasks she may need to accept help with can include personal care tasks.

Personal Care Defined

Personal care involves assisting with daily personal living tasks. These are tasks that involve personal hygiene and that your aging family member needs to do every day. These types of tasks are ones that can help your senior to be healthier and safer at home if she has assistance.

Types of Personal Care Tasks

As to what the specific personal care tasks might be, they can include:

  • Dental hygiene
  • Bathing
  • Dressing
  • Hair care
  • Makeup
  • Foot and nail care
  • Transition assistance
  • Incontinence care

There are a variety of other types of care tasks that can be considered part of personal care as well. Skipping these tasks really isn’t an option for your senior. Proper bathing and changing clothes helps your senior’s skin to remain healthy. Avoiding tasks that keep her skin healthy can eventually cause her to deal with some serious health issues that may take away her ability to age in place at all.

Personal Care Can Be Intimidating for Your Senior

Accepting help with personal care tasks can be incredibly embarrassing. Most people have not needed help with these sorts of tasks since they were young children. After decades of dressing herself and bathing herself, your elderly family member may argue that she doesn’t need help from caregivers in order to live her life.

Personal Care Is Crucial for Aging in Place

But the reality is that personal care at home is absolutely essential if she’s planning to age in place. Aging in place involves your elderly family member remaining in her own home and it’s possible for a long time, as long as your senior has help when she needs it. Help from home care providers with personal care tasks ensures that your senior is safe and that she’s also comfortable.

As Needs Change, Care Can, Too

Over time your elderly family member’s needs for personal care at home may start to slowly increase. At first, she may only need a little bit of help with personal care tasks that are becoming difficult. That might include things like taking care of her feet or applying lotions to parts of her body that are difficult to reach. Eventually she may find that having help with bathing, washing her hair, and getting dressed keeps her safe and ensures that she’s not skipping over those tasks more often than not.

Introducing personal care at home for your senior may be best to do when she only needs a little bit of help. This can ease her into accepting assistance, so that when she does need much more help, she has a better feel for how that help will work for her.

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

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Five Things to Keep in Mind as a Family Caregiver

There’s no one plan that works in every caregiving situation. That is why it is so important that you and your elderly family member, alone with anyone else involved in her care, take the time to really personalize a care plan that works for her.

Clarify What Caregiving Means for Everyone Involved

You might know what it means to become your senior’s family caregiver, but if her expectations and definitions don’t match up that can be a situation that causes a lot of confusion. It’s vital that you, your senior, and other family members are on the same page about what caregiving means. That’s going to help pave the way for a smoother situation for everyone involved.

Get Help for Your Senior and Yourself

It’s never too early to line up help for yourself and your senior. Companion care at home makes a huge difference in how your elderly family member is able to age in place and even in the decisions that she’s able to make down the line. Elder care offers hands-on assistance that is crucial at some stages, and they can free up time for you to handle other necessary tasks.

Stay Up to Date with Changing Health Needs

Your senior’s health issues and needs are going to change constantly. This is especially true if she’s been diagnosed with chronic health issues that are likely to progress along a timeline. You need to know what to expect so that you can be prepared. Your senior needs to know what to expect as well, because that can reduce the emotional strain that she experiences due to her health.

Understand What Your Senior Wants at This Stage

Do you already know what your senior’s goals are now? How about farther down the aging journey? If you and she have not already talked about how she wants her life to be at different stages, it’s important to sit down and have that talk. This can be a stressful conversation, which is why so many people avoid it for as long as possible. Try to keep that in mind and find ways to make sure that you’re helping your senior to meet those goals.

Do Periodic Safety Sweeps

Safety is a huge issue for seniors. The best way to stay on top of safety considerations is to make them a routine occurrence. This is another way that companion care at home can assist your senior. Staying on top of safety concerns helps you to tackle those issues as they crop up instead of dealing with the aftermath. Making changes proactively is one of the best ways to keep your senior as safe as possible.

These are all things that you’ll need to handle on a continual basis in order to make sure that your senior’s care plan continues to meet her needs. As those needs change, how you approach them can also change, giving her the freedom to keep living her life on her own terms with the support she needs.

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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Six Surprising Ways In-Home Care Providers Help Out

In-home care is exactly how it sounds. It’s a service where your senior parent receives care in their home. They age in place, in the home they love, and don’t have to consider selling, packing up, and moving to an unfamiliar area.

In-home care providers offer an array of services that help your parents live independently with confidence. Here are six surprising ways in-home care aides help out.

Animal Care

Your mom and dad have pets, but you’re not confident they’re taking care of them properly. Does your mom have dementia and forget to feed her pets? Your dad fell, and until his ankle fully heals, he can’t take his dog for a walk without someone else’s help.

In-home care providers can help your parents with pet care. With a caregiver’s help, your parents will remember it’s time for their dog to have another dose of heartworm preventative. They’ll know when to clean their cat’s litter box. They have someone available to help schedule veterinary visits.

Appointments

Have caregivers schedule appointments for your parents. Not only do caregivers schedule important medical and dental check-ups, but they can also drive your mom and dad to their doctors and dentists. They can also arrange tasks like furnace cleanings and heating fuel deliveries for your parents.

Companionship

Companion care is one of the most overlooked benefits of in-home care. Your parents aren’t lonely or alone. They have someone stopping by to see how they’re doing. The caregiver can sit down to chat during the visit or join your mom and dad for a meal.

Errands

You often have to take a half-day to run errands for your parents. Whether it’s picking up prescriptions or taking them shopping for groceries, it impacts your schedule.

Caregivers can run errands for them. Let caregivers pick up medications on their way to your parents’ house. Order groceries online and have your parents’ caregiver stop by and get them.

Organization

Your parents’ house got cluttered. You cleaned up and have everything sorted, but the next time you visit, it’s cluttered again. In-home care providers can help your senior parent go through their belongings and reduce the clutter by throwing away things they don’t need and organizing the rest.

If the clutter appears each time your parents go shopping, have a caregiver helping out after the shopping trip. The caregiver can carry in bags and put things in their proper place.

Peace of Mind

Wouldn’t it be nice to have peace of mind that your parents are not alone all week? Talk to an expert about in-home care to find out what services are available in your parents’ town. With caregivers stopping by throughout the week, you never have to worry that they’re without heat, food, or water. Call an in-home care agency to learn more.

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

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Best Ways to Make a Daily Walk More Appealing

Your parents need to get up and be active. Their sedentary lifestyle impacts their health. Their last doctor’s appointment found their blood pressure is too high, and they’re overweight. If they don’t change their habits, their heart disease, diabetes, and stroke risks increase.

Their doctor told your parents to walk at least half an hour each day. How do you make a daily walk more appealing to them?

Choose Different Locations

A daily walk is tedious if you’re always walking the same route. Mix it up. Take your parents to different locations when you can. If they typically walk up and down their street every day, take them to a local park to walk on the nature paths once a week.

Once a month, gather the family and go to a state park to walk on the easy trails. If you need paths that are groomed, you’ll find listings for ADA-accessible routes on the internet.

Make Sure They Have Comfortable Walking Shoes

If they go for a walk and their shoes pinch their feet, they’re not going to want to walk. Make sure they have supportive, comfortable shoes. Walking sneakers are ideal for everyday walks, but you should consider hiking shoes if your parents are in the woods a lot.

Have their feet measured to ensure you’re buying the correct width and size. Once you find a shoe that your parents love, stick with that style and brand.

Purchase a Treadmill

It’s hard to go for a walk when it’s cold or raining. Invest in a treadmill to ensure your parents can walk when they want.

Set up the treadmill near a TV or have a tablet available to make it less tedious. Your parents can walk while watching a walking tour of a city, nature trail, or scenic attraction.

Turn it into a Family Outing

Instead of walking alone, try to get others in the family to join your parents for walks every week. If you can walk with them on Monday and Friday and your brother can on Saturday and Sunday, they’ll enjoy spending time with you.

You could take one day each month to meet up as a family and go for a walk together at a historic site. When the weather is nice, bring a picnic and go on day trips that involve a lot of physical activity.

Support Them with Companionship the Rest of the Week

Have you looked into the benefits of having elder care aides with your parents throughout the week? You’ll free up some time for yourself to enjoy social activities with your friends. But, you’re not leaving your parents alone.

With the help of an elder care aide, your parents get up, go outside, and enjoy an active lifestyle. Call an expert in elder care to get started.

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

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Is Your Mom’s Vision Going? It’s Time to Address Home Safety

In the next eight years, it’s estimated that around 70 million adults in the U.S. will be over the age of 65. One out of three of them will experience vision loss. While vision loss doesn’t have to mean blindness, even a small change to your vision can increase your risk of falling or being unable to drive.

Your mom’s vision is worsening. What can you do to ensure her home is as safe as possible? Check these areas first, and consider bringing in senior home care to help her continue aging in place safely.

Floors Need to Be Safe

Flooring must be safe. Carpeting that is torn may curl on the edges. Those curled edges become a tripping hazard. Slippery wood floors can be dangerous if your mom is wearing socks. Throw rugs that aren’t backed with non-slip rubber are also risky.

When vision diminishes, it’s important to avoid contrasts that can look like an uneven surface or gap. Try to make sure the flooring doesn’t hide objects. A white dog curled up on white carpeting may become difficult to see.

Brighter Lighting Is Important

Older CFL bulbs may be dim until they’ve warmed up. Replace them with LED bulbs. They’re energy-efficient and don’t need time to warm up. LED bulbs are bright and illuminate rooms well.

Focus on all home areas that your mom is in or walks through. She’s in the living room most of the day, but there’s a long hallway between the living room and her bedroom. A poorly lit hallway can be dangerous. If she uses the bathroom in the middle of the night and needs to walk down the hallway again, floor-level, motion-activated lighting helps lower the risk of falling.

Remove Clutter

Clutter cannot be present in your mom’s home. Clutter can cause falls. If she has furniture placed in ways that she needs to put a magazine rack in a walking path, she’ll catch her toe and either fall or injure herself. All items need to have a home.

When you arrange furniture, make sure nothing juts out. Once you have the furniture placed, take any remaining items and find a home for them. Cube storage can fit many things your mom might often leave out.

Items like her knitting supplies could be put into a basket and placed in one section of cube storage. Books could be placed in stacks in another cube. Pillows and throw blankets can go into a storage hassock.

Is It Time to Have Someone Driving Her?

In addition to needing a safer home, your mom isn’t supposed to drive. How do you ensure she has a safe ride to her medical appointments and running errands? Hire a senior home care aide to drive her to stores, restaurants, medical offices, and local businesses.

Your mom has a companion with her when she shops. If she struggles to see pricing and label information, her senior home care aide can read labels and tags for her. Call a home care agency to learn more.

Sources:

https://www.aafp.org/afp/1999/0701/p99.html#:~:text=The%20most%20common%20causes%20of,damage%20and%20visual%20field%20loss.

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

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What Risk Factors for Heart Disease Affect Your Senior?

Heart disease and everything that comes with it can be a scary topic for your senior. But understanding her possible risk factors and helping her to avoid heart illnesses helps her to take action now.

Increasing Age

It’s frustrating, but simply getting older can have a huge impact on whether your senior develops heart disease or not. She can’t exactly stop aging, but your senior may be able to manage some of her other risk factors. That one decision can help quite a bit.

History of Heart Disease

If your elderly family member has had a history of heart related illnesses, like high blood pressure, that can impact her likelihood of developing further heart diseases. Also, family history is a factor, too. So, if your elderly family member’s family have had heart disease, especially severe heart disease, that can increase her risks as well.

History of Other Illnesses

But it isn’t just cardiovascular illnesses that makes a difference. Other illnesses, like diabetes, may contribute to heart disease as well. That’s even more true if those other illnesses are out of control or have family history attached to them as well. All of it makes a difference.

Not Being Active Enough

By now pretty much everyone knows that physical activity is crucial for good health. A history of sedentary choices can add up to heart disease down the line. That’s especially true if your elderly family member has other risk factors that aren’t as controllable. Talk with her doctor to determine if exercising now is a good idea for your senior. Home care providers may be able to help.

Too Much Stress

Stress takes a big toll on your senior’s health, including her heart. If your senior has effective means of managing her stress, it’s less likely to be an overriding factor in heart disease. One way your senior can reduce her stress is by accepting help. Personal care at home can help your elderly family member to relax and to let some things go.

Dietary Factors

Diet really can be the basis of good health. That’s also true when your senior is trying to avoid heart disease. Changing her diet is a lot easier with help, so having personal care at home managing the meal preparation tasks and getting something nutritious on the table is an excellent first step.

Talk to your elderly family member’s doctor about her individual risk factors for developing heart disease and heart health concerns. From there you can both make plans that help her to reduce those risk factors.

IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING personal care at home in sunnyvale, ca, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY (408) 317-4969.

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What Foods Can You Get to Increase the Fiber in Your Elderly Loved One’s Diet?

Does your elderly loved one need to add more fiber to their diet? Some of the reasons they may need to do this are low energy, constipation, high cholesterol levels, or needing to lose weight. By eating more fiber, your elderly loved one can make all these things better.

Adding Vegetables to Their Diet

One of the best ways for your elderly loved one to get more fiber is by adding more vegetables to their diet. Some of the best vegetables for them to eat to increase their fiber intake include:

  • Mushrooms
  • Beets
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Leafy greens
  • Broccoli
  • Asparagus

If your elderly loved one isn’t a real fan of vegetables, there are many ways to make them taste better. For example, if your elderly loved one doesn’t really like leafy green vegetables, you or an elder care provider could make a leafy green, fruity smoothie. That way, your elderly loved one doesn’t taste the leafy greens as much.

Fruits Are Necessary

If your elderly loved one is going to add more fiber to their diet, they should really eat more fruits. There are so many different fruits that are high in fiber, too. So, if your elderly loved one doesn’t really like one of them, they can eat another instead. The best fruits for increasing fiber intake are:

  • Raspberries
  • Blueberries
  • Blackberries
  • Strawberries

Just as with the vegetables, your elderly loved one can eat smoothies if they want a different way to eat the fruits. They can also add them to oatmeal or just eat them as a snack.

Eating More Whole Grains

Another great way to increase fiber intake is by eating more whole grains. If your elderly loved one isn’t eating many whole grains at this point, you or an elder care provider can encourage them to try more recipes with whole grains in them. Some of the highest fiber-filled whole grains include:

  • Wild rice
  • Old fashioned oats
  • Quinoa

It might be fun for you, your elderly loved one, and/or one of the senior care providers to sit down with each other and make a recipe list that includes whole grains. It would be beneficial to add nuts and seeds to these meals, as well.

Conclusion

These are some of the top foods that can boost your elderly loved one’s fiber intake. Now that you have this list, you or an elder care provider can take your elderly loved one grocery shopping for these foods or get the groceries for them.

Sources

https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/resources/2020-2025-dietary-guidelines-online-materials/food-sources-select-nutrients/food-0

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

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Four Ways to Help Your Senior to Achieve Her Goals

February is International Expect Success Month, which is technically a business holiday. It was started as a holiday to remind people to look within to find hidden elements that could lead to success, which is actually a great mindset for everyone, including your senior. Helping your elderly family member to expect success can remind her that there’s still a lot that she can do to achieve her goals.

Get an Understanding of Your Senior’s Goals

Until you and your senior understand her goals fully, it’s going to be very difficult to put a dent in them. Is she determined to stay in her home for as long as possible? You need to know that to help her. Sit down and have a thorough conversation about what she wants from this stage of her life. This can be a tough talk to have, but it’s a crucial one.

Help Her to Determine What She Needs to Get Where She’s Going

Once you know what she wants, you can start to see what your senior needs in order to achieve those goals. She may already have help from you and from other family members, but is it enough? Often it isn’t and your elderly family member needs a lot more help than either of you really suspect. Senior care at home could make all the difference in your elderly family member being able to remain in her home rather than moving.

Put Those Solutions in Place

Don’t wait when you have some idea what’s going to help your senior to get where she wants to be. The sooner you bring in elder care providers, for instance, the better. Your elderly family member may need more time to adjust to senior care at home than she thinks. Having that space to adjust can help her to relax into her new normal.

Do What You Can to Anticipate and to Resolve Obstacles

As your elderly family member’s needs, life, and health change, that’s going to throw obstacles in the way of her goals. Her goals may even change because of those experiences. It’s important that you and she stay on top of what is working for her and what isn’t so that you can make changes to her care plan as needed.

When you and your elderly family member are putting the right tools in place, it’s a lot easier for her to not only expect success but to achieve it.

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

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