Community Blog

High School Seniors Celebrate Elderly Residents with Nursing Home Parades in 2020

On a Saturday in 2020, seniors from Maine West High School organized a special parade to honor elderly residents—seniors in a different sense of the word. Over a hundred graduating students spent the morning of May 2 traveling in a caravan to seven nursing homes, brightening the day of residents who have faced isolation since...

Home Helpers of Des Plaines at Saint Zachary Parish Bethlehem Market

This past holiday season, the Bethlehem Market at Saint Zachary Parish in Des Plaines had a special visitor who brought smiles, laughter, and a dash of holiday magic: Tom Merlin, the owner of Home Helpers of Des Plaines enjoyed playing Saint Nick at this year’s event. Tom donned a red robe and white beard, delighting...

How to Protect Yourself from Coronavirus

How to Protect Yourself from Coronavirus Of people who are at risk, seniors and people who have severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease are at the highest level of vulnerability to the virus. This higher risk is mainly due to compromised immune systems, underlying health conditions, and weakened physical states due...

Quick Activities for Dementia Care

Although dementia is most commonly diagnosed in seniors, it can also happen to middle-aged people, as well as those who have suffered a brain injury. Many people still go on to live long lives after diagnosis, so it’s important to understand the condition and how you can treat it therapeutically. The goal is to help...

How to Have Meaningful Conversations with Dementia Patients

If you have a loved one with dementia, you probably already know how frustrating it can be to communicate sometimes. Limited understanding and cognitive decline can be very overwhelming for both the patient and the caregiver, but there are ways to make it easier. Here are some tips to consider… Firstly, be determined to make...

Debunking the Myths of Falling for Seniors

Are you one of the millions of Americans who think that tumbles and falls are just par for the course in older adults? The truth is, falling can be devastating for seniors and should be prevented at all costs. It’s not normal to fall and no matter how old you are, there are things you...

Helping Seniors with a High Protein Diet

Did you know that a diet high in protein is incredibly important for seniors? Protein is particularly important right before medical procedures or surgery and can help the healing time during an acute illness when the body doesn’t digest protein as easily. For our seniors, they especially need high-protein diets to maintain good bone density...

Determining When Your Senior Loved One Should Stop Driving

It is never easy to have a conversation with a senior loved one that has to do with giving up the keys to the car for good. After all, driving represents independence and freedom for most people, so it can be really difficult to know when the time is right to ask your loved one...

Tips for Improving Your Heart Health

Your heart is where your life is! A healthy heart beats between 60-90 beats per minute and that may slow down a little as we age. That means your heart could eat more than 140,000 times each day! It’s crazy to think that the organ we depend on for the very breath of life is...