Age Advantage Riverside

Setting Up a Plan for Home Care in Corona CA

By Maria M. Meyer, Paula Derr, and Jon Caswell, Contributing Writers

A plan of care is a daily record of the care and treatment a person needs on a daily basis. The plan helps you and anyone who assists you with caregiving tasks.

A plan of care helps caregivers manage the day-today activities of the person in their care–medications, appointments, exercise, etc. This type of written record is also very helpful when respite (relief) care is used.

The plan of care includes the following information:

• diagnosis
• medications
• physical limitations of the care receiver
• a list of equipment needed
• diet
• detailed care instructions and comments
• services the home health care agency will provide, if using such on agency.

This information is presented in a certain order so that the process of care is repeated over and over again until it becomes routine. When the plan is kept up to date, it provides a clear record of events that is helpful in solving problems and avoiding them.

Source: Caring.com

Continue reading…

Age Advantage is here to help your family with all of your home care needs. We are an elder care agency providing home care in Corona CA and surrounding areas. Call us at 951-278-1208 for more information.

Happy (Or Not So Happy?) 65th Birthdays – The Baby Boom Generation Hits Retirement Age

People celebrating their 65th birthday today were born 9 months after Victory in Europe Day. Their arrival marked what some consider the very beginning of the Baby Boom Generation, which (at least in the Western World) enjoyed economic abundance, rock and roll, and long life expectancy.

Many wonder, however, whether the “Golden Years” are really going to be all that golden–not only for them, but for everyone else. Experts warn that many “Baby Boomers” are alarmingly short on savings, saddled with debt, and in poor health. The questions being asked are: Who’s going to pay the bill? And how will the aging of this generation affect the social landscape?

source:  wikihow.com

The caregivers at Age Advantage are available to talk with you and your family about all of your live-in home care needs. Age Advantage is a home care agency providing quality, affordable home care in Riverside CA and the surrounding areas. Call 951-278-1208 for more information.
 

February is American Heart Month

Heart health is an area of grave concern among healthcare professionals, policy makers and the government. Heart disease has killed more Americans than any other diseases or chronic illnesses. It is the leading cause of death among patience of all race, gender and age. About 785,000 patients in the nation suffer their first heart attack every year and 470,000 of them have recurring heart attacks in a year. It has been estimated that heart attack affects one patient in every 34 seconds in America, costing a whopping healthcare bill of $316.4 billion a year. The risks of heart disease also dramatically increases with age affecting one in every five women above the age of 65 as compared to one in every 10 women between ages 45 and 65.

For 37 years, the American Heart Association tirelessly organized and campaigned for the fight against heart disease. February is the ‘American Heart Month’ where efforts are spent to increase awareness and raise funds for research and education on heart disease. 

Heart disease is a lifestyle-related condition. Risk factors that can lead to heart disease or stroke are physical inactivity, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes and alcohol. As more elderly patients tend to have high cholesterol, high blood sugar or high blood pressure conditions coupled by weaker immunity systems, healthy living to promote elderly health is one of the primary concerns during American Heart Month.

Good heart health can be attained by adopting change in lifestyle, diet and regular monitoring of one’s blood sugar level, cholesterol level and blood pressure. The following are five healthy living tips to good senior health that not only help keep heart disease at arm’s length but also increase one’s quality of life.

Regular Exercise or Physical Activity
Moderate exercise on a regular basis is the best remedy for elderly health and wellbeing. Walking, jogging, yoga, swimming, golf, dancing and others help to build strong healthy hearts and help to improve blood circulation. In fact, statistics show that a sedentary lifestyle is a leading threat to heart health; those who are physically inactive and seldom participate in regular exercise program are 39.5 percent more likely to suffer from heart disease or stroke.

Balanced Diet 
Healthy living starts with balanced diets rich in fiber and low in trans fat, sugar and sodium. Elderly patients should also consume high nutrient foods that are good for the heart and body as a whole. Greasy food and food high in trans fat found in cooking oil and meat should be avoided to prevent gradual formation of blockage in the arteries especially among elderly patients’ whose body metabolism decreases with age.

Control blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar level 
Senior health checks should never exclude regular monitoring of seniors’ blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar level as these are among the top risk factors to cardiovascular disease. Senior patients can perform regular monitoring of their conditions at home and take precautionary measures such as diet and prescribed medication if levels are higher than normal.

Maintain Healthy Body Weight
Being overweight can also lead to heart disease or stroke; it is as unhealthy to one’s heart as it is to one’s bones and joints. Excessive fats in the body can strain the heart and cause additional stress on the bones and joints. Maintaining a healthy body weight is crucial to good senior health as it helps to prevent adverse conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol that can potentially lead of heart disease.

Stop Smoking and excessive Alcohol intake
Smoking and excessive intake of alcohol are harmful habits that are especially damaging to elderly patients. Smoking increases the chances of blood clot and accumulation of fatty deposits in the arteries, hence increasing the risks of coronary heart disease. It can also increase the chances of a relapse or recurring heart attack. Smoking is also linked to many elderly health conditions such as cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.

The caregivers at Age Advantage are available to talk with you and your family about all of your live-in home care needs. Age Advantage is a home care agency providing quality, affordable home care in Riverside CA and the surrounding areas. Call 951-278-1208 for more information.

Home Health Care

Options, caregivers and paying for care
From Marian Anne Eure, former About.com Guide

Most seniors when questioned, state they would prefer to remain in their homes as long as is possible.

Seniors who go to nursing home or other assisted type facilities are unusually not in need of complex medical care but rather are having difficulty taking care of their personal needs. Unfortunately many seniors become depressed and discouraged when they move to nursing homes. Many see nursing homes as just a place where they are going to wait for death. Loss of independence is for many their greatest fear. Staying in their own home as long as is possible can mean a great deal to many older people. Familiar surroundings can be therapeutic.

Fortunately many seniors can stay in their own homes.

Home care can be a good option for many seniors. They are able to stay in the familiar surroundings of their own home, but have greater piece of mind. They will have more control over the decisions in life that can mean so much. Deciding what time to get up and what to eat can become very important, if there is a threat that those choices may be taken away from you. Nursing home care can also be very expensive, many times home care is a more cost-effective alternative.

Continue reading from seniorhealth.about.com…

The caregivers at Age Advantage are available to talk with you and your family about all of your live-in home care needs. Age Advantage is a home care agency proudly serving our community with quality and affordable home care in Riverside CA and the surrounding areas. Call 951-278-1208 for more information.

Caregiving and Family Hostilities

By Isabel Fawcett, SPHR for LTC Expert Publications

If it seems like caregiving to aging parents with chronic health issues brings out the worst in some individuals, it happens. The family’s communication gridlock may not be due to the stress of eldercare, however.

Deep-seated individual and/or family dysfunction in communicating and relationships may have remained unresolved over the years. Unresolved family issues will not magically disappear.

Family Dynamics Mirrors Social Issues
In 2010, healthcare reform legislation passed in the form of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA.) Some Americans were gung-ho about the passage of PPACA and the need to radically reform healthcare in the U.S. Other Americans were and may remain vehemently opposed to PPACA. Some individuals are in favor of having PPACA repealed. One nation America shall remain regardless of individual viewpoints.

Consider family dynamics in context of the PPACA social analogy. One family remains recurring dysfunction notwithstanding. To have and express strong emotions is to be human.

Tip of the Family’s Eldercare Iceberg
Common sticking points for families facing eldercare life transitions include:

• estate disagreements;
• eldercare decision disagreements;
• financial disputes;
• medical treatment issues for elders;
• funeral, burial and memorial decisions;
• wills and powers of attorney, and more

Even the most trivial matters can trigger major family disputes or lead to a total breakdown in a family’s communication and relationships.

Feelings
Feelings will ebb and flow at-will. Some feelings may be repressed and surprise us in when, and, how they re-emerge during the most stressful times in our lives. Stressful times – as in caring for our aging and chronically ill parents who once did a dismal or, not so dismal job of caring for us when we were children.

Remember those occasional (normal) vulnerable feelings you and I had as children?

Some of our childhood feelings were real. Other feelings we may have experienced in childhood may have been based on imagined or misinterpreted signals. Those childhood and young adulthood feelings that we may not have been able to express due to: age, immaturity, language development, cultural influences, fear, or any number of reasons, remain intact only to re-surface when least expected.

It may be that the most important step a caregiver can take when eldercare makes its debut in a family’s life is recognizing that disputes will occur in the best of families, as in society. Similar to social disputes and heated public discourse family disputes boil over or slow-simmer.

A caregiver’s handling of family disagreements may ease angst and help the caregiver, elder, and the entire family achieve healing over time. Some caregivers do so without outside help. Others may need a friend, counselor, mentor, or licensed professional to help. It’s all good.

The caregivers at Age Advantage can help answer all of your home care questions. Contact us at 951-278-1208. We are a home care agency providing elder care in Riverside CA and surrounding areas.

Planning for Temporary Home Care After the Hospital Stay
By LESLEY ALDERMAN

ANNIE BRUMBAUGH has become a bit of an expert on recuperating at home. Over the last two years, the 65-year-old wardrobe consultant has had two serious operations on her foot, plus a bone graft, each of which left her homebound for weeks at a time. “This is not easy,” said Ms. Brumbaugh, who lives alone in Manhattan. “Most people have no idea what they are in for.”

Even straightforward procedures, like C-sections and hip replacements, can involve longer-than- expected recuperations. Preparing for these requires more than stocking up on novels, DVDs and plenty of frozen entrees (though such supplies certainly are useful).

After a hospitalization, you will need help doing things that you’re unable to do for yourself — even with performing basic tasks like cleaning and dressing. You may need a nurse to change the bandage on a wound or to administer intravenous drugs. You may need equipment, too: a walker, a bath seat or a commode to ensure you don’t injure yourself during recovery.

Equipment and support services will help speed up your recovery, but they also can put a dent in your savings. That’s because most insurers pay for home health care by skilled professionals only during the first, acute part of your recovery. Insurers do not pay for care provided by home care aides, often needed for both short and long recuperations.

Source: New York Times
Continue reading…

Home care counselors at Age Advantage are available to talk with you and your family about care needs for your loved one, including, how to reduce caregiver stress while providing better, affordable care. Age Advantage is a home care agency providing In Home Care in Riverside CA and surrounding areas.

When Siblings Step Up
By ANNE TERGESEN

Sisters and brothers are finding new ways to circumvent old conflicts as they take on one of the toughest roles in their lives: caregiver.

When Rene Talavera’s father, Jesus Talavera, 69, was hospitalized for kidney and heart failure last fall, the 45-year-old Chicago resident and his four siblings were catapulted into an uncomfortable new phase of life: caregiving.

But even as the Talavera siblings absorbed the shock of their father’s illness, they set aside old conflicts and concerns to work together. "The common thread is that you all love your parent," says Rene Talavera. "It’s not about you or an argument you had 20 years ago. It’s about Dad and what you can do for him."

Family cohesiveness is a tall order at any time of life. But as parents grow frail, brothers and sisters often encounter new obstacles to togetherness—at precisely the time they most need to rely on one another.

Sibling rivalry can emerge or intensify as adult children vie, one last time, for a parent’s love or financial support. And even as parents grow dependent on children, the desire to cling to old, familiar roles can create a dysfunctional mess.

…continue reading from online.wsj.com
 

For information about how Age Advantage can help your family with home care and assistance for your loved one, contact 951-278-1208. Age Advantage is a home care agency providing caregivers and in home care in Riverside CA and surrounding areas.

Study Reveals Top 5 Myths of Family Caregiving

 It’s Time to Have One of the Most Important Conversations Your Family Hasn’t Had

Americans significantly underestimate the impact that a family member’s long term care needs could have on their own lives, marriages, work commitments, financial stability and future financial security, finds a new landmark study, Our Family, Our Future: The Heart of Long Term Care Planning, sponsored by Genworth Financial (Genworth) and released today by Age Wave and Harris Interactive. The study, conducted online in September among 2,151 U.S. adults age 18 and over, sought to uncover the hopes, worries, and needs of family members providing care to loved ones.

An estimated 66 million Americans — or roughly 20 percent of the U.S. population — are serving as unpaid family caregivers. The research revealed that the actual impact of caregiving on this group is often significantly greater than expected, as evidenced by the following Top 5 Family Caregiving Myths and Misconceptions:

1. Financial Contributions:   While only 40 percent of caregivers expect they will contribute financially to the care of a family member, the reality is that 83 percent actually do.
2. Income Hit:  In actuality, 63 percent of caregivers experience a reduction in income. This compares to 38 percent of caregivers that expect to experience such a reduction.
3. Reduction in Savings: 37 percent of caregivers expect their savings to decline as a result of their caregiving responsibilities. The study found that, in fact, 61 percent of caregivers have used some of their savings to care for a loved one.
4. Retirement Funds Tapped: Of caregivers surveyed, 57 percent actually tapped their retirement funds to care for a loved one, compared to 34 percent that expected to do so.
5. Career Impact:  Nearly half (48 percent) of caregivers lost a job, changed shifts or missed out on career opportunities as a result of their caregiving responsibilities, compared to 29 percent that expected such impact.

“Not only do people underestimate the financial, emotional and other costs associated with providing care to a loved one, they greatly discount the likelihood that they themselves will need long term care in the future,” said Colleen Goldhammer, senior vice president, financial institutions distribution, at Genworth. “This disconnect can be potentially dangerous, as it may discourage people from developing their own comprehensive long term care plan.”

Source: Genworth Financial

If you are a family caregiver and need help with home care for a loved one, call 951-278-1208. Age Advantage is a home care agency providing affordable in home care in Riverside CA and surrounding areas.