The COVID-19 outbreak has caused many unexpected disruptions in our daily lives, especially for elders dealing with isolation at home and social distancing. The older adult population continues to be most vulnerable to the disease, and family members and in-home caregivers are making necessary precautions to protect senior loved ones during the coronavirus. While the sudden changes created by COVID-19 are preparing us all for a “new reality,” it’s also important to instill regular routines and schedules for seniors during this time. Daily Routines are Important for the ElderlyIt may be challenging to think of practical ways to maintain or enhance the well-being of older adults under these complex conditions. With some lifestyle changes, your elderly loved ones can reduce their risk of getting infected from COVID-19 and other viruses. Making sure they stick to healthy routines and remain calm, comforted, and safe has never been more critical. Here are some tips you should encourage seniors in your life to follow as they adapt to new healthy routines:
Hopefully, some of these tips can help your senior loved ones, and you establish a “new norm” that is beneficial, healthy, and safe. Despite the pandemic, elderly in-home caregivers remain resolute in delivering safe and compassionate personal care that is essential to the health and well-being of older adults. If you are struggling and need assistance, respite care services are also available to provide a break for as long as you want. The home-care professionals at Visiting Angels can help you find the work-life balance you need while caring for your senior family member. If you’re interested in more information about how at-home care can help your elderly loved ones, contact us today or call 617-795-2727. About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton:
Visiting Angels Newton/Canton MA is an award-winning local home care agency providing high caliber in-home care services to the elderly and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our home Alzheimer’s care, companion care, elder care, dementia care, respite support, transitional aid, and home care services in Canton, Stoughton, Westwood, Norwood, Brookline, Watertown, Needham, Dedham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Chestnut Hill, Roslindale, and nearby towns. While essential personal in nature, the care provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can make a significant impact on your loved one’s happiness and quality of life. Contact us today for a free in-home consultation!
0 Comments
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging citizens to practice “social distancing” to slow the spread of COVID-19. To protect your senior loved ones from the coronavirus, the U.S. The CDC requests individuals keep at least a six-foot distance between people, avoiding crowds, canceling events, and staying away from sick people. Some states are even ordering residents to “shelter in place.” Although social distancing may reduce the risk elderly adults face from COVID-19, it can leave seniors vulnerable to social isolation. Feelings of loneliness and social isolation in seniors have been linked to depression, worsening physical health, and increased stress and cognitive changes. Conversely, seniors who are socially active receive many physical and emotional benefits. Although you may not be able to visit and spend quality time with your elderly loved ones, you can still stay in touch while protecting your loved one from COVID-19. There are plenty of creative ways for seniors to stay active and keep communicating while maintaining social distance, including: Phone and video callsCalling your elderly loved ones a few times a day can help reduce feelings of social isolation. Take time to share stories, tell jokes, solve riddles, play simple games, or read aloud with them. If possible, take advantage of video call apps like FaceTime or Skype and conference in multiple family members on the same call. Hearing loved one's voices and seeing their faces will help brighten your beloved senior’s day. Send lettersGive your elderly loved one a pleasant surprise by mailing letters. Let them know you are thinking of them and that they are dear to you. Remember not to limit yourself to just a written note. Receiving pressed flowers, burned CDs, printed photos, or even a grandchild’s art project can be a wonderful gift to open. Book and movie groupsPick a book or movie to read or watch, and then have a discussion about it over the phone or via video chat. Revisit a classic that both you and your loved one have enjoyed in the past or use this opportunity to try out a book or movie neither of you has read or seen before. Also, consider finding audiobooks or podcasts that you can both enjoy. Media is a great escape, and many seniors will relish the opportunity to exercise their minds by having an engaging conversation with their loved ones. Virtual group meetings, events, or classesIn recent weeks, many religious organizations, senior centers, exercise studios, and other businesses and community groups have converted to a virtual format. They are now hosting classes, events, and meetings using Google Hangouts, Zoom, FaceTime, YouTube, and other Internet-based platforms. Do some research and help your loved one connect virtually with his or her favorite activities or community groups — and consider participating together, if possible. In addition to providing some enrichment and entertainment, participating together will give you and your loved one something to discuss afterward. You may need to provide your loved one with verbal instructions over the phone to help them install software or apps, access websites, or get logged on. Although the technology may seem intimidating, it is essential to remind your loved one that keeping to regular routines as much as possible and having fun activities to look forward to will help to alleviate stress and promote a feeling of belonging despite not being able to participate in person. Have supplies deliveredWith many seniors staying home, running out of food or medications can be a real risk. Show your loved one that you are still thinking of them even if you are not able to be together right now by ordering groceries or meal deliveries to their home. Amazon Alexa and Constant CompanionVisiting Angels® offers Constant Companion, a proprietary system that uses Amazon Alexa to help seniors live a safe and independent life while staying connected to their communities. Constant Companion responds to voice-activated medical alerts and summons help ASAP. It does not require any wearable devices and can even be used to call or send voice messages to loved ones. Constant Companion also includes an optional video chat feature and can read audiobooks, play games, and give medication reminders to your loved one. Keeping seniors and other vulnerable populations safe through social distancing is vital as COVID-19 spreads. Although it can be tricky at times, there are plenty of ways to help older adults stay socially connected and not fall prey to feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Feel free to call Visiting Angels Newton/Canton at 617-795-2727 if you have any questions about caring for your senior loved one. About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton: Visiting Angels Newton/Canton MA is an award-winning local home care agency providing high caliber in-home care services to the elderly and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our home Alzheimer's care, dementia care, companion care, senior care, respite support, transitional aid, and home care services in Westwood, Norwood, Brookline, Watertown, Needham, Dedham, Canton, Stoughton, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Chestnut Hill, Roslindale, and nearby towns. While essential personal in nature, the care provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can make a significant impact on your loved one's happiness and quality of life. Contact us today for a free in-home consultation! We are Staying Diligent As the confirmed cases of COVID-19 continues to rise in our area, we are monitoring the situation and the advice from public health authorities. Visiting Angels remain committed to our responsibility as your home care provider during this time. We recognize that our Visiting Angels caregivers allow seniors to age safely and comfortably in their own homes, wherever that may be, and that some of our clients cannot get through the day or night without a caregiver. We want to assure you that we are communicating to our caregivers to follow best practices, including hand-washing, and staying home if they are feeling ill or have traveled to Level 3 CDC countries. A recent study, the National Poll on Healthy Aging, found that one in three seniors is lonely. “Living alone, in particular, was highly associated with feeling lonely. Among those living alone, 60% reported feeling a lack of companionship, and 41% felt isolated.” In the report, in-home care services were listed as one of the solutions to help alleviate this problem. The emotional impact aside, this research also showed that loneliness has significant repercussions on senior health. “Chronic loneliness can impact older adults’ memory, physical well-being, mental health, and life expectancy. Some research suggests that chronic loneliness may shorten life expectancy even more than being overweight or sedentary, and just as much as smoking.” Loneliness is a condition that can develop over time. It may start with increasing geographical distances between families as seniors are often left behind when adult children relocate for job opportunities. Then, one by one their contemporaries begins to pass away. Those seniors who survive their siblings tend to feel more isolated. Medical problems or the death of a spouse can make seniors even less likely to engage, compounding their feelings of loneliness. The study goes on to say that “encouraging and supporting meaningful social connections and more frequent interactions — through activities such as volunteerism, participation in community or religious groups, or home visiting programs — may help mitigate loneliness and its associated health challenges.” This is one of the many reasons why adding professional home care providers to your loved one’s life can have such a positive impact. Has Your Family Considered Homecare Assistance?Many people are balancing children, a career, and managing a household. It can feel like there are not enough hours in the day when you don’t have an opportunity to stop by and visit your loved one. You start to wonder: Did they eat a nutritious meal for breakfast, wearing their medical alert pendant? Did they remember to lock the front door and take their evening pills? Being a family caregiver is a lonely road. Many people don’t understand the challenges until they have experienced it themselves. If you’re on this road, now may be the time to explore home care assistance. Stephanie Cacioppo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, is also director of the university’s National Institute on Aging-supported Brain Dynamics Laboratory. She states, “The misery and suffering caused by chronic loneliness are very real and warrant attention. As a social species, we are accountable to help our lonely children, parents, neighbors, and even strangers, in the same way, we would treat ourselves. Treating loneliness is our collective responsibility.” That’s where Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can be of assistance to you and your loved one. The responsibility you feel can be shared with our compassionate home care aides and your family. We are here to ease the stress you are feeling while also providing your loved one with friendly, joyful companionship. Our home care assistance can include help with a wide range of tasks and activities. We can provide reminders to take medications, transportation to appointments or therapies, provide assistance with household chores, and help with personal care and hygiene needs. We’ll be there to ease your burden while helping to combat the loneliness your loved one may be feeling. At Visiting Angels Newton/Canton of Massachusetts, we understand the power of a team when it’s focused on the same objectives. To request a free in-home consultation, and find out more about our home care assistance services, contact us today at 617-795-2727. About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton:
Visiting Angels Newton/Canton MA is an award-winning local home care agency providing high caliber in-home care services to the elderly and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our Alzheimer’s and dementia care, respite support, companion care, transitional aid, and senior home care services in Norwood, Westwood, Natick, Wellesley, Needham, Dedham, Brookline, Watertown, Canton, Stoughton, Newton, Chestnut Hill, Roslindale and nearby towns. While non-medical in nature, the care provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can make a significant impact on your loved one’s happiness and quality of life. Our caregivers are all CNA or HHA certified. They complete a full orientation training that includes a dementia care program that utilizes cognitive impairment simulation scenarios. We also offer specialized training opportunities for our office staff and caregivers throughout the year. We have received the Best of Home Care – Leader in Excellence, Trusted Provider, Best of Home Care Provider, and Best of Home Care Employer by Home Care Pulse for six consecutive years. We have also earned Top Places to Work by the Boston Globe for five years, and are proudly accredited by the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts. Maybe you’ve been concerned about your mom recently. As she ages, you’re noticing a few worrisome signs that her needs at home are about to evolve beyond her independence. Sure, you’d love to stop by the house more frequently to help, but with a career and family schedule, it’s nearly impossible for you to take on this massive responsibility. It's a typical scenario in families, and it usually results in uprooting a senior to a nursing home or assisted living facility or retaining professional home care. However, people can be stubborn, especially parents who may be insecure about a type of "role reversal" happening. Your parent not only refuses to leave home, but Mom or Dad is rejecting the very idea of a professional caregiver. So how do you get them on board when they want to stay home but don’t want help from a professional caregiver? Here are five ways to find a caregiving compromise. Talk Through Their Fears — and YoursIt’s not easy for your parents to admit they need help. The thought of having another person in the home to help them perform tasks that used to be routine could make them quite uncomfortable. Of course, over time, that professional home health aide can become a close friend and partner, but it may take a while and trust-building. Work through these fears with your parents instead of forcing a solution. When an adult child becomes too controlling, the resistance from your parents is bound to increase. A 2004 study from SUNY Albany found this to be accurate, stating that participants were ambivalent about receiving care and “use a variety of strategies to deal with their ambivalent feelings, such as minimizing the help they receive, ignoring or resisting children’s attempts to control.” Though you may be frustrated by rejection and reticence, put yourself in their shoes. Be understanding, and once your parent feels understood, explain your point of view. Remember not to be patronizing or disrespectful, but share your genuine concerns about being able to stay home safely. More Dancing, Less WrestlingAn expert in geriatric communication and family relationships, David Solie, wrote a book about the best ways to navigate these difficult conversations. It was called “How to Say It to Seniors: Closing the Communication Gap with Our Elders.” Solie recommends the partnership approach and advocates for adult children to “put control on the table” rather than commandeering the process. He believes conversations about care should be “more dancing, less wrestling.” To that end, he offers many tools to talk in more concrete, visual ways about the current situation and the proposed solution. His "dance cards" provide go-to strategies on topics like resetting expectations and minding the gap, and his caregiver “mind maps” allow a caregiver to lay out in detail all the aspects of care to be considered. You could also keep a journal of your parents’ changing in-home senior care needs. All of these checklists and resources are especially helpful in getting buy-in from siblings as well, as your parents may not be the only ones opposed to bringing in-home care. Consider the RisksStaying home without any support can be risky. For one family, an aging spouse refused any at-home living assistance. The family has been worried about his waning mobility. Ultimately, he suffered a fall, which led to a hospitalization and, unfortunately, his passing — as he was not able to recover from the injuries he sustained. While no family can be fully prepared for a fall or other type of sudden health event, there are ways to prevent injuries and incidents that lead to such devastating outcomes — and having a professional caregiver as a presence in the home is one of them. Of course, not every fall results in such a tragic outcome; however, the road to recovery can be a turbulent one for a senior who has fallen. Along with doubling the risk of falling again after falling just once, the sheer financial impact can be crippling. All of this is to say, the risk of leaving Mom or Dad alone when he or she needs help isn't worth it, and you must discuss the risks with your parent. Work With a MediatorYou’ve explored every avenue of persuasion, using all the logic at your disposal, but it may be there is just no convincing Mom or Dad that this is the best option. That’s when bringing in a neutral third party to moderate the conversation could make a difference in the outcome. Sometimes your parents need to hear the options, risks, benefits, and challenges presented by someone who is not as emotionally invested as you are. A mediator may also help lessen the guilt burden many parents put on their children for considering home care. AARP offers these resources for finding a mediator, should this approach work best for your family. Present Options and Let Them ChooseEmpower your parents to decide on home care by gathering information on some providers. Ask for their input: what do they value in a home care company? What’s the budget? Talk about what a professional caregiver can do that they maybe never considered as an option: like providing companionship, or helping with housework and transportation to doctor’s appointments. Once you’ve gathered information on a few options, sit down together to discuss the pros and cons. Remember: even as you partner with a professional caregiver, you will still play an essential role as coordinator and advocate. Your opinion on a trusted in-home caregiver is equally valuable. Need more advice on building consensus on home care among the family? Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can help. Contact us today at 617-795-2727. About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton Visiting Angels Newton/Canton MA is an award-winning local home care agency providing high caliber in-home care services to the elderly and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our Alzheimer's care, dementia home care, companion care, senior care, respite support, transitional aid, and at home living assistance services in Westwood, Norwood, Brookline, Watertown, Needham, Dedham, Canton, Stoughton, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Chestnut Hill, Roslindale, and nearby towns.
We are honored to have been awarded Top Places to Work by the Boston Globe for five years. We have also earned the Best of Home Care – Leader in Excellence, Trusted Provider, Best of Home Care Provider, and Best of Home Care Employer by Home Care Pulse. We are proudly accredited by the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts. While non-medical in nature, the care provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can make a significant impact on your loved one's happiness and quality of life. Call us at 617-795-2727 for information. Finding the right home care provider for your spouse, parent, or grandparent can be difficult. Thanks to our Select Your Caregiver® program, Visiting Angels® makes it easy for care recipients and their families to find a compatible home care provider. We’ve been matching clients with qualified, skilled, and compassionate caregivers for more than two decades. We know what it takes to find the right fit, and we understand how important and impactful your choice of caregiver will be. If you’re currently looking for a home care provider and you’re unsure what to look for in a caregiver, don’t worry. By focusing on the following three qualities, you will quickly narrow down the list of potential caregivers. 1. Caregiving Skills & Experience Home care is a wide-ranging industry, encompassing many different types of care services. On one end of the spectrum is companion care, which provides aging and disabled individuals with a helping hand for necessary, day-to-day activities. On the other end, are various types of specialized care for individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities. If your loved one only requires essential in-home living assistance — help running errands, making meals, doing laundry — a companion care provider will be suitable. Other types of care will require a caregiver with specialized skills and experience. This includes physical assistance, as well as specialized care services such as Alzheimer’s care and dementia care. Before meeting with in-home care agencies, it’s a good idea to draw up a list of tasks that your loved one will need from his or her caregiver. Consider researching caregiving activities online so that you don’t forget anything. This will also allow you to familiarize yourself with which types of caregivers provide which kinds of services. When meeting with potential in-home care agencies, it is helpful to review this list with them in detail. Ask them whether they provide each of the services your loved one will need. Also, check whether the caregivers are CNA or HHA-certified caregivers; they have training or experience providing these services to seniors. Finally, make sure that they are adequately licensed for whatever level of care your loved one requires. 2. Choose a Home Care Aide with PersonalityWhen hiring a home care provider, a caregiver’s personality can be as important as his or her professional skill set. On a basic level, this will ensure that your loved one trusts his or her caregiver. Without this trust, high-quality home care service can be unhelpful. On a deeper level, the right personality fit can be the difference between substandard care and the right caregiver. Your loved one will spend several hours a week with their caregiver, so it’s vital that a strong relationship is established. When personalities clash, home care visits are a chore for both parties. However, with the right fit, a caregiver can feel like a new member of the family. As you meet with caregivers, it’s crucial that you and your loved one get a feel for each caregiver as a person. Will your loved one feel comfortable receiving care from this individual? Will your loved one enjoy conversations or quiet time in this person’s presence? Will you and your family feel at ease with this caregiver looking after your loved one? Trust your instincts and make sure that you, your loved one, and your family are happy with the final decision. 3. Caregiver Availability & SchedulingThe third important factor when choosing a compatible home care provider is scheduling and availability. While some seniors only require a few hours of care every week, others require assistance on a full-time basis or even 24-hour care. The more intensive your loved one’s caregiving needs, the more challenging it can be to find a caregiver with suitable availability.
At the same time, many seniors are set in their day-to-day routines and preferences. It’s important that these routines are maintained or accommodated when scheduling home care visits. If your loved one enjoys sleeping in, early morning visits could be disruptive. If they enjoy afternoon walks, you’ll want to make sure that a caregiver is there to accompany them. While scheduling and availability are important in a home caregiver, sometimes it’s worth making the sacrifice for the right caregiver. If, for example, you’ve found a caregiver with the ideal skill set and personality, but your loved one would need to take their daily walk an hour later each day, a slight change in your loved one’s routine may be worth it to get the caregiver you feel is the right fit. Are you looking for qualified home care providers in your area? Contact us today for a free in-home consultation. Visiting Angels Newton/Canton has an outstanding team of caregivers who work tirelessly to provide quality care to our clients. Contact us at 617-795-2727 for a free in-home consultation! |
AuthorVisiting Angels Newton/Canton is an award-winning in-home care agency that provides high quality home care to seniors and disabled adults in Greater Boston, MA. Archives
July 2022
Categories
All
|