As we age, our muscles may weaken, our dexterity may suffer, and in some cases, we deteriorate mentally. If you have aging parents, you may experience this first-hand as your parent begins needing additional help with everyday tasks around the home. Maybe you don't mind helping if Dad needs help cleaning, cooking, or getting dressed. However, what happens when your aging parent needs help in the bathroom? Risk of Falling in the BathroomRoutine activities like bathing or showering and getting in and out of the tub can cause slips and injuries. People over 85, especially if suffering from any incontinence, which is common in Alzheimer’s patients, are more likely to injure themselves on or near the toilet because they often have to rush to get in the bathroom, placing them at higher risk for falls. Moreover, sadly, the consequences of senior falls can be severe. Over 27,000 seniors in the USA die as a result of falls every year. If Dad is getting unsteady on his feet, it may be that bathing unsupervised is no longer an option. If you’re the only one capable of helping out, you may need to prepare yourself to enter the bathroom with your aging parent. Overcome the EmbarrassmentGoing to the bathroom is a personal, private experience, so helping a friend or family member use the toilet can be embarrassing for both you and your loved one. Some seniors may be ashamed to appear so vulnerable in front of a family member, and it may be hard for you to see the person who raised you in such a state. However, overcoming the embarrassment can lead to positive outcomes. Studies have shown that seniors who feel supported by a family member to achieve daily activities, such as using the toilet, feel more independent and in control of their lives, which in turn offers health benefits. Your loved one may come to realize that receiving bathroom help is better than the alternative, which could include leaving home for a nursing home or assisted living facility and losing independence. Make it as Easy as PossibleIf using the bathroom is difficult for Dad, it may be possible to remodel his bathroom to make it easier to use. Installing grab bars could help him to get on and off the toilet; nonslip decals are easy to apply to tubs and tiles to minimize slip risk. Senior-friendly walk-in tubs with doors can provide easy access, although they can be expensive. In general, ensuring that everything is within his reach, and there are minimal obstacles will be a great start. Offering Physical Help Unfortunately, sometimes even a remodel might not be enough to allow every senior to use the bathroom alone, some will need a person there to help. The Family Caregiver Alliance offers tips on how to aid a senior loved one in the bathroom:
Consider Professional HelpIt’s possible that through no fault of your own, helping your loved one use the toilet may not be something that either of you is ever comfortable with as part of a routine. In this case, you could consider professional home care services. A professional caregiver can visit your loved one and help with personal care. A professional caregiver could assist with most of your loved one’s needs, including helping walk to the toilet, getting undressed, getting into the tub, washing, and even using the bathroom. Even if you are both comfortable with you helping in the bathroom, a professional caregiver or home health aide could offer another crucial point of assistance. Although some seniors may keep to a reasonably regular bathroom schedule, most could need to use the bathroom at any time of the day or night, which means you could be on call 24/7. Getting respite care services from a home care provider would allow you some time off while ensuring that your loved one's bathroom needs are adequately addressed. About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton Visiting Angels Newton/Canton senior home care agency provides quality in-home care services to seniors and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our dementia home care, Alzheimer’s care, companion care, respite support, transitional aid, and elder home care services in Wellesley, Natick, Newton, Needham, Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Canton, Westwood, Dedham, Watertown, Stoughton, Roslindale, Norwood, and nearby towns. The services provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton will be sure to make a positive impact on your loved one’s happiness and quality of life. Call us today at 617-795-2727 for more information.
0 Comments
When you ask senior citizen, the vast majority express a preference for living assistance. Rather than move to an assisted living facility, most would prefer to receive in-home living assistance, allowing them to age in place. For confirmation, look no further than the AARP which conducts regular surveys on aging and housing preferences. In these surveys, the vast majority of respondents express a preference for aging in place — even if this means hiring an in-home care service. What leads so many seniors to this preference? We have a pretty good idea at Visiting Angels®. Below are 7 of the biggest reasons why our clients choose living assistance as an alternative to assisted living. 7 Reasons Seniors Prefer In-Home Living Assistance#1. Improved Health Outcomes One of the best arguments for living assistance is the improved health outcomes of seniors who age in place. Numerous studies have found that seniors who receive care at home live longer than those who move to care facilities. In addition to higher life expectancy, seniors who age in place also enjoy fewer physical, mental, and emotional health challenges. #2. In-Home Care is More Affordable When you move to an assisted living facility, you’re spending tens of thousands of dollars each year. In some instances — namely those where 24-hour care or 24/7 monitoring is necessary — this can be cheaper than receiving support at home. However, in cases where seniors need less intensive care, it’s typically much less expensive to hire an in-home caregiver. #3. Enjoy Greater Independence Age-related difficulties can rob elderly adults of total independence. However, that doesn’t mean that seniors need to sacrifice their autonomy completely. By continuing to live at home, seniors can maintain as much independence and freedom as possible. In a similar vein, they can preserve their privacy in a way that isn’t possible with assisted living. #4. Trustworthy Caregiver Relationships At an assisted living facility, care is delivered by a staff of several caregivers. At any given time, care is provided by whoever happens to be on duty. However, with in-home living assistance, care is provided by the same caregiver or caregivers on each visit. As a result, caregivers can develop close relationships with clients and offer better companion care and personal care, which allows for greater comfort, increased trust, and a more personal (and more personalized!) approach to caregiving. #5. No Change in Personal Routines When seniors move to a care facility, they don’t just experience a change of environment. They also undergo a significant change in routine, partly due to a new and unfamiliar space, which impacts how seniors live day-to-day. It also stems from how the facility schedules mealtimes, group activities, and caregiving administration, which can differ significantly from at-home routines. #6. Familiar Surroundings After a move, you need to adapt to new living quarters and a new neighborhood. Which can be more jarring than you might expect, especially for seniors who’ve lived in the same area for a significant amount of time. Losing nearby amenities, favorite shops, and cherished neighbors can prove just as alienating, if not more, as the loss of one’s home. #7. Home Sweet Home The main reason why seniors prefer living assistance over assisted living should be apparent: they feel most comfortable at home. While some seniors don’t feel strongly about aging in place, they tend to be the exception, not the rule. The vast majority express a clear preference for living at home, the place where they feel the safest, the most secure, and the most content. That’s not possible with assisted living, but with living assistance, it is. Visiting Angels Newton/Canton provides professional home caregivers who are CNA or HHA-certified home health aides. Schedule a free in-home living assistance consultation by contacting us today! About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton
Visiting Angels Newton/Canton senior home care agency provides quality in-home care services to seniors and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our dementia home care, Alzheimer’s care, companion care, respite support, transitional aid, and elder home care services in Canton, Stoughton, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Needham, Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Westwood, Dedham, Watertown, Roslindale, Norwood, and nearby towns. The services provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton will be sure to make a positive impact on your loved one’s happiness and quality of life. Call us today at 617-795-2727 for more information. Worrying about aging family members is the reality for many adult children, whether their loved ones live alone or with a spouse whose health or memory is failing; however, it’s especially hard when you live far away. You know Dad’s getting to an age where he cannot be entirely independent. What happens when you or your siblings are not around to drop in on him? With families more spread out than ever, long-distance caregiving has become the norm for many. The upside? Technology and other community-based services, tools, and resources make it possible to create a network of care for an elderly loved one in a different city or state. Here are some ways to care for your aging loved one when you don’t live locally. Use Video Chat to CommunicateIf you’re not doing it already, encourage your loved one to use video chat technology like Zoom, Skype or FaceTime to keep in touch. When you can’t drop by in person, plan a video call with your father — an excellent way to find out how he’s doing. Maybe Dad looks content and healthy but sounds sad on the phone because he misses you. On the other hand, he may sound cheery on the phone — trying to put your mind at ease — but when you see his face in real time, you see how your mother’s passing is wearing on him. As you check in more regularly this way, take notes and keep track of subtle hints he may need more help or signs that he is lonely and may need some friendly visitors. Make a Family & Friend Visit ScheduleSocial isolation is one of the biggest pitfalls of growing older at home. For many aging couples, even caregiving can result in isolation, despite not being alone. As your Mom cares for your father through a dementia diagnosis, both can suffer socially. She may start to feel internally isolated as the man she’s loved for decades starts changing. The relationship becomes less of a partnership and more of stewardship. It is also harder to stay connected to friends; seniors may receive fewer visitors while getting out into the community less frequently. Friendly visitors — relatives, good friends, neighbors or even volunteers from a local community organization – can provide the companionship a lonely loved one needs. Try to keep a calendar of who is coming and when so that visitors honor their commitments and do not randomly show up unannounced. Don’t have any cousins or relatives to call? Contact your parent’s local Area Agency on Aging to learn about organizations that provide these types of visits. Automate Bills & PillsThe advent of secure online banking, and prescription delivery services, means you don’t always have to sit at Mom’s desk to help renew her prescriptions or pay her bills. It may be helpful to get everything set up in person first when you are in town (maybe even visiting Mom’s local bank branch and pharmacy to touch base) but then automate as much as possible so you can manage it when you return home. It’s important not to gloss over this vital part of senior care. Our elderly loved ones – especially those facing declining mental faculties – can and will forget about things like medication and bills. Save your parent time and lots of money in charges by ensuring their obligations are automated. For prescriptions, consider professional help as prescription management will aid your loved one and possibly avoid costly hospital admission. Shop & Ship OnlineIf Dad needs an abundant supply of incontinence products and he has trouble getting to the grocery store, Amazon Prime and grocery delivery services through significant stores like Target, Instacart or Peapod can step in when you are not around. Some of these online shopping options offer discounts on repeat items, so if you know Dad needs adult diapers every two months, you may be able to save some money by setting up recurring orders. Foster Community Engagement OpportunitiesSet up Uber transportation or a city transit ride so Mom can go to the library or her favorite hairdresser once a month. Reach out to your parents’ community center, if possible, to find out what support services they might offer for older adults who don’t have family in the area. If your Dad still drives, research local volunteer opportunities that may help him get out of the house for a bit and stay socially connected. You may not imagine it a necessity, but know that your parent may not know how to become socially involved with others, despite feeling lonely. Aging can take a toll on our loved ones, and they may feel increasingly less motivated to leave the house. That’s when your encouragement is helpful. Add a Professional Caregiver to the TeamDistance does make things a little more complicated when your parents are aging as it is not always realistic for you to move closer to them or to uproot them and bring them to your home territory. There are ways to foster their independence and success at home. Once you’ve built a care network through the avenues described above, you may also want to consider a professional caregiver from a trusted home care provider. What can a professional caregiver do to help? There is a wide range of non-medical home care services available, from meal prep and laundry, to help with light housework, to medical appointment transportation and more — some partner with a professional caregiver solely for the companionship benefits. Moreover, you can still organize and coordinate this care, even if you don’t live locally. A professional home caregiver can be your eyes and ears on Dad, or the extra hands Mom needs around the house. To learn more, visit visitingangels.com/newton. About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton Visiting Angels Newton/Canton senior home care agency provides quality in-home care services to seniors and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our dementia home care, Alzheimer’s care, companion care, respite support, transitional aid, and elder home care services in Wellesley, Natick, Newton, Needham, Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Canton, Westwood, Dedham, Watertown, Stoughton, Roslindale, Norwood, and nearby towns. The services provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton will be sure to make a positive impact on your loved one’s happiness and quality of life. Call us today at 617-795-2727 for more information. There’s nothing like a mother’s love. Whether she was making your school lunch, giving you a pep talk after a disappointment, acting as your biggest cheerleader, or spoiling your kids, Mom was always there for you. Perhaps that’s why it is so difficult for grown children to accept the fact that they are not always able to take care of an aging mother themselves. In a perfect world, you would be able to take care of your aging parent in your home or theirs, relying only on family to help you. But the reality is that caring for an aging or ill parent is a full-time job that can take a toll on the caregiver; add to that the demands of raising a family, working, and other responsibilities, and chances are you’ll need a little assistance along the way. That’s where Visiting Angels come in. A national network of franchised non-medical senior homecare agencies, the company provides senior homecare to help elderly and older adults continue to live in their homes. These caring, experienced home caregiversprovide up to 24-hour care in the comfort of the client’s own home. Unlike most elderly care service agencies that assign staff and schedule appointments with little input from their clients, Visiting Angels representatives begin by meeting with potential clients in order to get to know them. They also talk with involved family members, and when necessary, a person’s physician or social worker in order to develop an individualized program to manage the particular daily needs of each care recipient. Clients participate in selecting their own caregivers, and the client and her family have the final say in the selection process, ensuring that the match will be a good one. You can be confident that your caregiver is qualified and has excellent references. “Character counts,” says Richard Bitner, of Visiting Angels. “We build relationships with families and hire only experienced caregivers who pass a rigorous screening process.” “The families schedule is our schedule”. The company also emphasizes the intangible traits of the caregiver, such as a caring personality. Many of the company’s caregivers are former hospital staff who have grown tired of budget cuts taking over healthcare and who appreciate the opportunity to do one-on-one personal care. “We want our clients to look forward to a visit by their caregiver,” says Bitner. “That’s why the client is in complete control from start to finish.” After the caregiver has been placed in your home, the company continues its personalized contact through telephone check-in and home visits to make sure you and your caregiver are a good match. Although Visiting Angels are non-medical caregivers, they can provide a vital link in patient care. In cases where seniors are coming home from the hospital or a nursing home, the agency will consult with doctors, nursing home staff, social workers, physical therapists, and of course, the family, to establish each client’s personalized needs. In addition, although Visiting Angels do not dispense drugs, they can help monitor whether the patient is taking their medication. Because caregivers have access to a great deal of health information about their clients, Visiting Angels is one of very few national non-medical senior homecare providers to be compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). “Such information is very sensitive, and all of our clients deserve the protection that HIPAA compliancy can provide,” says Bitner. Many families request we take their Mother’s to their Doctor for scheduled appointments, so we can keep the family in the loop. In addition to offering joyful companionship, Visiting Angels will also do light housekeeping, run errands, prepare meals or do shopping — other ways they can provide a respite for families dealing with the care of a loved one. Visiting Angels Newton/Canton senior homecare agency provides high quality in-home care services to seniors and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our dementia home care service, Alzheimer’s care, companion care, elderly care, respite support, transitional aid, and elder home care services in Wellesley, Newton, Needham, Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Canton, Westwood, Dedham, Watertown, Natick, Stoughton, Roslindale, Norwood and nearby towns . While non-medical in nature, the care provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can make a big impact on your loved one’s happiness and quality of life. Call us today at 617-795-2727 for more information! When you think of your aging loved ones, what do you worry about most? Is it a heart attack or stroke cutting short their life, or perhaps cancer? While these illnesses are very real worries for everyone as they age, it may surprise you to discover that falls are the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and 75 percent of these falls occur in the older adult population. Falls are the single largest cause of injury among seniors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, older adults are hospitalized for fall-related injuries five times more often than they are for injuries from other causes. One-third of older adults who fall, sustain a hip fracture and are hospitalized, die within a year. Even if a fall does not result in hospitalization, fear of falling can become a major factor in seniors’ quality of life. Fear leads to inactivity and loss of confidence which in turn produces a cycle of fear, loss of self-confidence and inactivity. Dr. Roberta A. Newton, Ph.D., Temple University College of Health Professions in Philadelphia has spearheaded efforts to study and research why falls occur and how they can be prevented. Recognizing the importance of preventing falls, Visiting Angels, a national network of franchised non-medical senior homecare agencies, has partnered with Dr. Newton to increase the public awareness and importance of this sometimes overlooked issue. To help seniors and their families find out more about falls and how to prevent them, Visiting Angels, a senior home care services franchise, conducts free seminars across the country. “As our loved ones age, it is important to recognize that things like throw rugs that once didn’t warrant a second thought, now become household hazards. Mobility and agility limitations require a fresh look at the everyday contents of the home,” says Pat Drea Vice President of Operations. Here are some easy tips to help minimize the risk of life-altering falls for your loved ones. * Throw rugs can be a tripping hazard. Either remove them or make sure they are securely tacked down. * Add hand rails to all stairs. * Clear clutter from walking paths, and make sure hallways and stairways are well-lit. * Eliminate long extension cords that snake across a room. Plug lamps into outlets near the wall so cords are tucked away. * Add grab bars next to the toilet, tub and shower. * Getting in and out of the tub can be hazardous. In addition to grab bars, make sure the tub has non-skid mats. A tub seat may make showering easier, too. * Trade in floppy slippers for well-fitting slippers with non-skid soles. Also, avoid night clothing that drags on the ground. The experts at Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can help you check for hazards in your loved one’s home. Call Visiting Angels Newton/Canton, the home care agency in Newton, or call us at 617-795-2727 for a free consultation to help you assess your situation and address the elderly home care issues that are important to you and your family. 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 elderly and people with disabilities. Countless families have benefited from our dementia home care, Alzheimer's home care, elderly companion care, respite support, transitional aid, and senior home care services in Newton, Chestnut Hill, Canton, Westwood, Dedham, Watertown, and nearby towns . While non-medical in nature, the care provided by Visiting Angels Newton/Canton can make a big impact on your loved one's happiness and quality of life. |
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
|