Alzheimer’s
Effective Dementia Communication Tips
Learn how to better communicate with a person with Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia have a strong influence on language. The disease has an effect on speech and making use of words, as well as the comprehension of words. As the disease advances, language as a method of connecting will become less effective, and family and friends may need to choose different methods for communicating to interact with their loved one.
Hired Hands Homecare, top providers of the professional elderly care Santa Rosa families need, offers the following tips to help in communication and understanding with a loved one with dementia:
Make sure to use a kind tone – slower, lower, smiling.
Always treat the individual as an adult with the utmost respect, and make your best effort to be patient, flexible, supportive and calm.
Be sure there are … Read More »
Napa Senior Living: Senior Safety Gets a Boost with These Simple Exercises
The home care experts at Hired Hands outline simple exercises to improve senior safety.
The CDC reports that as many as one-third of all seniors fall each year, and surprisingly, less than half of those seniors talk to their doctors about it. When a senior experiences a fall, even if it does not cause serious injury, she can develop a heightened fear of falling, which may result in limited activities, reduced mobility, loss of physical fitness, and in turn, an increased risk of falling again.
In our last blog post, we discussed some home modifications you can make to improve senior safety and reduce the risk of falls. In addition, there are a number of exercises that seniors can do on a regular basis to increase muscle strength and improve balance, which will not only help reduce … Read More »
Fall Prevention: Keep Seniors Safe with Help from Our Tri Valley Home Care Experts
Hired Hands Homecare shares details on how to keep seniors safe from falls.
You may have at one time been by a senior loved one’s side at the hospital or doctor’s office and noticed the medical worker attaching a colorful “FALL RISK” band to his or her wrist. Notifying those providing care to this possibility allows additional measures to keep seniors safe during medical treatments. However, did you realize that ongoing, everyday life can pose a fall risk danger to those diagnosed with the following conditions?
Arthritis
Osteoporosis, a bone density disorder that can also increase a person’s chances of fracturing a hip
Vertigo
Cerebrovascular insufficiency
Neurologic disability (stroke)
Postural hypotension (sudden decrease in blood pressure)
Diabetes
Read More »
How to Create a Sense of Purpose for Someone with Alzheimer’s Disease
Search online for “activities for seniors” and you’re likely to find numerous crafts, games, memory stimulation puzzles, and of course, the requisite bingo. However, what you won’t discover—unless you dig a little deeper with your searches—are the meaningful, beneficial activities that give significance to our lives. And yet, if you ask older individuals what they most want to do, the majority of them won’t mention bingo, crafts and games. What they want more than anything is to feel useful.
The University of Minnesota reveals details on how the most vulnerable times in our lives are a person’s first year of life, and our first year after retiring. The loss of the sense of purpose found in a fulfilling profession can cause significant health issues – and even an earlier fatality rate, if that awareness of purpose is not maintained … Read More »
What You Don’t Know About In Home Care Services
In our last blog post, we outlined the advantages of utilizing a professional home care agency to provide the highest quality and safest level of California home care. But we regularly receive inquiries on exactly what kinds of home care services in Pleasanton and the surrounding area are available to help older adults remain safe and thriving at home. If you’ve determined it’s time to search for in-home help for a senior family member, there are a variety of customized in home care services available. These options can help you figure out the specific type of help your loved one really needs:
Housekeeping: Household tasks can become challenging for older adults to manage. Housekeeping services performed on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis, covering tasks like vacuuming, doing dishes, laundry, changing beds, dusting, preparing meals, and … Read More »
2 Acronyms You Should Know When Considering Hiring At Home Caregivers
Hand it to the health care industry to come up with yet another couple of acronyms to add to their extensive list – ADLs and IADLs. These are prevalent terms in the healthcare field used to describe the routine self-care activities that an individual engages in on a regular basis to stay independent and healthy. It is also common for these acronyms to appear in conversations if you are looking for in-home care options for an older person, or if you are researching the cost of long-term senior care for yourself or someone you know.
Do My Parents Need In Home Care Services? Let Their Daily Activities Decide.
It’s often human nature to deny that we need assistance, although the truth is that often we really do. This is especially true for older adults, who may not wish to confess they need help doing the everyday things that used to be a snap but now are getting to be more complicated. For loved ones, this can make recognizing that an older adult requires help more difficult to identify. The encouraging news is that there are tools that can help family members better determine when a senior needs help.
Exploring Tri Valley Home Care Services Instead of a Nursing Home
“I never want to live in a nursing home.”
If you’re the child of an elderly parent, you’ve probably listened to your loved one speak those words or a similar sentiment signifying your parent’s wish to continue to age at home instead of moving to a long-term care facility. Truthfully, the majority of seniors want to remain in their own homes for as long as possible – for a variety of reasons. Home is the place they’ve lovingly created, so it’s where they feel the most comfortable. Living at home also brings meaning and purpose to one’s life. Something as simple as looking at one’s belongings, reading the mail, or relaxing on the porch are more meaningful in one’s own home than in a long-term care facility because it is the home that creates the framework of one’s life. … Read More »
Our Twenty-Fourth Marin Senior Information Fair!
On Wednesday, Hired Hands Homecare joined many families, friends, Caregivers, Clients and industry partners at the Marin Senior Information Fair. Yes… it was our TWENTY-FOURTH Marin Senior Fair! It was a great day of seeing old friends, gathering useful information, and even getting the flu shot out of the way. And how great do Kirsten and Erick look?!?
Beat the Heat! Important Considerations for Seniors and Caregivers
In the Bay Area, they’re forecasting TRIPLE DIGIT HEAT for the upcoming Holiday Weekend!
We all suffer in hot weather. However, for elderly and disabled people and those with chronic health conditions such as vascular disease or diabetes, the weather does not have to hit 100 degrees to cause heat stress or even deadly heat stroke.
As we age, we gradually lose the ability to perspire and regulate our body temperature. This is why older people tend to overdress — they don’t feel heat the same way anymore. Heart rates do not speed up-or return to normal-as fast during exercise. Older skin also thins and offers less protection from the sun. Poor circulation, heart, lung and kidney diseases, and high blood pressure increase the risk for heat-related illness. Being overweight or underweight also increases risk.
Medications taken for a variety of diseases … Read More »
