Caregivers
We Hope You Can Join Us!
Greetings and Salutations!
Its a Beautiful Day for a colorful sweater and great company!
We Hope you can join us today for our Holiday Open Houses as we celebrate community and the Holiday Season.
Happy Holidays to All!
With Love,
The Hired Hands Homecare Family
Senior Medical Appointments and Procedures Made Easier with These Tips
The statistics are alarming: a recent study conducted by the Annals of Family Medicine uncovered that a typical primary care physician has a “panel” of more than 2,000 patients – those who are under his or her care. Further, the study outlined that such a physician would need to “spend 21.7 hours per day to provide all recommended acute, chronic and preventive care for a panel of 2,500 patients.”
It’s no wonder that we as patients, not to mention the doctors themselves, feel so rushed and stressed. With the need for so many senior medical appointments, treatments, and procedures due to the many chronic diseases and effects of aging that are prevalent, it’s more important than ever to take steps to maximize the time we have with our doctors.
In our previous blog post, we outlined some information and questions to prepare … Read More »
Many Heartfelt Thanks from Hired Hands Homecare
Dear Valued and Trusted Members of the Hired Hands Team:
During this Thanksgiving Holiday, we are thinking of all of you who are so dedicated and committed to the care, comfort, and safety of our cherished Clients. There is no adequate way to express our deep and profound gratitude for all you do. You have chosen a rewarding, yet often difficult job, and you do it so well. I am sure there are days when you don’t realize the enormous impact that you have on others lives, enriching them, and offering them peace and joy and security. It is a BIG job and you are truly heroes!
To our very special internal staff members, Hired Hands would be nothing without your daily efforts to make a hugely complex company run like a top. You handle both … Read More »
Moving Forward…
Greetings Friends and Families,
The past two weeks will be remembered as a time of profound tragedy for our Community. We’re extremely thankful to CalFire and ALL the first responders for finally getting the fires contained and under control. We’re also extremely thankful for the safety and well being of all Hired Hands Employees, Families, and Clients.
During the toughest of times, our Management Team, Emergency On-Call Coordinators, and dedicated Caregivers exceeded all expectations in their efforts to keep our Clients as safe and comfortable as possible. This was particularly impressive over the past two weeks as the situation changed constantly. Our office operations had to relocate due to power outages. Families were evacuated multiple times, often to far away locations. Evacuees even slept in our offices. Together, we worked around the clock as a focused Team, doing the best we could, … Read More »
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 »
Dementia Home Care Strategies: How to Respond to Hallucinations and Illusions
For family members providing dementia home care for a senior with Alzheimer’s disease or another kind of dementia, a number of complex effects have to be very carefully handled, but perhaps the most overwhelming consist of hallucinations, illusions, and suspicions that other individuals are out to cause him problems or ill will. False perceptions such as these arise typically in the more advanced phases of progressive dementia as a result of changes within the brain. It’s essential to first recognize the reasons behind these emotions and behaviors, and to deal with the root cause.
Hallucinations/Illusions
Causes for hallucinations may perhaps be the result of a general confusion, a medicine side effect or an infection. Seek advice from the doctor to rule out medication side effects or infections, but also monitor the person’s environment.
For example:
If the person keeps hearing someone talking: Is a … Read More »
Need Help Transferring a Senior from a Bed to a Wheelchair? Prevent Back Injury with These Tips.
The odds are certainly not in our favor: more than half of all caregivers are incurring injuries as a result of lifting or transferring an older adult. With so many family members providing care for senior loved ones, it’s imperative for them to learn proper lifting and transferring techniques, and Hired Hands Homecare, providing home care in Sonoma and the surrounding areas, is happy to share the following, which can both prevent back injury for a caregiver and protect the older adult from injury as well.
Follow the steps below carefully in the order they’re listed:
Place one foot on a footstool beside the bed (if the bed is low) to relieve pressure on your lower back.
Place the wheelchair as close as possible to the bed and perform a quick safety check on the wheelchair’s position. Make sure the brakes are locked … Read More »
Preventing Back Injuries: 10 Tips All Caregivers Should Follow
If you’re providing care for an elderly loved one at home, it’s more than likely that you’ll find yourself in situations where you need to lift, move or transfer him or her – which, if not performed correctly, can place you in danger of hurting either yourself or your senior loved one. Injuries occur most frequently when caregivers:
Have not learned proper lifting and transferring techniques
Do not recognize when they’ve reached their physical limitations
Are not equipped for the physical strain of transferring and lifting
Desire to “manage it themselves” rather than asking for help
Since back injuries are especially prevalent as a result of incorrect lifting techniques, preventing back injuries by learning proper lifting protocol is crucial. Hired Hands Homecare of California would like to share some of the top guidelines to help minimize risk of back injury for family caregivers:
Only lift what … Read More »
Celebrating Mothers!
We are so honored to be blessed
with so many wonderful MOTHERS and GRANDMOTHERS
in our Hired Hands family fold.
You are our Caregivers, our Clients, and our in-house Management Team,
and in this world of Caregiving,
you bring that maternal love and compassion and joy
with you each and every day.
You enrich our lives with your very presence.
We are so grateful that you have blessed us
with that light you shine wherever you go.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY
Read More »
What Would We Do Without Espy?
“Espy” has been a caregiver for over 25 years! She became a caregiver after retiring from her career as a school principal in the Philippines. Espy loves working with many of our hospice clients. She is dedicated to helping clients move “to the other side” as she calls it. She devotes herself to making those last moments comfortable and meaningful for the whole family.
A recent client said that she relies heavily on Espy to guide her through the difficult moments when no one else is around.
Espy’s focus is on the quality of life, however that may show up. She recently was able to help a hospice client make a short outing to take in some of her favorite old sites. The trust Espy built helped this client accept help from other caregivers so she was able to remain in her … Read More »
