Category: Seniors and Health Issues

Receiving a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis can be overwhelming, both for the senior and their loved ones. Knowing that seniors with Parkinson’s disease may experience a range of motor symptoms, including tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia (slowness of movement), and postural instability (difficulty with balance and coordination) can be difficult to cope with. These symptoms can make it challenging for seniors to perform everyday tasks and having an elder care provider there to assist your family through this challenging time is essential for everyone’s health.

How Do Cope With A Parkinson’s Diagnosis

  • Learn as much as you can about the disease, its symptoms, and its progression. This will help you better understand what your senior is going through and what to expect in the future.
  • Consult with a neurologist or movement disorder specialist who has experience in treating Parkinson’s disease. They can provide guidance on treatment options and help manage your senior’s symptoms.
  • Parkinson’s disease can affect many aspects of daily life. A loved one or caregiver will need to make changes to the home environment. This can include things such as removing tripping hazards or installing handrails. These little things can help reduce the risk of falls.
  • This disease can be emotionally challenging for both the senior and their caregivers. Seeking out support groups or counseling can help provide emotional support and coping approaches.
  • As the disease progresses, your senior may require additional support with activities of daily living. Home care services can provide personalized, one-on-one support to help your senior manage their symptoms and maintain their independence.

Receiving the Right Care For Your Loved One

Home care providers can play a valuable role in helping seniors who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. By providing personalized, one-on-one care, home care providers can help seniors with Parkinson’s disease manage their symptoms, maintain their independence and quality of life, and reduce the burden on family members.

Home care providers can help with assistance in daily activities. Parkinson’s disease can affect a senior’s ability to perform everyday tasks such as dressing, grooming, bathing, taking medications, and providing mobility assistance. Therefore, having a provider that can assist with these tasks while also providing personalized one-on-one support that is tailored to the senior’s needs helps make the senior comfortable.

Parkinson’s disease can increase the risk of falls and other accidents. In-home caregivers can help ensure the senior’s home environment is safe by removing tripping hazards and providing guidance on fall prevention.

This disease can be emotionally challenging for both the senior and their loved ones. Home care professionals can provide emotional support, companionship, and social engagement, helping to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness.

This disease affects speech causing communication to become more and more difficult. This then makes it hard for the senior to express themselves. It also becomes hard for others to understand the needs of the senior. Elder care can help to develop a communication style that fits your loved one’s needs so they can communicate with ease.

Providing a specialized plan for a senior with Parkinson’s is the priority for elder care providers. They will help to manage their lifestyle and as well as help to manage their symptoms. The goal for these caregivers is to ensure that the senior lives as normally as possible for a condition like Parkinson’s

If you or an aging loved one is considering elder care in Woodbury, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

March is National Kidney Month. Sadly, kidney disease is often called a silent disease because, in the early stages, there are few symptoms. Up to 90% of Americans who have chronic kidney disease don’t realize they have it until the disease is well advanced.

What Increases the Risk of Kidney Disease?

Having certain high-risk factors can make your loved one more likely to develop kidney disease. Diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure all greatly increase her risk of kidney disease developing.

If the kidney disease has progressed, your loved one might begin to develop symptoms that should be reviewed by her doctor as soon as possible to get her back on the path to better health.

Symptoms of Kidney Disease

Here is a list of the symptoms you might see in your loved one or your senior home care team may call to your attention if they notice them as well. Because many of these symptoms can also be indicative of other health issues, it’s important to have a doctor review them and perform any needed tests to determine the cause.

  • Your loved one is often feeling nauseous or is even to the point of vomiting but without any other ailment going on. If your senior home care provider notices your loved one isn’t eating because her stomach is consistently unsettled, make an appointment for your loved one.
  • With those symptoms, loss of appetite may occur where you don’t see your loved one enjoying the foods she used to enjoy or simply not eating enough at meals. Your senior home care provider may notice she only picks at her meals or leaves more than half of her meal on her plate unfinished.
  • Change in urination patterns. Kidney disease can cause your loved one to urinate more often or it can decrease her ability to urinate. If something just doesn’t feel right, you should get it checked out for her.
  • Repeatedly getting muscle cramps. Your senior may complain about leg cramps more often or have other muscles suddenly cramp up for no reason.
  • Confused or unable to concentrate. Sometimes kidney disease can decrease a person’s cognitive functions, making daily decisions and following directions more difficult than ever. If you see your loved one asking you to repeat your question, or explain something over again, there could be several health issues causing the issue, and checking kidney function would be a good place to start while looking for the cause.
  • Your loved one may notice her feet and ankles are retaining water or swelling up. Her kidneys may not be functioning well by helping her body get rid of excess fluid. Any edema (the swelling due to fluid retention) should be reviewed by her doctor.

What Happens Following a Kidney Disease Diagnosis

If kidney disease is the cause, doctors will help your loved one and you find a path to better health. This may help prevent her from having kidney failure. The sooner the disease is caught, the more that can be done to reduce the risk of irreversible damage.

How Can Senior Home Care Help?

There’s no cure for chronic kidney disease (CKD), but treatment can help relieve the symptoms and stop it getting worse. Under the direction of your parent’s doctor, senior home care can help them manage chronic kidney disease. Improved nutrition, medication management and healthy lifestyle choices can all help reduce the impact. Having the support of senior home care can offer peace of mind for seniors and their family members as they navigate this disease.

https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/community-health-outreach/national-kidney-month#:~:text=March%20is%20National%20Kidney%20Month!

If you or an aging loved one is considering senior home care in St. Louis Park, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

Just one of the many issues that seniors can face as they grow older is the impact of both depression and isolation on their mental and physical health. Ignoring these feelings when they crop up doesn’t help your senior to get what she needs. In fact, not resolving these issues can cause much bigger problems down the line. Home care assistance can help you and your senior to find the tools that she needs in her unique situation.

What Happens When Seniors Experience Depression and Isolation?

Depression is a common condition among seniors and can be caused by a variety of factors, such as a loss of independence, chronic illness, and the loss of loved ones. Depression can also be caused by chemical changes in the brain and body, so talking to your senior’s doctor is a good idea. Symptoms of depression in seniors can include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a lack of interest in activities they once enjoyed. Isolation can lead to depression, which is a big reason to try to find solutions that help your elderly family member to avoid isolation. Some of the causes of isolation include mobility problems, health issues, and lack of support systems.

Hands-on Help When Your Senior Needs It

If your elderly family member is experiencing a lot of difficulty with daily tasks, mobility, or other concerns, home care assistance is an excellent solution. Caregivers are able to take on household tasks, personal care tasks, and offer help in other ways, like with transportation. All of these solutions offer tangible assistance that your elderly family member may find incredibly useful.

Socialization and Reaching Out to Other People

When your elderly family member spends time with senior home care providers, they’re offering her opportunities to socialize and to engage with other people. They can also help your senior to find it easier to socialize with other people, by helping with transportation or making it easier for your senior to have visitors over. When your senior feels more comfortable letting people into her spaces, she’s less likely to experience isolation or to have those feelings worsen into depression.

Companionship and Emotional Support

Home care assistance can also encourage your elderly family member to engage in activities she enjoys, even if she needs a little help. Spending time with someone while she gardens, reads, or watches favorite movies offers your senior emotional support and companionship that might have been difficult to incorporate into her daily life otherwise. In-home care professionals really get to know your senior, including her preferences and habits, which means that they can offer her the support that she truly needs.

Even though depression and isolation are common for seniors, that doesn’t mean that your senior must simply suffer through these issues. Home care assistance can give your senior the solutions that she needs in order to resolve the underlying problems, thereby reducing the risk of your senior having to deal with those consequences at all. If your elderly family member is experiencing depression, make sure to talk with her doctor to rule out medical causes.

If you or an aging loved one is considering home care assistance in Coon Rapids, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

Many seniors develop chronic health conditions as they age. And managing those chronic conditions can mean that seniors have to pay a lot of attention to their lifestyle as well as their medical care. Aging seniors who are living at home may need to make some adjustments to their surroundings and lifestyles in order to stay as healthy as they can. Some of the things that seniors aging in place can do to manage chronic illnesses at home are:

Rely on Senior Home Care

Seniors who have a chronic illness may find that keeping up with household chores is just too difficult for them. If they manage to get themselves dressed and take care of the activities of daily living they might not have any energy left to do things like go grocery shopping, sweep the floor, or do a load of laundry. Senior home care picks up the slacks and takes care of the chores and activities that seniors who are battling chronic illness can’t do. Medication management, picking up refills, arranging appointments, and many other tasks can all be done by a home care provider for seniors.

Focus On A Healthy Diet

Diet is an essential component of health, especially for seniors that have chronic health problems. Eating a diet that reduces inflammation, provides enough nutrition, and doesn’t taste terrible is harder than it seems. But with senior home care seniors have help with choosing new recipes to try, cooking, shopping, and cleaning up after meals. Seniors living at home will be better able to focus on a plant based diet with some lean proteins that will help them stay pain free and healthy when they have a care provider.

Get More Exercise

Exercise is the key to longevity and there is a lot of evidence that it can help reduce chronic inflammation and pain. Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous to be effective either. Just walking for 20-30 minutes a day can be enough to radically change a senior’s life. When seniors have senior home care they can take the time to focus on their health and find new ways to incorporate exercise into their daily routine. The more exercise seniors get the healthier they will be. When seniors don’t have to worry about chores and other responsibilities they can join a yoga class, try some strength training, or experiment with other types of exercise that they might enjoy.

Get More Sleep

Sleep is just as important for good health as diet and exercise and many seniors don’t get enough of it. Seniors that have home care can relax at night knowing they have all the help they need. They also will have help showering and getting ready for bed if they need it. And that extra sleep can help them fight their chronic illnesses and live with less pain and inflammation.

Reference
https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/health-issues-in-older-adults

If you or an aging loved one is considering senior home care in Eden Prairie, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

How can you tell if your elderly family member might be battling anxiety? Sometimes your senior may not even realize that she’s anxious a lot more than she used to be. If you’re not sure what all is going on with her daily life, senior home care can help you to get a clearer picture of what your aging adult is experiencing daily.

Being More Irritable than Usual

There are a lot of different reasons that your elderly family member might be more irritable than usual, and they can range from health issues to so much more. What matters is that you talk to your senior when you notice that she’s a little more irritable than you’re used to seeing her be. If you can get to the cause, whether it’s a specific situation or something else, that can help you to alleviate what’s making her feel out of sorts. When the cause is anxiety, you want to get to the bottom of what’s contributing to that feeling of being anxious.

Worrying More about Daily Things

Lots of people worry over aspects of daily life. In fact, that’s common for people of all ages. If your elderly family member is showing signs that she’s starting to obsess more about daily concerns, that can be a sign that she’s experiencing a lot more anxiety than usual. Some of the daily worries might be little ones, like whether the doors are locked or if she turned the stove off. Others might be bigger, like worrying that there will be a natural disaster and what might happen if it occurs. If this is new for your elderly family member, you may want to talk with her about what caused these worries to grow.

Behavioral Changes that Are Out of Character

Sometimes anxiety makes your elderly family member change habits or behaviors, occasionally without her realizing it. She might start to have trouble staying asleep at night, for instance. This can cause her to be awake for big chunks of the overnight hours when most people are asleep. Or your elderly family member might start having trouble controlling her appetite, eating too much or too little. These changes can seem small or temporary, but if they’re driven by anxiety, those new habits can be detrimental to your elderly family member’s overall well-being.

Withdrawing and Staying at Home a Lot More than Usual

Your elderly family member’s anxiety may also cause her to withdraw socially. She may find that she rarely wants to leave her home at all and if something does require her to leave, she might experience anxiety that she recognizes. In order to keep those anxious feelings under wraps, she could be withdrawing even more to avoid dealing with the underlying problem.

It’s important that your elderly family member is able to have a safe and happy life on her own terms, and that means getting to the bottom of what’s causing her anxiety. Senior home care professionals can do a lot to help your senior to be safer at home, which can be a big underlying trigger for anxious feelings. Home care can help with anxiety in other ways, too, especially if your elderly family member is finding it more challenging to keep up with daily tasks.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/what-to-know-about-anxiety-in-older-adults

If you or an aging loved one is considering senior home care in Brooklyn Park, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, can be very hard on seniors. Long dark days without a lot of sunlight in the winter can leave seniors vulnerable to developing Seasonal Affective Disorder. But 24-hour home care can help those who are struggling with SAD.

Because one of the contributing factors to developing SAD is the lack of sunlight seniors who feel anxious or vulnerable at night can benefits from having 24-hour home care. When they have 24-hour home care, seniors have company around the clock so they don’t feel alone, scared, or anxious when night falls the way they might feel if they were alone.

Some of the other benefits of 24-hour home care for seniors include:

Medical Monitoring

Seniors who use medical equipment often get anxious at night about their equipment working correctly and that can impact the quality and length of their sleep. With overnight care, seniors can sleep better knowing that someone will always be there to help them if they need it or if their equipment malfunctions. The security of knowing that someone is there in the middle of the night can dramatically improve senior’s mental health.

Helping Seniors Get Safely In And Out Of Bed

One of the most dangerous things that seniors can do is try to get out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or get a drink and get back in bed safely. Often when seniors fall at home it’s trying to get themselves out of bed in the middle of the night. With home care, your senior parent will have help all through the night to make sure that they can get to the bathroom safely even though they are half asleep.

Meals Anytime

Seniors may not always want to eat at usual times. That’s part of the reason why seniors often don’t get enough to eat. With 24-hour home care there will be someone with your senior loved one around the clock who make them a meal or a snack at any time of the day or night. Your senior parent will be able to get snacks or meals when they want to eat which will encourage them to eat more.

Company During Long Winter Nights

When the weather is bad and the sun goes down early the winter evenings can be very long for seniors who are alone. Those long winter evenings and nights can make seniors depressed or increase their anxiety. With the help of elder care around the clock, your senior loved one won’t be alone during those winter evenings. They will have a companion that they can watch TV with, play games with, eat meals with, and read books with. Those winter evenings could turn into fun evenings instead of sad evenings when your senior parent has someone there with them around the clock.

If you or an aging loved one is considering 24-hour home care in Eden Prairie, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

The chances that a senior will develop a blood clot increase as they get older. The more sedentary seniors are the higher their risk of getting a blood clot is. Blood clots can be deadly for anyone, but they can be particularly risky for seniors. Often they cause strokes or heart attacks in seniors over the age of 65. It’s very important that seniors know the symptoms of a blood clot. Seniors who have a blood clot need to get medical help right away.

In-home care can help seniors get help right away which can help save their lives. So if your senior doesn’t have in-home care and they have risk factors of developing a blood clot you should look into in-home care for seniors. The symptoms of a blood clot in seniors include:

Swelling

If a senior notices that they have swelling on one foot, ankle, or calm but not the other that could be a sign of a blood clot. Typically if seniors have edema, or swelling in the legs, it’s in both legs, ankles, or feet. If the swelling is only present in one leg that’s something that should be paid attention to. Swelling that doesn’t go down after a senior sits with their legs raised or lays down is also a concern. Seniors that are prone to edema can wear compression stockings or socks to reduce the swelling.

Cramps

Cramps in the calf can be a sign of a blood clot. However, muscle cramps can also be a sign of nutritional deficiency and other medical conditions. To know if the cramps indicate a blood clot seniors should pay attention to their other symptoms. If the cramp is their only symptom is may not be a blood clot but if they experience cramps in the calf plus other symptoms of a blood cloth they should get medical attention right away.

Discolored Skin

Seniors who notice discolored skin that is red or blue in one area of their calf or part of their leg should get medical help right way. Especially if they are experiencing other symptoms of a blood clot. It’s a good idea for seniors to get any change in the color of their skin checked out right away no matter where the discoloration is. But if it’s on the leg, calf, or ankle it needs to be checked out by a doctor right away.

Warmth

Often when someone has a blood clot one area of their leg will feel warmer to the touch than other parts of the leg. Seniors who experience warmth in one of their legs combine with other symptoms like swelling should go to urgent care or emergency right away to make sure that they don’t have a clot.

Getting treatment for a blood clot right away can prevent serious medical problems like strokes and it can also lead to seniors getting medication what will prevent future clots.

Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/features/keyfinding-hospitalizations-vte.html
https://pathwayshealth.org/hospice-topics/why-deep-vein-thrombosis-may-be-more-common-in-the-elderly/

If you or an aging loved one is considering in-home care in Minnetonka, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month and it can be a surprise to many people to realize that plenty of older adults deal with dyslexia. This is a condition that makes reading and some other activities a lot more difficult and in some cases impossible. So, what can you do to help your aging family member live her best life even with dyslexia? Here are a few tips and how companion care at home can help.

Understand How Dyslexia Affects Her Daily Life

Dyslexia is something that has impacted your senior’s entire life, even if she was only recently diagnosed. She may have difficulty reading, memorizing, and even managing time. Dyslexia can also contribute to mental health problems, like depression or your senior being too hard on herself all the time. It’s important to understand as much as you can how dyslexia impacts your senior so that you can put solutions in place that truly work well for her.

Break Down Tasks as Much as Possible

If your elderly family member is trying to do too much on her own, she can easily get overwhelmed. That’s especially true if dyslexia affects her ability to manage her time and interpret written instructions and information. Helping her to break down what she needs to know can reduce a lot of frustration for her.

Use Pictures or Icons Around the House

Instead of using written signs or labels, change things up and reduce the chance of frustration and misinterpretation for your elderly family member by using icons or pictures. This makes labeling containers, shelves, and anything else much more helpful for her. She won’t have to struggle nearly as much to find what she needs.

Record Audio or Video Reminders

When you need to leave reminders for your senior or communicate important information with her for later, consider recording it. Leaving her a video or audio message can ensure that she gets the information you’re trying to communicate to her without frustrating her. It’s also something that she can replay as often as she needs to.

Make Life Less Stressful in General

Life with dyslexia is already stressful enough. The more that you can do to reduce your elderly family member’s stress levels in general, the easier life is going to be for her. One way to do this is to bring in companion care at home to help with anything that is becoming a challenge for her. They’re able to tackle tasks like light housekeeping and meal preparation that might be getting more complicated for your senior.

Bring in Companion Care at Home

Something else to consider is companionship for your elderly family member. If dyslexia is complicating her life in a big way, she may find that she is more withdrawn than usual and that can lead to loneliness and isolation. Companion care at home can offer someone who is there to offer friendship, conversation, and a low-stress encounter.

Dyslexia can make everything feel more complicated for your elderly family member, but that doesn’t mean she can’t experience solutions that help her to love her life.

If you or an aging loved one is considering companion care at home in Brooklyn Park, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

All it takes is one wrong step and the next thing that happens is an ankle bends or twists the wrong way. If you have an elderly parent that you’re providing care for and she recently sprained or strained her ankle, here are some ways to help her recover at home.

Once you are sure it’s only a slight sprain or strain, you’ll want to enlist as much help for your parent as you can while she recovers. It may only be a few days but recovery time could last longer. This is a great time to do some research into getting some companion care at home for your parent. Companion care at home is hiring a professional who is trained in helping your parent with her needs from rewrapping her ankle to doing chores around the home that your parent should take a break from. You can hire someone to provide companion care at home for whatever period you’d like.

Here are the best ways to take care of that injured ankle. For ease in remembering the four courses of action, think of

RICE – Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.

  • Rest. For some people who like to go, go, go, this can be the hardest task – the task of doing nothing. Finding your parent a good place to rest, surrounded by activities he enjoys will be the easiest way to help her stay motivated to stay off her ankle. She doesn’t need to stay in bed, but a good chair or couch, with either her favorite book or even the remote within reach, will encourage her to stay put.
  • Ice. To reduce swelling, apply ice packs throughout the day. This can be a great task that your companion care at home provider or another family member can do. The hope is that your parent doesn’t have to get up to get her own ice packs refreshed, eliminating her from succeeding at the first course of action, Rest.
  • Compression. Compressing the ankle with an ACE bandage or compression socks can also help reduce swelling and pain. Make sure the wrap is tight enough to compress but isn’t cutting off any circulation.
  • Elevation. When creating the location or locations that your parent will rest during the next few days as the ankle heels, make sure the area is set up so her ankle can be elevated as it heals. It’s important that it’s elevated as high as possible while still being comfortable. If it can be level with the hip, that is best. A long couch makes a great place to keep the leg elevated or even a comfortable ottoman that is level with the chair. Even better is one of those reclining chairs where the feet can be slightly higher than the hips.

Remember as your parent recovers to avoid any activities that will increase swelling such as hot showers or heat compresses. Follow the RICE plan and your parent’s ankle should feel better shortly. If it doesn’t, take a trip to the doctor to see if any more treatments need to take place.

Source
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sprained-ankle/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20353231

If you or an aging loved one is considering companion care at home in Maple Grove, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

Around 93 million adults in the U.S. have a higher risk for eye diseases like cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. Of those people with a higher risk, only half regularly go for eye exams.

Your dad has macular degeneration. Caught early, many of these conditions can be treated to prevent vision loss. Macular degeneration’s vision loss takes years, but if caught early, there are nutritional supplements that can keep it from reaching the late stage of the disease. The recommended supplements contain:

  • Beta-carotene
  • Copper
  • Lutein
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin E
  • Zeaxanthin
  • Zinc

As you age, your body changes, and with macular degeneration, the aging process damages the portion of the retina known as the macula by causing it to become thinner. The macula controls sharp details of the central vision. As the condition worsens, the central vision fades away, making it impossible to drive a car and see objects or people in front of you.

Your dad failed to see his eye doctor, and he has macular degeneration. Because it wasn’t caught early, your dad never took the supplements that can keep it from becoming late AMD. His vision is deteriorating, and that’s impacting his ability to care for himself.

This is one reason to sit down as a family and discuss personal care at home. Talk to your family about the benefits of having caregivers and what they can do to help your dad.

Help With Brushing and Flossing

Your dad can’t see well enough to effectively brush and floss his teeth. Because he can’t see his teeth as he flosses, he needs help. Caregivers can help him brush and floss his teeth after each meal.

Assistance While Showering

Your dad needs someone to help him as he gets in and out of the shower. He has to have someone set the water control to get the temperature of the water correct. He also needs help reading the labels on bottles to ensure he has the right item. Personal care at home can help him with that.

After his shower, his caregiver can also help him with his skin lotion, shave his face, and hand him eye drops if he needs them. If he needs someone to find specific items of clothing, his personal care attendant can help with that, too.

Book Home Care Services for Your Dad’s Personal Care Needs

August is National Eye Exam Month. Take time to book your dad’s eye exam if he doesn’t currently have one. He has macular degeneration, so don’t let him miss appointments anymore. You also want to arrange the personal care at home services he needs as his eyesight diminishes.

Hire personal care at home aides to help him shave, get showered, and put on appropriate clothing. Call a personal care specialist to learn more.

Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/resources/features/keep-eye-on-vision-health.html

 

If you or an aging loved one is considering personal care at home in Coon Rapids, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.