Tag: Aging in Place

As a family caregiver, you probably spend a good bit of time wondering if your senior needs more care or a different type of care than she has in place. One option, 24-hour home care, might seem like too much for her, but is it really? There are plenty of situations that might benefit from this type of care.

Help Around the Clock

The first hurdle in understanding whether this type of care is right for your senior or not is to get to know what it is. This type of care means that there is someone there with your elderly family member at all hours of the day. There might be several different caregivers taking various shifts, but there will be someone there with your senior at all times. That can be tremendously reassuring, both for you and for your elderly family member.

Assistance with Daily Tasks

One reason your senior might want help from 24-hour home care professionals is that she needs help with daily tasks. These types of tasks can cover a lot of ground, too. If your senior needs help with eating, for instance, she might want to have help with cooking her meals, making sure that her fridge is stocked, and even helping with actually eating her meal. Other types of tasks that could require this type of day and night help can involve personal care tasks, like getting dressed and transferring from bed to a chair, and even assistance with mobility.

Support for Disabled Seniors

If your elderly family member is disabled, she may need a lot of additional help from elder care professionals around the clock. Some of the disabilities that your senior might find limiting her life could involve trouble with mobility or cognitive changes, like dementia. When there is someone there with your senior every day, all day, she’s got help as soon as she needs it. During the times when she doesn’t need help, caregivers aren’t trying to do everything for her. She’ll only have the help she needs. In the ways she can still be independent, she’s able to maintain that independence.

Help with Chronic Illness

Chronic illnesses can take a serious toll on your senior’s health and well-being. Battling COPD or heart disease each day takes a lot out of your elderly family member. When home care professionals are there with her, they are able to handle tasks that have become more of a challenge for her. That allows her to rest and do what she can when she can. During times when your elderly family member is less able to do things for herself, she has help. There’s also the peace of mind that you get knowing that your senior has someone there with her if she runs into any sort of problem.

There are lots of other benefits to having someone there with your senior at all hours, especially if she has more difficulty overnight. In terms of determining when 24-hour home care is truly necessary, it helps to look closely at what your senior’s needs are and how those can best be met.

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

What do you know about home care? The goal of a caregiver is to ensure your dad has the support he needs to age at home without struggling. Check out what you should know about home care aides.

They Help Without Taking Over

The most important thing to know about home care is that the caregivers are there to support your dad. They are not there to take over and do everything for him. He has a helping hand with the difficult daily tasks, and other chores are his to do as he pleases.

Social Visits Are One of the Most Popular Services

One of the most important parts of home care services is companion care. Caregivers arrive as scheduled to keep your dad company. He has the chance to socialize with someone each week or as often as you request companion care.

While his caregiver visits, he has someone to accompany him when running errands, play cards with him on a rainy or snowy day, or join him on walks around his neighborhood. His caregiver can also watch a movie with him, join him for a meal, or take him to a senior center for community events.

Replacements Are Dispatched If Your Dad’s Caregiver Is Sick or Delayed

If you’ve arranged caregiver services, don’t worry about your dad being left alone on days his caregiver is scheduled. A replacement caregiver is dispatched to your dad’s home until his regular caregiver can get to his house or recover from an illness.

Medication Reminders Are Offered

Home care providers help your dad remember when it’s time to take his prescription pills. They can also help him track when it’s time to schedule refills.

What they can’t do is administer medications that are injectable or administered through IVs. Home health nurses would be needed for care needs of that nature.

Home Care Providers Help With Housework and Laundry

Your dad’s house is kept clean and organized. His caregiver can vacuum the carpets, sweep hardwood, tile, or plank flooring, and dust. Dishes are washed, dried, and put away. All of his hard surfaces like sinks, counters, and appliance handles are wiped clean, too.

Once a week, or as often as you request, caregivers can do your dad’s laundry, change his sheets and towels, make his bed, and wash his clothing. When it’s clean and dried, his caregiver can fold or hang items and put them away.

The best way to ensure your dad remains independent as he ages is to make sure he’s supported. Caregivers can help him with harder daily tasks, but he’s in his home and doesn’t have to move or downsize. Talk to a home care specialist to learn more about home care services in your area.

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

When the weather changes. it’s important for seniors to change their bathing and skin care routines to keep up. The cold weather can have a big impact the things that seniors need to do to in order to be healthy and comfortable. Some of the best cold weather personal care tips for seniors are:

Get Personal Care At Home

Personal care at home is specialized care that can be very helpful for seniors, especially during the winter. There is a very real risk that seniors will get chilled after bathing or showering when it’s cold. There are also increased risks of seniors slipping and falling as they rush to get out of the bath or shower and get warm. Personal care at home will help seniors stay warm and safe before, during, and after bathing even when it’s very cold outside. Seniors shouldn’t take risks when it comes to falls, so getting personal care at home to minimize the risk of falling after a shower or a bath is a smart thing to do.

Don’t Forget Lip Care

Lip care is just as important in the winter as it is in the summer. In fact, it can be even more crucial for seniors to have lip protection during the winter. The cold temperatures outside can make seniors have dry lips that can crack and bleed. So can the warm dry air inside. Seniors should use an exfoliating lip product regularly to slough off dead skin cells and use a moisturizing lip product to retain moisture and keep the lips from getting dry and uncomfortable.

Wear Sunscreen

Even in the winter the UV rays from the sun can cause skin damage for seniors. As seniors get older the fat pad under the skin disappears. That leaves the skin thinner and more vulnerable to damage from things like UV rays. Seniors need to wear sunscreen every day. Even if they aren’t going outside very much or the weather isn’t particularly sunny they sill need to apply sunscreen every day. For seniors applying sunscreen each day should be just a routine part of personal care like washing their faces or brushing their teeth.

Switch To A Heavy Duty Moisturizer

The light lotions and moisturizers that keep skin healthy in the summer without weighing it down won’t cut it once the temperature starts to fall. Seniors should switch to a heavy duty cream or moisturizer for the winter that can take on really dry winter skin. Seniors can get very dry skin from hot showers and baths, very warm and dry indoor air, and not drinking enough water. A heavy mineral based moisturizer is the best way to keep a senior’s skin from getting dry and cracked during the winter. Petroleum jelly can be a great way for seniors to avoid getting painful, dry, cracked feet in the winter. Applying a thin layer of petroleum jelly and warm socks after a bath or shower will keep feet moisturized and soft.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/beauty/features/ten-winter-skin-care-tips

If you or an aging loved one is considering personal 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.

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.