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Month: January 2023

How to Create a Senior Home Care Plan for Your Parent

Posted on by Craig Bass

Your mom is getting older, but she has always planned to stay in her home. Senior home care is one way to ensure this happens, but how do you get started? What steps should you take to create an effective care plan for your senior?

Gather Family Members for Input

Have your siblings, cousins or other extended family spent more time with your mom than you have? Their input is important as they’ll know what they’ve noticed she cannot do on her own. They’ll know where they have to help her each week.

Ask Your Mom

Ask your mom what she needs help doing. Where does she feel she’s fine on her own? What does she find to be too hard to complete? As she shares information regarding her care needs, use her comments and requests to build a care plan.

Consult With Your Mom’s Doctors

If your mom has health issues, ask her doctors what to expect. For example, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, she can do a lot of stuff on her own. But, a few months from now, she won’t be able to drive. She’s going to need someone to take her shopping, drive her to appointments, and make sure she gets to social events on time.

Ask her doctors what care she needs now and in the future. You’ll use information like this to build a care plan to cover her needs now. As that changes, you can adjust her arrangements with home care.

Build a Care Plan Using This Input

You have a lot of input from different people. Now is the time to build a care plan that matches your mom’s current needs. Consider the tasks she cannot complete without help on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis and create three lists.

For example, she may not be allowed to drive. She’s going to need someone to take her shopping every week or two. She may have monthly appointments, and she’ll need to pick up prescription refills each month. She needs a driver for all of this.

Once a week, she needs her carpets vacuumed and her laundry done. She may need a caregiver to drive her to a laundromat if she doesn’t have a washer or dryer.

Every day, your mom needs someone to remind her to take her pills, help her get dressed, and assist her after she takes a shower. She might need help in the shower.

She needs someone to cook meals for her, so she’d need a caregiver with her each day from breakfast through dinner. Your mom may want to help her caregiver cook, or she might prefer to have the caregiver do the cooking and then join her for the meal. All of these preferences need to be noted and shared with a home care specialist.

Senior home care is designed to support your mom as she ages at home. Sit down as a family and talk about the things that would help her remain independent. Once you have some ideas of what she needs, call a senior home care agency to arrange those services.

If you or an aging loved one is considering senior home care in Scottsdale, AZ, please call the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Scottsdale at (480) 284-7360. We are here to help!

Thank You, JCB!

Posted on by Craig Bass

I would like to say congratulations to JCB. As readers of the Golden Heart Newsletter, you know that we like to catch people doing the right things. I would like to report that JCB, whom is pictured here, was caught doing an excellent job with her client by one of our hospice partners. The partner commented on how patient JCB is. The partner commented on how knowledgeable JCB is about how to do certain things. She followed up by saying JCB simply has a high skill level for taking care of seniors. Thank you JCB for being awesome. Enjoy the 2000 Bonu$ Reward Point$ we are adding to your account. Thank you.

Incorporating Activities and Hobbies into Companion Care at Home

Posted on by Craig Bass

As your elderly family member’s health and other variables change, she may not necessarily need a lot of help, but she may need companionship. One way to help your senior to have the social connection that she needs is to bring in companion care at home. These caregivers are able to spend time with your senior while she simultaneously enjoys hobbies and activities, which can greatly enhance her experience.

Finding the Right Activities

Has your senior avoided hobbies and activities for a while? Lots of seniors do, for a variety of different reasons. If part of the problem is that your elderly family member needs someone else there because the hobby or activity requires another person, then companion care at home is a perfect answer. It’s also important when considering activities that they fit into what your elderly family member is currently willing and able to try.

Making Activities Easier for Your Senior

Caregivers offering companionship to your senior can do a lot to help make these hobbies and activities easier for your senior. They might help with setting up, for instance, or with cleanup afterward. If there are other challenges your senior faces while she’s engaging in these activities, there is someone there with her who can help out. Depending on the types of activities, they may just be there to offer a watchful presence so that you know your senior is safe. Whatever else they can do to make your senior’s life easier at the same time is a bonus.

Establishing Routines that Support Your Senior’s Needs

Having companion care at home visiting with your senior can quickly become a routine for her. Routines are incredibly important for aging adults for a variety of different reasons. Reminders that keep your senior on schedule with things like eating at regular times can also be a part of these visits. That helps your elderly family member’s day to have the structure necessary to help her to stay healthy and happy. When your elderly family member doesn’t have solid routines, she might not be meeting all of her goals for her life. Missing some of those goals can quickly lead to her needing to look at other options, like leaving her home, and that might be something she really doesn’t want to do.

Offering Companionship Along with Gentle Help

Above all, companion care at home is about someone spending time with your senior. They can offer gentle help, of course, but if your senior needs assistance with household tasks, home care providers can tackle that bigger group of tasks for her. Caregivers offer your elderly family member gentle assistance and companionship, both of which keep her living her life on her own terms.

Incorporating activities and hobbies into companion care at home for seniors can help ensure that seniors are able to stay active and enjoy hobbies in the comfort of their own homes. Aging in place and having the emotional and practical support to do so is essential for your senior’s long-term wellness. Companion care at home can be a huge part of the plan that covers all of her needs.

If you or an aging loved one is considering companion care at home in Queens Creek, AZ, please call the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Scottsdale at (480) 284-7360. We are here to help!