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Caregiver Appreciation

Hello Seniors, Families and Friends. The work that a caregiver does is so easy to overlook and is so important in seniors age in their homes. It may not sound like much. Please read the comments below sent in by a new client. For more information on how you can receive a caregiver that makes you want to leave a comment like this, please visit us @GoldenHeartScottsdale.com.

I happened to be at the home when the caregiver was working, and she did a wonderful job. She was personable and stayed very busy the entire shift that she was there. She assisted my aunt in getting her compression socks on and getting to know my aunt as this was their first meeting. She also did a beautiful job straightening my aunts room and kitchen as well as other things. Thank you for providing a very friendly, supportive, and hard working lady to assist my aunt.

Seven Creative Activities for Seniors with Limited Mobility

Spending time engaging in creative activities is so important for aging adults. It allows them to express themselves while also stimulating their brains. For seniors who have trouble with mobility, it’s important to find activities that are easy to do and that don’t cause more issues. Companion care at home can be a great answer for seniors who don’t need a whole lot of hands-on help, but do need more company.

Arts and Crafts

Crafting and engaging in art activities are a great way for seniors to express themselves without having to be incredibly mobile. This encompasses a wide range of different activities from painting and drawing to fiber arts like knitting, cross-stitching, or beading. These types of activities can be a lot more fun when there’s a companion there to talk to, so companion care at home is a great tool to help seniors have someone they can socialize with while being creative.

Puzzles and Games

Puzzles and games can be incredibly helpful for keeping seniors mentally active. They also don’t require a lot of mobility to fully enjoy the benefits. Some ideas to consider could include jigsaw puzzles, board games, crosswords, word searches, and sudoku. This is another type of activity that could be done alone, but could also be done with someone else.

Reading

When people think about creative activities, they tend to think of activities in which someone makes something, which isn’t a wrong interpretation. But reading, including listening to audiobooks, can also be a creative activity. It helps to keep the brain stimulated and it is also something that could be interactive and social if seniors want it to be. If seniors have trouble reading because of vision issues, home care providers can read to them, offering companionship along the way.

Music

Listening to music, like reading, seems more like an activity where someone consumes something someone else made. But it can feed creativity and seniors may want to learn to make their own music, too. Learning to play an instrument is something that most people can do, even if their mobility is hindered for one reason or another.

Indoor or Container Gardening

Gardening can be very physically demanding and some seniors aren’t up for that. But they might have a better experience with container gardening or even starting a small indoor garden. This allows them to reap the benefits of gardening without having to exert themselves too much in the process.

Writing and Journaling

Writing is a powerful way for seniors to be creative and to express themselves. They might write short stories, poems, or other types of writing they want to share with others. They might also opt to write only for themselves or for close family members in a journal. However they choose to engage with writing, it can offer them serious mental health benefits without causing mobility challenges.

Mobility issues don’t have to hold seniors back from being creative. Companion care at home can make life easier and more social for seniors in so many ways, including by helping them to be more creative every day.

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

Dementia and Alzheimer’s

Dementia affects over 55 million people worldwide, with approximately half of the costs attributed to informal caregivers, so preparing financially is essential. Maureen Bradley, one of A Place for Mom’s most seasoned senior care experts, recommends “The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias, and Memory Loss” by Nancy L. Mace, MA, and Dr. Peter V. Rabins, MPH.“‘The 36-Hour Day’ is an oldie but a goodie and is considered a must-read for families of folks living with dementia,” says Bradley, who’s currently pursuing her doctoral thesis on non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive decline in older adults. Here at Golden Heart Senior Care, we pride ourselves on having caregivers who are trained on how to work with clients with Dementia and Alzheimer’s. To have a caregiver trained in the many ways to help a client with dementia, please contact us at GoldenHeartScottsdale.com. We are here to help!!!

 

How Can Respite Care Benefit You and Your Senior?

According to an article written by Kayla Erdewyk of Senior Living, respite care, whether in your home or through a short-term stay at a senior living community, can provide much-needed support and give you a break from caregiving. You’ve put your heart and soul into your work, but you deserve help and the opportunities to step away. In-home respite care can help keep caregiver fatigue and burnout at bay, and there are other out-of-home arrangements, too. If you’re curious, you can even try respite care before you have an urgent need. Planning ahead will help you and your elderly family member know you have a trusted option when the time comes. For more information on respite care, please contact us at GoldenHeartScottsdale.com. We are here to help you and your family.

Celebrating Our Amazing Caregivers!

Hello Seniors, Friends and Families. As you may know, we love to catch our caregivers doing the right things. Here at Golden Heart Senior Care, we reward staff for doing an excellent job. Please see the caregiver below. He has been with @GoldenHeartScottsdale.com for about two and a half years. The thing is that every client he works with has great things to say about him and his care. That tells us that he does an excellent job of keeping his clients safe and happy in their homes. If you would like a caregiver that does so well you will compliment them, please contact us at GoldenHeartScottsdale.com to find out how.

Please stay hydrated and have a great summer.

Tips for Avoiding Heat-Related Illness

Hello Seniors, Families and Friends. We hope you are all staying in the cool and hydrated. According to a Village Medical article released on 7.10.24, below you can find information on symptoms, cures and ways to avoid this issue. Please see a copy and paste from the article.

Heat cramps, exhaustion, or stroke can occur when the body becomes overheated from high temperatures. Warning signs of heat-related illness include:

• Sweating
• Painful muscle spasms
• Weakness, dizziness or lightheadedness
• Nausea or vomiting
• Headache
• Low blood pressure

Later signs of heat stroke can be serious and may include chills, confusion, slurred speech, seizures and a body temperature above 104℉. If you experience any of these symptoms, call 911 or visit the nearest ER.

The best way to prevent heat-related illness is to stay inside in the air conditioning. If you are out playing or working in the sun, make sure to drink plenty of water. You can also cool off by spraying water or placing ice packs on the skin.

For more information, please contact Golden Heart Senior Care at 480.622.3557 or visit us on the web at GoldenHeartScottsdale.com.

Have a safe and happy summer!!!

A New VA Benefit and how it works

Hello Seniors, Families and Friends. I am so proud to announce that @GoldenHeartScottsdale.com is now approved to offer a New VA Benefit. This is a program that has long been needed. If you are honorably discharged during your enlistment to serve America, you now qualify for home care benefits. This benefit is through Homeward Bound and Tri-west. If you completed your tour while enlisted, you qualify for home care benefits. When it comes to VA Benefits, there has always been a relationship between your finances and receiving any help. This has all changed. Again, if you were honorably discharged and you need assistance with daily activity, you qualify for assistance. All you need is a VA Primary Care Physician or VA Case Worker, and we can get you approved quickly. For more information, please contact Golden Heart Senior Care @GoldenHeartScottsdale.com or 480.341.2227 for more information. Have a safe and happy Summer!!!

Help Your Loved One Declutter on National Give Something Away Day

Almost everyone gathers up more and more stuff as they age, especially if they’ve been living in the same home for decades. So many objects that were set aside or stored in a remote closet somewhere to be dealt with someday have remained in their spots for years gathering dust. The middle of July has a fun little holiday that can be just the incentive your loved one needs to do a bit of decluttering around the home. National Give Something Away Day promotes taking those once-loved objects and letting others enjoy them by giving them away.

The thought of going through that big closet at the top of the stairs and pulling out all of those boxes might seem a bit overwhelming for your senior loved one, and it might also be too physically demanding. Those obstacles make celebrating the day with the help of a family member or home care provider a must. It may not only be physically exhausting to open up all of those boxes or pull all of those clothes off the hooks, but it might be emotionally overwhelming as well. Many of those stored objects may also have memories with them that make giving them away extra difficult.

Let’s look at some steps your loved one can take with his home care provider to help make participating in National Give Something Away Day on July 15 more rewarding than stressful.

  • Start with the least sentimental first. Oftentimes, clothes are not sentimental. We just end up with too many of them because as we buy new outfits, we don’t get rid of the old. But if they no longer fit correctly or aren’t your loved one’s style anymore, it’s time to give them away so someone else can enjoy them. Your home care provider or family member can help by pulling items out of the closet one by one and showing them to your loved one to see if she wants to keep them, give them away, or throw the ones that are not in good enough shape to give away.
  • Start with just one box. If your loved one doesn’t want to go through all the boxes in the attic because there are just too many, suggest that you start with just one. It might help if you add a reward at the end such as you’ll go out for tea once you get through one entire box. When it comes to sentimental objects be empathetic and listen to why she wants to keep what and then honor those wishes as much as possible.
  • Make it personal. While clothes and shoes might be given to local thrift stores or second-hand stores, if your loved one has a lot of family heirlooms that are tucked away in the dark corners of storage places, you could suggest that she can give them to family members. Keeping those personal items in the family might make it easier for her to give away things that she has no use for but are still sentimental for her.

National Give Something Away Day is a great way to reuse and recycle items that may not be needed by your loved one anymore but will be greatly appreciated by others.

If you or an aging loved one is considering 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!

Sundowning

According to an article Published by a Place for Mom, the following describes a symptom referred to as sundowning:

Toward the end of the day, you may notice someone with dementia becoming noticeably more irritable, anxious, angry, and irrational. This change in behavior is called sundowning, also known as sundown syndrome or sundowner syndrome, and refers to late-day confusion or delirium. Because it can’t be easily attributed to a definite cause, it’s not considered a disease, but rather a set of symptoms associated with dementia. Sundowning in dementia patients is relatively common, as well. As many as 1 in 5 people with Alzheimer’s will experience sundowning, according to Cleveland Clinic. For more information, please contact us @GoldenHeartScottsdale.com.

Welcome, Laura!

Hello Seniors, Families and Friends. Please allow me to introduce Laura. Laura is a new caregiver with @GoldenHeartScottsdale.com. Laura comes to us with 20 years of caregiving experience. Laura is nice, helpful, reliable and smart. To receive a caregiver like Laura, please contact us @GoldenHeartScottsdale.com. We give home care with a HEART!!!