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Tag: Benefits of Home Care

Six Tips for Easing the Transition Into Home Care

Posted on by ltcep2023

As seniors start to need more help, their feelings about having help might start to become a little more rigid. It’s tough to accept help when someone has been independent for a long time. Finding ways to make the transition to accepting home care services takes a little experimentation, but family caregivers can try some of these ideas.

Keep Communication Open

Talking about what to expect with elder care, what the concerns are, and what preferences seniors have can do a lot to make the situation easier to accept. Keeping the lines of communication open and caring allows seniors to feel like they still have a choice. It’s important that seniors do know that this is something to help them, not to limit them.

Assess Care Needs

Each senior’s situation requires something different from family caregivers, from home care providers, and from other types of assistance. Fully assessing these care needs might involve talking to doctors, talking to the senior who needs help, and looking more closely at safety risks in the home. Getting a thorough picture allows caregivers to tailor assistance as needed.

Create a Comfortable Environment

Aging in place is so important because home is where seniors feel comfortable and safe. The idea of moving can feel traumatic, even if it’s just an idea. Keeping seniors in their homes means ensuring that home is both safe and comfortable, even as their health and their needs change. Home care assistance can help seniors stay on top of this.

Establish Structured Routines

It’s tough for seniors to have the stability they need in their daily lives if they don’t have structured routines to lean on. Home care providers can do a great job of helping seniors establish routines that meet their needs and that are comfortable and flow. Good routines help seniors get the sleep they need, eat meals at regular intervals, and address other needs along the way.

Offer Emotional Support

Seniors may not realize just how much emotional support they need while they age in place. It’s possible that they have fewer social interactions than they did in the past, and that means finding new ways to meet those needs. There are also new emotions involved in aging in place, even when that’s something seniors want to do. Home care providers understand and are able to offer emotional support when seniors need it most.

Continue to Adjust Care Plans

No care plan is perfect, especially over time. Needs change and plans need to change as well in order to keep up. Elder care providers continue to work with seniors and family caregivers to ensure that proper needs assessments are up to date and that resources to meet those needs are available.

Transitioning into home care services can be a big milestone for aging adults. This type of care allows seniors to stay in their own homes, with elder care professionals taking over tasks that are becoming difficult. The goal is always to keep seniors healthy, comfortable, and safe, especially in their own homes.

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

How Do You Make Housekeeping Easier For Your Dad?

Posted on by Craig Bass

As your dad’s stamina and strength decline with age, he’s finding it harder to keep up with daily housekeeping chores. How do you help him with these tasks when you’re not always around? How does in-home care play a role? Read on to learn more.

Aim for Rechargeable When Possible

Rechargeable small appliances remove the cord that could trip your dad up. A rechargeable vacuum is just one of the helpful cleaning tools out there. A rotary scrub brush and steam mop are also handy to have.

At the very least, try to have a rechargeable vacuum to lower the risk of your dad tripping on cords while he’s cleaning his house. If it has a removable hand-held section for cleaning stairs, that’s even better.

Embrace Technology

Make the most of technology as it can make housekeeping a lot easier to manage. A robotic vacuum can clean floors on a schedule. Some are set up to empty their canisters themselves. This can eliminate a second chore from your dad’s list.

If you clean with a broom, there are automatic stationary vacuum bins where you sweep crumbs, pet hair, and dust to the device’s intake vacuum to clean up without needing a dustpan.

Move the Laundry Room If Possible

In some countries, it’s common to have a combination washer/dryer in the kitchen. If your dad has a basement laundry room, while it’s the norm in a lot of the U.S., the stairs can be impossible for your dad to navigate. Is it possible to move the laundry room upstairs?

If there’s room in his kitchen, a closet, or even a bathroom and there’s money available for this small renovation project, it’s worthwhile. He won’t have to struggle to do the laundry or wait until others are there to help him.

Simplify Meal Preparation

A slow cooker is one of the best kitchen tools for older adults. It’s not as heavy as a casserole dish that’s taken out of the oven each day. It also doesn’t require constant attention. At most, your dad has to stir the food in the cooker every couple of hours.

Having vegetables prepped and ready to use is helpful when your dad isn’t good at slicing or chopping ingredients. You can take care of it on the weekends or when you visit, and he can use items when he needs them.

Hire In-Home Care to Help

Is it better if someone else helps your dad with the housekeeping tasks? Home care services are ideal for assistance with household chores like cooking, cleaning, and laundry.

Have you considered the benefits of in-home care services like housekeeping and laundry? Instead of struggling to do things as he has the energy, your dad can have caregivers to do these things for him. Talk to an in-home care expert to learn more about the availability and cost of caregiver services.

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

 

How Can Home Care Help Seniors to Age in Place?

Posted on by Craig Bass

When seniors are planning to age in place for as long as they possibly can, it is essential that they have the support that they need to make that goal attainable. Home care providers are able to keep seniors as safe as possible while also offering companionship and help with daily tasks. Here’s what family caregivers need to know about this type of help.

Activities of Daily Living

Activities of daily living, or ADLs, are tasks that seniors need to do every day as a part of life. These are tasks like preparing meals, bathing, getting dressed, and taking care of household matters. Home care providers are able to assist with these tasks to whatever degree is necessary. Having that help allows aging adults to conserve some of their energy and avoid struggling through daily tasks. This can be instrumental in helping seniors remain in their homes.

Safety and Supervision

Some seniors might need more help recognizing and addressing safety concerns, and elder care providers are able to do just that. Caregivers help to prevent falls and reduce other safety complications for aging adults and family caregivers. Home care providers can also help seniors to be more active and to remember to use assistive devices, like walkers, when necessary. If there are bigger safety concerns, caregivers make sure that family members are aware of what’s happening.

Companionship

It’s not uncommon at all for aging adults to gradually find that they’re spending the vast majority of their time alone. As time goes on, seniors may feel as if they’re becoming isolated. This can lead to some big mental health difficulties, including depression. Home care providers offer companionship, which can be an essential part of reducing the impact of loneliness.

Transportation

Seniors may not be able to drive any longer, which can complicate life a bit. That’s especially true when they still have appointments and other activities that they need and want to get to. Caregivers can help with transportation, ensuring that seniors safely get where they have to be. This also helps seniors to remain engaged in the world around them.

Education

Family caregivers have a lot going on and often aren’t as aware as they might want to be about how to meet the needs of the person they are helping. Home care providers offer education about what seniors need, especially in terms of things like safety and home modifications that make life both safer and easier. Understanding more of these details helps family caregivers to make better care decisions for their aging adults.

Home care helps seniors to age in place with the support that they need in order to live safely and independently in their own homes. Caregivers offer support with daily tasks, companionship, transportation, and more. All of this helps to improve quality of life for aging adults and for the family caregivers helping them on a regular basis. It also helps seniors to avoid moving away from their homes if that is what they are trying to avoid for the foreseeable future.

If you or an aging loved one is considering home care 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!

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!

Supporting Your Senior’s Independence

Posted on by Craig Bass

When an older adult begins to need assistance with daily activities, we instinctively want to offer as much aid as possible. This can backfire and make them feel like they’re losing the one thing they want so bad: to live independently. When your senior enters their later years, you should sit down and evaluate their lifestyle and what alternatives could be best for them. The good news is that elder care services have never been more accessible regardless of what people select.

If you want to be a family caregiver for your senior, that is a great choice, but sometimes elder care can be the helping hand you need to take a break. You may not be able to do everything for your senior, or your loved one may feel like you are being overbearing. Often, elder care allows a senior to have the help they need without being smothering or taking away a seniors choice. It can be a fine balance, and it’s not always easy.

Here are a few useful ways you can offer support to your senior without taking away their choices or unknowingly controlling them.

Plan Together

Communication is essential for this relationship to work. You may be feeling like you need to help plan everything out for your loved one, but this can be stressful when they aren’t choosing what happens with their day or life. Instead of assuming what they need help with or making plans without them, sit down and talk to them.

Find out what they want help with and make a plan of action together. This allows you to know what is going on in their lives but also provides support where it is needed and wanted. Your relationship with your mom and dad is changing as they become older, but it is still crucial to show them the respect every parent deserves.

Don’t Jump In Too Quickly

You may be thinking, “These are my parents I have to help.” Just because your mom or dad has mentioned something doesn’t mean you need to jump in and be involved right away. Your senior mom or dad is much more capable than you may think, and they may have already found someone willing to help.

Even if your mom or dad needs help once in a while, you may start assuming they will always need help, and that’s just not the case. Take a step back and observe how they’re living. Once you notice habits that are unhealthy or things going wrong over and over, then it’s time to step in.

Focus on What They Can Do

Just because they’re old doesn’t mean they need help with everything. They may not be able to run marathons, but they can still do most things without you. Only offer help when it is something you know they can’t do or have never done.

Maintaining as much of one’s independence in daily life as possible is important for seniors’ mental and physical wellbeing. You can offer to do things with them that they already know how to do and things they are comfortable with. Elder care can be there to keep them engaged in activities they enjoy, which increases overall happiness and satisfaction with life.

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

7 Reasons Personal Care at Home is Right for Your Senior

Posted on by Craig Bass

After his stroke, your dad’s ability to take care of himself has changed. If you haven’t stopped to consider the benefits of personal care at home, now is the time. These are seven ways caregivers help your dad take care of himself.

Standing Up and Sitting Down Seem Impossible

Your dad needs a walker to move around his home now. Even after weeks of physical therapy, he cannot walk if he’s not supported by his walker.

Because of his limited mobility, one of the areas where he struggles the most is getting out of bed each morning. He cannot do it without help. Personal care at home can be there to offer ambulatory assistance when needed.

He also has a hard time standing up from his favorite chair or spot on the sofa. Again, caregivers can help him with ambulation and transfers.

Your Dad Can’t Feed Himself

A stroke usually affects movements on one side of the body. Your dad’s left hand doesn’t grip well. It’s made it impossible for him to hold a fork or spoon. He can’t feed himself anymore. Personal care at home can do the feeding initially, and help your parent use methods an occupational therapist has taught them to try and re-learn how to feed themselves.

It’s Time for Toileting Assistance

Using the toilet isn’t easy for your dad anymore. He needs reminders to use the toilet. Once there, he needs help sitting down, standing up, and cleaning up after going to the bathroom. With personal care services, he has the help he needs.

Help Getting Dressed

Your dad has to have someone helping him choose outfits for the day. He finds buttons and zippers impossible to manage. Personal care at home ensures he has help getting dressed in clothes that are suitable for the day’s weather.

Skin Care Routines Are Hard to Manage

Your dad’s skin is dry and thinner than it used to be. Since his stroke, he’s unable to do simple things like shave and apply moisturizers. Personal care can make sure he’s shaved and that moisturizers are applied to his skin.

Help With Oral Care

Your dad’s caregivers can brush and floss his teeth for him. If he has a bridge or dentures, the caregivers will help him take care of them, too. If any issues arise, his caregivers alert you to them so that you can schedule appointments with your dad’s dentist.

Assistance With Baths and Showers

Your dad needs a lot of help with his daily shower. He can’t get in and out of the tub or shower on his own. He needs help getting into the shower area and sitting down on the shower seat. Then, he needs help washing his hair and body before rinsing off.

Once he’s clean, he needs help drying off, styling his hair, and getting ready to start his day. His personal care attendants can help him with bathing and showering.

Make arrangements for your dad’s care as soon as you know what will help him. Talk to a specialist in personal care at home to learn more.

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

Four Ways to Help Your Senior When She’s Resisting Care

Posted on by Craig Bass

It’s never easy to try to do something to improve your elderly family member’s life, only to have her refuse that assistance or help. You can’t force your elderly family member to accept help, but you can try to make it clear to her why you’re offering help. You can also do a few things to reframe what accepting help means for her.

Try to Put Together a Plan

Talk to your elderly family member about what you’re seeing and what she needs. That might not be an easy conversation, but it’s one that you need to have with her. If you can come to some sort of agreement about what her needs are, that takes you both one step closer to putting the right solutions in place for her.

Look at Boundaries that Work for You Both

Boundaries are important when it comes to caring for your senior. She needs to know that you respect her wishes and you need to know that she’s going to follow the plan that you’re both working to outline. It’s a delicate balance and it’s all part of helping her to get what she needs, when she needs it.

Reframe Care and What it Means for Her

For some seniors, care and help translate to her being infirm or incapable. Redefining and reframing what care means for her is crucial. Your senior needs to know that home care assistance isn’t about taking anything from her or restricting her independence in any way. Elder care providers are there to make her life easier and to support her in getting her needs met.

Look for Ways to Make Her Home Safe for Her to Age in Place

It’s also important that you and your senior periodically assess her home’s safety. If there are modifications that need to be made, those can help her immensely. Home care assistance can also be part of planning out what will help your senior to be safer while she’s at home. Having a safe home can allow her to age in place for a lot longer, so it’s important that she sees how it can benefit her the most.

Just because it’s difficult for your elderly family member to accept help at this stage doesn’t mean that it always will be that difficult for her. Be patient and remember that she is facing some big changes in her life. That can help her to see what you’re trying to get her to understand about the help that you’re offering.

 

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