Top Five New Year’s Resolutions for Families of Seniors Living in the San Gabriel Valley
Family members with seniors sometimes face challenges that they may not have expected. If you have recently started taking care of an elder relative, this concept may well resonate with you. The work of caregiving can be very physically demanding, and you may not always feel as though you have the support that you need to do a good job of it. You may find yourself performing duties for which you have no training or experience.
While all of this can seem intimidating initially, caregivers do have many resources worth considering. You might get some help from others, including friends, relatives, and professionals. You can also join a support group for
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Ask this person questions on a continual basis, so you can remain aware of his or her changing thoughts and needs. Be sure to listen carefully to what your relative tells you. Keeping an open dialogue going is a great way to keep yourself informed while reassuring your senior family member that you care.
Pamper Yourself a Little
If you want to be a great caregiver to someone else, you must also take good care of yourself. This means getting enough exercise, eating properly, and getting enough rest. You should also pamper yourself now and then – you’ll feel better, and you’ll have more energy to take care of your loved one. Try going to a day spa to rejuvenate and restore your spirits. The San Gabriel Valley has plenty of such spas available – you might even choose to indulge in one or more spa services or beauty treatments on a regular basis.
Allow Yourself to Accept Help
Although you may be hesitant about asking for assistance, accepting some help with your caregiving tasks is a wise strategy. You can’t do everything all by yourself all of the time, and some caregiving duties are best left to professionals. By contacting a home care company to inquire about respite services, you will be doing yourself and the elder you love a great
Caregiving is a responsibility best managed with plenty of help. Being a caregiver is very hard and tough work. It is very important that caregivers are taking care of just like their patients. Many caregivers give everything they have and do not rest when they really should take time to breathe and have time for themselves. That is why there are many organizations for caregivers and their patients. These organizations are made for the caregivers to teach them to be the best that they can be at their job and also making sure that their mental state is doing well.
Reach out: Being a senior care provider to someone can be exhausting no matter how much love you have for the person you’re caring for. It’s ok to ask for help and doing so can actually make you better able to continue to be caring and healthy. Seeing a therapist, asking for professional assistance with in-home caregiving, and exploring every option that’s available to you in terms of emotional and medical support is important.
In addition, eldercare has also become a more complex institution that involves six key stakeholder groups, which are care recipients, community-based service agencies, employers, government programs, healthcare providers, informal caregivers, and nongovernmental programs (Bookman & Kimbrel, 2011). Unfortunately, there are times they each appear to operate as separate entities, which leads to occasional overlaps in care, that interferes with their objectives of ensuring that older adults can age with dignity and that informal caregivers receive their appropriate assistance and attention according to Bookman and Kimbrel (2011). There is a mounting body of literature that proposes that in addition to providing an array of instrumental and emotional
If you've ever thought about senior homecare, you've probably heard or read some home care myths that made you stop and think twice about it. With only a third to a half of seniors receiving homecare going through a professional care agency, many family care providers wonder what the reluctance is. Perhaps some of the myths are true?
Each of these senior care services requires its own special touch, and in the case of dementia care, there are a variety of tips that make a caregiver's visits more effective. In addition to helping the diagnosed and their families cope with symptoms, here are some ways caregivers can work toward preserving certain skills and functions:
of the problems, they must face. A family member attempting to care for a loved one without training will eventually turn to a Nursing Home that has experienced staff in the care of dementia patients. Although many families feel a sense of guilt having someone else care for a loved one, it is best for all concerned. Dementia patients can be a handful for an experienced caregiver as well as those with no training. These are some of the question that should be ask when a loved
A senior home care aide can also help your loved one create a safer home. Does your loved one have air purifiers? Have they changed the air filters? Is there mold in the home? They can also provide advice on homecare tasks. For example, don't dry laundry outside if you have a breathing issue. The fibers of the cloth catch the pollen. This means you wear and even sleep on pollen filled and covered clothing and linen.
In short, family caregiver burnout is a very real condition with potentially critical side effects. By taking advantage of in home care for seniors, the family caregiver can reset their physical, social, and emotional
Overall, people who take care of dementia patients must handle health care responsibilities of the person with dementia more often than caregivers of people who do not have dementia. Some of the common tasks outlined by the Alzheimer’s Association include assisting with daily activities around the house, managing the medications, helping with activities of daily living such as getting dressed and bathing, and providing support for the person with dementia as the disease progresses. Dementia residents require significantly more assistance with activities of daily living and help around the house in comparison to other older adults (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). Due to the time consuming responsibilities and the increasing level of care required during this stage, this might be a time when informal caregivers outsource some the responsibility to formal caregivers and facilities equipped for the level of intensity required.
The National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) was established in 2000 and “provides grants to states and territories” “to fund a range of supports that assist family and informal caregivers to care for their loved ones at home for as long as possible” (AOA, 2012). Some statistics on caregivers are that twenty-two percent of caregivers care for two individuals, while eight percent of caregivers care for three or more individuals (AOA, 2012). Interestingly almost half of all caregivers are actually over the age of fifty years old, which makes them more vulnerable to their own decline in health (AOA, 2012).
Caregivers play a crucial role in the care of dementia patients. Providing care for dementia patients results in stress related health impacts to the caregiver. The caregivers go through a journey with the dementia patient and need a strong support system. The best approach to dementia care is for health care providers to provide information to and monitor the caregiver, in addition to the dementia patient, encourage the caregiver to take care of themselves, to seek support, and to work as a team to provide the best care for the dementia patient.
Knowledge can empower you when it comes to being a caregiver, just as it can in most other areas. There are many online resources designed specifically for caregivers including those provided by the Alzheimer's
I found one of the best ways for you or the person with the disease no matter what stage they are in is asking them to tell stories, and listening to them of course. It helps their memories refresh and also lets them know that you're there. Another great way is to set daily routines for when you are with them, this will help them get busy and help you keep your mind focused on a task rather than being stuck in your own thoughts. The most important way to deal with it is accepting help from others I know this from personal experience as the main way I got through the day when my granddad told me he thought he would live ten years was to talk about it with my parents.
It is difficult to accept that a senior in your life is no longer able to perform the same tasks they used to. Most likely there have been small signs seen that have raised concern, and in some cases a blind-eye might have been given to the fact. Or, maybe there were signs all along and no one recognized them until they got worse. Regardless, of the reason getting the senior help now will increase their safety at home, increase longevity, and keep them living happy at home. There are many early signs that can be linked to seniors aging and need assistance at home. Here are some of the early signs that homecare is needed that may surprise.
While caregiving for an older adult may be demanding in general, caring for a loved one with dementia potentially can be even more strenuous due to the nature of the illness. Dementia is “associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person 's ability to perform everyday