It’s the most merry and bright time of the year! However, if you’re one of the millions of people in the U.S. who is caring for an older loved one, the approaching holiday season may feel more like the most stress-filled time of the year. Carving out time for self-care for family caregivers is often relegated to the very bottom of the to-do list, but the home care professionals at…
Communicating with a senior loved one struggling with all the challenges of Alzheimer’s, particularly in the middle and later stages, is often frustrating – both for you personally as well as for the person with Alzheimer’s. Brain changes impact the ability to listen, process, and respond to conversations, and it’s up to us to implement different approaches to communicating with someone with Alzheimer’s to more successfully connect with them.
COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pertains to two lung diseases: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Basically, patients’ breathing is severely affected by an obstruction to airflow. Frequent symptoms include an excessively wet cough, wheezing, shortness of breath, and tightness in the chest.
COVID-19 cases in nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been absolutely devastating, as the sickness spread like wildfire through our most vulnerable population in such close living quarters. As a result, many families decided to move their senior parents home, which raised a number of challenges.
Stop for a moment to close your eyes and visualize yourself like this: You’ve spent most of your life providing care for and helping others – as a mother or father, in your occupation, through volunteering in your community, and as a grandparent. After a lifetime of living independently and being in control of all of your decisions, you have now aged to the point that you actually are the…
Providing the helping hand that empowers seniors to stay healthy, independent, and happy is the intent of not only our professional senior care staff, but of most family caregivers as well. Because the quality of life of older adults is so important to us, it’s crucial that we review a topic that can be really difficult for many of us to even imagine – elder abuse.
While it goes without saying that abusing an older adult is something that would never even occur to most people, it is a tragically prevalent circumstance in the U.S. Elder abuse can occur in many forms, from physical to emotional, and it affects the most frail and vulnerable among us.
Family caregiver stress is unavoidable, and in reality, not always a bad thing. Basically, as they say, “A diamond is just a piece of charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well.” But particularly for family caregivers, the level of stress can quickly intensify and become overwhelming, and if not handled properly, bring on serious health concerns.
Family caregivers give a tremendous amount of themselves to meet the needs of their loved ones, frequently giving up their own desires and needs along the way. It might seem normal, then, to assume that caregivers would feel very good about themselves, with high self-worth and a sense of purpose.
So many people are attempting to juggle multiple obligations, and for family caregivers, it can feel like juggling flaming swords and knives. It’s natural for family members to become overloaded and to experience feelings of caregiver guilt when wanting to provide the best care for a loved one.