Many of us remember gathering at Grandma’s house for Sunday dinners. However, because so many families now live far away from their elderly family members, and with numerous needs pulling us in multiple directions, it is difficult to keep up with this tradition – and it could be just one of the issues adding to a recent dramatic rise in senior malnutrition.
According to the CDC, around one in three seniors suffer falls every year, and fewer than fifty percent discuss those falls with their doctors. Often, a senior fall can lead to a serious injury, but even when it doesn’t, the senior can develop a fear of falling. This can lead to limited ability to exercise, a fear of going out and being social, and even a greater risk of another…
The ability to live at home as you age is a wonderful thing. However, the risk of falling in the home is a significant risk for seniors. A simple slip in the bathroom could lead to a fracture, broken bone, or worse. While a fracture may sound mild, approximately one in four older adults who experience a fractured hip pass away within six months of the injury. That is why…
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.
COPD can transform daily life into a struggle. The good news is that there are breathing exercises that may help people better manage COPD symptoms and enhance quality of life. These exercises help strengthen the abdominal muscles and diaphragm, so individuals with COPD can take in more oxygen and expend less effort into breathing.
Bed sores affect nearly one in every ten seniors, and are even more prevalent in people who smoke, are living with a chronic illness like diabetes, or who have thin or fragile skin. Also known as pressure sores or pressure injuries, bed sores are not merely extremely painful – they can easily progress to infections that can become life-threatening.
Of all the changes that happen as a person ages, senior bruising is one that can be alarming for family members to observe in their older loved ones. Is it essential to talk to the senior’s doctor whenever there’s a health concern, but it is also important to understand that senior bruising is quite common. Bruising in older adults typically results from the thinning of the skin and a reduction…
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.
Care providers devote so much of themselves to those they care for – both physically and emotionally. It’s common to become worn down and to start to experience feelings such as apathy, weariness, and a detachment from the person in your care. Referred to as compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress, it can be harmful to your own health and wellbeing but may also impact your ability to be as…