We wish to congratulate our Winter 2018 Caregiver of the Season, Priscilla Rocha! Priscilla has been a caregiver with HomeLife Senior Care since December of 2016 and she has positively contributed to our team ever since! Right away Priscilla had a smile on her face and it was evident that she was confident in her work. Our office staff appreciates her dedication to HomeLife and our clients love having her. Priscilla’s compassion for her clients is truly remarkable and we are honored to recognize her achievements. Our scheduling department expressed, “Priscilla is extremely responsive and communicates on a regular basis with us, along with being punctual to all of her shifts.” Attributes like communication and punctuality are a large part of being a successful caregiver, along with compassion and showing initiative, all qualities Priscilla demonstrates. We admire her level of professionalism. Communicating with her is pleasant and she is always on top of things. Caregivers like Priscilla standout to us, and we want to recognize what they add to HomeLife Senior Care.
We are very fortunate to have Priscilla as part of our team!
— Kara Wasserman
Home Care Aide Director
A trip to the emergency room made me realize why caregivers are advised to organize heath information. When Mom broke her hip, I called an ambulance. When it arrived, I confidently recited Mom’s Medicare number. When asked what medications she took, I pulled out our basket of pill bottles. At the hospital, the questions got more complicated. Still, I knew enough to fill out the forms.
Of the many challenges that family caregivers must face on a daily basis, perhaps the greatest—and least addressed—is the mental and emotional health of the caregivers themselves. Self-care is often the last thing that caregivers address, and living with stress, a sense of overwhelm, and bouts of depression seem to come with the job description. But self-care is not something to ignore. Just as a parent is instructed on the airplane to put the oxygen mask on themselves before their child, we must build self-care into our routine, not only for our own well-being, but for the ultimate benefit of those we care for.
When Kay Olson checked her husband, John, age 66, into Lakeview Ranch in Dassel, Minnesota, caregivers greeted both of them with a hug. They immediately helped John into the bathroom, washing him gently. He came out crying what he told Kay were “happy tears.” John, who suffers from dementia, was kicked out of his previous facility for aggressive behavior. He would strike out at staff members, especially if someone tried to back him into a corner to force him to take medicine. That doesn’t happen at Lakeview, where caregivers sit with residents, holding their hands or tucking them into bed at night. Since John’s eyes are often closed and he rarely talks, touch “comforts him and makes him know he’s not alone,” Kay says. Judy Berry, founder of Lakeview Ranch, says touch is an integral component of her care. She is one of many who have seen the positive impacts of touch. A growing body of research is demonstrating the merits of this basic approach.
There are obvious reasons to declutter. Safety: Clutter can trip us up. Efficiency: With declining eyesight, it gets hard to find things we use everyday. Focus: Messy environments can make it hard to process information.
No one wants to think about dying, but it’s going to happen to each of us sooner or later. While approaching the topic of death and dying may be difficult for caregivers, family members as well as the elderly should try to organize and prepare for the end ahead of time, to reduce the stress, confusion and the necessity of making serious and sometimes confusing decisions regarding the care and disposition of a loved one.
We wish to congratulate our Caregiver of the Season, Darlene MacDonald!
In 2004, the American Society on Aging sponsored a study to evaluate the financial knowledge of Americans age 50+ which included a survey of three simple yes/no questions that assessed the knowledge of the respondents on concepts such as inflation, risk diversification and interest rates.* At that time only one third of respondents could answer all three questions correctly. Since 2009, broader studies have been made within the wider population and the results were similarly dismal, but there was a clear correlation between age and a failure to understand some basic financial concepts that make up financial literacy. This is especially worrisome given that money and debt management issues are most consequential to this most vulnerable population.
We wish to congratulate our Caregiver of the Season, Pamela Dale!
Whatever your specific situation, be aware that the nature of providing care for someone can change in an instant. Therefore it can be especially beneficial to organize your myriad caregiver tasks into an plan of action. Then, should anything change, you will have a list of available resources ready to help you meet new and emerging needs. A care plan can be a casual organization tool, an informal or verbal agreement with a loved one, or a formal contract used to coordinate payment for care services. Plans can vary from daily to-do lists to detailed weekly accounts of amounts and types of care provided. The following steps can help you create your very first care plan or reevaluate your current plan.
It’s a too-common scenario for seniors: Places to go, things to see, and a life to lead—but limited mobility or the inability to drive prevents them from getting out. Fortunately, ride-hailing services such as Lyft and Uber—and a new service tailored to the needs of seniors called SilverRide (which has launched in San Francisco, CA but is planning expansion in the US)—are all addressing senior transportation with new initiatives.
Many families reach a point when they recognize that an ill or older relative needs more than occasional assistance—they need full-time care. But who will provide that care? The answer is usually close to home: an adult child. A child might be the default choice, or is selected because he or she lives closer or has fewer family responsibilities.
We wish to congratulate our Caregiver of the Season, Talitha Bertrand!
