FAMILY CAREGIVING FACTS AND TIPS

If you are a family caregiver and you’re elder lives in Austin, you may have a few questions about proper care for an aging relative. Please send your question to Catherine Kohl, our elder care expert at Home Instead Senior Care Austin - HISC.Kohl@Yahoo.com. Or call us at 512-347-9207.

Caregiving Facts and Statistics

• Seniors’ adult children often act as their caregivers
• The ‘sandwich generation’ – adult children caring for their parents as well as their own young families
• 72% of family caregivers have no help
• By 2030, 70 million Americans (20% of the population) will be over 65
• Spouses make up almost half of family caregivers in the United States
• 31% of family caregivers would like more help
• 25% of family caregivers resent family members who aren’t heavily involved

Keeping Seniors Safe at Home

• Keep the environment clean and uncluttered to avoid tripping and falling
• Consider what objects may pose a hazard and remove them, such as burning matches, cigarettes, candles, electrical cords, throw rugs etc.
• Keep dangerous items locked up or out of reach including chemicals and cleaning supplies, medications, poisonous houseplants and anything that can be swallowed
• Ensure there is adequate lighting for when a senior gets up during the night (install nightlights in hallways and ensure light switches are conveniently located)
• Use guardrails on bed and install grab bars and non-slip tape in bathroom tubs and showers

Elder Care Services & Senior Home Care Austin - A growing concern for Boomers continuation from August 25th. 

The news is not all grim, however.  More Alzheimer’s patients than ever are staying at home, particularly those in the early stages of the disease.  As with your family, loved ones often make extra efforts to keep their seniors at home.

It’s easy for family to get burned out, though.  That’s why there is help available for those seniors as well as family caregivers.  Home Instead Senior Care employs CAREGivers who can serve as a respite to adult daughters like you, as well as sons and spouses.  The company’s CAREGivers perform duties such as meal preparation, light housekeeping, errands and shopping.  Some CAREGivers are even trained to work with Alzheimer’s clients.  Contact the company today for  more information.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care, contact <<Insert Franchise Owner’s Full Name>> at <<Insert Telephone Number>> or visit www.homeinstead.com.  To read this  Alzheimer’s Association report, log on to

http://www.alz.org/national/documents/report_alzfactsfigures2008.pdf.

Alzheimer’s Disease a Growing Concern for Boomers

Question from a daugther of aging mother: My 85 year old mother is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and is still at home in Austin.  We’re hoping to keep her in her own house for as long as possible.  What’s the latest about Alzheimer’s disease and what it will mean for my generation?

Sadly, the information is not all good news. While many of the diseases that strike senior citizens are declining, the most feared – Alzheimer’s Disease – is increasing at an accelerating rate, according to the latest report from the Alzheimer’s Association.  About five million elderly have the disease now, the organization says, but it projects 10 million Baby Boomers will join these ranks in the U.S.

Your mother is among 5.2 million Americans who are living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the “2008 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures” report (online at http://www.alz.org/national/documents/report_alzfactsfigures2008.pdf).

This new study says the disease is poised to strike one out of eight Baby Boomers. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, now is the time to address this looming epidemic that currently has no effective disease-modifying treatments that halt or delay the progression of the disease.

Experts predict by 2010, there will be almost a half million new cases of Alzheimer’s disease each year, and by 2050, there will be almost a million new cases each year. The Association’s report discusses the facts and figures about this disease, which is now the seventh-leading cause of death in the country and the fifth-leading cause of death for those over age 65.

For a private question to be answered by our Home Instead Senior Care Austin expert - email Catherine Kohl HISC.Kohl@yahoo.com.  Call 512-347-9207.

More  Elder care communications tips for emergencies continuing from post August 20….

Originals of documents such as a will or a power of attorney should be kept in a safety deposit box or at an attorney’s office.  But it’s a good idea to keep copies at home.  Titles and deeds to property and vehicles also are important pieces of information to have handy.  In addition, make sure someone in the family knows the location of the safety deposit box and keys.

Communication is key to helping you and your family cope in an emergency.  Advance directives that specify what action your loved one would want taken in a crisis should be visible for an emergency team. Talk with your mother about how she would want her affairs handled before a crisis occurs. 

Advance planning and communication also can help avert a disaster.  Locate people in your mom’s community who can meet any needs for in-home, home health and long-term care.  Churches or synagogues, senior centers and your local Area Agency on Aging are great resources.  You can also search the Internet.       

Or, if you’re starting to worry that your mom might not be safe at home, consider obtaining a personal response system, or hire a non-medical eldercare company. Our home caregivers are bonded and insured, and have completed a comprehensive, caregiving and safety curriculum. Home caregiver services are available for as few as three hours and as many as 24 hours, seven days a week including holidays.

Home Instead Senior Care Austin - 512-347-9207

Better Senior Home Care Planning in case of a senior or elder emergency in Austin - Helps with family caregiving stress. Continuing our blog from August 18… go there to read full story.

Titles and deeds to property and vehicles also are important pieces of information to have handy.  In addition, make sure someone in the family knows the location of the safety deposit box and keys.

Communication is key to helping you and your family cope in an emergency.  Advance directives that specify what action your loved one would want taken in a crisis should be visible for an emergency team. Talk with your mother about how she would want her affairs handled before a crisis occurs. 

Advance planning and communication also can help avert a disaster.  Locate people in your mom’s community who can meet any needs for in-home, home health and long-term care.  Churches or synagogues, senior centers and your local Area Agency on Aging are great resources.  You can also search the Internet.       

Or, if you’re starting to worry that your mom might not be safe at home, consider obtaining a personal response system, or hire a non-medical eldercare company. Our home caregivers are bonded and insured, and have completed a comprehensive, caregiving and safety curriculum. Home caregiver services are available for as few as three hours and as many as 24 hours, seven days a week including holidays.

For help at home, call Home Instead Senior Care Austin - 512-535-6194.

The Senior Adviser - Home Instead Senior Care Austin - helping families care for aging parents struggling with Dementia.  Call us today at (512) 347-9207. Communication is key to helping you and your family cope in an emergency.

Planning Can Better Prepare Families For Eldercare Emergencies in Austin

Question from an adult daughter of aging parents in Austin, Texas - I worry about something happening to my 82 year old mother, who lives alone.  How can we be better prepared for an emergency and what important documents should she have handy in the event of illness or injury?

Elder Care Planning is the best way to prepare for the unexpected.  You can start by making sure that the proper documentation for your mother is in order and that someone in the family knows where it is.

A contact list and telephone numbers of all of the important people that your mother deals with is vital.  These should include attorneys, accountants, doctors, lawyers, insurance agents, etc.  It’s important, too, to have a list of your mom’s current medications and the dosages so that emergency workers have that available in the event of illness or injury.

You’ll also want to be sure that your mother’s important documents are safe but accessible.  For instance, have access to a list of her assets, along with numbers of bank and financial accounts, and insurance policies.

Visit us in a day for more tips on preparing for elder care in Austin, Texas. If you have a private elder care question or concern, please email HISC.Kohl@yahoo.com - our resident senior care expert.

Denial a Common Emotion for Family Caregivers

Question .  My siblings seem to be in some kind of denial and refuse to discuss the fact that our parents, who are both approaching 80, need more help at home.  Is this common and what can I do?

What you and your siblings are experiencing is very common.  In a Harris Interactive® poll released earlier this year for Home Instead Senior Care, nearly half (46 percent) of people surveyed who expect to eventually be caring for an elderly loved one had not taken any action to plan for this care.  In addition, 70 percent had not spoken with the parent or relative they anticipate needing to care for about what their wishes might be.

And a whopping 76 percent had not discussed the issue of caring for elderly relatives with other family members.  Denial seems to be a prevailing emotion when it comes to the care of senior loved ones.  But refusing to address the issue won’t prevent the unexpected from happening. 

That’s why it’s important to talk with your parents and siblings as soon as possible and plan for the future.

Home Instead Senior Care Austin - 512-347-9207

As more and more people live longer in Austin because of improvements in prevention and care, they live with a precarious combination of chronic diseases and impairments, including dementia and adverse reactions from mixing too many drugs, Henry L. Davis, medical news reporter, says in the article. “They become increasingly frail, until something as simple as a cold or a fall sets off a cascade of complications, any one of which could be fatal,” he writes.

Davis points out that little research has been done on the most effective therapies for the very old, and that the nation faces a shortage of geriatric specialists who are trained in the nuances of caring for the elderly, whose population is expected to double by 2030.

“The health system is designed around episodic care with incentives to hospitalize,” Dr. Robert Schreiber, physician in chief of Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston and a national expert on geriatrics, said in the article. “We need medical care to the elderly that focuses on the function and quality of life of a person, not just on treating a disease.”

Home Instead Senior Care Austin is in the unique position of knowing how to provide home care, 24 hour care, and adult day care at home for the Austin elderly than focuses on quality of life, and the quality of care services provided by our CAREGivers. Please call us today at 512-347-9207.

Growing Elderly Population Over Burdens Health Care System - Austin, Texas

Because of improvements in prevention and care, more and more people are living longer. But they live with a precarious combination of chronic diseases and impairments, including dementia and adverse reactions from mixing too many drugs. They become increasingly fragile, until something as simple as a cold or a fall sets off a cascade of complications, any one of which could be fatal.

A 90 year old woman came into the hospital dehydrated, confused and bleeding in her gut. As Dr. Bruce Naughton looked into her sunken eyes, it was yet another reminder to him of the way many of us will spend the last years of our lives.

Getting old used to be simpler. As people aged, they became seriously ill for weeks or months, or suddenly died. That’s no longer the case. Instead, the end of life is lasting years. A recent Buffalo News article looks at how the healthcare system is unprepared to care for the growing number of frail elderly.

The nation’s health care system, with its focus on treating acute episodes of illness and paying mainly for procedures, remains unprepared to offer the coordinated care in different settings that the frail elderly need.

Nor is the country prepared for the costs. Nearly 70 percent of spending on Medicare, the federal health program for people 65 and older, already goes to the 20 percent of beneficiaries with five or more chronic conditions.

In our next post we’ll address the tips families can follow when making decisions on health care.

Home Instead Senior Care Austin - 512-347-9207.

Immunization for Alzheimer’s Shows Promise

Question:  With my elderly parents, both age 80 in Austin Texas, at risk for Alzheimer’s disease as a result of heredity and age, I’m always looking for the latest research.  What’s new?

Exciting new research recently released about Alzheimer’s disease has uncovered an immunization that could offer a way to blunt or even prevent this devastating disease.  Jordan Tang, Ph.D., who led the study at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and other OMRF scientists immunized Alzheimer’s mice with a protein believed to play a key role in the disease causing process.*

The mice who received the vaccination showed a significant reduction in the build up of protein plaques which, when present in the brain for long periods of time, are believed to cause the cell death, memory loss and neurological dysfunction characteristic of Alzheimer’s.

The immunized mice also showed better cognitive performance than control mice that had not received the vaccine.  The new research appears in The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

The next stage of the research, funded in part by a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association, will be testing in humans.  “There currently is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, so we must  explore every possible option to find a way to stop it,” he said.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care Austin -  call 512-347-9207.