elder care naperville il

Adult children get busy with their own lives, and many live quite a distance from their aging parents. If you are a “long-distance child,” the holiday season may present your only chance to detect changes in your parents’ health, their environment and their overall attitude toward life. What should you watch for that could help you decide if you need to suggest to your parents that they get some help?

For years, when I knew my brother and his wife were going to visit our parents, I’d prepare my sibling for how “bad” Mom and Dad were going to look. Our parents both lived with degenerative diseases, and each had a different type of dementia. It seemed to me, their primary caregiver, that they were fading away. My sister saw them nearly once each week, as well, and she agreed with me. We didn’t want our brother to be shocked by their failing health, so we prepared him. Or so we thought.

It turned out that our parents were so pumped up about their son coming to visit, that he’d arrive and see our elders looking really quite good. I then felt foolish for having over prepared my brother in excess for something he just couldn’t see.

As soon as my brother would leave, like a deflated balloon, our parents would sink back to the level where they were before the visit. One year – and this nearly broke my heart – my mother was so excited about the visit she could talk of nothing else. Then, after my brother left, Mom asked which weekend he was coming. She’d totally forgotten the visit had happened.

Still, the aging parent can only keep up this wellness act for a short time. So, if an adult child coming from a distance can stay a few days, he or she does have a chance to get a fresh look at how the parents are doing. Their input can help the caregiver who sees the parents daily, since a primary caregiver may not notice subtle changes.

Also, we who live close to our elders, or who are primary caregivers, tend to do what needs to be done, so it could be that the elders are losing certain abilities and we haven’t noticed. That’s when someone who only sees the elders occasionally can be really helpful.

Do Mom and Dad “Cover” for Each Other?

Long married couples can often finish each other’s sentences. They can help each other read, eat and do other things so common to daily life that no one stops to notice that they are such a team they are “filling in the gaps” for each other. Often, even they don’t know this is happening. When you visit, try to “separate” the team a bit. See if Dad’s hearing is getting worse, but Mom is hearing for him. See if Mom’s balance is bad in the morning, but Dad is getting her breakfast and making sure she is steady before anyone else sees her. In other words, see if it takes a team for them just to hang on.

Teamwork is wonderful, and it’s beautiful to see long-married couples working seamlessly beside each other. However, if there are health issues that need tending to, this teamwork can be detrimental. Getting each of your parents alone will help you identify strong and weak points.

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Elder care counselors at Safe at Home Healthcare are available to talk with you about your in-home care needs including how to reduce caregiver stress while providing better, affordable care, including live-in care. We are an elder care agency providing Home Care in Naperville.

If you’re a senior, few things are more important to your health than exercise. The problem? Many seniors find themselves able to do fewer physical activities as they get older. Frustration often ensues, and this can create a vicious circle that leads to even less activity, further senior health problems, and in some cases, immobility. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Seniors shouldn’t feel that they are limited in the activities available to them. In fact, it’s quite the contrary — there are dozens of exercises for seniors, many of which are non-traditional, low-impact exercises that limit stress on the body and risk of injury.

Here are 12 exercises that are sure to keep you engaged at every age.

12 Great Exercises for Seniors

1. Take up dancing. A recent study at the University of Missouri showed that dancing helped improve seniors’ gait and balance and could help prevent dangerous injuries from falls. “Dancing is a fantastic way to get some cardiovascular benefit, improve your coordination and balance, and meet local seniors who enjoy similar activities,” says Carrie Plummer, MSN, an instructor at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing in Nashville, Tenn. For many types of dance classes, you don’t even have to bring a partner.

2. Become a Zen master. “Research has shown that participating in low-impact exercise classes, such as tai chi or yoga, can help improve strength, balance, and coordination and reduce stress,” says Plummer. “Many yoga poses can be modified to work for those who are less flexible or have decreased upper or lower body strength.”

3. Hit the links. Golf is a go-to game for competitive seniors who want to get back to nature in a fun way.

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Elder care counselors at Safe at Home Healthcare are available to talk with you about your in-home care needs including how to reduce caregiver stress while providing better, affordable care, including live-in care. We are an elder care agency providing Home Care in Naperville.

Do you provide assistance for an older person who needs care? People of all ages can be caregivers, but it is very common for older people to become caregivers to their spouses or other loved ones, and – too often – they begin to neglect their own health at an age when they should really be paying more attention to it.

Caregiving is both mentally and physically stressful, and caregivers are considered to be at increased risk for physical health problems and depression. If you are a caregiver in your senior years, it is even more important that you take care of your own health.

The Health Effects of Caregiving

Whether caring for an ailing spouse or another loved one, many caregivers become so concerned with their care-providing role that they neglect their own health, putting themselves at increased risk of:

    Poor physical health: 16 percent of caregivers say that their health declined after they become caregivers.
    Psychological stress: Approximately half of all people who provide Alzheimer’s care, a common type of elder care, report experiencing distress. The effects of psychological stress can be widespread and may include depression, burnout, alcohol and drug use, and other problems.
    Self-neglect: Caregivers are more likely than non-caregivers to eat poorly, be sleep deprived, not exercise, not rest when ill, and postpone medical appointments.
    Death: Caregivers are at higher risk of dying than the general population.

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Elder care counselors at Safe at Home Healthcare are available to talk with you about your in-home care needs including how to reduce caregiver stress while providing better, affordable care, including live-in care. We are an elder care agency providing Home Care in Naperville.

With the continued increase in pollution — the popular adage that proclaims, “Health is Wealth” was never truer than it is today. However, with the rising cost of healthcare, it would seem that great wealth is indeed needed in order to maintain health. As a result, many (especially the elderly) choose to augment their medication or totally skip them. This problem had become so prevalent that in 2005, Katherine Binns, the President of Harris Interactive (a healthcare research company), stated that almost half of all the prescriptions for drugs, which were supposed to be taken regularly, were either not completed or never filled. This is especially true for seniors who aside from possible cost issues may have difficulties such as depression and memory loss to consider.

By wanting to cut cost, many individuals do not realize that the benefit of saving a little money in the meantime may actually be more detrimental in the long run. Prescription drugs are precisely given with the particular dosage and duration in mind. Altering the formula in any way can lessen the effectiveness of the drug, or make it harmful to the patient. Furthermore, many medications are control released and are designed to release medication over the entire day. Techniques such as cutting them in half and taking only a part can alter its mechanism and affect the potency. In the end, it may turn out to be more costly as the ailment you are trying to treat or regulate is not properly addressed. As former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Coop correctly stated, “A drug can’t work if you’re not taking it.” Seniors are the most affected by this problem since they generally have the most pills to take.

Chuck Cruden, a former senior’s advocate who worked for an organization that focused on issues specific for the elderly, states that high cost is the number one problem. According to him, many of them live on a fixed income while the cost of living continues to rise. However, Cruden is also aware that altering or skipping medication is not the proper response. “It’s not something to gamble with,” he points out. Instead, there are several ways a patient can try to circumvent the problem. While it is not applicable to all, generics are often a good option as they can be 60-70% lower than their branded counterparts. Also, paying for pharmaceutical bills in parts rather than in lump sum may be less of a burden on the cash flow.

Other than cost, medical noncompliance becomes an issue because of cognitive concerns such as forgetfulness, doubt whether the drug really works, a fear of possible side effects, a feeling that the symptoms of sickness have disappeared, confusing instructions, etc. To remedy this, assistance should be given which may be in the form of a caregiver or through assisted living. Caregivers are extremely important as they can help create a routine for the elder patient, which can greatly simplify an otherwise complicated and tedious routine. Even something as simple as arranging the medicine from the most, to the least important is already a big help since it increases the probability that the more serious ailments are treated first. Additionally, caregivers can employ more advanced tools such as pill cutters to make sure that the medicine is easier to swallow, as well as electronic tracking systems to help in reminding the patient of the right time to take the pill. In the same way, assisted living is also a viable option for patients who may need more constant and consistent care in order to avoid future complications.

Home care counselors at Safe at Home Healthcare are available to talk with you about your in-home care needs including how to reduce caregiver stress while providing better, affordable care, including live-in care. We are an elder care agency providing Home Care in Naperville.