The hospital doors have closed behind you, and now you’re standing in the living room, unsure what happens next. The IVs, alarms, and constant check-ins are gone, replaced with silence—and a growing list of questions.
Home After a Stroke: What Now?
Tips for Caregivers
Overcoming Common Hurdles Faced by LGBTQ+ Seniors
As we embark on the journey of life, each individual’s story unfolds like a tapestry, rich with diverse experiences and vibrant hues. Among the threads of this intricate fabric are the narratives of LGBTQ+ seniors, whose stories often bear the weight of challenges that demand our attention and empathy. As a leading provider of home care services in Austin and the surrounding areas, we understand the significance of fostering inclusivity to ensure that every member of our community receives the support and care they deserve.
8 Steps to Creating a Legacy
We all want to leave the world a little better than we found it. One significant way to accomplish this is by creating a legacy for the generations that follow. A person’s legacy becomes a timeless treasure, influencing the decisions of their children and grandchildren, who build onto that legacy and reach countless others in years to come.
How to Recognize and Manage Seasonal Affective Disorder
The holiday season is often associated with joy, festivities, and quality time spent with loved ones. However, for some individuals, especially seniors, the fall and winter months can trigger a form of clinical depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). This condition is more than just the winter blues; it can cast a shadow over the holidays, leading to feelings of sadness and nostalgia, particularly for seniors who reminisce about past celebrations with loved ones who are no longer present.
How to Process the Emotions of Caring for Someone With Dementia
Receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is life-altering – for the person being diagnosed, of course, but just as much for his or her loved ones. It’s important for family caregivers to know how to process the emotions of caring for someone with dementia in healthy ways, and to allow themselves ample time to care for their own mental health and wellbeing.
What Can You Expect in Each Stage of ALS?
Receiving a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease (also known as ALS) can cause plenty of questions and apprehensions, both for the individual diagnosed and their loved ones. What causes ALS? What symptoms might be expected in each stage of ALS? Where am I able to go for support?
What to Do After Heart Surgery for Optimal Healing
Following heart surgery, a complex web of transitional care needs develops, from nutritional changes to incision care, managing pain, swelling reduction, and more. The last thing a person wants after coming back home after such a traumatic event is to face the need for rehospitalization. Will you know what to do after heart surgery if the need arises?
How to Help Ease the Side Effects of Cancer Treatment
If a person you love is fighting cancer, they may be suffering from a few unpleasant side effects of the cancer treatment they are receiving, and you will want to do whatever you can to help relieve these symptoms. Even though just being there with them to provide comfort and friendship is in itself extremely helpful, there are additional steps you can take.
The Best Ways to Support Someone With Cancer
Being given a diagnosis of cancer is life-changing, and making sure you have a strong network of support is vital. When it’s a friend or loved one, you may be unsure about what you can do to help. You’ll want to know the best ways to support someone with cancer without overstepping boundaries or making them feel discomfort for any reason. What can you do to best provide relief through a diagnosis of cancer for someone you love? Our experts in home care have some guidelines to get you started.
What to Do When Siblings Won’t Help With Caring for Parents
If your siblings won’t help with caring for parents and you’re finding yourself trying to manage everything alone, you’re in good company. In fact, 50% of all family caregivers are caring for an aging loved one alone, according to a recently available report from AARP.
The Benefits of an Elder Mediator When Caring for Aging Parents
When you’re working together to ensure the care needs of your aging parents are met, even the closest of brothers and sisters could find themselves in opposition. Stress levels and emotions are, obviously, running high. Combine that with your past family dynamics and history, which tend to resurface in the midst of challenging times, and it’s easy to see how difficult this stage in life can be for each of you.
The Best and Worst Foods for Kidney Disease
As they say, we are what we eat, and for people with kidney disease, it is vital that an effective dietary plan is followed to cut down on symptoms like an upset stomach, swelling, pain, and more. In addition, following a kidney-healthy diet might even slow down the development of the disease. If you are providing care for a loved one with kidney concerns, it is important to know the best and worst foods for kidney disease, such as:
Senior Bruising: Prevention and Treatment
Of all the changes that manifest as people age, bruising in seniors is one that can be frightening for family members to notice in their loved ones. It is crucial to talk to the senior’s health care provider whenever there is a health issue, but it is also important to realize that senior bruising is actually quite common. Bruising in seniors commonly is caused by the thinning of the skin and a decrease of fat that is normal with the aging process. Even a light bump to older skin can result in much more noticeable bruising as compared to younger skin.
Understanding and Preventing Alzheimer’s Wandering
Of the numerous ramifications of Alzheimer’s disease, one of the most alarming is the person’s propensity for wandering and the potential dangers that can occur in the event that the senior becomes disoriented or lost. Alzheimer’s wandering can happen if the older adult is:
Managing COPD: Tips for Helping a Loved One
COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is the term for two lung diseases: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Basically, an individual’s breathing is severely affected by an obstruction to airflow. Prevailing symptoms include an excessively wet cough, wheezing, shortness of breath, and tightness in the chest. Managing COPD symptoms such as these can be extremely challenging.
COPD Breathing Exercises to Help Relieve Symptoms
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can transform daily life into a battle. The good news is that there are breathing exercises to help relieve the symptoms and enhance quality of life. CareFor, a leading provider of Austin caregiving services and in-home care in nearby areas, recommends the following COPD breathing exercises to help strengthen the diaphragm and abdominal muscles, so those with COPD can take in more oxygen and expend less effort into breathing.
Exercise for Adults With Alzheimer’s: Ideas for Each Stage
The countless benefits of physical exercise are obvious, but what is not as well known is that exercise for adults with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia can be particularly helpful in a variety of ways. It can help lessen the risk for muscle weakness as well as other issues that arise from inactivity, can minimize the impact of psychological and behavioral changes, and even more.
Are the Benefits of Exercise for Seniors Comparable to Medicine?
If you made a resolution in January to work out more this year, hopefully you’re continuing to stay with it! Adding extra physical activity to your everyday activities is one resolution we should all be putting into action. For seniors, many of whom take a variety of medications for various health problems, this is particularly true. As the top provider of in-home care services in Austin and surrounding areas, we’re excited to share research that shows new benefits of exercise for seniors.
Try the SMILE Concept to Make Personal Care for Seniors More Comfortable
Stop for a moment, close your eyes, and imagine yourself like this: You have spent most of your life taking care of and assisting others – as a mother or father, in your workplace, through volunteering in your community, and as a grandparent. After all that time spent living independently and being in control of all of your decisions, you have suddenly aged to the point that now you are the person in need of assistance with bathing and other hygiene tasks. Consider the sense of fear, loss, and vulnerability.
Helpful Tips for Managing Aging Skin Care Issues
It isn’t a facet of senior personal care that is as commonly discussed as other tasks, but is essential to keeping older adults healthy nonetheless. Aging skin care issues can cause a variety of difficulties for seniors, including discomfort, bruising, dryness, itching, and more.
Is It a TIA or Stroke?
Numbness on one side of the body. Slurred speech. Confusion. Appears to be a stroke, right? Then again, if those stroke-like signs subside rather rapidly and seem minor, they may be caused by a TIA (transient ischemic attack). But prior to breathing that sigh of relief and getting back to life as usual, it’s important … Read more
Understanding and Managing Compassion Fatigue
Caregivers dedicate so much of themselves to the ones they care for – both emotionally and physically. It’s common to become wiped out and to start to experience feelings like indifference, exhaustion, and a withdrawal from the person in your care. Referred to as compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress, it can be detrimental to your own wellbeing but can also influence your ability to be as nurturing, warm, and caring as you should be for the person you’re caring for.
Helpful Steps for Relieving Family Caregiver Guilt
Family caregivers give a tremendous amount of themselves to take care of their loved ones, frequently giving up their own desires and needs along the way. It may seem normal, then, to presume that caregivers would feel great about themselves, with a high level of self-esteem and sense of purpose.
Technology for Seniors: Tools That Help Promote Independence
When our parents were younger, telephones were affixed to walls, mail was only the paper variety, and if adult children lived far away from their parents, checking in on them was as simple as asking someone nearby to stop by to visit. If someone were unable to leave home as a result of sickness or frailty, isolation could rapidly set in. Social circles were smaller, and long-distance family members frequently felt powerless if they weren’t able to be there in person to help. But life has drastically changed since those times, and technology has evolved how we communicate and manage the everyday activities of living.
The Importance of Maintaining Senior Independence
Throughout the course of life’s stages, our yearning for independence is fulfilled in a variety of ways. There are significant events, such as moving out of our parents’ home or getting married, and less significant occasions, like accomplishing a difficult task on our own. Later, as we age, preserving independence becomes the focus – the capacity to stay in our own home safely and securely. This wish to age in place at home is frequently the greatest desire for older adults, regardless of their state of health or ability to function independently, even in the midst of injury, sickness, or chronic health conditions.
‘Tis the Season to Celebrate: Holiday Tips for Seniors
Even though the holiday season is usually viewed as a time that is joyful, abundant with visiting loved ones who are near and dear to us and selecting the perfect gifts, for older people, it can be far from merry and bright. A combination of lost loved ones, memories of holidays past, health problems, and more can hit older adults with emotions of lonesomeness and sorrow.
Tips for Safe and Enjoyable Holiday Outings for Seniors
The holiday season is loaded with get-togethers, celebrations, and parties. However, holiday outings for seniors may necessitate a little additional planning. Try these recommendations from the Austin senior home care specialists at CareFor to enjoy fun and relaxed outings with loved ones of all ages this season.
Fall Safety Tips for Prevention and Injury Reduction
Senior falls happen all too frequently and many times lead to serious consequences. If you’re taking care of aging parents at home, fall prevention is key and can be helped by fall safety measures. This includes assessing the home for fall risks, such as throw rugs or other tripping hazards, insufficient lighting, and a lack … Read more
Seniors Can Age at Home Safely with These Tips
The great majority of seniors are set on staying at home throughout aging, rather than relocating to an assisted living facility or nursing home – close to 9 out of 10 of them, according to research done by AARP. And who can blame them? The comfort of familiar surroundings, the freedom to go wherever, whenever … Read more
Is Senior Socialization the Key to Healthy Wellbeing in Older Adults?
It’s intuitive to most of us that interacting with others improves health and wellbeing. It keeps us connected to other people’s experiences, beliefs, struggles, humor, points of views, and various other human occurrences. However, now scientific studies are determining that socializing with others, and most notably seniors socializing with others, actually may boost the wellness of both mind and body.
If You’re a Caregiver for an Older Adult, Consider Adding Music to Your Routine
These days, music is more available than ever before. For those who bring smartphones or tablets with them everywhere they go, hundreds of thousands – if not tens of millions of tunes – are just a few taps or finger swipes away. If you are a caregiver for an older adult, your smartphone may become one of the most helpful tools in your possession in helping tap into the benefits of music. This widely circulated video clip from the Alive Inside documentary demonstrates just how incredibly effective music can be for seniors with limited capabilities and dementia.
Elder Care Technology Trends in 2021
Throughout the pandemic, our Georgetown and surrounding area home care experts witnessed firsthand the crucial role of elder care technology in the lives of aging adults. As we move into 2021 and encounter the challenges of the new year, health and well-being are at the forefront of how we think about technology for older adults. In 2021, it’s expected that these technology trends will be the ones to look out for.
Home Care Assistance Following a Hospital Stay
A priority for hospitals currently is decreasing readmissions for patients who are at high risk. Healthcare Financial Management Association’s article “Two Ways Hospitals Can Reduce Avoidable Readmissions” explains that effective initiatives from several hospitals with minimal 30-day rehospitalizations are, to a certain extent, the result of working together with inpatient and outpatient care providers, such as CareFor, which offers trusted home care assistance.
Holidays With Seniors May Highlight Warning Signs That Home Care Is Needed
While of course we’d like to imagine enjoying a Norman Rockwell-worthy holiday celebration, with all of our family members spending quality time together and Grandma’s traditional holiday feast, the reality for some families instead consists of something unexpected: an E/R visit. As a matter of fact, studies show that emergency room visits for older adults jump about 10 – 20% over the holidays.
What to Do When Seniors Experience Dementia Confusion
Dementia confusion, a typical occurrence in Alzheimer’s, can lead to recent memories being forgotten about or distorted, while memories from the more distant past usually remain unimpaired. This can cause prior periods of time to be more realistic to an older adult with dementia than the present. A person’s alternate reality can be his or her way of making sense of the present through past experiences.
A Senior’s Sense of Purpose: Feeling Useful Makes All the Difference
Look online for the phrase “activities for seniors” and you’ll likely find a number of memory stimulation puzzles, crafts, games, and of course, the requisite bingo. What you won’t find, unless you really search much longer, are the meaningful, philanthropic activities that provide meaning and purpose to our lives. Yet, if you ask older individuals … Read more