In the News

Home Instead Senior Care®

To us, it’s personal®

In the News

As the world’s largest source of companionship and non-medical home care services for seniors, Home Instead Senior Care network is the organization that seniors and their families rely on for trusted, consistent care. And others have taken notice: Over the years, we’ve been sought out as a respected voice on senior issues, including aging in place, at-home care, Alzheimer’s and dementia concerns, as well as an advocate for this growing segment of our population. Here’s just a sample of the national media—representing many interests and industries—who have called on our experience and expertise:

TIME magazine on Home Instead Senior Care Co-Founders Paul and Lori Hogan: "With people over age 65 rising from 7% to 15% of the world’s population by 2050, Hogan and his wife Lori were the first to franchise a new senior-care niche: non-medical companion caregivers." Source: TIME magazine, September 14, 2009

Woman’s Day magazine quotes Paul Hogan, Home Instead Senior Care Co-Founder and coauthor of the bestselling book, Stages of Senior Care, about discussing senior care options: “Use the 40/70 Rule…When you are 40 or your parents are 70, talk to them about their preferences.” Source: Woman’s Day magazine, March 2010

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance interviews Home Instead Senior Care client Charles McCarthy and CAREGiver Ron Murphy: For McCarthy, the interaction provides a welcome break in what would otherwise be a solitary day. “Ron and I get along great. We share the same sense of humor,” says McCarthy. Adds Murphy, “It’s like working with a friend.” Source: Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, November 2009

The New York Times interviews Paul Hogan, Co-Founder and CEO of Home Instead Senior Care, about his family’s experience in providing care for his grandmother and subsequently starting a senior care company: “My family had learned that it’s one thing to prepare a meal for a person who lives alone, but it’s something else entirely to have someone there to encourage them to eat it. Having someone there to remind people to take their medication is also helpful.” Source: The New York Times, February 14, 2010

Tipping Point: Happy Memories or Household Hazards?

Local Senior Care Company Advises Family Caregivers to Help Older Adults De-Clutter During Spring Cleaning to Avoid Home Dangers

While clutter is not a problem unique to seniors, conditions of aging including strokes, brain trauma and dementia can lead to disorder and chaos that could threaten seniors’ home safety and independence, experts say. It’s a problem all too familiar to family caregivers.

“A lifetime accumulation of possessions combined with an influx of daily junk mail, bills, newspapers and magazines can quickly overwhelm seniors who are struggling physically, mentally or emotionally,” said Dan Pahos, owner of the local Home Instead Senior Care franchise office serving the Birmingham area.

Experts say even seniors who simply don’t know how to part with their possessions are vulnerable. The risks are many from slipping on loose papers to the threat of fire to the health effects of mold and mildew. Clutter can also interfere with family relationships and leave adult children wondering if the only inheritance awaiting them is a big mess.

“Spring is a great time for family caregivers to help seniors de-clutter for their own health and

well-being,” Pahos said.

“Cluttering – for those with this tendency – probably has been happening for years, but a ‘trigger episode’ such as going into a wheelchair or a health issue could worsen the problem,” said Katherine “Kit” Anderson, CPO-CD, president of the non-profit National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD) and a certified professional organizer. While the source of clutter can be anything from outdated medications to a kitchen full of unused pots and pans, paper is the biggest clutter culprit, Anderson said.

“It’s sort of the elephant in the room,” added Dr. Catherine Roster, a University of New Mexico clutter researcher. “People don’t want to acknowledge there is a problem, which creates an underlying anxiety, stress, guilt or embarrassment that can have a negative effect on their mental health and productivity. There are a lot of issues including economics. When there is general disorganization, people lose important documents and can’t find bills and then miss payments. So some serious issues start affecting them. All the research shows that people are slow to recognize the problem.”

In order to identify potential trouble, the Home Instead Senior Care network is alerting family caregivers to watch for the signs in a senior’s home that indicate clutter creep could become a problem including piles of mail and unpaid bills, difficulty walking safely through a home and frustration on the part of a senior trying to organize.

“Family caregivers can become just as overwhelmed as seniors,” said Home Instead Senior Care’s Pahos. “We suggest a three-step plan where the family caregiver brings three bins -- one for the stuff the senior wants to keep, one for donations and the other for trash. Sometimes seniors just need a little help.”

Lets Review Strokes - Are you at risk?

WHAT IS A STROKE?
• A stroke or “brain attack” occurs when blood circulation to the brain fails.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES?
• There are 2 kinds of strokes, with the most common being ischemic stroke.
• Ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel to the brain.
• The other type of stroke is called hemorrhagic and is caused by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain.

WARNING SIGNS OF A STROKE?
• Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion or trouble talking or understanding speech
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness or loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

RISK FACTORS FOR A STROKE
• High Blood Pressure
• Cigarette Smoking
• Heart disease
• Warning signs or history of stroke
• Diabetes

If you think you or someone you know is having a stroke, CALL 911

The information came from the National Institutes of Health Stroke Quarterly Training

Caring Connections

We want to invite you to sign up for our email newsletter. Every month we'll send you a newsletter filled with great tips, helpful information and updates regarding community events. In addition, you'll receive Caring Connections once per quarter. It features relevant and unique content and resources for those who care about seniors.

http://seniorcare.homeinstead.com/email-signup.cfm?franchise=163

SAVE THE DATE! "Stages of Senior Care" Book Tour Coming to Birmingham!

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 2nd from 4pm- 6pm. Paul Hogan, founder of Home Instead Senior Care, will be in Birmingham discussing his book, "Stages of Senior Care". We are so excited about this event!

More details to follow!

About the book:
Senior care is a topic many people are afraid to think about or face and sorting through today's many senior care options can be overwhelming. But Stages of Senior Care is just the resource you need to make these life-changing decisions for yourself or that of your aging parents based on current needs, finances, and future planning.
Stages of Senior Care provides the tools to assess needs, and shows how to figure out costs, avoid pitfalls, scams or low-quality service, and how to know what option is right for now and for the future.
There is probably no other more trusted voice on this subject than Paul and Lori Hogan, founders of Home Instead Senior Care®, one of the largest providers of in-home care for seniors.

To Us, It's Personal

At Home Instead Senior Care we pride ourselves on the fact that we treat each of our clients on an individual basis. Each client is different, which is why we do a full assessment of each client to determine the level of care they need. Based on that level of care we are able to match up our clients to a CAREGiver that has been trained to the level of care needed.
The CAREGiver is given a detailed profile of the client's needs and a daily scenario so the CAREGiver knows what to do from the time they walk in the door until the time they leave.
So that everyone involved is comfortable, we schedule a "meet & greet" with the client and the CAREGiver so they are formally introduced by a Home Instead staff member.
It's personal to us because we personally meet and get to know all our clients!

On Call - Activity 3

Many older adults have a telephone that is programmed with the numbers of family and friends. So all they have to do is hit a speed dial button to make that important connection. A senior can attempt to recall all of the numbers in the telephone directory and make a list.
A senior may want to think of a different telephone number each day this week that she might need and memorize that number. At the end of the week, review all the new numbers.

Incorporate this new skill by asking your loved ones to try to remember the ingredients and directions of a favorite recipe. (Your loved one might want to double check the cookbook to see how well she did.) Or think about a hobby he or she hasn’t done for a long time. Suggest they remember the steps and write them down.

Cooking Under Pressure

Independent research conducted by the Boomer Project (www.boomerproject.com) for the Home Instead Senior Care® network of 1,279 U.S. adult caregivers revealed that nutrition and related issues had a significant impact on their senior loved ones’ health and well-being. Making sure that the older adults for whom they care were eating properly was a high priority for these family caregivers.

The research discovered that family caregivers already spend a significant amount of time caring for their senior loved ones with some of that assistance going toward nutrition-related issues such as grocery shopping and meal preparation.
This survey of adults 35 to 62 years who cared for an older adult found that these seniors face a variety of issues that can impact their ability to achieve a well-balanced diet including use of
medications, illness and lack of companionship. Furthermore, the research disclosed that the greater the nutritional risk factors the more stress on the family caregiver.
Nutrition issues impact both the health of seniors and the relationship between adult
caregivers and their senior loved ones, as evidenced by this research. The vast majority of
caregivers say their seniors have enough food to eat; however, only slightly more than half report their seniors eat a nutritious diet. This would indicate that various factors are influencing a senior’s ability to achieve a nutritious diet.
As a result of these survey findings, the Home Instead Senior Care network has launched
a public education campaign geared toward providing family caregivers with the tools
they need to help their senior loved ones achieve and maintain a well-balanced diet.
The campaign features a Web site at www.foodsforseniors.com and a Cooking Under PressureSM handbook, available for download on that site.

• Nearly half of family caregivers spend 20 or more hours a week providing care to their loved ones. Some of the most common tasks that caregivers assist their seniors with are grocery shopping/errand running (83 percent of caregivers) and meal preparation (65 percent of caregivers).

• Eighty-six percent of family caregivers say that making sure their senior eats properly is “very much a priority.” Providing companionship to their loved ones is also a major concern for family caregivers; 83 percent say that making sure their seniors are not lonely is “very much a priority.”

• Caring for an older person who has three or more nutritional risk factors is tied to increased stress levels for caregivers. Of caregivers who rated their lives as extremely stressful, 67 percent were caring for loved ones with three or more nutritional risk factors, compared with 33 percent of caregivers whose seniors have fewer than three nutritional risk factors.

Seniors at Risk
More than 60 percent of caregivers say the senior they are caring for has three or more
nutritional risk factors. The most prevalent risk factors are (percentage refers to number of caregivers who said the condition describes their seniors “very well.”):

• They take three -- or more prescribed or over-the-counter drugs per day (77 percent).

• They have an illness or condition that made them change their diets (45 percent).

• They have gained or lost more than 10 pounds in the last six months without trying (38 percent).

• They are on special diets because of a medical condition (35 percent).

More than one-third of caregivers (37 percent) say the seniors they are caring for have nutritious food available but the seniors still don’t eat well.

Over half of the caregivers (57 percent) say their senior loved ones rarely cook for themselves.

Three out of ten family caregivers report that their seniors typically eat alone.

Approximately one-quarter of family caregivers (24 percent) say the cost of food impacts the ability of their seniors to eat a nutritious diet.

Nearly three-fourths of family caregivers (72 percent) report that the seniors they are
caring for rely on assistance to get groceries.

Survey Methodology
The Boomer Project (www.boomerproject.com) completed online interviews with 1,279
U.S. adult caregivers, ages 35-62, with a parent, stepparent or older relative for whom
they or someone in their household provides care. Questions regarding nutritional risk
factors and stress adapted from Abbott Laboratories’ “Determine Your Nutritional Health”
checklist. Used with the permission of Abbott Laboratories, copyright 2008.

Walking Strong ~ Activity 2

The Leg Curl is designed to help make walking and climbing stairs easier for a senior:

1. Stand behind a sturdy chair, hold on for balance.
Lift one leg straight back without bending your knee or pointing your toes. Breathe in slowly.
2. Breathe out as you slowly bring your heel up toward your buttocks as far as possible.
3. Bend only from your knee, and keep your hips still.
The leg you are standing on should be slightly bent.
4. Hold position for 1 second.
5. Breathe in as you slowly lower your foot to the floor.
6. Repeat 10 - 15 times.
7. Repeat 10 - 15 times with other leg.
8. Repeat 10 - 15 more times with each leg.

Source: National Institute on Aging

Good Friday

From all of us at Home Instead Senior Care in Birmingham, we would like to wish you a Happy Good Friday and a Happy Easter!

Power Grip ~ Activity 1

Having the strength to grip can impact the everyday lives of seniors. Seniors can do this squeezing exercise with a tennis ball while watching TV:

1. Hold a tennis ball or other small rubber or foam ball in one hand.
2. Slowly squeeze the ball as hard as you can and hold it for 3-5 seconds.
3. Relax the squeeze slowly.
4. Repeat 10 - 15 times.
5. Repeat 10 - 15 times with the other hand.
6. Repeat 10 - 15 times more with each hand.

Encourage your senior to incorporate this skill by opening a jar of pickles or olives. Or suggest playing fetch with the dog before nap time. Keep hands and fingers limber by folding towels or the laundry.
Source: National Institute on Aging