Happy Nurses Week!

A shout out to all our favorite nurses out there! We appreciate all you do and couldn't do our job without you!!!

 

 

May is National Stroke Month

Are you educated on what to do if someone you know has a stroke?

Please see the picture below or log onto http://www.stroke.org/

 to learn more about strokes!

Acting fast can help your loved one survive!

A Client's Appreciation

One of the greatest parts of our job is getting to see a CAREGiver make a huge impression on a client!  This is part of the assessment process. We get to know you and your loved one so we can do our best to get a perfect match! 

More Caring Cards!

These cards are wonderful conversation starters.

Here are some more for your enjoyment!

1) Were you named after someone particular?

2) Who were you oldest living relatives when you were a child, and what do you remember about them?

3) What was your favorite hiding place as a child?

4) When you were a teenager, what did you and your friends do for fun?

A Personal Experience with Alzheimer's

 My friend Kim is 34 years old. Just two years younger than me, she is dealing with what some people don't deal with until they are in their 50s or 60s. She just moved her mother into a memory care until in Hoover. 

Her mother is 58 years old. 

Many times over the past three years Kim and I have discussed what was going on with her mom since her Alzheimer's diagnosis three years ago. With my experience in senior care the first thing I told her to do was to meet with an eldercare attorney and get her affairs in order. Kim told me that she would do that eventually but that their plan was to have her mother stay with her aunt, sister and herself. Deep down I knew this was a bad idea, but I thought she needed consistency. But since it wasn't my mother, I kept my mouth shut but did go back and tell her that she needed to go ahead and meet with the eldercare attorney. 

Two weeks ago she came to me and said that her mom had become combative all the sudden and wasn't transitioning very well from house to house. So they decided to move her into a memory care community. 

Kim explained it like dropping her child off as kindergarden. It broke my heart for her but I have seen it many, many times. 

I asked Kim yesterday how her mother was doing. She told me that she hasn't seen her mother so happy in awhile. Her mom was a nurse and she actually thinks she is working there! We all want what is best for our parents and it is hard to put their care in someone else's hands - but sometimes that is the best option.

Kim mentioned to me that she wished they would have kept her mother's house and have CAREGivers come in and stay with her. This is what I would have recommend first. It's important to keep someone with Alzheimer's in a consistent location - and this is where we can help.

Our CAREGivers go through extensive Alzheimer's training. We can be with your loved anywhere from 4 to 24 hours. This would have helped Kim tremendously since she has a 2 year old and a 5 year old. 

When you get that diagnosis of Alzheimer's, it is time to start planning. 

Let us be a part of that plan!

Call us for a non-obligatory assessment.

(205) 822-1915

Caring Cards

More questions to help you get the conversations started!

1) What are some of the hurdles you've overcome in your life, and what did you learn from them?

2) How did you meet your husband or wife?

3) When you were in school, what did you do at recess?

4) When you were growing up, what did you dream you would do with your life?

5) What was the coolest car a person could own you were younger?

Care for Mom & Dad ~ a post-holiday realization

We hope you had a wonderful Easter! We are blessed to have you as a friend, client or referral source!

Are you at work, but your mind is somewhere else? 

Are you trying to answer an email but your mind is going back to Easter Sunday's lunch when mom couldn't bring her dish that didn't get cooked because she forgot to turn on the oven? 

Our phone rings off the hook the Monday after any Holiday. Adult children see changes in mom and/or dad that makes them uncomfortable. Dad is struggling to get around without help and mom can't remember to do things that she normal does with her eyes closed. And you know they most likely don't need to be alone all day. 

WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?

This is where we come in. 

We are your answer.

We. Can. Help.

Our CAREGivers are trained to help with companionship, home helper and even personal services for your loved one. We will come to the home and do an assessment of your loved ones and create a plan of care. 

Please give us a call at 822.1915 and set up an assessment today!

Go Grandma Go!

A little happy as we kick of this spring break week!

This grandma is cute as pie!

Upcoming CAREGiver Webinar

The Home Instead Senior Care® network's 2013 Family Caregiver Support Web Seminar Series features free monthly seminars for senior care professionals on a variety of topics that can help set them apart as experts in their field.

The Home Instead Senior Care network is offering free continuing education credits (CEUs) in conjunction with the web series, which addresses senior resistance to care and features relevant issues such as sibling communication, seniors and nutrition, navigating the senior care maze, and seniors and cognitive issues. The program has been adapted for CEU accreditation in cooperation with the American Society on Aging (ASA). CEUs are available for 60 days following the live event. The CEU courses, which began in 2010, are offered compliments of the Home Instead Senior Care network so there is no cost for the CEU.

Understanding Diabetes in Older Adults
10 AM Pacific / 11 AM Mountain / 12 PM Central / 1 PM Eastern / 2 PM Atlantic (ADT)

• Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Register here!

Diabetes affects millions of Americans, and this webinar will detail some of the risk factors, as well as how to prevent or delay the onset of the disease. Tips on how to manage diabetes so that you, or your loved one, can live a normal, active lifestyle and avoid complications will also be covered.

Participants in this web seminar will be able to:

• List four symptoms and warning signs of diabetes in older adults
• Identify six complications commonly associated with diabetes
• Describe five ways diabetes can be managed

Presenters:

Dr. Amy D'Aprix is the Executive Director of the DAI Foundation, a nonprofit organization established to meet the needs of caregivers. She is also President of Dr. Amy Inc., a company dedicated to Family Caregiver Wellness by providing access to information and education, services, support with emotional and family issues, and legal and financial support. She holds a PhD and Masters in Social Work, specializing in Gerontology, and earned her CSA (Certified Senior Advisor) - a designation for which she also trains others, as part of their accreditation.

Mary Alexander, Director of Strategic Alliances with Home Instead Senior Care corporation, actively manages strategic partnerships with companies, associations and organizations whose products, services and programs help franchise owners grow their businesses. She and her team’s focus include long-term care insurance companies, hospitals, health care organizations, work/life balance opportunities and senior industry leaders.

Caring Cards

These questions are great! Our Marketing Director took them to a group at an Independent Living Facility. This group is really independent and took the cards to a place where they volunteer with other seniors. They used them as a game which turned out to be a very fun day for everyone!

Here are some for you to use:
1) What were some of your favorite subjects at school?
2) What newspapers and magazines did you like to read when you were younger?
3) What were your nicknames growing up?
4) What are some of the funniest things your children said to you when they were young?

Caring Cards

More questions to help you get some great conversations started:

1) What do you think contributes most to a happy marriage?

2) How does the world feel different today compared to when you were a child?

3) Where did you go to school?

4) Who are some of your all-time favorite singers?

5) Tell me about your parents. 

Caring Cards - getting the conversation started

Kathie Nitz - Her story

"I was inspired to create these cards as a way to connect with my mom. As her caregiver, I could see she was increasingly having difficulty remembering day-to-day activities and depending on me to generate our conversations.
Caring Cards enabled me to easily gain access to her wisdom and stories she was delighted to share. We've spent many hours chatting, laughing and learning a lot about each other.
Now it's your turn. My hope is that Caring Cards will generate interesting conversations and create memorable moments for you, too. Enjoy!"

WAYS TO USE CARING CARDS:
You feel great when you see a senior's eyes light up as you unlock a long-forgotten, enjoyable memory. With Caring Cards, you can help this happen every day!
Use caring cards to start a conversation:

• During mealtimes.
• Over morning coffee.
• While helping others with daily tasks.
• When traveling together.

Here is a few to get you started:

1) What world events had the most impact on you while you were growing up?

2) What food or drink was a special treat when you were a child?

3) What clothing was popular when you were a young adult?

Being Green

Sometimes I get so tickled with the things I see on facebook. There is a page called Grandma raised in the South that always posts really funny things!

This is hilarious!

Being Green...

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Caring Cards

Conversation is the cornerstone of any good relationship. But it can be difficult to keep the chit-chat going if you don't know anything about an older adult and his or her past. That's why our Home Office has introduced the first edition of Caring Cards. Our Caring Cards feature more than 50 questions on a wide range of topics to help you engage seniors in meaningful conversations and keep those conversations going.

Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some of the questions with you to help you get the conversation going with your loved one. You may just learn something new! 

March Monthly Solutions

Did you know about our Continuing Education Units? 

See below for more information