New Resource for Family Caregivers Providing Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias Care

A Resource for Family Caregivers Providing Alzheimer’s Disease or Other Dementias Care at Home

Buy the Bookfrom Amazon

One of our franchise network’s first reported experiences with Alzheimer’s disease involved a senior who refused to change clothes. She insisted on wearing the same gray pantsuit every day, all day.

Maybe you face similar frustrating situations as you care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. Without understanding what triggers the behaviors associated with the disease, or knowing practical techniques to help counter them, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

But discovering simple tips, like buying a duplicate pantsuit to encourage the senior into a fresh set of clothes, can mean the difference between endless frustration and a positive care experience.

Gaining the Confidence to Care

We created this resource to help you replace your fears and frustrations with the confidence to care.

Confidence to Care: A Resource for Family Caregivers Providing Alzheimer’s Disease or Other Dementias Care at Home is your essential handbook to becoming more confident in your ability to understand, manage and even help alleviate dementia-related behavioral symptoms that your loved one may be prone to exhibit.

Why We Wrote the Book

We wrote this book to help you. This book combines personal stories with practical techniques drawn from decades of caregiving experience from family caregivers, professional CAREGivers℠ within the Home Instead Senior Care® network, and internationally recognized experts.

All profits from this book will be donated to the Home Instead Senior Care Foundation and designated for dementia-related organizations and causes.

What You’ll Learn from This Book

This book focuses on both memory and behavior symptoms that family caregivers often need help with, including their loved one’s resistance to common personal care activities. Each of these chapters offer plenty of care approaches and prevention tips, and begin with a relevant and moving real-life family caregiver story. The chapter topics include:

• Aggression and Anger
• Agitation and Anxiety
• Bedtime Struggles and Sleep Problems
• Confusion and Memory Loss
• Delusions
• False Accusations and Paranoia
• Hiding/Misplacing Things/Rummaging
• Hostility
• Judgment (problems with decision-making and problem-solving)
• Medication Mismanagement
• Mood Changes
• Repetition
• Sexually Inappropriate Behavior
• Social Withdrawal
• Wandering

Confidence to Care also highlights the importance of caring for yourself while caring for others.

Home Instead Client on ABC 33/40

Our precious client, Mike Hamilton, shared his story of taking care of his wife who suffers from Alzheimers.  
ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, Sports

Be a Santa to a Senior 2013

Be a Santa to a Senior in Birmingham is just around the corner. There are many, many lonely seniors in our area that won't get a visit from family during the holidays. Here is where we come in. We work with local senior agencies to help us identify seniors in our area that are alone during the holidays. With your help, we are able to provide them with a Christmas surprise! Please see the information below and let us know if you have any questions.

If you need a PDF of this file, please email us at allison.youngblood@homeinstead.com and we will send you one! 

Thank you!

Congratulations to our June CAREGiver of the Month!

Congratulations Sharika! 

Aging Myths Busted! New research dispels common misperceptions about seniors.

Home Instead Senior Care/Marist Poll research dispels common misperceptions about seniors

New Research Debunks Top Five Myths About Aging

OMAHA, Neb. – April 11, 2013 – Many Americans fear the social impacts of aging. From wrinkles to serious health and financial concerns, aging undoubtedly creates anxiety for people of all ages. However, according to new research* released by Home Instead Senior Care®, the leading global provider of home care services for seniors, there are significant gaps between the perceptions and realities of mature age.

The new research reveals that the majority of seniors do not experience many of the common concerns associated with aging. Younger generations can rest easy as the following myths about old age are debunked:

1. Happiness is for the young. Not true. Only 29 percent of Millennials (age 18-30) describe themselves as very happy, compared to 44 percent of the Greatest Generation (age 66+).
2. Your physical appearance will terrify you most. A decline in physical appearance as one ages is a secondary concern to memory loss. More than 80 percent (82 percent) of American adults cite memory loss as a top fear, compared to 11 percent who cite beauty concerns.
3. Your bank account will run dry. Although more than half (52 percent) of Americans believe money is a very serious problem for older generations, only 14 percent of people over 65 lack financial resources to support themselves.
4. Technology will outpace you. The future model of your iPhone won’t escape the older version of you. Nearly four in ten (38 percent) of Americans perceive people over 65 can’t keep up with new technology as they age. Yet, only 15 percent of seniors cite this as a serious problem.
5. Aging undoubtedly brings loneliness. Almost 40 percent (37 percent) perceive loneliness as a major issue for older Americans. However, only 5 percent of seniors say it’s a very serious problem.

"Home Instead is committed to changing the face of aging. It is imperative for earlier generations – Millenials, Generation X and Baby Boomers – to distinguish myth from reality," said Roger Baumgart, CEO of Home Instead, Inc. "There needs to be a more realistic perception about aging as the older population rises from 800 million to 2 billion people over the next 30 years."

Despite these misperceptions, most U.S. adults agree that older Americans lack respect from younger generations. Almost 80 percent say seniors don’t receive enough of it. Now those are words we can grow (older) on.

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ABOUT HOME INSTEAD SENIOR CARE

Founded in 1994 in Omaha by Lori and Paul Hogan, the Home Instead Senior Care network is the world's largest provider of non-medical in-home care services for seniors, with more than 950 independently owned and operated franchises providing in excess of 45 million hours of care throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, Finland, Austria, Italy, Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. Local Home Instead Senior Care franchise offices employ more than 65,000 CAREGiversSM worldwide who provide basic support services – assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), personal care, medication reminders, meal preparation, light housekeeping, errands, incidental transportation and shopping – which enable seniors to live safely and comfortably in their own homes for as long as possible. In addition, Home Instead CAREGivers are trained in the network’s groundbreaking Alzheimer’s Disease or Other Dementias CARE: Changing Aging Through Research and EducationSM Program to work with seniors who suffer from these conditions. This world class curriculum also is available free to family caregivers online or through local Home Instead Senior Care offices. At Home Instead Senior Care, it’s relationship before task, while continuing to provide superior quality service that enhances the lives of seniors everywhere.

ABOUT MARIST INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC OPINION

*The survey was undertaken by Home Instead Senior Care and conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. 1,247 adults 18 years of age and older residing in the continental United States were interviewed by telephone from September 26, 2012, through September 29, 2012. Telephone numbers were selected based upon a list of telephone exchanges from throughout the nation. The exchanges were selected to ensure that each region was represented in proportion to its population. To increase coverage, the landline sample was supplemented by respondents reached through random dialing of cell phone numbers. The two samples were then combined. Results are statistically significant within ±2.8 percentage points. The error margin increases for cross-tabulations.

May CAREGiver of the Month

CAREGIVER OF THE MONTH FOR MARCH & APRIL

Annual Summer Cookout!

We hope you can join us!

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!