Adeste In-Home Care - Colorado

In-Home Care in Colorado

4 Myths Of Hospice

by Leave a Comment

 

What do you think of when you hear the word hospice? It evokes a certain reaction, doesn’t it?

As humans, we have a natural reluctance to think about the eventual need for these services, yet it’s inevitable. So we build walls and put the thoughts aside until they are thrust upon us in a moment of need.

We’ve built up misconceptions about what hospice is – and what it isn’t – and in many cases, it prevents us from seeking out the critical support hospice provides when it can do us the most good. Hospice benefits in many different ways. Hospice can be an important part of the journey your loved one is taking and provide the critical care that will benefit all of you.

Myth #1 Hospice is a place

Hospice, hospital, assisted care, nursing home – what does it all mean? It’s easy to get lost in the words and concepts when your world suddenly changes. Unlike physical healthcare units like hospitals and nursing homes, hospice is not a structure or a place. Instead, hospice is a comprehensive, patient/family centered care that offers compassion and medical care in the advanced stages of illness. It provides multidimensional pain and symptom management as well as emotional, spiritual, and practical support to those in need. It can be offered anywhere a patient and family chooses, including a personal residence, a long term care facility, or a hospital. It’s all about the patient. [Read more…]

Why Senior Concierge May Be Just The Thing You Are Looking For

by Leave a Comment

How would you define in-home care? We define it as any type of non-medical home care or concierge service that your loved one needs to remain safe and independent at home.

For some, that service could be needed after surgery, to help your loved one get back on her feet again.

For others, it may be a daily need to ensure she has the extra care she needs to maintain a certain quality of life.

Needs change depending on the day and the situation. That’s why senior concierge can be flexible and change up, depending on your needs.

How about home services, such as: [Read more…]

Best Car Features For Caregivers

by Leave a Comment

As a caregiver, your days are pretty busy. And you probably spend a lot of time in the car. Driving to doctor’s appointments, visiting with specialists, testing, and more testing, picking up prescriptions from the pharmacy – it all can be a little overwhelming at times.

Any car will do. But when you’re responsible for someone else’s needs, finding the right car that supports your caregiving efforts will make your job easier. The person you are caring for now may be fairly mobile. What happens as that changes? Will your car function as well in the future as it does right now?

When looking at a car’s features, evaluate it based on two characteristics: access for people and access to your stuff. Both can change significantly over time.

Access For People

Different vehicles provide different accessibility. If you’ve ever climbed into a large pickup, or into the backseat of a two door sports car, you know this to be true. The more control you can give the person you are caring for during this process, the easier your life will be. [Read more…]

7 Important Steps To Being A Better Caregiver

by Leave a Comment

Caregiving often starts small and with things you’d rarely recognize as caregiving. A quick errand to the pharmacy. Dropping off dinner several nights a week. A phone call with a request “can you look at this?” and stopping everything to deal with “it.”

And before you know it, it’s a regular part of your weekly routine. You schedule time in your days to “help” out. Their lives become your life in ways you could never have imagined.

But as much as caregiving becomes physical activities, running here and doing this, it’s important to remember that caregiving is more of a mindset than actual activities. The best way to become a better caregiver is to make it easier to do what you do.

Remember The Person You’re Caring For

Your loved one is going through a lot of changes, both physically and mentally. What you see today is probably not how you remember them in the past. And to respond to those needs today means you have to do so with all the love and care you’ve had for the person since the beginning, while taking into account those limitations of today. Your loved one has changed; your relationship has not. They are still the same person on the inside, even if their attitudes and capabilities are different. Always keep that person in mind as you provide care. [Read more…]

Avoiding Undue Influence With Parents’ Estate Planning

by Leave a Comment

avoiding-undue-influence-with-parents-estate-planning

Human nature pushes us to procrastinate until we need something. Then we scramble to get it done.

In some areas, this has little impact. With estate planning, the results can be disastrous.

Imagine a spouse living with diminished mental capacity; her spouse has already passed. In this case, the surviving parent may enlist the help of her adult children to manage the finances and help update the estate. While adult children are an asset, they can also provide too much influence and unleash a variety of unwanted legal problems. It’s important to respect a person’s wishes without stepping over the line. Bitterness over a will can divide families and could even lead to legal charges of undue influence.

But how much is too much? [Read more…]

How Telemedicine Will Impact Seniors and Caregivers

by Leave a Comment

How Telemedicine Will Impact Seniors and Caregivers

It seems you can’t go a day without reading about a new perspective on the healthcare system. There are varying opinions, with an equal amount of ideas on how to fix the system we already have in place. But no matter what side of the issue you’re on, change is the one thing we can all agree on.

Change in healthcare is coming fast. And for most of us, that means we’ll quickly dive into the world of telemedicine for some of our future care.

Telemedicine is sometimes also referred to as telehealth. It refers to the use of technology to deliver health care services and information. It is designed both to reduce the costs of healthcare, and also to improve access to ideas and treatments that might not be available any other way. It uses technologies such as phone calls, teleconferencing, video conferencing, remote monitoring through mobile technology, email and texting to improve care access outside of the normal face-to-face, brick-and-mortar atmosphere.

For today’s seniors, the benefits are many. [Read more…]

What Is Late Life Anxiety Disorder

by Leave a Comment

Late Life Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety is something we face throughout our lives. And it can be triggered by a variety of things.

  • Moving from high school to college, choosing our degrees
  • Selecting a job, vying for promotions
  • Family commitments and obligations
  • Financial responsibilities

With big change comes a rise in the levels of anxiety. And stress can impact us in many ways. But while some stress is considered a normal part of our lives in our younger years, very little consideration has been given to stress levels in our older years. Yet anxiety disorder diagnosed later in life can have a serious impact on quality of life.

General Anxiety Disorder is defined as excessive worrying over routine events and activities for an extended period of time, in general six months or longer. It is the most commonly diagnosed anxiety disorder, and also accounts for up to 90 percent of all late life anxiety disorders. It is more common in women than in men. And when it appears, you’ll most likely find a variety of these symptoms: [Read more…]

Top 3 Reasons Seniors Enter Assisted Living … And Why There Is A Better Way

by Leave a Comment

Top 3 Reasons Seniors Enter Assisted Living

Every day, families across the world find themselves in an entirely new world. The reality that mom and dad can no longer live on their own is a bit terrifying. Now what?

Caregiving isn’t something we think about until it’s thrust upon us. And from that moment on, we scramble to make the right choices.

If mom or dad can no longer live on their own, the best choice is to move them out of their home and into someplace safe where they’ll be well taken care of, right? In reality, that thought process may be all wrong.

We usually find ourselves considering caregiving options for one of three reasons:

1. A sudden change in health – it may be recovery from a surgery or a diagnosis of a chronic illness

2. A decline in daily living – you usually start to notice it in little things. They may show weight-loss from losing interest in preparing daily meals. They may allow newspapers and mail to accumulate in a corner.

3. A change in capabilities – they may get confused on what medications to take at what time of the day. They may lose their ability to drive.

Yet while each of these changes can open your eyes to the fact that mom or dad needs help, it’s the kind of help that will set the course for their future well-being. [Read more…]

Understanding The Side Effects Of Your Medication

by Leave a Comment

Understanding The Side Effects Of Your Medication

We live in a world where people take a wide range of medication every day. In many ways it has improved our lives tenfold. Yet in some ways, we can be more at risk than ever before.

Your heart doctor has your best interests in mind when he prescribes the medicine he has. But how does it interact with the medicine for your depression? Or the medicine you received from your eye doctor for a reoccurring eye infection? Or even with the over the counter medicine you pick up at the big box store?

Side effects vary from medication to medication. Some of the most common side effects include nausea, upset stomach, constipation or diarrhea. In some cases they may include things like sleep disturbances, rash or skin irritation. In rare cases, side effects can be severe, including serious allergic reactions, physical debilitation, and in some cases death.

And while each of these side effects alone can cause you to think twice before popping the pill into your mouth, what happens when you add two or three (or four) pills together at a time? Can the side effects and interactions quickly escalate from bad to worse?

A common medication for seniors is cholesterol lowering medication such as a statin. Side effects for cholesterol medication may include headache, muscle pain, weakness, dizziness, sleep difficulties, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation and skin irritation. There is also some research that shows a link between statins and type 2 diabetes, mental confusion, or memory loss.

If the senior in your life is already prone to or has type 2 diabetes, mental confusion or memory loss, taking statins may only exacerbate the problems they already have in place.

As a caregiver, there are important tips to keep in mind with regards to prescription drugs: [Read more…]

The Caregiving Role At End of Life

by Leave a Comment

The Caregiving Role At End of Life

Caregiving is one of the most difficult challenges we face with family members and loved ones. And while a lot is written about the caregiving role at the beginning of the process, less is written and understood about end of life caregiving.

If you are a caregiver for someone in the final stages of life, the grief can be overwhelming. Not only do you have to continue with the caregiving role 24/7, sometimes adding more tasks than ever before, you also have to face the devastating fact that the end is near.

You go into overwork mode, attempting to do as much as you can. “I can rest after this is over, but I want to do do everything I can while I can” becomes a caregivers motto. Caregivers experience isolation; fatigue. Yet taking the time to rest or even to take a few moments for a long, hot bath lets the guilt filter in.

In most cases it isn’t the tasks that overwhelm; it’s the fear of the unknown. The person you love depends on you like never before. They require nonstop action. You suddenly find yourself in charge of everything – from pain control, to injections, to daily hygiene, to making the toughest of decisions. Our culture keeps the concept of death hidden and out of sight. We know it’s there, yet we simply don’t want to deal with it until we have to.

Not only are we fearful about our own capacity to handle the final caregiving role, we’re also anticipating our greatest fear … the fear of life without your loved one. [Read more…]