Alzheimer’s

In our last blog post, we outlined the advantages of utilizing a professional home care agency to provide the highest quality and safest level of California home care. But we regularly receive inquiries on exactly what kinds of home care services in Pleasanton and the surrounding area are available to help older adults remain safe and thriving at home. If you’ve determined it’s time to search for in-home help for a senior family member, there are a variety of customized in home care services available. These options can help you figure out the specific type of help your loved one really needs:

Housekeeping: Household tasks can become challenging for older adults to manage. Housekeeping services performed on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis, covering tasks like vacuuming, doing dishes, laundry, changing beds, dusting, preparing meals, and … Read More »

Hand it to the health care industry to come up with yet another couple of acronyms to add to their extensive list – ADLs and IADLs. These are prevalent terms in the healthcare field used to describe the routine self-care activities that an individual engages in on a regular basis to stay independent and healthy. It is also common for these acronyms to appear in conversations if you are looking for in-home care options for an older person, or if you are researching the cost of long-term senior care for yourself or someone you know.

It’s often human nature to deny that we need assistance, although the truth is that often we really do. This is especially true for older adults, who may not wish to confess they need help doing the everyday things that used to be a snap but now are getting to be more complicated. For loved ones, this can make recognizing that an older adult requires help more difficult to identify. The encouraging news is that there are tools that can help family members better determine when a senior needs help.

“I never want to live in a nursing home.”

If you’re the child of an elderly parent, you’ve probably listened to your loved one speak those words or a similar sentiment signifying your parent’s wish to continue to age at home instead of moving to a long-term care facility. Truthfully, the majority of seniors want to remain in their own homes for as long as possible – for a variety of reasons. Home is the place they’ve lovingly created, so it’s where they feel the most comfortable. Living at home also brings meaning and purpose to one’s life. Something as simple as looking at one’s belongings, reading the mail, or relaxing on the porch are more meaningful in one’s own home than in a long-term care facility because it is the home that creates the framework of one’s life. … Read More »

On Wednesday, Hired Hands Homecare joined many families, friends, Caregivers, Clients and industry partners at the Marin Senior Information Fair.  Yes… it was our TWENTY-FOURTH Marin Senior Fair!  It was a great day of seeing old friends, gathering useful information, and even getting the flu shot out of the way.  And how great do Kirsten and Erick look?!?

In the Bay Area, they’re forecasting TRIPLE DIGIT HEAT for the upcoming Holiday Weekend!

We all suffer in hot weather. However, for elderly and disabled people and those with chronic health conditions such as vascular disease or diabetes, the weather does not have to hit 100 degrees to cause heat stress or even deadly heat stroke.

As we age, we gradually lose the ability to perspire and regulate our body temperature. This is why older people tend to overdress — they don’t feel heat the same way anymore. Heart rates do not speed up-or return to normal-as fast during exercise. Older skin also thins and offers less protection from the sun. Poor circulation, heart, lung and kidney diseases, and high blood pressure increase the risk for heat-related illness. Being overweight or underweight also increases risk.

Medications taken for a variety of diseases … Read More »

These Alzheimer’s disease tips can help when someone is experiencing an alternate reality.

Alzheimer’s disease alters someone’s mind so that memories surrounding more recent incidents are forgotten or mixed up while memories about the more distant past often continue to be intact. This might cause past years to make more sense to an individual with dementia than the present. An individual’s alternate reality can be his or her method of making sense of the present through previous recollections.

People with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia often have problems expressing themselves, and sometimes their alternate reality has more to do with a desire or a particular feeling they are trying to express than it has to do with the things they are saying.

For instance:

“When will my husband be home?” This question could possibly be more about a desire for … Read More »

For family members providing dementia home care for a senior with Alzheimer’s disease or another kind of dementia, a number of complex effects have to be very carefully handled, but perhaps the most overwhelming consist of hallucinations, illusions, and suspicions that other individuals are out to cause him problems or ill will. False perceptions such as these arise typically in the more advanced phases of progressive dementia as a result of changes within the brain. It’s essential to first recognize the reasons behind these emotions and behaviors, and to deal with the root cause.

Hallucinations/Illusions

Causes for hallucinations may perhaps be the result of a general confusion, a medicine side effect or an infection. Seek advice from the doctor to rule out medication side effects or infections, but also monitor the person’s environment.

For example:

If the person keeps hearing someone talking: Is a … Read More »

Like the saying goes, there’s no place like home; but what do you do when a senior loved one firmly insists on going home – when he/she already IS at home? Sadly, when caring for an elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, this is an all too common conundrum. And the confusion and plaintive yearning being conveyed are simply heartbreaking – and, if we’re truthful, aggravating.

At Hired Hands Homecare, our specially trained Alzheimer’s and dementia care team helps family members handle complex situations such as this, and we encourage trying the following to help restore peace to an unsettled senior with dementia:

Rather than rationalize, validate. Reasoning or disagreeing with someone with dementia can actually boost agitation and unrest. Even if the senior is in the exact same home she’s resided in for more than thirty years, … Read More »

Caring for a senior with Alzheimer’s disease can seem like attempting to solve a constantly changing puzzle. Once you determine the solution to one segment, you discover that the picture has changed, and you need to reconsider your plan of action for the next levels of Alzheimer’s.

Trying to figure out the puzzle of Alzheimer’s care demands continuous education and a group effort, including professionals specifically trained in the numerous facets of Alzheimer’s disease support. Hired Hands Homecare provides the following tips, courtesy of the Alzheimer’s Association, to help families in establishing care strategies throughout the levels of Alzheimer’s:

Early Stages: Family members can best assist a loved one with Alzheimer’s through planning together, offering a patient, calm, listening ear and memory prompts when needed. Strategies consist of:

Be a care advocate for your family member, offering emotional assistance and encouragement.
Help plan for … Read More »