Press Release

SEATTLE— Andelcare Home Care services is proud to announce that one of their caring staff members has won the “Senior Choice Caregiver Award”.  Dorothy Adams has worked for Andelcare for 5 years.  Marla Beck, Owner of Andelcare and Karen Goehner-Rooney, Director will be presenting Dorothy with a beautiful plaque honoring her as “Caregiver of the Season”.  She will also receive a letter from the President of Senior’s Choice and a gift card.

Owner Marla Beck states, “We are honored that Dorothy is the recipient of this award.  The Senior’s Choice is the nation’s largest membership network of independent senior care providers. They have a quarterly award called “Caregiver of the Season”. Dorothy won the award and we are very proud of her! Our caregivers are fantastic people and deserve to be recognized as much as possible.”

Andelcare provides peace of mind to all of our clients by ensuring that care is provided by a compassionate, caring, well trained individual. Our employees can be trusted while working in a client’s home.  Our values ensure that we deliver a service that perfectly matches our client’s needs and desires. We know that our personal assistants are the “Cream of the Crop”.  The mission is simple, we want to ensure the best home care possible for seniors – they’ve earned it, they deserve it.  Our focus is on life enrichment rather than just completing the job.

About Andelcare:  www.Andelcare.com
Andelcare is the premier non-medical home care agency in Seattle/Bellevue and surrounding areas.  Our customized, caring service makes it possible for the elderly and other adults to maintain as much independence as possible, by providing the appropriate in home assistance and companionship.

I found this article, and decided to pass it on to you.  It provides extremely helpful information that may help you with your decision to choose home care for an aging loved one in your family.  The original article can be found at http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rebecca_Sharp_Colmer.  As always if you have questions or need help, please visit our website www.andelcare.com.

30 Reasons Your Loved One May Need a Caregiver
By Rebecca Colmer

There are approximately 37 million people over the age of 65 and 5.3 million people over the age of 85. Each year millions of older people start requiring some sort of assistance to carry out their routine daily activities. Family members (family caregivers) provide most of the help.

It is not always easy to know when to intervene. It may seem like your loved one is in a gray area somewhere between competency and incompetence.

Your loved one can have a behavior that is not life threatening but still very serious. Making an assessment is the very step.

Here are some clues that your loved one may need some extra help:
1. Disheveled clothes
2. Stained or dirty clothes The same outfit worn everyday
3. Unkempt hair
4. Poor hygiene
5. Bad breath
6. Body odor
7. Having trouble walking
8. Having trouble sleeping
9. Dangerous driving
10. Extreme clutter in the home
11. Can’t do light housekeeping
12. Items not returned to drawers or cupboards
13. Clothes strewn about or left on floor
14. Medication bottles left open
15. Medications taken out of original containers and mixed up
16. Not much food in house
17. Spoiled or rotten food
18. Unpaid bills
19. Penalties for overdue bills
20. Unopened mail
21. Put on or lost a lot of weight that is unexplained
22. Signs of confusion
23. Signs of forgetfulness
24. Signs of isolation
25. Signs of depression
26. Drastic mood swings
27. Extreme sadness or loneliness
28. Loss of interest in favorite hobby
29. Stopped doing things they used to enjoy like gardening, reading, going to church, seeing friends
30. Can’t cope with everyday stress

Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times recently posted an article that relates to many seniors and aging loved ones.  I thought this might be of interest to you as well!  If you have any questions, please visit us at www.andelcare.com.  We serve the Seattle and Bellevue Washington areas.

“Yet people with multiple health problems — a condition known as multimorbidity — are largely overlooked both in medical research and in the nation’s clinics and hospitals. The default position is to treat complicated patients as collections of malfunctioning body parts rather than as whole human beings. “Very often, there is nobody looking at the big picture or recognizing that what is best for the disease may not be best for the patient,” said Dr. Mary E. Tinetti, a geriatrician at the Yale School of Medicine.

Here’s the link to the whole article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/health/31sick.html?_r=2&th&emc=th

I found this article in the Wall Street Journal and decided to pass it on to all of you. If you are considering hiring home care services, it’s important to know what the family’s legal and financial responsibilities are when it comes to private caregivers. Ultimately, in may be a better option to hire a home care agency.  See link to the Wall Street Journal article below, and as always if you have questions or need help, please visit our website www.andelcare.com.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123742280124379005.html