Most adult children who care for their aging loved ones have never considered hiring home care caregivers. Even when the stress becomes so great that we would rather blow up than actually take care of ourselves. This is all too common and there are many solutions for help!  Enjoy this article from www.seniorslist.com and contact Andelcare for all of your home care needs.

Easing the Elder Care Burden
Written By : Gregory Weldy

For many families, the thought of caring for an aging parent brings stress and strain. After all, we don’t take Elder Care Solution 101 in school, and many of us may have not grown up in a multi-generational household. It doesn’t have to be like that though. Elder Care can and should be a positive experience.

Check out these tips for making caring for an aging parent the kind of experience that changes your life in a positive way.

1. Ask for help – Caring for an aging parent is a significant emotional, physical, and financial burden. Don’t play the martyr by doing everything yourself. Ask your daughter to sacrifice some of her social networking time to spend an hour with Grandma so you can take a long, hot bath.

2. Encourage social activities – A smart elder care solution includes helping your parent find social activities they’ll enjoy. Look in the local paper to find senior activities calendars. Adult day services are another option to consider. These centers allow Dad to stay with caregivers while you work or take a day to go fishing or shopping.

Don’t limit social activities to dropping Grandma off at the senior center, either. Institute a regular family game night, so you, your parent, and other relatives can play board games or put puzzles together. You might also invite him or her to watch your daughter’s volleyball practice.

Social activities are an important part of any caring for aging parent strategy, so don’t let transportation concerns stop your loved one from participating. Look in the city/municipal services section of the phone book to find public transportation for seniors. If those services aren’t available, ask friends and family members to pitch in and taxi Grandpa where he wants to be.

read more from www.seniorslist.com

For information about how Andelcare can help you and your family with home care in Bellevue WA and the surrounding areas, call 888-788-3051.

(ARA) – Trekking through the mall on holiday shopping excursions, shoveling out the driveway and playing in the snow with the kids – every winter, your feet log some long, chilly hours. For people with health issues like diabetes, foot health is especially important when the weather turns cold, as the disease can affect your body’s circulation even more so during the winter months.

More than 26 million Americans have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. If you or a loved one have the disease, it’s important to remain vigilant against complications year-round, and especially during the winter when feet are exposed to cold and remain covered up for extended periods.

The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) offers some podiatrist-approved advice to help those with diabetes maintain good foot health throughout the winter months:

* People with diabetes may experience loss of feeling in the toes and feet, which can be particularly dangerous during the winter. When walking outside, be sure to keep your feet protected from frostbite by wearing warm socks and proper footwear.

* Never walk in the snow in sneakers, dress shoes or sandals. Choose weather appropriate footwear that both fits comfortably and keeps feet dry and warm. You can find a list of footwear that have APMA’s Seal of Acceptance by visiting APMA’s website.

* You probably wouldn’t dream of going barefoot outside in the winter, but you shouldn’t do it inside, either. Always wear shoes and socks when walking outside, and at least wear socks inside. They afford a needed layer of warmth and protection. The type of hosiery you choose is important, too. Look for products made from breathable materials that won’t constrict blood flow, such as CrocsRx footwear. Because moisturizing feet in the dry winter months is also important, foot care products such as AmLactin XL Moisturizing Lotion keep feet and skin healthy while being safe for those with diabetes.

* Wash and inspect your feet daily. Perform your self-exam at the same time every day and watch for changes in skin color, sores, swelling, blisters, peeling, cracking or other signs of problem. When you have diabetes, even a minor wound can become a problem, so don’t wait to see a podiatrist if you develop an injury that’s not healing.

* Stay active. Physical activity aids circulation, which is critical for people with diabetes. Don’t let the cold weather be your excuse for becoming – or staying – sedentary. Get regular exercise, and don’t be afraid to do it outdoors. Just remember to properly protect your feet from moisture and cold while you’re outside.

Keeping feet healthy and pain-free can ensure a happy and healthy winter season. If you’re unsure of how to properly care for your feet during winter, or if you experience foot pain or a wound that won’t heal, see today’s podiatrist immediately.

For information about how Andelcare can help your family with elder care in Bellevue WA, call 888-788-3051. We are an elder care agency that is dedicated to helping the elderly, veterans and the disabled in Bellevue WA and the surrounding communities.

Benefits of Home Care for Your Senior
By Rammoon Carrasiel

As parents and grandparents age into their golden years, there is often some concern about their level of ability to care of themselves and tend to their health, but a reluctance to put them in some kind of nursing or other care home – this is where the option of a home care service can provide the perfect compromise and bring peace of mind to the child or grandchildren looking after the long term care of a senior.

Some of the benefits of home care:

Independence – A home care service allows a senior to remain in the comfort of their home without being placed in a full-time home or group situation. This type of long term care means that the senior’s needs are tended to, but they are still allowed the freedom to manage where they feel competent and can have some control over their home environment.

New Level of Comfort – Home care often gives seniors peace of mind and a new sense of ease in their familiar environment just knowing that there is someone who will be in regular contact with them and who can be depended on for services. This type of non medical senior care of just being checked in on can be a great benefit to the senior’s health and spirits.

Basic Housekeeping – Many home care agencies are willing to provide a basic housekeeping service that a senior under their care may not be able to keep up with, such as vacuuming. These type of care services makes the quality of the home environment better for the elderly senior and impacts their health.

read more here

For information about how the caregivers at Andelcare can help your family with home care in Bellevue WA, call 888-788-3051. We are an elder care agency providing quality and affordable home care in our community.

Alzheimer’s Disease and a Healthy Home-Care Diet
Learn how Alzheimer’s disease changes eating habits and how caregivers can ensure that their loved one follows a healthy diet.
By Chris Iliades, MD

If you are providing home care for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, making sure they’re eating enough healthy foods can be a challenge. “People with Alzheimer’s disease routinely lose weight, and as the disease gets worse, they may forget to eat at all or just lose interest in food. In addition, many people with Alzheimer’s disease are agitated a lot of the time, and this burns a tremendous amount of calories,” says Lisa Gwyther, MSW, the director of the family support program at Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C.

Planning meals can be challenging, especially if you have other family members depending on you. But with some knowledge of what to expect when providing home care, meal times don’t have to be a chore every single day.

Here is some expert advice for providing a nourishing, healthy diet for someone living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Think About Nutrition
Gina Freed MS, RN, a nurse-clinician at the University of Chicago’s Memory Center, says, “I try to emphasize the fact that foods that are good for the heart (low in cholesterol, fat, and salt) are also good for the brain.” Freed recommends letting people with Alzheimer’s disease eat with their fingers if utensils confuse them. She cautions that as Alzheimer’s disease gets worse, the person may have trouble chewing and swallowing. “Thicker liquids seem to be swallowed better than thin liquids. Nutritional supplements like Ensure or Carnation Instant Breakfast mixed with milk are also good as supplements if you suspect that your loved one is not consuming a well-balanced diet,” she says.

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If you would like more information about Home Care in Bellevue WA or the surrounding area, contact the caregivers at Andelcare. We provide quality and affordable home care to seniors, veterans and disabled loved ones in our community. Call 888-788-3051.

September is Healthy Aging® Month
“because there’s lots of living left to do…”

Healthy Aging® Month is an annual observance month designed to focus national attention on the positive aspects of growing older.

The main objective of Healthy Aging® Month for 2011 is to encourage local level Healthy Aging® events that promote taking personal responsibility for one’s health… be it physically, socially, mentally or financially.

Are you looking for ways to celebrate Healthy Aging® Month?

read more here

For more information about receiving care for your loved one at home. Contact the caregivers at Andelcare. We can help your family with all of your care needs. We are a home care agency providing quality and affordable home care in Bellevue and the surrounding communities. Call 888-788-3051.

Caregivers In Need of Some Care
By Michelle Singletary

WASHINGTON – America is facing a crisis that will make the federal budget deficit look like a simple bank overdraft fee.

If we don’t figure out how to provide financial support to the millions of family members taking care of seniors with chronic conditions or disabilities, we will have caregivers so overwhelmed that they will be forced to stop helping their elderly relatives. That cost of care will then transfer to the government, and this would mean astronomically higher health care costs or more people being placed in nursing homes, according to a new report from AARP’s Public Policy Institute.

In 2009, about 42.1 million family caregivers provided assistance to an adult with limitations in daily activities such as going to the bathroom, preparing meals or making it to a doctor’s appointment. The AARP report estimates the economic value of family caregiving at $450 billion in 2009, based on those 42.1 million caregivers age 18 or older providing an average of 18.4 hours of care per week at an average value of $11.16 per hour.

Just imagine if much of this voluntary care were gone.

Historically, providing care to the elderly wasn’t such a dire public policy issue.

People didn’t live as long as they do now. But what happens when the need for long-term care goes on for years or decades?

The long-term care needs of many of our elderly are straining families, just as family structures have changed and during one of the worst economies in decades.

There are more women in the workforce, making it harder for them to provide care.

Almost two-thirds of family caregivers are female. More than eight in 10 care for a relative or friend age 50 or older.

continue reading here

The caregivers at Andelcare are available to talk with you and your family about all of your live-in home care needs. Andelcare is a home care agency providing quality and affordable home care in Seattle and the surrounding areas. Call 888-788-3051 for more information.
 

Medications May Be Damaged By Storage Mistakes
By WALECIA KONRAD

What does extreme heat do to medications? I found out while we were sweating out the recent heat wave in a lake cabin in New Hampshire and my 10-year-old son’s allergies kicked up.

I gave him a dose of over-the-counter medicine that usually brings quick relief. But this time the drug had no effect. The same thing happened the next day, and the next.

When I returned home, I asked a pharmacist about it. Was my son becoming immune to this particular medicine? Were his allergies getting worse?

The pharmacist asked where I had stored his pills as the temperatures soared. On the bathroom shelf in the cabin, I said. And on the sweltering six-hour drive to the lake? The medicine was in my suitcase in the trunk of the car.

And that’s when I learned this: No drug should be exposed to temperatures higher than 86 degrees. Some days the bathroom at our vacation house and certainly the trunk of the car were well above that mark.

Extreme temperatures can have a big effect on both prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers recommend most of their products be stored at a controlled room temperature of 68 to 77 degrees, said Skye McKennon, clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy. In truth, that is the range in which manufacturers guarantee product integrity. Anywhere from 58 to 86 degrees is still fine, she said.

“During heat waves and cold spells, storage locations can go above or below those ranges, causing medicines to physically change, lose potency or even threaten your health,” McKennon said.

For patients with such chronic illnesses as diabetes or heart disease, a damaged dose of a crucial medicine, like insulin or nitroglycerin, can be life-threatening. But even common medicines can break down with potentially harmful effects, and you can’t always tell by looking at the pill or liquid that a problem has occurred, said Janet Engle, a pharmacist and past president of the American Pharmacists Association.

read more from the seattletimes.nwsource.com

Andelcare caregivers are available to answer all of your home care questions. We are an elder care agency providing live in home care in Seattle WA and the surrounding areas. Call us at 888-788-3051.

Home Care Seattle WA: How to Help Someone With Dementia Make Restaurant Choices

By Paula Spencer Scott, Caring.com senior editor

Does the person you’re caring for hesitate or seem perplexed by a long menu?

Difficulty making choices is common in early- and mid-stage dementia. What was once simple has become more challenging due to a combination of memory loss, loss of judgment and the ability to process options, and fear of saying something wrong.

Some ways to help:

    Don’t mistake respectfulness for helping. It might seem kind to wait patiently while your companion orders, but this can actually heighten his or her anxiety and confusion. 

   Instead, gently preempt a choice by stepping in with a suggestion: “Look, today’s special is your favorite: salmon.” Or, “I’m having salmon. You, too?”

    Alternately, narrow the many options on the menu to just two: “Which sounds better to you: salmon or chicken?”

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For more information about how the caregivers at Andelcare can help your family with your home care needs, call 888-788-3051. We are a home care agency providing quality and affordable live in home care in Seattle and the surrounding areas.

Family Caregivers Part I: “I Feel Good That I’m Able To Help”
Written by Melissa Galvez

What will happen to Mom when she can’t care for herself? Every year, millions of Americans join the ranks of family caregivers to look after an aging parent, spouse or other relative.

They take on several unpaid jobs they never applied for — chauffeur, financial adviser, personal care attendant, nurse. They spend hours in relatives’ homes and at doctors’ offices. Caregivers often report real satisfaction in knowing that Dad is eating right or that Grandma has her medicine. But they also report high levels of stress, financial difficulties and health problems.

In this special series from News21, five families describe the worries and rewards of long-term care.

Silvia Ortiz, Houston, Texas
Silvia Ortiz spends her days ensuring that her mother has eaten properly and that her father has taken a walk. Ortiz lives in Houston’s Greater Fifth Ward, down the street from her parents, Maria Guadalupe Perez, 68, and Gregorio Perez, 67.  Her mother has diabetes, arthritis and depression; her father has had knee surgery and heart problems.

The Perez family works with a case manager from the senior program at Neighborhood Centers Inc. Ortiz, who’s 41, has held a paying job for just three years, choosing instead to focus on her children — now all attending or graduated from college — and her parents.

Though she is relatively young for the role, Ortiz is hardly alone. Estimates of the number of caregivers in America vary widely, but AARP has calculated that at any point in time, 42.1 million Americans provide care for an adult with “limitations in daily activities.” That care can include anything from driving and paying bills to helping someone out of bed or to the bathroom.

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For more information about receiving care for your loved one at home. Contact the caregivers at Andelcare. We can help your family with all of your care needs. We are a home care agency providing quality and affordable live in home care in Seattle WA and the surrounding communities. Call 888-788-3051.

Keeping Seniors Safe: Know the Signs of Dehydration in the Elderly

While summer means pools, vacation, and tanning for most, it can also mean overheating and dehydration for others. Summer can be a dangerous season for all ages, but it can be especially dangerous, even fatal, for the elderly. One of the most common, yet deadly, concerns for seniors can be attributed to dehydration. Dehydration is the result of insufficient liquid in the body for proper functioning. Dehydration is a larger concern in the summer due to hot temperatures, which consequently leads to more sweating. If an adequate amount of water is not consumed to balance the water lost in perspiration, dehydration can set in.

In seniors, dehydration is much more common than younger people. The older you are, the less fluid that is contained in the body. Elder people have as much as 10% less liquid than that of a healthy adult. There are several symptoms and side-effects of dehydration that can be taken into consideration if you suspect it in an older family member or friend. Signs of dehydration include, but are not limited to: confusion, weakness, constipation, dizziness, fever, increased heart rate, weight loss, less urine, and disorientation. In more severe and progressed cases, one may experience sunken eyes, severe diarrhea, severe fever, and fainting spells. The sooner you suspect dehydration, the better. If these symptoms are visible and you suspect dehydration, it would probably be in your best interest to consult a doctor or other qualified physician. The sooner dehydration has been brought to one’s attention, the easier it is to manage and cure. If dehydration is permitted to progress in an older patient, there is a much higher chance of further medical complications including kidney failure, electrolyte imbalances, heart diseases, shock, coma, and even death.

Fortunately, dehydration is a preventable sickness that no one should fall to if the correct measures are taken. Be sure to drink plenty of water and other nutritious drinks that are high in electrolytes, sodium, and potassium. Even consuming foods that are high potassium are encouraged to be eaten, as these provide extra electrolytes for the body. In the summer, when dehydration becomes more of a concern, it is recommended to increase the amount of fluid intake even more. While the heat and sun can help lead to dehydration, it is also your own personal responsibility to make sure you and/or the people the around you maintaining healthy levels of liquid intake.

As your parents, friends, or other family grow older, it is a great idea to consider hiring home care or other professional help. If nursing homes are out of the question, it is certainly a good idea to find someone that can check on a loved older person daily. You yourself can provide daily checkups and visits to the household. If this is not an available option, there are definitely other people to turn. Professional home care is a service that is certainly on the rise now that more and more people from the “Baby Boomers” era are growing old and handicapped. While you may not need to hire someone for constant care, checkups are certainly a great idea and can help prevent accidents and other ailments, like dehydration. In order to prevent dehydration, have someone stop by daily to record weight and fluid intake. Daily monitoring can detect miscues in weight and BMI, which can lead to earlier detection of dehydration. Give the person providing the home care a schedule of fluid intakes at a given time interval. Dehydration is a preventable sickness, and should never have to threaten the lives of family, friends, and other elderly people.

For more information about how the caregivers at Andelcare can help your family with your home care needs, call 888-788-3051. We are a home care agency providing quality and affordable live in home care in Seattle WA and the surrounding communities.