Memorial Day, first called “Decoration Day”, is a day of remembrance for individuals who have perished in our nation’s service. You will discover numerous stories as to its actual origins, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women’s groups in the South were adorning graves previous to the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” by Nella L. Sweet offered the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead” (Source: Duke University’s Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove without doubt the origins of the day. It is much more likely that it had many individual beginnings; each of those towns and every scheduled or spur-of-the-moment meeting of people to honor the war dead in the 1860’s established the normal human need to honor our dead, each added honestly to the expanding movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not vital who was the very first, what is vital is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about compromise; it is about coming together to honor those who gave everything they had.

Traditional observation of Memorial day has diminished over the years.

Many Americans these days have forgotten the importance and customs of Memorial Day.

Since the late 50’s on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing.

In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye’s Heights (the Luminaria Program). And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”

For those providing senior care to veterans, this is a great time to get them involved in a remembrance tradition. Ask them if they would like to place flags or gather with some old friends.

The Moment of Remembrance is a step in the right direction to returning the meaning back to the day. What is needed is a full return to the original day of observance. Set aside one day out of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect and honor those who have given their all in service to their country.

If you would like information about senior care in the Seattle area, contact our caregivers at Andelcare. We are dedicated to provided quality and affordable care to our loved ones. Call 425-283-0408.

We are in the midst of celebrating International Nurses Week, which culminates on May 12 with the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Although our founding mother of modern nursing would be impressed with the health technology of today, I am sure she would be sorely disappointed by the ongoing invisibility of nurses, which she fought so hard to overcome during her lifetime.

Everyone knows someone who is a nurse. In addition to health clinics and hospitals, we work in your children’s schools, at your workplace, in all branches of military service, in your places of worship and as home caregivers. There are more than 3 million registered nurses in the United States alone. But the vast majority of nurses — over 32 million of them — work in other parts of the world.

read more here

For information about how Andelcare can help your family with caregivers in the Bellevue area, call 425-283-0408 today!

Around the United States, registered nurses are being commemorated.

On May 6, 2012, we are joining the American Nurses Association in commemorating Nurses: Advocating, Leading, Caring, as partof National Nurses Week, which is held May 6-12, each year. The goal of the week long observance is to raise awareness of the importance of nursing and assist with educating people about the role nurses perform in meeting the health care goals of the American people.

In tribute to the dedication, and tireless commitment of the nearly 3.1 million registered nurses countrywide to enhance and sustain the health of the US, the American Nurses Association is honored to recognize registered nurses anywhere on this given day for the caregiving and excellent work they provide seven days a week, 365 days a year.

In honor of Nursing: all registered nurses in America are inspired to proudly wear the official ANA “RN” pin or any other pin that distinctly recognizes them as registered nurses, and/or their nurses uniform the week of May 6, 2012.

Nurses: Advocating, Leading, Caring

Quite often identified as an art and a science, nursing is a career that connects with serious persons with distinct likes, skills and passion because of the many options the profession suggests. Nurses are caregivers, work in emergency rooms, school based clinics, and homeless shelters, amongst others. They have many jobs – from staff nurse to educator to nurse practitioner and nurse researcher – and serve all of them with devotion for the career and with a commitment to patient safety.

National Nurses Week History

National Nurses Week commences annually on May 6th and ends on May 12th, Florence Nightingale’s birthday.

These dates enrich organization and make National Nurses Week a nationally recognized event. As of 1998, May 8 was designated as National Student Nurses Day, to be recognized once a year. And as of 2003, National School Nurse Day is celebrated on the Wednesday within National Nurses Week (May 6-12) each year.

The nursing profession has been endorsed by the American Nurses Association (ANA) since 1896.

Each of ANA’s state and territorial nurses associations promotes the nursing profession at the state and regional levels. Each conducts celebrations on these dates to recognize the contributions that nurses and nursing make to the community.

If you know a registered nurse, be sure to thank him or her for their service during National Nurses Week 2012.

Contact Andelcare if you need help from caregivers for your aging loved one in the Seattle area. We are dedicated to providing quality and affordable home care. Call 425-283-0408.

Sometimes the poorest mother leaves her children the richest inheritance -   Ruth Renkes

So Dr. Baez-Page, a general practitioner in Alexandria, Va., moved her parents into her home, converting the dining room and TV nook on the main floor into a bedroom. But the four steps down to the bathroom in the split-level home have proved hazardous. Nobody is happy. “My mother is embarrassed to have to use the commode by her bed at night,” said Dr. Baez-Page. And space for everybody is tight.

The solution? Though many families are often forced to consider nursing homes under these circumstances, the Page family found another option. They ordered a MEDCottage — a prefabricated 12-by-24-foot bedroom-bathroom-kitchenette unit that can be set up as a free-standing structure in their backyard. It’s more than a miniature house — it’s decked out with high-tech monitoring and safety features that rival those of many nursing homes. The floors, for instance: “It’s got special rubber floors, so even if you fall, you’ll be safe,” noted Dr. Baez-Page’s husband, Dr. David Page. Indeed, according to Kenneth Dupin, a minister and the founder of N2Care, the Virginia company that worked with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering to design the MEDCottage, you can drop an egg from 18 inches onto the special flooring without breaking it.

The Australians, who began building simple backyard homes for the elderly in the ’70s, call them granny flats. In the United States, these self-contained units have earned another nickname: granny pods. This month, the Pages will become the first family in the country to take delivery of a high-tech MEDCottage. The cottage is laid out as an open-plan apartment with a kitchen area (equipped with a microwave, small refrigerator and washer-dryer combo), a bed area and a bathroom large enough in which to maneuver a wheelchair. The utilities and plumbing connect to the primary residence.

But the granny pod also brims with high-tech touches. In order to make midnight bathroom visits safer, for instance, a runway mat stretching from the bed to the toilet lights up automatically when you step on it. It turns itself off after 10 minutes. Tracks along the ceiling accommodate a lift or a trapeze hook. Residents who have balance issues can grab onto a hook to provide stability as they move around the cottage. The lift helps those with more serious mobility challenges.   “One of the primary reasons people have to go to nursing homes is that caregivers can’t lift them anymore and get them out of bed and keep them mobile,” Mr. Dupin said. If the cottage resident does fall, she will be visible on a camera system hooked up to the caregiver’s computer in the main house. It’s not exactly Big Brother: The cameras sweep an area 12 inches above the floor, so normally all they transmit are images of feet and ankles.

For those needing more elaborate medical monitoring, the MEDCottage is equipped with a system that tracks blood pressure, glucose, heart rate and blood gases (changes in blood levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide can signal heart failure and other serious conditions), sharing that information with family and physicians. If the resident fails to take medication from a dispenser on time, the system — speaking aloud — reminds the patient and sends a text message to the caregiver.

Zoning rules can create barriers. “Local zoning varies by county, and it’s not necessarily easy to set these pods up,” said Rodney Harrell, housing policy specialist at the AARP Public Policy Institute. Currently about half of the states allow these accessory dwellings for a family member, according to Mr. Dupin. (Several additional states, including New York, are considering legislation explicitly permitting granny pods.) But setting one up is especially easy in Virginia. A state law passed in 2010 permits temporary medical dwellings on a resident’s property, as long as a physician verifies that the patient needs assistance with at least two daily functions — like bathing, eating and dressing — and the unit is removed when there is no longer a need for it (so the pods don’t turn into rental properties).

The cottage costs about $85,000 new; Mr. Dupin’s distributors will buy it back for about $38,000 after 24 months of use. “If you compare it to nursing home costs, which can run $6,000 to $8,000 per month in Virginia, even higher in New York, that’s cheap,” said Mr. Dupin. Of course, unlike nursing homes, granny pods don’t come equipped with 24-hour professional care and three meals a day. Hiring a health care aide may become necessary. But a growing number of elderly people — 88 percent of those over 65 — say they want to live in their own homes, in their own communities, as they age, according to a 2010 AARP survey. The government is catching on to this trend, and to the potential savings. According to Lynn Feinberg, a caregiving specialist at the AARP Public Policy Institute, a provision of the Affordable Care Act going into effect this year will pay for health care delivered in the home instead of in the doctor’s office.

If you can afford them, granny pods have advantages: “Older adults have their own living space and privacy, which has the potential to reduce much of the stress associated with caring for aging parents,” said Bernard A. Steinman, senior research associate at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts. Still, the setup may not work for everybody. “Some families may have dynamics and/or history that make the option undesirable, or the level of care needed by the older adult may exceed what the family is able to provide,” Dr. Steinman said. But for Dr. Baez-Page, the convenience of having her mother close but still living independently is especially important. Her father has died, and her mother will be living alone in the granny pod. “The MEDCottage will be six feet away from our kitchen windows,” she said, adding that she will be able to get to her mother in seconds.

Excerpt from SBA official press release: The U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 2012 Washington State Small Business Person of the Year is Marla Beck, founder and president of Andelcare. Founded in 2003, in just nine years Beck has taken Andelcare from being a startup to a multimillion dollar company employing more than 100.

Andelcare provides companionship, homemaking, personal care, nursing services, hospice care, nurse advocacy, and care management. Andelcare makes it possible for the elderly, the disabled, and adults recovering from surgery and disease to maintain as much independence as possible while continuing to live with dignity in the comfort of their own homes.

From amongst her peers, the SBA has chosen Beck as an exemplary representative of the small business community. “Beck is a business owner who has exhibited staying power. She continues to increase sales and create new jobs,” said Calvin Goings, Assistant Associate Administrator. “As an innovator of products and services, Beck is continually expanding her marketplace. She has demonstrated an outstanding ability to respond to adversity and the struggling economy while, at the same time, continues to contribute to her local community.”

“The SBA knows small business is America’s most powerful engine of opportunity and economic growth and, through our annual awards program, we recognize outstanding small business leaders. Marla Beck is outstanding example of a smart and innovative business leader,” states Nancy Porzio, Seattle SBA District Director.

You can read more about the award and my journey here in the media we have been receiving:

 http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sba-honors-nations-top-small-businesses-142458395.html

https://news.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=31503&TypeID=1

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9332333.html

http://www.bellevuereporter.com/business/145983325.html

Another idea is to preserve the love you have for your mother in the form of a photograph. Photographs are powerful and I use my own mother as Andelcare’s “cover girl”. I have been admiring the sensitive and beautiful work of Nancy Medwell. She creates portraits of healing with mothers and daughters and I have included an example of her work. She can provide a treasured photograph that celebrates your relationship with your loved ones. You can view more of her work at www.nancymedwell.com. We have her coffee table book “Eternal Moments” in our lobby and it would make a great Mother’s Day gift too. 

Drum roll please…. We have more good news and apologize that our newsletter is longer than usual, but…..

The benefits of exercise are not restricted to people who have full mobility. In fact, if injury, disability, illness, or weight problems have limited your mobility, it’s even more important to experience the mood-boosting effects of exercise. While there are many challenges that come with having mobility issues, by adopting a creative approach with help from senior care assistance, you can overcome your physical limitations and find enjoyable ways to exercise.

Limited mobility doesn’t mean you can’t exercise
When you exercise, your body releases endorphins that energize your mood, relieve stress, boost your self-esteem, and trigger an overall sense of well-being. If you’re a regular exerciser currently sidelined with an injury, you’ve probably noticed how inactivity has caused your mood and energy levels to sink. This is understandable: exercise has such a powerful effect on mood it can treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressant medication. However, an injury doesn’t mean your mental and emotional
health is doomed to decline. While some injuries respond best to total rest, most simply require you to reevaluate your exercise routine with help from senior care, your doctor or physical therapist.

If you have a disability, severe weight problem, chronic breathing condition, diabetes, arthritis, or other ongoing illness you may think that your health problems make it impossible for you to exercise effectively, if at all. Or perhaps you’ve become frail with age and are worried about falling or injuring yourself if you try to exercise. The truth is, regardless of your age, current physical condition, and whether you’ve exercised in the past or not, there are plenty of ways to overcome your mobility issues and reap the physical, mental,
and emotional rewards of exercise.

What types of exercise are possible with limited mobility?
It’s important to remember that any type of exercise will offer health benefits. Mobility issues inevitably make some types of exercise easier than others, but no matter your physical situation, you should aim to incorporate three different types of exercise into your routines:

• Cardiovascular exercises that raise your heart rate and increase your endurance. These can include walking, running, cycling, dancing, tennis, swimming, water aerobics, or “aquajogging”. Many people with mobility issues find exercising in water especially beneficial as it supports the body and reduces the risk of muscle or joint discomfort. Even if you’re confined to a chair or wheelchair, it’s still possible to perform cardiovascular exercise.
• Strength training exercises involve using weights or other resistance to build muscle and bone mass, improve balance, and prevent falls. If you have limited mobility in your legs, your focus will be on upper body strength training. Similarly, if you have a shoulder injury, for example, your focus will be more on strength training your legs and abs.
• Flexibility exercises help enhance your range of motion, prevent injury, and reduce pain and stiffness. These may include stretching exercises and yoga. Even if you have limited mobility in your legs, for example, you may still benefit from stretches and flexibility exercises to prevent or delay further muscle atrophy.

read more from helpguide.org

Let Andelcare help your aging loved one with senior care at home. We provide many different levels of home care service to help your loved one stay comfortably at home!

May is Older Americans Month, a terrific time to clearly show our gratitude for the older adults in our neighborhoods and a great time to get the elder receiving senior care at home to get out and get active!

Since 1963, areas nationwide have joined together to celebrate Older Americans Month—a proud tradition that shows our nation’s commitment to acknowledging the influences and accomplishments of older Americans.

The theme for Older Americans Month 2012, “Never Too Old to Play…” motivates older Americans to stay involved, active and involved in their own lives and in their neighborhoods.

Here are some ideas to make Older American’s Month fun and enjoyable:

Physical Activity

Here are some physical activity ideas:

• Wii bowling tournament. Wii bowling is a well-liked activity among older adults, and a smart way to connect elders and young people in an intergenerational lesson of energizing activity that supports fitness and fosters intergenerational connections.
• Miniature golf. Miniature golf is a superb method of light exercise and a good time for people of all ages. For your Day of Play give some thought to an outing to a local miniature golf course. Call beforehand to determine if there is a group rate or senior discount. To make this an intergenerational event even more enjoyable, ask the older adults to bring along a friend from another generation such as a child or grandchild.
• Choreographed fitness. There are quite a few possibilities for fun group exercise activities for older adults. For your Day of Play you may want to organize training in one or more of these exercises in movement:

• Tai chi is a group activity in which participants move slowly and gently in unison. Tai chi improves balance and strength.
• Water aerobics is exactly what it sounds like. The gentle resistance of the water in a pool intensifies this low-impact aerobic workout. And exercising in a pool reduces the risk of injuries from falls.
• Yoga uses stretching and breathing to relax the mind and body, and it’s very good for circulation.
• Dancing improves balance and coordination. Plus, it’s a great creative outlet and way to meet new people.

Even if your senior loved one is receiving senior care at home, You are ‘Never Too Old To Play!’  Take care of the seniors in your life and celebrate National Older American’s Month.

For information about how Andelcare can help your family with senior care in the home, call our caregivers at 425-283-0408.

If you are caring for a senior, whether as the child of an aging parent or as the caregiver providing senior care services, you know the importance of having a variety of activities to share over the course of a day. Seniors, like everyone else, can suffer from boredom, and those who are not mobile, who have health problems are no different. In fact, it is these seniors, who can’t do as much for themselves, who often suffer from boredom the most. Simple indoor gardening is a fun and beneficial activity for your senior that is easy and inexpensive to do, and will provide hours of enjoyment long after the seeds are planted.

Plan the Indoor Garden to be an Enjoyable Activity for the Senior

When planning gardening activities for seniors, it is important to think about the physical ability of the elderly person. Whether he/she is wheelchair bound, or not especially mobile, has arthritis, visual problems, or even some dementia, this is still a great activity. Consider what the person is able to do, and then choose gardening projects that would be easy for them to participate in, and provide the assistance that they will need along the way.

You may also want to consider if the senior has been a gardener, and their interest and enjoyment in gardening. For an elderly person who has experience in planting, you can help them plan a more complicated indoor garden.

Simple Gardening Activities for Senior Citizens

For an elderly person that needs simple projects, don’t get overwhelmed with elaborate plantings. Choose small gardening projects that will be easy to plant and care for, and that won’t require complicated instructions.

read more here

At Andelcare, we recognize that there are many reasons why a loved one may need senior care. From seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease to patients with disabilities to caregivers needing respite care, we are here to provide quality and affordable home care in Bellevue and the surrounding area. Call 425-283-0408 for information!