Home Health Senior Care

Frequently Asked Questions

With 75 Million Baby Boomers entering into their golden years, plenty of questions have been asked:

Alzheimer's Information:

Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's

Q1. What is a Care Manager, and how does a Care Manager help with Senior Home Care ?

Answer:

It may be time to look at a Care Manager. They can find out the answers by performing an in-depth assessment and developing an individualized plan of care. They can also help with crisis intervention, locating alternative housing, supervision of nursing home care, telephone reassurance, compliance with medication, and many other supportive duties. This may help you make the right choices.

Q2. My Dad doesn't think he needs help, but his health is concerning me. What can a Home Care Professional do?

Answer:

Quite often, bringing in a third party, such as a Care Manager, may be useful. They can offer an objective and knowledgeable appraisal of the situation and suggest helpful solutions. This may help avoid disagreement between a parent and adult child.

Q3. I lost my Social Security card. How do I replace it?

Answer:

If you need to replace a lost Social Security card, change the name shown on your card, or request a replacement card, you will need to complete an application to receive a new Social Security card. The application is called Form SS-5 and you can obtain this form on the Internet or by calling 1-800-772-1213. You can also request a new card by visiting your local Social Security office. Here is the website link that explains these options and even allows you to replace your Social Security card online: www.ssa.gov/replace_sscard.html.

Q4. Our mother does not have a lot of financial resources, what are our financing options for Senior care?

Answer:

There are specialists in all areas of geriatric planning, including care managers, financial advisors, legal advisors, fiduciary services, and medicare/medicaid advisors that may be able to offer advice on stretching the financial resources. Knowing that needs are changing and the financial resources are not large, it is wise to plan in advance, before the crisis hits. This means that you start researching senior housing and low-income assistance programs. For example, some senior housing may have HUD income restricted units. These often have long waiting lists. In this type of situation, it could be a good idea to find these locations and add your mother's name to the waiting list. Often there is no charge for adding a senior's name to a senior housing waiting list.

Q5. What is the easiest way to find an assisted living , other than calling each location and getting directions?

Answer:

Actually, an easy way to find any location is through the website www.MapQuest.com. You will need the address, city, and zip, or the street intersection of the location you want to visit. Just go to the website www.MapQuest.com and type in the location information. You will have a choice of having a map or written directions. Always make sure that you take the phone number of the location you are trying to visit along with a cell phone just in case you get lost.

Q6. Mom and Dad can't take care of one another at home. What are our options?

Answer:

There are services available that may allow them to stay at home. Consider homemaker and companion services that offer help with daily living activities, such as bathing, cooking, light housekeeping, errands, shopping, and often other chores around the home. Also Adult Day Care facilities tend to all their social and physical needs during the day, and other arrangements can be made for evenings as mentioned above.

Other alternatives are: different living environments, including assisted living, retirement communities, and continuum of care facilities. The deciding factors may include: level of care needed, preferences of the individuals, and programs to meet their needs and desires. There are also professionals called Care Managers, who specialize in assessing, advising, and implementing plans for change-of-life situations.

Q7. I need to choose a nursing home for my mother. What is the best way to find out the quality of service of an assisted living home?

Answer:

There is a new program called Nursing Home Compare. The campaign is to improve the quality of care in nursing homes by publicly reporting quality measures. Go to the website: www.medicare.gov. The website offers detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in the country. Choosing a nursing home is an important decision. In addition to the information you receive on the website, the best way to make the right choice is to visit the facility and speak with the staff. Stop in unannounced and take in the impressions.

Q8. I know my father is dying. Someone told me about Hospice. How do I know if Hospice is a good option?

Answer:

The goal of Hospice care is to improve the quality of a patient's last days by offering comfort and dignity. Hospice addresses all symptoms of a disease and deals with the emotional, social, and spiritual impact of the disease on the patient and the patient's family. Hospice also offers a variety of bereavement and counseling services before and after the patient's death. Hospice can be a great source of comfort to both the patient and family members.

Q9. Mom fell and the doctor says she can't go back to her large home with stairs and living alone. What should we do? We don't know where to begin.

Answer:

There are a number of options available. There is equipment available that allows seniors mobility in their home, including lifts, ramps, and electric wheelchairs. Also, homemaker and companion services offer help with daily living activities that can help a senior stay in their home. Often a Care Manager, who specializes in assessing, advising, and implementing plans, can offer valuable assistance in the decision process of what to do.

Other alternatives are senior housing options, including assisted living, retirement communities, and continuum of care facilities. The deciding factors may include: level of care needed, preferences of the individuals, and onsite programs to meet the elder's needs and desires.

About Home Health Senior Care

Home Health Senior Care was created to help you locate reliable, reputable senior care services in your area. All of our care service providers are carefully screened before they are added to our network. Here at Home Health Senior Care, we know how tedious and time-consuming it is to locate quality senior care, so please let us help. We can connect youto senior care services anywhere in the US with a simple click of a button.

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Success Through Teamwork in the Home Health Setting

Success Through Teamwork in the Home Health Setting: The Role of Occupational Therapy

Pamela E. Toto, MS, OTR/L, BCG, FAOTA

Gerontology Special Interest Section for the American Occupational Therapy Association

Since 2002 and the introduction of outcome-based quality improvementreports by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, allhome health professionals have recognized a heightened importancein the measurement of change in the daily functioning of patientsfrom onset to discharge of the agency's service. As health careprofessionals whose expertise focuses on safe and meaningfulparticipation in occupations of daily living, occupational therapistscan play a key role on the inter-disciplinary team in a homehealth care agency. This article outlines the potential benefitsof expanding the role of the occupational therapist as an interdisciplinaryteam member and explores challenges and solutions to maximizecollaborative opportunities with the occupational therapy practitionerin home health.

Referenced from: Sage Journals Online

http://hhc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/19/1/31

Preventing Falls in Older Adults

Preventing Falls in Older Adults: A Multifactorial Approach

Marcie Weinstein, PhD, OT/L, FAOTA

College of Health Professions at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland

Japhia Booth, OT/L

As people age they become increasingly at risk for falling withthe potential for serious injury. With the boom of individualsover age 65 enjoying an increasing life expectancy, falls willbe an increasingly important health care issue. Research intofall prevention and treatment emphasizes a multi-factorial approach.This approach involves carrying out a comprehensive assessmentof the whole person and surrounding environment, determiningfactors that create risk, and then treating all of these factors.The approach is effective because it specifically designs anintervention to target each of the factors that puts a personat risk for falling. To maximize that effectiveness, a multidisciplinaryteam is employed that draws on the expertise and specific skillsets of each team member. By making people aware of their increasedrisk for falling and providing strategies for prevention, theteam can help individuals more safely remain in their homesand communities.

Referenced From: Sage Journals Online

http://hhc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/19/1/45

Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's

August 29, 2007

Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's

By DENISE GRADY

IN BRIEF

The number of Alzheimer's patients is expected to increase dramatically in coming years, straining the health care system.
Scientists have not discovered the cause nor devised effective treatments. Even diagnosis is difficult.
In the absence of therapies, attention has turned to teaching the skills necessary to cope with demented patients.
Increasingly caregivers are encouraged to validate the feelings and perceptions of the person with Alzheimer's.

During the YouTube forum with the Democratic presidential candidates in July, the first question about health care came from two middle-age brothers in Iowa, who faced the camera with their elderly mother. Not everybody with Alzheimer's disease has two loving sons to take care of them, they said, adding that a boom in dementia is expected in the next few decades.

"What are you prepared to do to fight this disease now?" they asked.

The politicians mouthed generalities about health care, larded with poignant anecdotes. None of them answered the question about Alzheimer's.

Science hasn't done much better. There is no cure for Alzheimer's and no way to prevent it. Scientists haven't even stopped arguing about whether the gunk that builds up in the Alzheimer's brain is a cause or an effect of the disease. Alzheimer's is roaring down - a train wreck to come - on societies all over the world.

People in this country spend more than a $1 billion a year on prescription drugs marketed to treat it, but for most patients the pills have only marginal effects, if any, on symptoms and do nothing to stop the underlying disease process that eats away at the brain. Pressed for answers, most researchers say no breakthrough is around the corner, and it could easily be a decade or more before anything comes along that makes a real difference for patients.

Meanwhile, the numbers are staggering: 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer's, 1 in 10 over 65 and nearly half of those over 85. Taking care of them costs $100 billion a year, and the number of patients is expected to reach 11 million to 16 million by 2050. Experts say the disease will swamp the health system.

It's already swamping millions of families, who suffer the anguish of seeing a loved one's mind and personality disintegrate, and who struggle with caregiving and try to postpone the wrenching decision about whether they can keep the patient at home as helplessness increases, incontinence sets in and things are only going to get worse.

Drug companies are placing big bets on Alzheimer's. Wyeth, for instance, has 23 separate projects aimed at developing new treatments. Hundreds of theories are under study at other companies large and small. Why not? People with Alzheimer's and their families are so desperate that they will buy any drug that offers even a shred of hope, and many will keep using the drug even if the symptoms don't get better, because they can easily be convinced that the patient would be even worse off without it.

It is telling, maybe a tacit admission of defeat, that a caregiving industry has sprung up around Alzheimer's. Books, conferences and Web sites abound - how to deal with the anger, the wandering, the sleeping all day and staying up all night, the person who asks the same question 15 times in 15 minutes, wants to wear the same blouse every day and no longer recognizes her own children or knows what a toilet is for.

The advice is painfully and ironically reminiscent of the 1960s and '70s, the literal and figurative high point for many of the people who are now coping with demented parents. The theme is, essentially, go with the flow. People with Alzheimer's aren't being stubborn or nasty on purpose; they can't help it. Arguing and correcting will not only not help, but they will ratchet up the hostility level and make things worse. The person with dementia has been transported into a strange, confusing new world and the best other people can do is to try to imagine the view from there and get with the program.

If a patient asks for her mother, for instance, instead of pointing out that her mother has been dead for 40 years, it is better to say something like, "I wish your mother were here, too," and then maybe redirect the conversation to something else, like what's for lunch.

If Dad wants to polish off the duck sauce in a Chinese restaurant like it's a bowl of soup, why not? If Grandma wants to help out by washing the dishes but makes a mess of it, leave her to it and just rewash them later when she's not looking. Pull out old family pictures to give the patient something to talk about. Learn the art of fragmented, irrational conversation and follow the patient's lead instead of trying to control the dialogue.

Basically, just tango on. And hope somebody will do the same for you when your time comes. Unless the big breakthrough happens first.