Please join our team as we walk to support the Alzheimer’s Association on Saturday, November 12 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Registration begins at 9am and is followed by a ceremony at 10:45am. We will begin our walk at 11am. It is important to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support, and research.
Tag: dementia
Is it time to find care for your loved one?
Many families struggle to make decisions about the best living situation and care for their loved one. There are many signs that indicate your loved one might benefit from home care services:
- Confusion and uncertainty when performing once familiar tasks;
- Unexplained weight loss;
- Spoiled food in the fridge;
- Difficulty standing and walking;
- Forgetfulness and loss of interest in favorite activities;
- Neglected personal hygiene;
- Inability to keep up with house maintenance;
- Missed appointments, unpaid bills, and late payment notices.
Seniors who live alone often experience isolation and poor nutrition, contributing to depression, cognitive decline, and a lower quality of life. It may be time to consider home care if you find your loved one with some of these symptoms.
In-Home Care Offers Independence
Many individuals, if given the choice, would choose to remain in the comfort of their own home for as long as possible. In-home care is an option for providing support, without moving them from their current residence. A plan of care can be tailored to meet the likes and needs of your loved one. This is the superior option to scheduled activities and regimented care that is often provided in assisted living facilities. At home, your loved one can set their own schedule and find comfort in the familiarity of their surroundings.
NursePartners works with each family to enable safety, comfortability, and happiness through home care services. As part of this process, we match your loved one’s needs to a select group of compassionate carepartners.
Our carepartners are dedicated to improving our clients’ quality of life. Our approach to Alzheimer’s and dementia care is based on The GEMS™: Brain Change Model created by Teepa Snow.
The GEMS™: Brain Change Model
NursePartners recognizes Teepa’s positive approach to care as an effective method to provide care for loved ones affected by dementia. This approach categorizes dementia stages with six different gemstones, each defined by unique characteristics. Understanding each stage of the process allows carepartners to gain a deeper insight into what your loved one is experiencing.
After an in-home assessment, we work to create a plan of care to help your loved one live comfortably and safely. By keeping a record of everything from mood behaviors, health complications, to daily activities, we can begin to understand what factors contribute to positive moods and overall happiness.
In-home care offers independence, and NursePartners delivers with flexible, customized solutions. Ready to learn more? Our care team would love to offer a complimentary in-home care consultation. Contact us today.
Developing Trust with Your Doctor
As family members and caretakers, we play a large role in overseeing the medical needs of our loved ones. Your relationship with medical professionals is based on trust, communication and understanding. The stronger the patient-physician relationship, the more value it provides. It’s been shown that individuals who establish relationships with their doctors tend to have better health outcomes. Building a plan of care that includes their doctor enables you to help meet the medical needs of your loved one throughout their later years.
Here’s how you can establish a relationship and keep it on track:
- Prepare for your appointment.
Bring all current medications, along with notes and facts about the state of health of your loved one. Write down any recent health problems or concerns that you have beforehand, so you make sure to bring them up.
- Choose a relationship style.
Whether it’s a new doctor that you’re meeting for the first time or one that you’ve had a relationship with for a while, state clearly at the beginning of your visit that you want to be involved as a partner in the decision-making process.
- Provide some background.
Share your point of view. How is a new technique working? You should let your doctor know either way. If your loved one has a complicated medical history, or if you are meeting with a new doctor, bring a summary of recent tests, treatments and health problems so the doctor understands quickly.
- Make sure you leave with the information you need.
You need to leave the doctor’s appointment with the information to provide care. Record your visit, or bring someone to take notes. There’s often a lot of information to absorb during a doctor’s appointment, particularly if you’re facing a major, frightening health challenge. You may be distracted by trying to take in a diagnosis, so it can be helpful to take notes of everything discussed.
- Ask how to reach your doctor after hours.
It’s important to ask your doctor how to keep in touch in the event of a medical emergency that happens outside of regular hours. Every doctor will have a different preference, so find out which method works best. If you know the system for getting in touch before a crisis.
Our carepartners are dedicated to improving quality of life. NursePartners works diligently to ensure carepartners fill their time together with positive interactions. By keeping a record of everything from mood behaviors to daily activities, we can begin to understand which factors contribute to positive moods and overall happiness. Our carepartners are trained in the Positive Approach to Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care (GEMS™) and work with families to enable safety, comfortability, and happiness through home-care services.
If your loved one need home care assistance or relief, our team would love to help.
NursePartners can alleviate the need for informal caregiving services
Caring for an aging relative on your own is no easy task. Eventually you will need a team of individuals for guidance and support.
NursePartners provides care for those who can no longer care for themselves. We relieve families from the chore of providing informal caregiving services. Our approaches to care allow family members to maintain enjoyable relationships with their loved ones.
Our early intervention prevents you from “learning on the job” as you try to anticipate the next development in dementia. The techniques that worked well last week will probably not work well this week. Unfortunately, informal caregivers lack the resources they need to provide adequate care to the loved ones. In consequence, the informal caregiver becomes frustrated and feels unfulfilled.
We prefer that you maximize on the enjoyable moments with your loved one, and let us handle the rest. The longer you spend as informal caregiver, the less time you have to advance your career and build your own retirement security.
Here is some data from AARP and MetLife that show you some the consequences of the decision to become the informal caregiver for an aging relative:
Why reinvent the wheel? Normally care begins by doing the laundry, preparing meals, and assisting with hygiene. However, the progressive nature of the disease will soon demand that you become the first caregiver. By the end, you will find yourself surrounded by a team of 5 to 10 other caregivers.
Providing care independently is a massive undertaking. The first step should be to establish a living estate or business. You will also be responsible for hiring, firing, and managing staff daily operations. Remember to also mitigate symptoms of depression, fatigue and deteriorating health, not just for the care recipient, but for other caregivers and yourself!
Don’t forget to seek a Workers’ Compensation policy, establish payroll to properly submit taxes, and keep meticulous bookkeeping. If your loved one has a long-term care policy, you will need to submit flawless reimbursement requests or face rejection. In your free time you will be coordinating all medical appointments, pharmacy prescriptions, and speaking to other vendors.
Our business is built to account for these needs. We provide the expertise and the employees to help you through this difficult period. We want you enjoy the best moments with your loved ones, while we help you through the worst. You and the care recipient are our clients.
Do not underestimate the advantage of introducing us to a care recipient earlier on in the diagnosis. Trust needs to be established and we want to connect before providing care. When our introduction is delayed, so too is our ability to make this meaningful connection.
How to connect with your dad on Father’s Day
Do you need to connect with your father this weekend? You still can when they have dementia.
Alzheimer’s, or another form of dementia, does not need to signal the end of your relationship. You can still find ways to connect with your father.
As you celebrate Father’s Day, here are some tips:
Talk less, do more: A prolonged conversation may just confuse your father. He may feel frustrated because he cannot hold his end of the dialogue. Try to engage him in activities instead. Ensure that your father in genuinely interested. If he is having difficulty understanding the activity, demonstrate how to do it or simplify the activity.
Enter his world. Choose the time when he feels best: Someone living with dementia lives in a small world. They find comfort in routine. They usually perform best during certain parts of the day. Plan to spend time with your father during his best moments.
Choose a comfortable environment: After you find the right activity and meet at the appropriate time, ensure that you are also in a comfortable environment. Do not let loud noises, bright lights, or other distractions divert attention away from your time together.
Put your agenda away, just enjoy the moments together: After carefully planning your day, do not be upset if it does not work out as planned! Sometimes your father might act in an unexpected way. Enter his world and try to make the best of that situation. Do not underestimate the importance of a hug, sharing a meal, or a walk around the park.
We use Teepa Snow’s positive physical approach™ to connect before providing care to our clients. As dementia progresses, it is important to focus on what an individual can still do, instead of focusing on what they cannot. Enjoy Father’s Day!
The Healing Power of Music
Music is one of the ways we communicate
Research is confirming an idea long held by those who work and care for dementia patients: music has the power to shift mood, manage stress, stimulate positive interactions, facilitate cognitive function and coordinate motor movements. It can provide a way to connect, even after verbal communication has become difficult.
This happens because rhythmic and other responses require little cognitive and mental processing. They are influenced by the motor center of the brain that responds directly to auditory rhythmic cues. A person’s ability to engage in music, particularly playing and singing, remains intact late into the disease process because these activities do not mandate cognitive functioning for success.
Many individuals with Alzheimer’s can learn to move better, remember more, and even regain speech through listening and playing music. By pairing it with everyday activities, your loved one can develop a routine that helps them recall memory, as well as working to improve cognitive ability over time.
Incorporating music into a treatment plan:
- Use familiar songs to help soothe and take the edge off difficult moments. Make sure that the songs you select do not bring up bad memories and are not connected to sad events of the past.
- Identify music that is familiar and enjoyable to your loved one. If possible, let them choose the music.
- Compile a playlist of favorite recordings, which can be used for memory recall. Singing a familiar song together can offer a welcome distraction and help a person “snap out” of a repetitive action or behavior.
- Encourage your loved one to move along to the music to develop a routine (clapping, dancing, playing).
- Choose a source of music that isn’t interrupted by commercials, which can cause confusion (iTunes, YouTube channels, playlist building apps).
- Song sheets or a karaoke player can allow your loved one to follow along and sing to old-time favorites.
- You can use music to influence your loved one’s mood. A softer piece of music can help create a calm environment while a more upbeat song can uplift spirits.
- Playing animated, happy songs in the morning can help with getting your loved one started.
