Home. There's no place like it.

It's a place to feel safe and warm surrounded by the memories that make up a lifetime. Home is the foundation of our lives. A symbol of our families and friends. It's a personal sanctuary of comfort and familiarity. Home is the one place we can truly be ourselves.

Young and old, we all understand the importance of home. And especially as we age, home is where we want to stay. Time passes and calendars change, but inevitably the moment comes when you start to wonder:

Can Mom stay home and stay safe without me? Who will help Dad with his groceries when I'm not around? How can I even start this conversation?

These are all valid concerns that Home Instead Senior Care can help you address. Now you can feel secure knowing your loved one can stay in the place they call home. If you need help today or you are planning for the future, call us at 570-586-3135.

Home Instead Offering Free CEUs

Home Instead Senior Care has teamed up with the American Society on Aging to present a series of six webinars that address pertinent caregiving issues. This family caregiver support webinar series features a variety of topics that will help caregivers navigate the many issues that arise while caring for an older adult.

Continuing education is available at no cost to attendees. This series is the ideal opportunity to earn CEUs while gaining valuable information that will help you in your work with older adults- all without leaving your desk. It's convenient and it's FREE!

Each webinar will be recorded and available for viewing for up to 90 days after the live presentation. Preregistration is required to attend the live webinars. Mark your calendar so you don't miss this great webinar.

OCTOBER 27, 2010: "Recognizing the Signs of Aging and Need for Care"

Register by going to https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/382087790 .

For more information, please call Home Instead Senior Care at 570-586-3135 or visit homeinstead.com/nepa.

Our Solutions for Your Worries

Mom always forgets to take her medications.

Our Solution: Medication Reminders

Home Instead CAREGivers will remind your mom to take the prescribed dosages of her medications at the correct times. No need for you to worry whether she has taken them or not.

Mom isn't cooking. She barely eats and her fridge is either bare or stocked with expired food.

Our Solution: Errands, Meal Preparation, and Clean Up

Home Instead CAREGivers will do grocery shopping for your mom. Our CAREGivers are able to prepare and serve nutritious meals for your loved one. Also, they will prepare meals that are easy for mom to reheat on her own. CAREGivers will also make sure to discard expired or spoiled food. You'll be comforted knowing she has healthy meals easily available to her whenever she's ready to eat.

Mom's house is a mess. My visits are spent cleaning, not spending quality time with her.

Our Solution: Light Housekeeping, Taking Out Garbage, and Laundry

Home Instead CAREGivers will make sure mom's house is kept tidy... and safe. Our CAREGivers will perform duties that your Mom is unable to accomplish. Such duties include vaccuming, dusting, and taking out garbage. Laundry will be washed, dried, folded, and put in its proper place. You won't have to spend any more time doing chores while visiting mom. Your time can be spent enjoying each other's company.

Mom is at home recovering from a broken hip. I'm afraid she'll fall again.

Our Solution: Personal Care

Home Instead CAREGivers will assist your mom with mobility, dressing, tolieting, and showering. Our CAREGivers recieve Personal Care training; they know the proper way to help your mom so she doesn't hurt herself and make sure activities, such as tolieting and showering, can still be discreet. We'll be by your mom's side when you can't be there yourself.

Your parents want to stay in the place they call home. We can help.

She sang you to sleep, taught you how to tie your shoes, made chicken soup when you were sick and cheered you on at the game. You knew she was there for you, no matter what. Now you want to be there for her. Whether you’re caring for your mom, your dad or both parents, we’re here to help. There’s no place like home, and Home Instead Senior Care® was created to help seniors remain safely in the comfort of home and to provide support to the family and friends who love them. Since 2002 our local office has been here to address your concerns and provide the non-medical services you need, whether it’s companionship while you’re at work, assistance with a shower, support with incontinence, help with groceries and errands, a helping hand with household chores or a simple reminder to take medications. With the help of our compassionate CAREGiversSM, you can stop worrying and enjoy your time with your loved one.

Please call us at 1-888-294-6785 to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation or visit homeinstead.com/nepa for more information.

Activities for the Mind, Body, & Soul

Both seniors and adult children agree: staying physically active is a major challenge for older adults, according to research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care network.* But what does that mean to a senior’s everyday life and to family caregivers looking to help and motivate their loved ones?


For many older adults, inactivity is the first step down a road that leads to frailty and decline. Family caregivers as well as seniors want to do everything possible to keep that from happening. The National Institute on Aging says that seniors are more likely to stay active if they:

1. Think they will benefit from activities

2. Participate in activities they enjoy

3. Believe the activities are safe

Keeping an older adult’s mind, body and social life active can prevent or even reverse frailty, experts say. Family caregivers assisting seniors are in a unique position to help them figure out what activities will work best, according to Stephanie Studenski M.D., M.P.H., an authority and researcher of mobility, balance disorders and falls in older adults, who serves as director of clinical research for the University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging.

*The Boomer Project (www.boomerproject.com) completed online interviews with 523 seniors and 1,279 adult caregivers, ages 35-62, with a parent, stepparent or older relative for whom they or someone in their household provides care.

Dr. Studenski says, “A key is simple activities that seniors find pleasurable or enjoyable. If possible, engage frail older individuals in what they’d like to do. And don’t separate the mind, body and soul activities. Seniors need to stay active doing things they find meaningful and helpful to others, even if they can no longer get out of the house.”

The National Institute on Aging Exercise and Physical Activity Guide points out that regular exercise and physical activity are important to the physical and mental health of almost everyone, including older adults. They can help maintain and improve endurance, strength, balance and fitness; help improve the ability to do things; help manage and prevent diseases like diabetes, breast and colon cancer, osteoporosis and heart disease; and help reduce feelings of depression. Being active may also help improve mood and may maintain some aspects of cognitive function, such as the ability to shift quickly between tasks. Emerging data also suggests that engaging in social and productive activities may help maintain well-being.
ON CALL

Many older adults have a telephone that is programmed with the numbers of family and friends. So all they have to do is hit a speed dial button to make that important connection. A senior can attempt to recall all of the numbers in the telephone directory and make a list.

A senior may want to think of a different telephone number each day this week that she might need and memorize that number. At the end of the week, review all the new numbers.

Incorporate this new skill by asking your loved ones to try to remember the ingredients and directions of a favorite recipe. (Your loved one might want to double check the cookbook to see how well she did.) Or think about a hobby he or she hasn’t done for a long time. Suggest they remember the steps and write them down.

CHANGE DIRECTION

If a senior has a regular route through the grocery store or to the mailbox, she may want to try a different route. Research has revealed that such a technique exercises the brain.

Or, if an older adult can’t leave the house, help your senior break a routine. Drink tea in the afternoon instead of coffee in the morning. If he reads the newspaper in the morning and watches television in the afternoon, suggest that he try switching that around. Make a note of what she likes and doesn’t like about the new order.

While she is going about her day, ask your mom to use her opposite hand to open doors and brush her teeth. Or suggest to dad he wear his watch on the opposite wrist. These activities will help their brains re-think daily tasks.


CRAZY 8s

Cards are a great form of socialization that may help improve a senior’s overall sense of well-being. How about a game of “Crazy 8s?”

1. The basic game of Crazy 8s uses a standard 52-card pack.

2. The dealer deals (singly) five cards to each player (seven each if there are only two players).

3. The un-dealt stock is placed face down on the table, and the top card of the stock is turned face up and     placed beside the stock to start the discard pile.

4. Starting with the player to dealer’s left, and continuing clockwise, each player in turn must either play a legal card face up on top of the discard pile, or draw a card from the un-dealt stock.

5. If the top card of the discard pile is not an eight, play any card which matches the rank or suit of the previous card (for example if the top card was the king of hearts you could play any king or any heart).

6. An eight may be played on any card, and the player of the eight must nominate a suit, which must be played next.

7. If an eight is on top of the pile, you may play any card of the suit nominated by the person who played the eight.

The first player who gets rid of all their cards wins, and the other players score penalty points according to the cards they have left in their hands. Remember that meaningful conversation while playing can boost a senior’s outlook as well.

MEMORY LANE

Remembering and memorizing song lyrics is a great way to keep the mind active. How about “Moon River,” the hit made popular in the 1960s by legendary crooner Andy Williams. If you don’t know the tune, Google it, or let your senior teach you how it goes.

Here are a few others from the 1940s, ‘50s and

early ‘60s that your loved ones might remember:

“Chances Are” (Johnny Mathis)

“Blueberry Hill” (Fats Domino)

“When You Wish Upon a Star” (Cliff Edwards)

“You Send Me” (Sam Cooke)

“Wake Up Little Susie” (The Everly Brothers)

“Sentimental Journey” (Doris Day)

“Fly Me to the Moon” (Frank Sinatra)

Ask a senior to remember and sing other songs as he or she is going about the day.

POWER GRIP

Having the strength to grip can impact the everyday lives of seniors. Seniors can do this squeezing exercise with a tennis ball while watching TV:

1. Hold a tennis ball or other small rubber or foam ball in one hand.

2. Slowly squeeze the ball as hard as you can and hold it for 3-5 seconds.

3. Relax the squeeze slowly.

4. Repeat 10 - 15 times.

5. Repeat 10 - 15 times with the other hand.

6. Repeat 10 - 15 times more with each hand.

Encourage your senior to incorporate this skill by opening a jar of pickles or olives. Or suggest playing fetch with the dog before naptime. Keep hands and fingers limber by folding towels or the laundry.

Source: National Institute on Aging

WALKING STRONG

The Leg Curl is designed to help make walking and climbing stairs easier for a senior:

1. Stand behind a sturdy chair, hold on for balance. Lift one leg straight back without bending your knee         or pointing your toes. Breathe in slowly.

2. Breathe out as you slowly bring your heel up toward your buttocks as far as possible.

3. Bend only from your knee, and keep your hips still.The leg you are standing on should be slightly bent.

4. Hold position for 1 second.

5. Breathe in as you slowly lower your foot to the floor.

6. Repeat 10 - 15 times.

7. Repeat 10 - 15 times with other leg.

8. Repeat 10 - 15 more times with each leg.

Source: National Institute on Aging

THIS IS YOUR LIFE

Why not check out those old photo albums while you take a trip down memory lane. Going through the pictures will undoubtedly jog a senior’s memory and prompt a few stories.

While you’re looking through those old pictures, let your senior’s imagination and memories run wild. Do those old photo albums need a face lift?

Tackle one of those projects today. Why not write down all those stories next to the photos. You’ll treasure them in years to come.

START A COLLECTION

Think about items of interest that have been collected through the years. Many seniors have stashed away old coins or stamps or baseball cards. How about costume jewelry from the 1940s or ‘50s?

Perhaps pieces of the collection are scattered around the house. Make it a treasure hunt of sorts.

Next, decide where you would store this collection. Depending on what you have gathered or decided to collect, you may need a lot of room or a special place that will help preserve the items you are collecting. Think about different ways you could display these treasures. If you decide to collect valuable items, such as baseball cards, consider a safe deposit box at the bank.

Or you could begin a collection that a senior would pass down through the family. Need help? Start collecting by visiting garage sales, looking for the items while traveling or researching on the internet.

Fear of Frailty: Lack of Activity Threatens Local Seniors' Independence

Fear of frailty is of paramount concern not only for seniors throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania, but those local adults ages 35 to 62 – many of whom are daughters – worried about the health and safety of their older loved ones. That’s according to results of a recent national survey of seniors and adult children, which is reflected in the lives of local older adults, that reveals staying physically active is a major challenge for seniors.


Lack of activity can lead to a downward spiral of poor health resulting in frailty, a condition that threatens the mind, body and social life of older adults, according to senior care experts.

“We regularly see seniors who are literally trapped in their homes because they are too weak to perform many of the activities they need to remain safe and independent, or to even enjoy life,” said Bob Vielee, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Lackawanna, Monroe, Pike, Wayne, and Wyoming counties. “That’s why staying active is viewed by so many as vital to healthy aging. Differences in perceptions between family caregivers and seniors can make addressing these issues challenging for many families.”

This problem is what prompted Home Instead Senior Care to develop the Get Mom Moving Activity Cards and Web site at www.getmommoving.com, both designed to help keep seniors engaged and fit. These resources provide the tools by which seniors can fight frailty.

A recent national survey conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care® network found that 74 percent of seniors 65 and older say that staying physically active is a major challenge. Adult caregivers see the problem as well: 81 percent of adult caregivers listed staying physically active as a top challenge for seniors. That challenge leads to another worry: 90 percent of seniors in the survey say their greatest fear is loss of independence.

Frailty can be difficult to define, but most know it when they see it, said Stephanie Studenski, M.D., M.P.H., one of the nation’s foremost authorities and researchers of mobility, balance disorders and falls in older adults, and director of clinical research for the University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging. Medical professionals describe frailty as a syndrome of weakness, fatigue and decline in physical activity that may be triggered by hormonal or inflammatory changes or chronic disease states. For some, frailty results from a heart attack or stroke, while another senior might experience falls and weight loss.

Studenski and her colleagues conducted a series of focus groups with health care providers and family caregivers about how they perceive frailty in an effort to better identify the condition. “I think the thing that was most striking to me was that many family members we talked with perceived that an older person is getting more or less frail based more on social and psychological factors rather than physical factors. Doctors, on the other hand, focused on the physical manifestations in an older adult,” she noted.

Dr. Studenski said that frailty can be both prevented and reversed by activity. “One of the core ideas in aging is that there are underlying problems in the body’s self-correcting mechanism. For example, when a young person is bleeding, the body self-corrects by increasing the heart rate. But older adults, because of medication or health problems, may have lost the ability to self-correct by being able to increase their heart rate. Through activity, though, seniors can build both physical and mental reserves that can help their bodies better tolerate problems that come with aging.”

So, in a very real way, family caregivers who can encourage and integrate physical, mental and social activities in seniors’ lives are helping them ward off frailty and stay healthy. And that addresses seniors’ biggest fear of losing their independence as well. “This topic is at the heart of the concerns that we see each day in the lives of seniors and those who care for them,” said Home Instead Senior Care’s Vielee. “Fear of frailty keeps seniors worried about whether they can stay home.”

Look and See Signs of Frailty

In a women’s study released last summer, researchers at Columbia and Johns Hopkins Universities discovered the important role activity plays in the fight against frailty and shed new light on what causes the condition.

Linda P. Fried, M.D., MPH, and scientists found that frailty is the result of a systems failure in older adults, rather than a specific problem, disease or even chronological age. Data from women ages 70-79 led researchers to discover that half of those frail had three or more systems at abnormal levels, compared with 25 percent of the pre-frail and 16 percent of the non-frail population. Among the physiological factors that were assessed included anemia, inflammation and fine motor skills.

Solutions to address frailty including medications and hormone replacement are unlikely to prevent frailty unless they are designed to improve multiple systems, Dr. Fried noted. “This may explain the importance of approaches such as remaining physically active as we get older, since activity improves many aspects of biology and overall health.”

So how do family caregivers know what to look for? Following, from Stephanie Studenski, M.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh geriatrician and researcher, and Home Instead Senior Care, are the signs that a senior might be becoming frail:

• Change. If a senior has always been interested in talking to the neighbors, reading the newspaper or volunteering and is withdrawing from those interests, suggest your loved one see a doctor.

• Inactivity. If your senior suddenly becomes less active, investigate what could be the cause.

• Slowing down. If grandpa always used to have a bounce in his step and now, suddenly, trudges along, that’s a bad sign.

• Loss of appetite and weight.  A senior who always had a healthy appetite and doesn’t any more should be of concern to their loved ones.

• Unsteadiness. Loss of balance comes with aging but an increasing unsteadiness is a sign that something could be wrong.

To find more information on how to keep seniors active, visit http://www.homeinstead.com/ or contact our local Home Instead office at 570-586-3135 for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Home Instead of NEPA and Greater Poconos: To us, it's personal