The Importance of Relief (respite) Care

Help from professional caregivers at home offers critical support to families dealing with Alzheimer’s disease. Families need to take advantage of caregiver support services so they can continue to provide the care that is needed.

  

• Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease can be a 24/7 job.  Family members need to make sure to take care of their own needs so they can continue to help those that they love.

• Despite the intensity of caregiver duties, only 12 percent of families have used in-home care service.  However, the need is greater

• For most families, in-home care resources may be unavailable, unaffordable or difficult to identify.[1]  Hilarity for Charity and Home Instead want to make sure that as many families as possible can experience the benefits of this support service and have created the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Relief Grant Program, home care for families brought to you by Home Instead Senior Care and Hilarity for Charity 

• Caregiver support has been shown to improve family functioning, improve satisfaction with life, enhance the capacity to cope with stress, and improve attitudes toward the family member in need.

• Seventy-two percent of the family caregivers who engage in-home care rated their relationships with the seniors as “good” or “very good,” while only 58 percent of those whose seniors were not using such services did so.[2]

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[1] National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP (2009), “Caregiving in the U.S” (http://www.caregiving.org/data/Caregiving_in_the_US_2009_full_report.pdf)

[2] Home Instead Senior Care Paid In-Home Care (http://www.homeinstead.com/Documents/BENEFITTING%20THOSE%20WITH%20ALZ%20AND%20DEMENTIA.pdf)

Study Finds It’s Possible to Reduce Dementia Risk

Many people fear Alzheimer’s disease, and rightfully so. This disease comes with many difficult symptoms and there doesn’t seem to be any cure on the horizon. But that doesn’t mean it’s all bad news either.

Even though Alzheimer’s disease is the affliction feared most by a majority of seniors, a new study in the U.K. finds a surprisingly large number of seniors are unaware that it is possible to lower their dementia risk.

Despite growing evidence that simple lifestyle factors can improve the chances of avoiding dementia, a YouGov poll commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Society of the United Kingdom found that 22 percent of the general public are unaware of this and could be putting themselves at risk.

Check out these five simple steps to potentially help reduce the risk of dementia, from the Alzheimer’s Society:

Exercise - There's more evidence that regular exercise will prevent dementia than for any other measure we might take. Walking regularly is an excellent way of keeping active.

Eat Mediterranean food – Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, fish, olive oil and nuts, a little red wine and not much meat or dairy.

Manage other health conditions – Other conditions like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure both increase your risk of developing dementia, so get these checked and follow medical advice to keep them under control.

Avoid smoking – It significantly increases your risk of developing dementia, most likely because it damages blood vessels and reduces the amount of blood that reaches the brain.

Use it or lose it – Scientists believe that frequently challenging your brain with new things is the key. For example taking up a new hobby, learning a language or even walking an unfamiliar route.

 
 For additional details about the study, visit http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/press_article.php?pressReleaseID=1165.

Daily Fruit Decreases Heart Disease and Death, Research Says

Eating fruit every day could reduce risk of cardiovascular disease by 25 to 40 percent, and the more fruit you eat the more this risk declines, suggests the results of a study of almost half a million people presented recently to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

Dr. Huaidong Du from Oxford, U.K., presented the findings from the seven-year follow-up study of nearly 0.5 million people in the China Kadoorie Biobank at the society meeting in Barcelona, Spain. The researchers also found that people who consumed fruit more often had significantly lower blood pressure (BP).

In a separate analysis, the researchers examined the association of fruit consumption with total mortality and cardiovascular mortality in more than 61,000 patients from the China Kadoorie Biobank who had cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure. They found that compared with those who never ate fruit, daily consumers of fruit cut their overall risk of death by 32 percent.

For additional details about the China Kadoorie Biobank study, visit http://www.ckbiobank.org/site/

Nearly Half of U.S. Seniors Need or Receive Help at Home

Nearly half of seniors in the U.S. – 18 million people – have difficulty with daily activities or get help managing them, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Michigan and the Urban Institute analyzed data from a national sample of older adults drawn from Medicare enrollment files. In all, 8,245 people were included in the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study.

“Although 51 percent reported having no difficulty in the previous month, 29 percent received help taking care of themselves or their households or getting around,” said U-M researcher Vicki Freedman, co-author of the report with the Urban Institute's Brenda Spillman.“And another 20 percent said they had difficulty carrying out these activities on their own. Among those receiving help, one in four lived in either a supportive care setting (15 percent) or a nursing home (10 percent).

Nearly all older adults had at least one potential informal care network member – family or household member, or close friend – and the average network size was four people. Older adults who lived in the community reported receiving an average of 164 hours of care a month from informal caregivers – more than five hours a day, on average. Older adults living in supportive care settings reported nearly 50 hours of informal care per month.

About 70 percent of those getting help received assistance from family, friends and other unpaid caregivers, while about 30 percent received paid care.

Visit http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/22363-almost-half-of-older-adults-have-care-needs for more information about the study.