What Our Caregivers Are Saying...

Some of our CAREGivers share what it means to be a Home Instead Senior Care CAREGiver:

Being a caregiver allows me the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. I really enjoy helping out others and knowing that what I do is important to them.

I really don’t believe there is one special thing that we do for our client. Everything that we do for our clients is important, whether it’s taking them to the grocery store, or accompanying them on doctor visits, or just sitting and listening to their stories. Everything we do is important to our clients.

If I had to describe my job in one word I would have to say that it’s rewarding.

The best part of my job would have to be the smile that I receive when I arrive at a client’s house. It’s just such a friendly welcome that they give you. They’re just so excited to see you. I think that’s the best part of being a caregiver.

I was with a client for almost four years. In the beginning she used to tell her son, “Tell her to go home. I really don’t need help.” The last six months of her life we would sit down on the bed when she’d get ready for bed. She would hold my hand and put her head on my shoulder and say, “I’m so glad that you’re here to be with me. I’ll never be alone.”

I think the most important thing that I do is give them companionship, keep them safe and secure, and make them know that they’re not alone, that they always have someone to be with them and help them.

I think if I was going to describe my job in one word it would have to be rewarding because it’s so powerful to see these people and know that they appreciate what you’re doing and you’re really helping them and keeping them safe and happy.

Craving Companionship

It’s dinnertime, and what your senior parent is likely craving the most is to share a favorite family meal with you.

That’s according to research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care® network, which revealed that lack of companionship is the biggest mealtime challenge for seniors.* The local Home Instead Senior Care office is encouraging family caregivers to dig into the family recipe box to find that favorite dish, and prepare and share a meal with their senior loved one.

Then enter that recipe and the story about what makes the dish so special to your family in the Craving Companionship^SM Recipe Contest between July 15 and September 15, 2011. The contest is part of the Craving Companionship program at www.mealsandcompanionship.com launched to help seniors stay connected socially and eat more nutritiously.

“Many seniors need help planning and preparing nutritious meals,” said Bob Vielee, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office in Clarks Summit. “But that’s only part of the story. So many seniors want to relive a time around the dinner table when they are sharing their lives with the people they love most. Home Instead Senior Care network research reveals that seniors who live alone want good-tasting, nutritious food and stimulating conversation when they share home-cooked meals with family and friends.”

The program offers family caregivers tips and practical advice to encourage companionship and easy healthy meals. For more details about the contest including guidelines and prizes, visit www.mealsandcompanionship.com. Selected recipes and stories will be posted online as well as in the Homemade Memories^SM Cookbook, which will be available for purchase in time for the 2011 holiday season. Proceeds will go to the non-profit Home Instead Senior Care Foundation to benefit North American seniors.

Craving Companionship is geared to helping families support a nutritiously vulnerable population – older adults who live alone. In the United States, approximately 40 percent of the population age 75 and older – 6.7 million people – lives alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Craving Companionship program and contest are incentives for families to find time to help their loved ones prepare the foods they’ve always loved and enjoy those dishes with them. “Who likes to eat alone?  Nobody,” said Sandy Markwood, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a), expert source for the Craving Companionship program.

 “We know from the popular home-delivered meals program, also known as “Meals On Wheels^®,” that companionship is among the most important needs of local seniors. Older adults often look forward to the delivery driver as much as the meal,” Markwood noted. “We share the Home Instead Senior Care mission to help older adults live with confidence at home for as long as possible by providing the support they need.  Because when a senior is isolated, it’s indicative of bigger challenges that person could be facing.”

Two of five seniors who live alone (44 percent) have at least four warning signs of poor nutritional health**. According to Home Instead Senior Care network research, the most common of these warning signs and their incidence rates are:

§  Eating alone most of the time (76 percent)

§  Taking three or more different medications a day (71 percent)

§  Eating few fruits, vegetables or milk products (46 percent)

§  Having an illness/condition that prompted a change in diet (31 percent) 

§  Not always being physically able to shop, cook or feed themselves (25 percent)

Furthermore, the research confirms the value of mealtimes. An overwhelming majority of seniors (85 percent) say that having someone to share their meals makes those times more satisfying for them. In addition, nearly one-half (48 percent) say their mealtimes are more satisfying if they have someone prepare their meals for them. 

Sadly, these same seniors say that several factors can get in the way of their mealtime companionship. The most common obstacles that prevent these seniors from sharing more meals are family/friends don’t have enough time (28 percent) or they live too far away (20 percent).

“That’s no surprise since we know from experience families often lack the time to help their aging parents,” Vielee said. “But 59 percent of seniors who live alone say they eat more nutritiously when family and friends are around. They really enjoy having that connection with someone, whether it’s a family caregiver or a professional caregiver.”

*The Home Instead Senior Care network completed 600 telephone interviews with seniors age 75 and older in the U.S. who live alone in their own homes or apartments. The sampling error is +/-4.0% at a 95% confidence level.   

**The warning signs of poor nutritional health were previously identified and published by the Nutrition Screening Initiative.

Seniors Turn to Prayer for Better Health

The latest on the topic of health comes from the spiritual realm rather than the medical field. Praying for better health dramatically increased among American adults over the past three decades, rising 36 percent between 1999 and 2007, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. The study focused on new data comparing 2002 to 2007 that found senior citizens are by far more likely to turn to prayer in coping with health issues than younger people.

Not surprisingly, too, seniors had a smaller percentage increase in those saying they prayed recently, because their numbers were already so high. One suggestion from the researchers is that a previous study found that as pain becomes more chronic, people are more likely to turn to prayer.

Some key findings:

·         A significantly greater proportion of women prayed compared with men; 51 percent of women reported praying in 2002 and 56 percent in 2007, in contrast with 34 percent and 40 percent, respectively, among men.

·         African-Americans were more likely to pray for their health than Caucasians, with 61 percent of African-Americans reporting having done so in 2002 and 67 percent in 2007, compared with 40 percent and 45 percent for Caucasians during the same periods.

·         People who were married, educated beyond high school or had experienced a change in health for better or worse within the last 12 months were also more likely to pray about health concerns, the study found.

The study did not reveal the type of prayer people used, or which occurred first – prayer or the health issue.

The support of a professional caregiver can be of help as well, particularly if you need assistance around the house. CAREGivers^SM from your local Home Instead Senior Care^® office can help take some of the fear from the issues of aging and growing older by providing a variety of non-medical and companionship services. CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured.  

To learn more about the research, visit http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/05/praying-health.aspx.

Research Says Coffee Drinking Cuts Breast, Prostate Cancers

It appears that your parents are doing at least one good thing for themselves: drinking coffee.  The results of two recent studies reveal a link between lower risks of prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women among coffee drinkers.

Men who regularly drink coffee appear to have a lower risk of developing a lethal form of prostate cancer, according to the new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. What's more, the lower risk was evident among men who drank either regular or decaffeinated coffee.

The researchers chose to study coffee because it contains many beneficial compounds that act as antioxidants, reduce inflammation, and regulate insulin, all of which may influence prostate cancer.

Among the findings:

·         Men who consumed the most coffee (six or more cups daily) had nearly a 20 percent lower risk of developing any form of prostate cancer.

·         The inverse association with coffee was even stronger for aggressive prostate cancer. Men who drank the most coffee had a 60 percent lower risk of developing lethal prostate cancer.

·         The reduction in risk was seen whether the men drank decaffeinated or regular coffee, and does not appear to be due to caffeine.

In another study, researchers from Sweden compared lifestyle factors and coffee consumption between women with breast cancer and age-matched women without. They found that heavy coffee drinkers had a lower incidence of ER–negative breast cancer than women who rarely drank coffee.

Women who drank five cups of coffee a day had a 33 to 57 percent lower risk for this cancer than did women who drank less than a cup a day. Once they had adjusted their data to account for these other factors they found that the protective effect of coffee on breast cancer was only measurable for ER-negative breast cancer.

Encourage your parents to get regular exercise and visit their doctors as scheduled. Remind them to discuss a healthy diet with their doctor or a nutritionist. If they need help around the house, a Home Instead CAREGiver^SM could assist. CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured, and provide a variety of companionship and home helper services.

For more about the studies, go to http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsid.2655/news_detail.asp and http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/bc-crb050911.php.

Medicare Preventive Care Important Resource for Older Adults

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a new report showing that more than 5.5 million Americans with traditional Medicare – nearly one in six people with Medicare – took advantage of one or more of the recommended preventive benefits now available for free, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Those services include, most prominently, mammograms, bone density screenings, and screenings for prostate cancer.

Roughly 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries had at least one chronic condition in 2008, while as many as 38 percent had between two and four chronic conditions, and 7 percent had five or more. They see an average of 14 different doctors and fill an average of 50 prescriptions or prescription refills a year.

In 2011, Medicare began covering an Annual Wellness Visit at no cost to Medicare beneficiaries. As part of that visit, beneficiaries and their physicians can review the patient's health and develop a personalized wellness plan.

Over 780,000 beneficiaries received an Annual Wellness Visit between January 1 and June 10. Additionally, more seniors have used the Welcome to Medicare Exam this year: 66,302 beneficiaries had taken advantage of the benefit by the end of May 2011, compared with 52,654 beneficiaries at the same point in 2010, a 26 percent increase.

A renewed push toward prevention is the latest step toward CMS's fulfillment of its “Three-Part Aim: Better care and better health at lower cost through improvement in health care.”

“Even in your 70s, 80s, or beyond you can reduce your risk of disability and chronic illness if you take care of yourself,” said CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, M.D. With the new free Annual Wellness Visits and free preventive care, people with Medicare have the tools to take common-sense steps to control their health."

Preventing chronic disease among the Medicare population would not only improve their health and quality of life, it could help save an estimated two-thirds of the $2 trillion the U.S. spends treating preventable long-term illness today.

It also may be time for your parents to seek out assistance in their homes. The local Home Instead Senior Care^® office can help by providing CAREGivers^SM who are screened, trained, bonded and insured.

 To learn more about prevention, go to www.Medicare.gov or www.healthcare.gov.

10 Senior Mealtime Challenges

Research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care^® network reveals 10 mealtime challenges for older adults. The following percentages refer to the number of seniors who believe these are challenges for older people who live alone. After each are tips for how to make the most of mealtimes for older adults who live alone, from the Home Instead Senior Care network and Sandy Markwood of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging.

1.      Lack of companionship during mealtimes (62 percent) Tip: If you can’t be there to dine with a loved one regularly, look for alterative options such as friends and neighbors. Check out special activities at churches and senior centers as well as the local Area Agency on Aging and Home Instead Senior Care resources.  

2.      Cooking for one (60 percent) Tip: Freeze most any type of leftovers including sliced and seeded fruit by placing it in plastic containers or freezer bags. Buy your senior healthier low-sodium dinners for one.

3.      Eating nutritious meals (56 percent) Tip: Buy fresh, when possible, or frozen foods including fruits and vegetables. Frequent affordable farmer’s markets in season. Your older loved one may enjoy perusing the racks of produce.  If your senior is able, help plant a garden.

4.      Grocery shopping for one (56 percent) Tip: Transportation can be a big issue for seniors. Contact the local Area Agency on Aging and Home Instead Senior Care business, or encourage your loved one to engage neighborhood support systems when possible.

5.      Eating three meals a day (49 percent) Tip: So many seniors are on prescription medications that must be taken with or without food. Coordinate the food plan with the medication plan. “Remember, Dad, to take this pill when you’re eating oatmeal for breakfast.”

6.      High expense of cooking for one (45 percent) Tip: Encourage shared meals when possible – your older loved one will get the benefit of reduced costs of meals as well as companionship. Check out your local senior center, which often offers affordable meals for older adults, as well as the home-delivered meals program, also known as “Meals On Wheels^®.”

7.      Relying too much on convenience food (43 percent) Tip: Encourage your older adult to meet with a nutritionist or talk with the doctor to learn how to read labels. So many older adults don’t know the foods that are good and bad for them.

8.      Loss of appetite (41 percent) Tip: Help older adults make mealtimes an event, which can make dining more appealing. Pull out a favorite recipe, help that older adult prepare a meal, get out the good dishes and decorate the table with real or artificial flowers.

9.      Eating too much food (38 percent) Tip: The bigger issue is eating too much of the wrong types of food. If you’re helping an older loved one with a shopping list or grocery shopping, encourage healthier choices.

10.  Eating too little food (35 percent) Tip: Plan a trip to a favorite restaurant for a special dish. If lack of food is an ongoing problem, check with your senior’s doctor to learn about supplemental products that could ensure an older adult is getting the proper nutrition.

For more information about the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, go to www.n4a.org. Learn about the Home Instead Senior Care network’s Craving Companionship^SM program at www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

Problems with Sleep Apnea May Date Back to Youth

Many seniors who suffer through sleepless nights in old age may find the root of their problem goes back to a very early age – when they were emotionally abused by their parents.

An analysis of data from 877 adults age 60 years and above found that early parental emotional abuse was associated with a higher number of sleep complaints in old age, according to a research article in an issue of the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences.

It was specifically emotional abuse rather than physical abuse or emotional neglect that was tied to trouble in getting a good night’s sleep.

The data was taken from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. In 1995, approximately 3,500 adults responded to questions about their childhood. A decade later, they were asked follow-up questions about sleep, relationships and emotional distress. The study looked at the answers from those 60 and older.

During the second round of interviews, the participants were asked how often within the previous 30 days they had trouble falling asleep; woke up during the night and had difficulty going back to sleep; woke up too early in the morning and were unable to get back to sleep; and
felt unrested during the day no matter how many hours of sleep they had.

Emotional abuse was assessed by asking participants how often their mother and father insulted or swore at them, sulked or refused to talk to them, stomped out of the room, did or said something to spite them, threatened to hit them, or smashed or knocked something in anger.

Regardless of the root of your mom’s problems, one thing you can do to help put your mother at ease during the night is to encourage her to hire a professional caregiving service. CAREGivers^SM from the local Home Instead Senior Care^® office are screened, trained, bonded and insured, and prepared to assist an older adult any time, day or night. A CAREGiver can give you the confidence that your mother is safe as well.

For more about the study, go to http://psychsocgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/66B/3/307.abstract.