Golden Heart Senior Care is proud to announce that Cynthia F. is our Employee of the Month for June 2022.
Cynthia is from Birmingham, Alabama, she is married with three children, 12 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. Cynthia has been a caregiver ever since age of 17. She enjoys her job because of all the wonderful people she gets to care for and the families she gets to meet.
Her personal quote is ”Jesus is love and love is the greatest gift of all.”
Thank you Cynthia for having a “Golden Heart” and being our June 2022 Employee of the Month!!
People that have a frontotemporal disorder often have a range of symptoms. This can include difficulty walking, trouble communicating, emotional issues, and unusual behaviors. Family caregivers are often faced with having to deal with day-to-day care, along with handling the medical needs of their elderly loved one. They are also in charge of managing social and family relationships for their elderly loved one, too. In-home care can help lessen the burden for family caregivers who are overwhelmed.
If you are caring for your elderly loved one who has this disorder, there is some care information that you might want to know.
Recognize the Illness
One of the things that you need to do is to recognize the illness instead of just the behaviors. By recognizing what is going on and not taking things so personally, that can help a great deal in the way that everything is affecting you.
Treating Language Issues
If your elderly loved one has this type of disorder, they are going to experience language problems. When this happens, it is important that you, other family caregivers, and in-home care providers speak clearly and slowly. You should also use simple sentences, ask for clarification if something needs to be repeated, and wait for a response. You should not push your elderly loved one to answer you quicker as that can cause more frustration on both ends.
Manage Movement Issues
FTD causes issues with movement, too. This can affect your elderly loved one’s swallowing, walking, and balancing. You may need to hire in-home care providers to help them get around. You can also get your elderly loved one occupational and physical therapy.
Find the Best Treatments
If you are a family caregiver for someone with frontotemporal disorder, it would be a good idea to look into the best treatments for them. That way, you have more information when you get ready to speak with their doctor. You will also be able to better understand which treatments your elderly loved one is getting if you do the research on the treatment options.
Get Yourself Support
Another thing that you should do if your elderly loved one has FTD is to get yourself support. It can be extremely difficult having to deal with everything you are facing with your elderly loved one. You may feel scared, overwhelmed, alone, and irritated. These are just a few of the many different things that family caregivers often feel when their loved one has FTD. If you join a support group, however, that can help to reduce some of these negative feelings.
How In-Home Care Can Help
This is some of the most important care information for those with a frontotemporal disorder. If your elderly loved one has FTD, be sure to work on researching their condition. You should also talk to their doctor and consider in-home care providers to help with their care. If you do these things, along with following all the other tips mentioned here today, you can provide the best care possible for your elderly loved one.
If you are considering in-home care in Summerlin, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.
Father’s Day falls on June 19th this year. What are you planning to do or give him? Here are some of the best gifts for the father who has everything. You could even gift him with the many benefits of senior home care.
A Gaming System
Your dad loves to fish, but he can’t walk up and down streams, shores, or through the woods by himself. You’re not around enough to take him fishing. Fulfill his passion for fishing when you’re not round by investing in a gaming system.
There are fishing games with controllers that vibrate and jerk around when the virtual fish is on the line. The Nintendo Switch has a fishing pole controller. It’s not exactly the same as fishing, but it’s a good way for him to engage in his favorite activity when no one is available to take him fishing.
Your dad could also play golf on his gaming system. If he’s into golf, he can play it from the comfort of his living room when you’re not around.
A Doorbell Camera
How about a doorbell camera? If someone is at the door, your dad and you can view who it is and talk to them without opening the door. It adds a layer of protection against scammers and door-to-door sales.
A Chromebook or Laptop
How about a small laptop that doesn’t need virus protection updates? A Chromebook protects against viruses in a different way, so your dad doesn’t have to run antivirus all the time. If he wants a laptop for communicating with his family via chat or video chat, this is a good option.
If he’s able to update and run security suite software, any laptop will work. It comes down to how technologically minded he is.
A Smart Speaker
Does your dad have a smart speaker? It is a handy device for older adults as it can read the news and weather out loud to him. It can help him turn on and off lights if you pair it with the right light bulbs. It can also play music, find his favorite show or movie, and play games.
A Pet
If your dad is lacking companionship and has talked about getting a pet, consider taking him to an animal rescue this Father’s Day. A cat can be lower maintenance than a dog, though it will still require some care. If he’s not up for a lot of grooming and maintenance of his pet, a fish tank may be a better option.
Senior Home Care Services
When it’s not a holiday or special event, is your dad alone? Should he be? This year, pay for a few weeks of home care services for him to try out.
He can experience what it’s like to have someone helping with meals, housekeeping, and transportation. He may find he loves it and wants to make it a permanent part of his life.
Senior home care helps your dad around the home without taking away his independence. Call a specialist in home care to learn more about the services that are available.
It’s estimated that 6.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease and that number keeps increasing. Around three out of ten adults with Alzheimer’s are below the age of 75, so it’s common for their children to still be raising families and working full-time jobs. Your mom has Alzheimer’s disease, and you’re not sure what to do. You want to help her as much as you can, but you have a full-time job and aren’t close to retirement age. How do you know when it’s time for Alzheimer’s care for your mom? Here are a few signs to look for.
She Fails to Take Her Medications
Here’s one of the most alarming aspects of the disease. Your mom forgets to take her Alzheimer’s medications, vitamins, and antidepressants. Or, she takes them and doesn’t remember taking them, so she takes more. Soon, you find she’s taken four antidepressants in one day because she couldn’t remember.
Alzheimer’s care aides can keep her pills locked in a cabinet and get them out for her to take. If she tries to take more, they can redirect her and assure her she’s already taken them.
She Can’t Drive
When someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the memory care team will recommend giving up the keys early on. You don’t want your mom driving around the city with no idea how to get back home.
When she has to stop driving, she doesn’t have to stop going out. She can have Alzheimer’s care services for transportation that accompany her to appointments and when running errands.
Your Mom is Wandering
You arrive to visit your mom and find she’s left her home. An hour passes and she’s not back, so you’re worried. You set off and find her wandering the streets. She didn’t recognize her home and had no idea how to get back. She needs someone with her 24/7 if she’s wandering.
Your Mom Forgets Food is Cooking
Your mom sets off her smoke detector because she forgot she’d started cooking scrambled eggs. When the smoke set off the alarms in her home, the eggs were on smoking. Thankfully, your brother was in the home and prevented a kitchen fire, but you worry about her doing this again.
She’s Becoming Incontinent
Often, people with Alzheimer’s lose track of simple things like when their bladder is full. They may not remember how to get to the bathroom in time. Incontinence is normal in the later stages of Alzheimer’s. It helps to have a caregiver to offer cues that your mom should go to the bathroom and help her get to the toilet and use it in time.
Once you know your mom’s care needs, talk to an expert in Alzheimer’s care. It’s not a disease that progresses the same with everyone. Some will slowly progress for years, while others seem to rush from one stage to the next. Pay attention to your mom’s abilities and arrange Alzheimer’s care as soon as you notice she’s struggling with self-care and housekeeping.
June is Men’s Health Month and now is the time to talk to your senior father about how he can stay healthy as he gets older. Senior men tend to minimize their health risks and conditions which can leave them open to developing more serious problems as they get older. One way that you can try to get your senior dad to focus on his health is to hire home care for your dad. Home care will help him make some healthy lifestyle changes that will improve his health now and in the future like:
Quit Smoking
Convincing a senior man to quit smoking can be a real challenge, especially if he’s been smoking for decades. The excuse that most senior men give for why they won’t quit is that it doesn’t matter at their point in their lives anyway. But it does matter. Within weeks of quitting smoking the lungs will start to repair themselves and create healthy cells. It is never too late to quit smoking. If your senior loved one needs help to quit make an appointment with their doctor. The doctor may be able to prescribe medication that will help your senior loved one quit smoking.
Exercise Daily
Exercise has been compared to the fountain of youth when it comes to aging. Senior men should be getting at least 30 minutes of exercise at least five days each week. It doesn’t have to be strenuous exercise but going for a walk, riding a bike, playing tennis, or playing golf are all excellent ways for senior men to be active. If your dad isn’t someone that likes to exercise you should help him find an activity that he likes to do so that he will want to be more active. The more active he is the healthier he will be as he gets older.
Limit Alcohol
Alcohol in moderation is fine, but men have a tendency to overdo it when it comes to alcohol. Having a beer after dinner watching TV is not problem but drinking in excess or drinking every day could start to impact his health. If your dad enjoys a drink you should talk with him about how much alcohol is healthy and how much alcohol isn’t. If your senior dad can limit his alcohol consumption to just once and awhile or if he drinks only small amounts at one time it can help him avoid some serious health problems in the future.
Get Regular Medical Checkups
Men are less likely to see the doctor regularly and that can significantly hurt their chances of staying healthy. Catching age-related illnesses early can make a big difference in how long your father lives and what his quality of life is like. Get your dad started seeing his primary care doctor on a regular basis and getting regular cancer screenings so that if he does develop any serious health problems the doctor can start treating the problem as quickly as possible.
If you are considering home care in Henderson, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.
Golden Heart Senior Care is proud to announce that Cynthia F. is our Employee of the Month for June 2022.
