November 2022 - Golden Heart Summerlin

How Valuable Can Home Care Be for Your Senior?

Posted on November 25, 2022 by Craig Bass

Home Care in Las Vegas NV

Home care is an essential service designed to help older adults age at home without risking their safety. It includes services that ensure the things your mom needs to do every day aren’t overlooked. Have you ever thought about the value of home care?

Your Mom’s Home is Clean and Organized

As her mobility changes, your mom is doing some routine household chores less often. She used to sweep her dog’s crumbs and fur each day, but now she’s waiting a week or two. You often do it when you’re there just to make sure it gets done.

Caregivers can dust, vacuum, and disinfect surfaces. They can water her plants, take out the trash and recyclables, and organize the mail. Her caregivers can also change her dirty sheets, make the bed with new ones, and do the laundry. Once clothing and items are clean and dry. They’re folded and put away, too.

Meals Are Prepared for Her

A recent news article came out stating that frozen pizzas are one of the worst dinners for people. The sugar content in the pizza sauce, processed ingredients in the crust, fat in the cheese and meats, and nitrates in items like pepperoni and sausage make it a poor choice. Yet, older adults also find pizza is a very easy food to make on their own.

If your mom has a hard time cooking meals for one and relies on frozen dinners, pizzas, and canned soup, it’s time to address her eating habits. Find out what she’d like to eat and arrange to have a home care aide make these meals each week. Caregivers can also plan her menu, take your mom shopping, and put groceries away.

Your Mom Isn’t Alone

Your mom often complains about feeling isolated and lonely. With her friends all moved to different areas to be closer to family, your mom’s social circle is non-existent. She relies on you and your sister to keep her company, but you both have jobs and families of your own.

Instead of leaving your mom alone all week, have home care aides stopping by to keep her company. While there, her caregiver can clean her home, cook meals, do the laundry, or take her out.

Your Mom Has Help Running Errands

Grocery shopping, post office trips, and pharmacy visits are hard to do for some people, and with your mom’s changing vision, they’re impossible. She can’t read paperwork, nutritional labels, or other important documents without help. A home care aide can join her and read forms aloud when needed.

Now that you see how home care helps your mom maintain her independence while aging, make sure she has the help she needs. Caregivers can support her by offering rides to stores, cooking meals for her, or cleaning her home. Talk to a home care specialist to get prices and a list of services in your mom’s town.

If you are considering home care in Las Vegas, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.

What Happens With Personal Care as Alzheimer’s Progresses?

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Craig Bass

Senior Home Care in Henderson NV

There are three main stages of Alzheimer’s disease. But, there are several stages within the early, middle, and late stages. Some medical practices focus on five, but many others, including Penn Medicine, feel there are seven. Take a closer look at these seven stages of Alzheimer’s to learn how each one will affect your dad’s personal care routines. Knowing them in advance helps when it comes to arranging personal care at home services.

Early Stages

In the early stages, your dad’s need for help with personal care will not be present yet.

First Stage – Alzheimer’s is present, but it’s not noticeable yet. Changes are happening, but it’s going to take some time to realize that there’s something wrong. It will progress from here.
Second Stage – This is where basic forgetfulness comes into play. Your dad will start forgetting he’s told you something. He may lose his keys and not be able to retrace his steps.
Third Stage – Memory loss and forgetfulness are impossible to ignore at this point. Your dad calls you and tells you that you haven’t talked to him in months. It was just ten minutes ago that you hung up the phone. He’s forgetting to pay bills, he’s spending more than he has, and he may make appointments, but he doesn’t remember he’s made them.

Middle Stages

As you move into the middle stages of Alzheimer’s disease, your dad’s need for help with certain tasks is obvious. He’s going to need cues to make sure he’s using the toilet when he needs to.

Fourth Stage – Cognitive function is declining. Your dad forgets where he lives. He goes out for walks and can’t remember what his house looks like. He doesn’t know what month it is, and he may start to dress inappropriately for the weather. He tries to bathe as he always has, but he’s starting to use the wrong products, such as body wash for moisturizer or mouthwash for aftershave.
Fifth Stage – Emotional and mental changes start to take place. Your dad may start worrying that people are stealing from him. He may accuse you. He’s hiding items from others. He withdraws and doesn’t want to leave his bed or home.

Late Stages

In the final two stages, your dad is dependent on others for most of his daily routines.

Sixth Stage – He cannot bathe alone. He forgets to use the toilet and has many accidents. He’s not feeding himself anymore, and his fine motor skills are diminishing, so he has to have others trim his nails or brush his teeth. He stops talking more than babbling or randomly blurted words.
Seventh Stage – The seventh and final stage often finds your dad confined to bed or a wheelchair. He needs sponge baths and spoon-feeding if he’ll eat at all.

Personal care at home is one of the best ways to ensure your dad’s grooming and hygiene routines are kept up. Caregivers can help him properly clean himself in the shower. They can help him shave and brush and floss his teeth. Talk to an expert in personal care at home about your dad’s Alzheimer’s progression to determine what help he needs.

Sources:
https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/neuroscience-blog/2019/november/stages-of-alzheimers

If you are considering personal care at home in Henderson, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.

Does Your Senior’s Diet Include Seafood?

Posted on November 11, 2022 by Craig Bass

In-Home Care in Henderson NV

When you and your senior start planning to improve her diet, one item you might want to include is seafood, especially if your senior doesn’t have any allergies to fish or shellfish. In-home care professionals are a tremendous help any time your senior starts to think about changing her eating habits because they can remove a lot of the uncertainty about meal preparation. Here are some of the great reasons to encourage your senior to eat more seafood.

Seafood Is Full of Nutrients

Your elderly family member might think about seafood being high in protein, and it is. It’s also a fantastic source of omega-3 fatty acids and tons of other nutrients, like vitamins A and D as well as B complex vitamins. Other nutrients, like selenium, magnesium, and potassium, are also present in seafood in high amounts. When you want to add more nutrient-dense foods into your senior’s diet, seafood is a great option.

It’s Excellent for Brain, Heart, and Eye Health

Brain health is a big concern for aging adults, so eating foods that help to support cognitive functioning is a natural part of helping that happen. The fats in seafood help with brain health, but also help to protect vision. Heart health is another big reason to embrace adding foods with more omega-3 fatty acids to your senior’s diet. The nutrients in seafood help with reducing bad cholesterol, which can be essential when your elderly family member is battling high cholesterol levels. Many people who deal with high blood pressure also find that eating more seafood can help to control those levels as well.

Seafood Might Help Your Senior Get Better Sleep

Some of the nutrients in seafood, especially B vitamins and magnesium, can help your elderly family member to get better quality sleep. That’s especially important if she’s been having trouble sleeping or staying asleep. These nutrients serve as building blocks for building other chemicals and hormones that are necessary for sleep, like melatonin.

Eating More Seafood Can Help with Moods

Getting more seafood in your senior’s diet won’t necessarily solve all of her mental health issues, but the building blocks seafood gives her body can help her to have what she needs to synthesize neurotransmitters that help with mood regulation. Because seafood also helps the brain to be healthier, your senior might get additional mental health benefits from increasing the seafood in her diet.

Preparing Seafood Might Feel More Difficult than it Has to Be

One problem your elderly family member might have is that she may want to eat seafood more often but find that it’s too difficult to prepare on her own. This is a situation in which in-home care providers can be a huge help. Home care professionals can take a lot of the work out of keeping your senior well-nourished, offering her a diet rich in a lot of different types of nutrients, including those from seafood.

Any time you and your senior are considering making big changes to her diet, it’s a good idea to talk with her doctor about it first. There might be other variables that can affect what she needs to be eating, so it’s important to know for sure what her body needs the most.

Source
https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/food/fish/health-benefits

If you are considering in-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.

5 Ways Senior Home Care Can Help Manage Depression

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Craig Bass

Senior Home Care in Summerlin NV

Depression is a lot more common for aging adults than a lot of family caregivers realize. Having senior home care professionals there with her during the day can be a big part of putting solutions in place for your elderly family member. Here are just a few of the ways that these care providers can make a big difference for your elderly family member.

Staying Aware of What’s Happening

It’s really important that you are able to stay aware of what is happening with your elderly family member and her health, especially if you’re not able to be there with her on a consistent basis. Having senior home care professionals there with your aging family member allows you to get another perspective about how your senior is doing. You can keep track of how she’s feeling, whether she’s eating or not, and other details that help you to talk with her doctor more effectively.

Encouraging Your Senior to Eat Healthy Meals

Nutrition always matters, especially when your senior isn’t feeling her best. Home care providers can keep up with all of the heavy lifting involved in getting healthy meals on the table and also remind your senior to eat. While depression isn’t a fully physical issue, remembering to eat and having nutritious options available can make a big difference in how your senior feels.

Keeping Her Home Safe and Tidy

It can be incredibly difficult for people dealing with depression to keep their physical environment as clean and as safe as it should really be. Senior home care can handle that part for your senior, too. You’ll feel better, as well, because you’ll know that your aging family member is in good hands and that she’s less likely to be living in an unsafe environment.

Helping Her Get to Appointments

Your senior’s doctor can be a crucial part of helping her to manage depression. Therapists and other mental health professionals may also be part of your senior’s care plan, so it’s important that she gets to those appointments when she needs to. If driving isn’t something she’s up for, having home care providers drive for her means she’s got another option.

Offering a Friendly Face

It’s also important for your senior to have a friendly companion available when she’s up for socializing. Isolation and loneliness can be big factors in seniors developing depression, so having a solution in place can do a lot of good. Your elderly family member may not even realize how important this is to her mental health until she’s got someone there with her on a regular basis.

There might be a lot of different causes and risk factors associated with your senior’s depression. It’s a lot easier to put a full care plan together for her when you and she have as much help as you need. And once a plan is in place, you can adjust the variables as needed to ensure that your elderly family member continues to have what she needs.

If you are considering senior 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.

Month: November 2022