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How Does 24-Hour Home Care Help With Chronic Conditions?

24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV
24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV

It’s often impossible to avoid a chronic health condition as you age. Three out of five older adults have at least one chronic condition, and two out of five have two or more. What chronic health care conditions benefit from 24-hour home care? Many of them do.

Arthritis

Start with one that most people have at some point. Arthritis is a joint condition where the joint has been exposed to so much use over the years that the cushioning within the joint degrades. It can reach a point where bone rubs against bone causing pain and stiffness.

Not much can be done for arthritis short of exercise, over-the-counter medications, and heat/cold therapy. But, there can reach a point where joint replacement surgery is best. This is often a knee or hip joint.

After surgery, your mom needs someone with her while she heals. She’ll need someone awake and available to help her walk to the bathroom. She may have medications to take all day and night, and that requires someone to be very aware of the timing. Hire 24-hour home care aides for tasks like this.

Cancer

It’s estimated that men have a 42% chance of getting cancer in their lifetime, and women’s risk is 37.5%. If cancer does impact your mom’s health, she needs support while undergoing common treatments like surgery, chemo, and radiation.

She will need someone with her if she’s feeling sick or weak. Your mom needs someone to help her out at night when she needs to get up and use the toilet or get a drink or snack.

Alzheimer’s and Other Forms of Dementia

Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia. As the years pass, your mom’s care needs will increase. Don’t be surprised to find your mom sleeping no more than an hour or two at night. As the area of the brain that regulates sleep deteriorates, sleep will become a problem.

With 24-hour home care aides in the home, someone is there and ready to redirect your mom from wandering off. Your mom has someone to cook her a meal or prepare a snack, keep her company, and assist her with things like putting on a movie or getting dressed.

Heart Disease

Heart disease is often managed through careful diet, exercise, and medications. Your mom also needs to manage stress. After a heart disease diagnosis, she may struggle to remain calm. If she’s the type of person who will question every little twinge, it will help her feel less anxious if someone is with her for now.

As your mom adjusts to how her medications make her feel and her changing lifestyle requirements, arrange to have caregivers with her day and night for companionship. She won’t feel so alone.

Arrange 24-hour home care as soon as you know what your mom needs. Talk to her doctor and get an idea of her care needs going forward. From there, talk to a home care specialist about the cost and availability of 24-hour care services.

Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/chronic-diseases.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5796733

If you are considering 24-hour 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.

Do You Know What to Do if Your Senior Falls?

24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV
24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV

Hearing that your elderly family member has experienced a fall is terrifying. Do you know what you need to do afterward to support her? This information can help you to make the right choices following a fall, including enlisting the help of 24-hour home care during recovery and beyond.

Falls and Aging Adults

When a senior falls, she’s unfortunately highly likely to experience a serious injury because of that fall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that over three million aging adults are treated for falls in the ER every year. The CDC also reports that older adults who fall once are twice as likely to have another fall, and that second fall may be far more serious than the first.

Determine if She’s Injured and Alert Her Doctor

If your elderly family member does experience a fall, take a few moments to thoroughly evaluate the situation. Check for obvious injuries and try to let her get up by herself. That isn’t to be cruel, either. Letting her get up by herself allows you both to see if she’s injured more seriously than you realize. You need to get her doctor involved in the situation, just to verify that she’s truly not injured.

Look for a Cause Behind the Fall

Understanding what caused your senior’s fall is crucial, because you need to do everything you can to prevent another one. Was your senior dizzy or experiencing other health issues? Did she trip? Or was the room too dark for her to see where she was going? Get to the bottom of the situation so that you can figure out what you can do for prevention.

Do a Thorough Safety Sweep

One way to get more information is to do a thorough safety sweep of your senior’s home. This means assessing what home modifications her house needs, including grab bars, and making a list of what isn’t as safe as it could be. You may need to do this a few times to make sure you don’t miss something.

Put Solutions in Place to Prevent Future Falls

After you put together a list of safety changes your senior’s home needs, it’s time to implement them. Install those grab bars, remove loose carpeting on stairways, and increase lighting throughout the house. If having more assistance is what your elderly family member needs, sooner is far better than later.

Consider 24-hour Home Care Services

Senior care professionals understand how vital it is to keep your senior as safe as possible at home. 24-hour home care can assist your elderly family member with mobility issues, overnight concerns, and ensuring that she’s eating healthy meals consistently throughout the day. All of these tasks can help your senior to avoid another fall, while also ensuring that she’s safe and that her quality of life is as high as possible.

Helping your elderly family member to avoid a fall is a huge part of her overall care plan. As your elderly family member’s situation continues to change, update her plan to ensure that you’re accounting for all of the possibilities when it comes to preventing falls.

Source
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/prevent-falls-and-fractures

If you are considering 24-hour 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.

What Type of Assistance Can Your Senior Receive During the Night?

24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV
24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV

Have you noticed your elderly loved one needs more assistance during the night more than any other time of the day? If so, overnight care from 24-hour home care providers may be something that you need to consider. These home care providers can offer a lot of assistance to your elderly loved one leading up to bedtime, in their waking hours, and everywhere in between.

Supervision Overnight

One of the main reasons why your elderly loved one may need overnight care is to get supervision. Many senior citizens, especially those with dementia, wander aimlessly. They even leave their homes at times and get lost. One of the best ways to prevent this with your elderly loved one is to have someone there to supervise overnight. Many elder care providers are trained to do this.

Reduced Fall Risk

Does your elderly loved one have a high risk of falling at nighttime? Maybe, they have balance issues or a health condition that causes the higher risk of falling. It could just be that your elderly loved one isn’t that steady on their feet when they get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. No matter why their risk is higher, it is vital that someone is able to help your elderly loved one prevent falls at night and during the day. You can get 24-hour home care services for the nighttime, so your elderly loved one doesn’t have to be alone.

Mobility Assistance

Your elderly loved one could benefit from 24-hour home care services because the home care providers can help them be more mobile, as well. For example, if your elderly loved one generally has accidents due to irritable bowel syndrome or urinary incontinence, the overnight senior care providers can help them get up and to the bathroom sooner than if they tried to do it on their own.

Medication Reminders

Does your elderly loved one have medications to take late in the evening or first thing in the morning when they get up? Do they usually forget to take these medications because of the odd hours? If so, you may want to hire 24-hour home care providers, so they can give medication reminders to your elderly loved one. With these reminders, your elderly loved one can stick to their medication regimen much easier.

Mental Health Benefits

Does your elderly loved one struggle with depression and/or anxiety? Maybe, they have PTSD and can’t be alone at night. No matter what type of mental health issues they have, hiring 24-hour home care providers to stay at their house overnight to help them feel more at ease could be just what your elderly loved one needs.

Conclusion

These are some of the types of assistance that your elderly loved one can get during the night. Now that you know about how much 24-hour home care providers can help your elderly loved one during the nighttime, you can reach out to book these services today.

Sources
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/aging-place-growing-older-home

If you are considering 24-hour 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.

Why Do Senior Citizens Often Get Readmitted to the Hospital?

24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV
24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV

If you are caring for your elderly loved one, there are certain things that you need to know about. One of those things is that senior citizens often get readmitted to the hospital after injuries, surgeries, or illnesses. It can be helpful to know more about the causes of these readmissions. That way, you and 24-hour home care providers can help to prevent your elderly loved one from having to go back into the hospital after they come home.

Medication Issues

One of the most common causes of hospital readmissions for the elderly are medication issues. Usually, when someone leaves the hospital, they are on medications. Some reasons medications might be prescribed include:

  • Pain management
  • Stabilizing blood pressure
  • Reducing inflammation
  • Reducing the risk of infection
  • Fighting off infection

If your elderly loved one doesn’t take their medications as prescribed when they go home from the hospital, it could cause their condition to get much worse. If that happens, they may need to stay in the hospital again.

If your elderly loved one is discharged from the hospital, it would be a good idea for you and the 24-hour home care providers to have a list of the medications they need to take and when. That way, you can remind them to take those medications.

Falling

Unfortunately, there are many senior citizens that fall after they leave the hospital. There are many reasons why they have an increased risk of falling when getting home. Some of these reasons include:

  • Having a previous fall that put them into the hospital can lower their confidence when walking
  • Having balance issues due to medications or health issues
  • Being weak from not moving around enough

If your elderly loved one falls after they get home from the hospital, they may likely have to stay back in the hospital for a while. To lower your elderly loved one’s risk of falling, it would be best if they had someone stay with them for a while after they get home. 24-hour home care providers are available to do this.

Not Getting Enough Support

Most senior citizens who leave the hospital feel tired and weak. They may not be able to get around their house as easily as they did before. However, that may not stop them from trying. Many senior citizens often hurt themselves or have stitches break open because they try to do too much too soon. It is vital that your elderly loved one doesn’t push themselves too hard after they get home from the hospital. It would be best if you or 24-hour home care providers could be there to help and support them after they get home to prevent this from happening.

Conclusion

Is your elderly loved one coming home from the hospital? If so, you and home care providers can work together to lower your elderly loved one’s risk of going back to the hospital. The tips here today are a good way to help keep them at home.

Sources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6114496/#:~:text=The%20most%20common%20reasons%20for,cancer%20(n%20%3D%2051).

If you are considering 24-hour 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.

September is Pain Awareness Month

24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV
24-Hour Home Care in Henderson NV

Many people are living with chronic pain, and doctors have no idea how to treat a lot of people. Right now is the time to recognize if the senior you love has been having chronic pain. By bringing awareness to this condition, doctors may be able to learn more. Chronic pain is something that is different for everyone, which is also why it can be so hard to treat.

It involves pain that lasts weeks and sometimes years, and there are various ways to try to treat the pain. If the senior you love has severe pain that’s lasted years and gets in the way of everyday life, it may be time for 24-hour home care. These are caregivers who work around the clock to help manage a senior.

A 24-hour home care specialist may help cook, clean, bathe, and dress a senior while also doing other basic household chores. The caregivers can help drive seniors to classes, appointments, and therapy sessions if necessary. September is pain awareness month, and it may be one of the best times to consider hiring 24-hour home care for your beloved senior.

How Chronic Pain Affects Seniors

Chronic pain is something that many health care professionals will encounter. They see it mainly in people above the age of 65. This condition can decrease someone’s mobility due to the pain, increase falls, and someone may even lose the amount of sleep they used to get. It is a condition that hurts but can try to be managed.

Chronic pain can be incredibly hard to treat because many people turn to opioids. These drugs may work for a minute, but they are highly addictive, and the human body can develop a tolerance quickly. Pain is complex, and there are different levels of pain; not all medication is good for every person.

How to Treat Chronic Pain

Every senior will be different, have various pain levels, and feel comfortable trying different methods of pain management. The important thing will be to find something they are comfortable doing. A 24-hour home care assistant can help your senior try the following ways to help beat chronic pain.

Exercise

Believe it or not, exercise can help fight inflammation. Low-impact workouts might help stretch out the body, tone it, and fight pain. Remaining strong and mobile as a senior is also mentally healthy.

Stress Management

Stress may make pain worse for a senior. Find ways to help the senior de-stress in their life. This may be through mediation, yoga, or even things like tai chi. Finding a way to relax and breathe through the uncomfortableness may help with pain management.

Therapy

Not all pain is easy to get rid of and sometimes it involves a few therapy sessions too. This may be sitting down to talk to someone or even a physical therapist. Explore different options and be sure to talk to the senior doctor about it too.

Medications

Not all medication is good for a senior to take but in severe situations a doctor may prescribe something to help manage the pain. A 24-hour home care provider can help your senior parent remember when to take their medications and help follow any instructions from a doctor.

Sources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4707527/#:~:text=Chronic%20pain%20is%20one%20of,(%E2%89%A565%20years)%20patients.&text=Pain%20is%20associated%20with%20substantial,%2C%20sleep%20impairment%2C%20and%20isolation.

https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/guide/understanding-pain-management-chronic-pain

If you are considering 24-hour 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.