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Tag: In-Home Care in Henderson NV

What You Need to Know Before Becoming a Cancer Caregiver

Posted on by Craig Bass
In-Home Care in Henderson NV
In-Home Care in Henderson NV

A caregiver is a person who helps an older adult diagnosed with cancer, whether it’s a friend or a family member. Usually, the primary caregiver is a spouse, parent, partner, or adult child. Close friends, neighbors, or colleagues may fill this role if the family is not around. When a senior has cancer, support is critical to the emotional and physical well-being of the patient. With cancer treatments given in outpatient centers, hiring a professional in-home care service is a good idea.

Certified caregivers have many roles that change depending on the senior’s needs during cancer treatment. In addition, in-home care experts also serve as companions and aides. They help dress, feed, and bathe older adults. This gives you time to focus on other critical aspects of treatment, like arranging schedules, providing transportation, and managing insurance issues.
If you lead a busy lifestyle, a professional in-home care provider can step in as a housekeeper, companion and mobility assistant while ensuring your loved one gets quality care. Even though caring for a cancer patient is a moral obligation, there’s a time you may need help. A trained caregiver can handle the heavy lifting, allowing you to take some time for yourself.

Know What You Can Do

As mentioned, caring for an older loved one with cancer is admirable. However, there’s a time when it can take a toll on you, regardless of your intentions. The reality is that caring for a sick senior for a long period by yourself is not realistic. Consider working with a professional to leverage the expertise and experience of dealing with a cancer patient.

Introducing in-home care to help care for your older loved one gives you peace of mind knowing your senior is getting the best help at home. Cancer is a progressive disease, and without the knowledge to detect new or pre-existing symptoms can be fatal. Alleviate the guesswork and rigorous schedule a consultation with a reputable in-home care service. You can also rely on home caregivers to access specialized equipment needed for treatment.

In-Home Care Services

Cancer no longer requires inpatient treatment since patients can receive proper care within the comfort of their homes. Hence, finding the right health and personal service goes a long way in ensuring proper recovery and mitigating advanced diseases. Trained professionals can help follow the doctor’s instructions and prescriptions to enhance recovery and improve the overall quality of life. Different diagnoses determine the type of care, which can be difficult for an untrained person to provide.
In-home care providers can help get specialized experts and compassionate care at home instead of hospitals or other facilities. This is also a cost-effective solution since all the care will be provided at home without regularly scheduled appointments.

Before you take the responsibility of caring for an older adult with cancer, consult a professional to ensure the level of quality meets the standards to improve your senior’s well-being.

URLs:
https://www.cancer.net/coping-with-cancer/caring-loved-one/tips-being-successful-caregiver
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/caregiver-support

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.

Does Your Senior’s Diet Include Seafood?

Posted on by Craig Bass
In-Home Care in Henderson NV
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.

What You and Your Senior Need to Know about Pneumonia

Posted on by Craig Bass
In-Home Care in Henderson NV
In-Home Care in Henderson NV

When most people hear pneumonia, they think it’s one illness or bacteria. But the reality is that there are many different types of pneumonia your senior could catch, and they can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or even fungi. Regardless of the type of pneumonia your senior may have, it’s important for her to get it treated right away.

Pneumonia Becomes More Likely as Your Senior Ages

As your elderly family member ages, damage to her lungs from previous illnesses can make her more susceptible to pneumonia. It’s also more difficult for your elderly family member to remove mucus and other fluids from her lungs, which can contribute to a lung infection. If your senior’s immune system is not doing as well as it could be, that is another big factor in developing pneumonia.

Pneumonia Immunizations Work

It’s important to remember that there are effective pneumonia vaccines. Your senior should talk with her doctor about which pneumonia vaccines she should take and how often she should get these immunizations. Staying up to date with the pneumonia vaccine can help to reduce your senior’s likelihood of developing pneumonia.

Practice Good Hygiene to Avoid Pneumonia

Another big factor in ensuring your senior doesn’t develop pneumonia involves simple hygiene. Washing your hands and encouraging her to wash her own hands often helps to remove germs that could eventually lead to pneumonia. When soap and water aren’t available, hand sanitizer made with alcohol is an excellent second choice.

Help Your Senior to Stay Healthy Overall

The healthier your elderly family member is overall, the easier it will be for her body to avoid infection. That means exercising if her doctor agrees that is okay for her as well as looking more closely at what your senior is eating. In-home care providers can help your elderly family member to stay on target with her daily routines, which can help to ensure that she’s able to get all of the activities in each day that she wants to.

Stay Alert for Signs of Pneumonia

Some people can have pneumonia and not realize it at all. Overall, if your senior has a cough that won’t go away, a fever, chills, and chest pain, she needs to see her doctor. Shortness of breath and green or yellow mucus can be additional signs that she might be dealing with pneumonia. The sooner your elderly family member determines if what she’s experiencing is related to pneumonia or not, the sooner she can get treatment.

Get Help from In-home Care Providers if Your Senior Needs Extra Help

Pneumonia can leave your senior feeling weak and unable to do much at all. Having in-home care providers available to make sure she’s doing alright can be a huge help. They can help her to keep her home clean while she’s under the weather and make sure she’s eating and generally improving as she heals.

Pneumonia can become very serious very quickly, so it’s important that your elderly family member doesn’t ignore symptoms that could indicate that she’s experiencing a lung infection.

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.

Understanding How In-Home Care Helps With MCI

Posted on by Craig Bass
In-Home Care in Henderson NV
In-Home Care in Henderson NV

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. If your dad has been diagnosed with MCI, you can take steps to help him age in place, like starting in-home care as soon as possible. Learn more about MCI and how it can impact your parent’s abilities now and in the future.

What Is MCI?

Upwards of 20% of adults 60 or older have MCI. It’s a condition where memory skills have gotten slightly worse than they should at that age. However, it’s not Alzheimer’s or dementia, and some people have MCI and never develop dementia. People who have had a stroke, diabetes, or depression are more at risk.

When you have MCI, you’re still able to complete activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. Your memory isn’t that bad. Mainly, you might forget that you had an appointment. You might lose your keys and not recall the steps you took earlier that day.

Suppose your dad is at work and has been running the same machine for decades. He knows the steps to start the machine, run his product, change settings, and close the machine down at the night’s end. He starts forgetting the steps, and his boss issues multiple warnings.

That’s an example of MCI. He can still do his work, but he forgets steps along the way. It might be simple aging, but you worry that it’s the first sign of Alzheimer’s. It’s time to talk to an expert for guidance.

If you suspect your dad has MCI, you should take him to a doctor. It’s best to have his cognitive skills checked every six months to see if it’s progressing. If it does progress, the diagnosis shifts into dementia. Don’t let your dad stress too much about this. Only 10% to 20% of MCI cases progress to Alzheimer’s.

Talk About In-Home Care Now

What happens if it’s MCI, but there is suspicion it might be progressing? It’s important to stay calm. Your dad is likely scared, but you need to make sure he knows he has your support. Do this by coming up with a list of his goals for aging in place. See what he wants to happen.

Would he want to downsize or stay in his home? Does he want to have a family member move in, or would he feel that would intrude on his desire for privacy? Caregivers can stop by and offer the help he needs with housekeeping, meals, transportation, organization, personal care, etc.

In-home care services are ideally arranged before dementia worsens. In the latter stages of Alzheimer’s, your dad will not remember faces and names. Help him get acquainted with caregivers in the early stages.

By doing so, your dad has had time to adjust to having in-home care services. A familiar bond is formed with the caregivers that come to help out. Call an in-home care specialist to learn more.

Sources:
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-mild-cognitive-impairment

 

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.