Signs Of Depression Checklist

Depression in the elderly is a widespread problem, but is not often recognized or treated, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A number of life changes can increase the risk for depression, or make existing depression worse. Caring for a spouse or family member also can add to those feelings of depression. According to the NIH, some of the other changes and life events are:

• Adapting to a move from home to an apartment or retirement facility
• Chronic pain
• Feelings of isolation or loneliness as children move away and their spouse and close friends die
• Loss of independence (problems getting around, caring for themselves, or driving)
• Multiple illnesses
• Struggles with memory loss and problems thinking clearly

Look for the signs that an older loved one may be depressed and need help:

• Being more confused or forgetful.
• Eating less. The refrigerator may be empty or contain spoiled food.
• Not bathing or shaving as often. Visitors may notice smells of urine or stool. Clothes may be dirty and wrinkled.
• Not taking care of the home.
• Stopping medicines or not taking them correctly.
• Withdrawing from others. Not talking as much, and not answering the phone or returning phone calls.

The support of a CAREGiver^SM from Home Instead Senior Care® can go a long way toward helping an older loved one who is depressed or suffering the strain of caring for a sick spouse or other family member.

For more information about depression, go to:http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001521.htm

On Valentine's Day, Elderly Couple Recalls Finding Love at a Funeral Parlor

GREENWICH VILLAGE — When Norma D'Amico stood in front of her friend's casket at the Greenwich Village Funeral home in December 2003, love was the furthest thing from her mind.

Surrounded by flowers, D'Amico, 85, was greeting her 82-year-old friend's loved ones when a woman she knew walked in with a silver-haired gentleman.

As she soon discovered, romance blooms in the most unexpected places.

D'Amico, a widow who had lost her second husband earlier that year, heard the stranger, Sonny Ruggiero, 80, talking about a Christmas party he had every year, and jumped into the conversation.

"He said, 'Everybody comes to my party,'" D'Amico, who has lived in the same two-bedroom apartment on Minetta Lane for the past 69 years, recalled. "So I said, 'You didn't invite me.' And he said, 'You're welcome to come.'

"Once I started to talk to him, I thought, 'Hmm, nice guy,'" she added.

Eight years later, she and Ruggiero are still an item — seeing each other nearly every day, enjoying a glass of Scotch and doing jigsaw puzzles together.

"My girlfriends who were widowed said, 'We go to the bar, we go here, we go there, but we've got to start hanging out at the funeral parlor,'" D'Amico said.

"Not everybody at the funeral home is dead," Ruggiero chimed in.

But the couple's mortuary meeting was almost not to be.

D'Amico got Ruggiero's phone number from their mutual friend and called him about a week later to say she would miss the party because she had come down with a cold. Ruggiero said he was sick too and that he would call her to let her know when he had rescheduled the festivities.

"I waited about a week or so and I never got a call," D'Amico said. "So, I called him up and said, 'Did you forget about me?'"

"[Ruggiero] said, 'No, no, I'm still not ready to have the party yet.' And we started to talk," D'Amico recalled.

They began eating lunch together at Greenwich House's Senior Center on the Square on Washington Square North and that April, Ruggiero, himself a widower for nine years who had once worked in lumber yards and printing shops, asked D'Amico out to dinner.

"We went to dinner [at the Bleecker Street Chinese restaurant Suzie's], and after dinner we came back here, for a nightcap," D'Amico said. "We did a little dancing and stuff like that, and that was the beginning."

After some waltzing and dancing the foxtrot, they decided they wanted to see more of each other, Ruggiero said.

"I really didn't expect to get involved with anybody," said Ruggiero.

"Neither did I," said D'Amico, who once worked in restaurants and as an accountant at St. Vincent's Hospital.

Their shared interests in dancing and music and mutual, calm demeanors help keep them together, Ruggiero said.

"To be perfectly honest, the generation nowadays, they're always looking to go out with somebody and have sex right away," Ruggiero said.

"You have to go out with somebody for a while to find out what are their good aspects and if you have the same compassion, helpfulness, love — of course — and consideration. I think those four things will keep you healthy," he added. "Make sure you're in love and that it's not just fascination."

The senior sweethearts — who will go back to Suzie's for dinner on Valentine's Day and say they have no plans to wed — said their macabre meeting is proof that no one can predict when Cupid's arrow will strike.

"Things can happen when you least expect them," Ruggeiro said.

"You never know," D'Amico added. "You never know."

Nominated Senior Heroes

Know a senior hero that’s making a difference in your community? Salute that senior’s volunteer efforts by filling out the nomination form below. Nominated Senior Heroes℠ have a chance to become a national Salute to Senior Service℠ winner. Home Instead, Inc. will make a $5,000 donation to each of the national winners’ designated non-profit charity of choice. 

Click here for tips on how to enter






http://www.salutetoseniorservice.com

GPS shoe lets families keep track of elderly relatives | The Republic

HACKENSACK, N.J. — A Teaneck, N.J., shoe maker has joined with a California technology company to create a shoe that uses GPS technology that records where a wearer walks — and can send alerts to caregivers if someone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia wanders away and gets lost.

A family in Virginia has been using the shoes for the past month, as part of a trial set up by an elder-care expert, to keep track of an 83-year-old husband and father who scared his wife recently when he wandered away while she was grocery shopping. The man’s son now gets alerts on his cellphone showing his father’s location. “So if I lose him, I can call my son and he tells me where he is,” the man’s wife said.

Aetrex Worldwide Inc. began selling the shoes on its website last month. Aetrex President Evan Schwartz said the company has sold “a few hundred pairs” thus far and that the response from customers has been positive. He said the company also is in discussions with the Department of Veterans Affairs and assisted-living companies about the shoes.

Aetrex spent close to two years developing the GPS footwear with GTX Corp. of Los Angeles. GTX had invented a miniature GPS tracking device and was looking for ways to use that technology. Andrew Carle, an administrator at George Mason University in Virginia who specializes in studying the technology needs of the elderly, approached GTX about creating a tracking shoe for Alzheimer’s patients and helped bring GTX and Aetrex together. Carle also recruited the Virginia man’s family to test the shoes.

“GTX was thinking of using the technology for children,” Carle said. “I contacted them and pointed out the need for something like this for Alzheimer’s,” he said. “We know that 60 percent of people with Alzheimer’s wander and get lost. We know they have extremely high rates of injury and even death if they’re not found within 24 hours,” said Carle, who has become a paid consultant for GTX.

And, Carle said, caregivers also know that other kinds of tracking accessories, such as watches or bracelets, don’t work because the Alzheimer’s patient will remove them. Most Alzheimer’s patients aren’t going to wander off without their shoes, he said.

Carle said “procedural memory” — habits such as putting on your shoes when you wake up — is the last to fade for Alzheimer’s patients, and that is why a GPS device in a shoe is effective.

The privately held company says it has more than $60 million in annual sales, and has one retail store, in Englewood, N.J.GTX patented the GPS shoe technology some years ago, but hadn’t found a company that could make the shoes until it began talking to Aetrex. Aetrex, founded in 1946 as an orthotics inserts manufacturer, now also sells shoes, sneakers and orthotics for people with special footwear needs such as diabetics, as well as comfort shoes for the elderly. GTX recently branched into fashionable comfort shoes, such as sandals and women’s boots, as well.

In discussions with GTX, “we realized this might be a good fit,” said Schwartz. “You have this company that makes this technology and a company that’s really well-known in the foot health space.”

Aetrex installed the GPS tracking mechanism in a sneaker-style shoe it makes called the Ambulator, which is popular with elderly patients. The GPS shoe comes in men’s and women’s models, and in two colors, white and black, and sells for $299.99. Customers who purchase the shoe also need to pay a monthly fee for the GPS monitoring service. There are two levels of service offered — location alerts every 30 minutes for $34.99, or every 10 minutes for $39.99. Customers also can go online and create, in effect, a virtual fence — a geographic zone around a person’s residence — and get special alerts anytime the shoe wearer leaves that zone.

The battery that powers the shoes needs to be charged periodically, and a charger plugs into the back of the shoe.

Carle said “procedural memory” — habits such as putting on your shoes when you wake up — is the last to fade for Alzheimer’s patients, and that is why a GPS device in a shoe is effective.

He said wandering is a problem, even when a patient is with a spouse or family member all the time, because “it doesn’t take 15 seconds for them to be gone. You can’t have this person follow you everyplace you go. By definition, there’s going to be moments when they’re alone. And they wander,” he said.

Aetrex only makes the shoes in adult sizes, but said there is much interest in similar shoes for children. Right now, Schwartz said, the GPS devices aren’t small enough to fit into a children’s shoe. “Between the antennas, the battery, the chip … it ends up being too bulky to get in there,” he said.

Improving Care for the Nation's Elderly Focus of SCAN Health Plan's Tenth Annual Leadership and Management in Geriatrics Conference

LONG BEACH, Calif., Jan 30, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Healthcare professionals concerned with responding to a growing need in an aging society will gather in Long Beach, California, on March 30 to discuss creative approaches to better caring for America's expanding senior population.

"In two decades one of every five Americans will be 65 or older, and our job is to make sure that the healthcare community is well-equipped to serve these older adults," said Dan Osterweil, M.D., course chair of the Leadership and Management in Geriatrics (LMG) Conference. "If care for the elderly is to be more efficient and less costly, healthcare professionals need to hone their leadership and management skills, and that's what this conference is all about."

Now in its tenth year, the LMG Conference helps fill what is widely acknowledged as a serious gap in the professional development of those who work in clinical and academic settings related to geriatric care. This two-day conference is sponsored by SCAN Health Plan in collaboration with the UCLA Academic Geriatric Resource Center and the California Geriatric Education Center.

Unique in its setting and approach, the conference encourages participants -- physicians, nurses and allied health professionals -- to consider novel business approaches to geriatric care. It also provides attendees the opportunity to spend focused, highly interactive time with, and be mentored by, leaders in the field of geriatric medical management as they explore topics critical to caring for the nation's elderly.

"Our goal is to actually change behavior in ways that lead to a better patient experience," said Dr. Osterweil. "It is important that participants leave the conference with the ability to apply leadership and management skills to the practice of geriatric medicine. This real-world knowledge is essential if they are to succeed both in running a successful practice and in better serving their patients."

As a health plan dedicated exclusively to seniors and others on Medicare, SCAN's sponsorship of the conference is part of its ongoing commitment to better understand the aging process and advocating on behalf of the needs of seniors. In addition to the LMG Conference, SCAN offers healthcare professionals an array of online courses on such topics in chronic kidney disease in the elderly, stroke prevention and management, palliative care, prevention and management of atrial fibrillation, and many others. The website -- www.scancme.com -- also provides clinical guidelines, assessment tools and literature regarding common geriatric medical conditions, all designed to assist healthcare professionals in better managing their older patients. SCAN also produces an e-newsletter that focuses on performance-improvement education in geriatrics and features monthly interviews with experts in geriatric care.

For 35 years SCAN Health Plan has been focusing exclusively on the unique needs of seniors and others on Medicare. The company currently has nearly 130,000 members in California and Arizona. 

Further information may be obtained at scanhealthplan.com

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CAREGIVER OF THE MONTH

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CAREGIVER OF THE MONTH:  Aurellia Gonzales has been a part of our Home Instead Senior Care family since September 2010.  She is a hard worker, dedicated to her clients.  She is a CAREGiver who loves working and caring for other s which is the foundation for being an awesome CAREgiver.  We want to honor and express our gratitude to Aurellia.  Congratulations Aurellia for being the CAREGiver of the Month!

Controlling Blood Pressure is One Key to Heart Health for Older Adults

High blood pressure can lead to more than just heart problems. Among other things, it is directly related to decreased cognitive functioning, according to research. That’s why is important to carefully monitor a senior with high blood pressure.

Q. My 75-year-old widowed mother just had a physical and her doctor said her heart is in great shape. She does have borderline high blood pressure, though, so the doctor has prescribed a medication. Are there other things she could do?

It sounds as if your mother has taken good care of herself if her heart is in such a healthy condition. One important component of good heart health is blood pressure, and the risk of high blood pressure does seem to increase with age, according to the American Heart Association. In fact, 90 percent of Americans over the age of 50 have a lifetime risk of high blood pressure.

High blood pressure can lead to other problems, too. Increased blood pressure in older adults is directly related to decreased cognitive functioning, particularly among seniors with already high blood pressure, research reveals. This means that stressful situations may make it more difficult for some seniors to think clearly.

Dr. Jason Allaire, an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State, who co-authored a study on high blood pressure and cognitive function, explains that study subjects whose average systolic blood pressure was 130 or higher saw a significant decrease in cognitive function when their blood pressure spiked. However, Allaire notes, study subjects whose average blood pressure was low or normal saw no change in their cognitive functioning — even when their blood pressure shot up.

So how do you navigate around high blood pressure and its consequences? Your mom’s doctor will be her best source of information for lifestyle and diet changes.

“High blood pressure remains an epidemic in the United States, but it can be prevented,” said Lawrence Appel, M.D., lead author of an American Heart Association scientific statement, published in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. “By improving their diet, people can reduce their blood pressure and put a major dent in their risk of stroke, coronary heart disease and heart failure,” said Appel, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The statement also recommends combining an overall healthy diet with weight loss, eating lots of fruits and vegetables, limiting alcohol consumption, lowering salt intake and increasing potassium intake.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Health Information Center recommends following its Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) plan. The DASH eating plan is rich in fruits, vegetables, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, whole grains, fish, poultry, beans, seeds and nuts. Talk to your doctor about whether the DASH plan will work for you. The plan also recommends being moderately active for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week.

If your mother lives alone, you might want to consider a companion for her. Encourage her to develop a relationship with someone who shares some of her same health interests and concerns. Or contact the local Home Instead Senior Care^® office. The organization employs CAREGivers^SM who can help seniors with meal preparation, errands and shopping, and serve as companions.
Here’s hoping your mother has many more years of healthy heart living.