How Do You Know You Need a Caregiver For Your Parent?

More than just a practical consideration, it usually triggers us to consider that our parents will not be here forever... and then as a natural segue, it's also a reminder of our own mortality. Not easy thoughts - ones we'd usually rather avoid, but at the same time, unavoidable, because the practical implications for daily living and your parents' safety and well-being are daunting but have to be faced.

Baby boomers, and anyone with aging parents, will most likely sooner or later find themselves needing to confront signs of their parents' failing independence, resulting from age-related loss of functionality - physical or psychological - and the need to evaluate what to do about it. For many, the thought of an assisted living facility is a last resort, and the possibility of the parent coming to live with them is also only remotely feasible, if at all. And while to a certain point the adult children themselves can provide the extra care and handling their parents will now need... it can be very challenging. The demands of work and career, raising a family, and running a household often leave little extra space to take on more. And it also makes the whole situation of our parents' new needs harder to look at ... the impact it will have on us - a new added dimension of responsibility to weave into our already full lives. This is where a caregiver can compassionately and kindly help alleviate the burden on the adult children and ensure the parent's safety and well-being, while allowing them to continue living in their own residence with maximum possible independence.

So how do you know when to consider caregiving as an option to helping your parents maintain as much freedom as possible while ensuring they are safe? ... (With as much or as little help as that takes)? Here are some signs and clues to problems that could impair someone's ability to completely manage on their own... and that you should be paying closer attention to how your parents are faring.

6 Signs That Indicate Your Parents May Need Extra Care

Memory loss/Dementia (Symptom: A gradual or sudden loss of memory and language skills may result in evasive answers in an attempt to cover the inability to remember words, places, and people.)

Diminished hearing (Symptom: Your parents don't always answer the phone or take a long time pick up when you call... even though they'd always answered with no problems before.)

Diminished sight (Symptoms: Is your parent experiencing falls? Have you noticed a hesitance in his or her walk?

Falls (Symptoms: Unexplained bruises, often accompanied by explanations for cuts, bruises, or broken bones that don't ring true)

Incontinence (Symptoms: Clothing stains; odors emanating from furniture, clothing, or automobile seats)

Self Neglect (Symptoms: Poor eating habits and inadequate nutrition/hydration; failure or inability to follow through on physician's instructions, medicine dosages, etc.)

Of course, if you do determine that perhaps your parents need extra care, how do you bring that about? We'll start by directing you to a link that takes a look at how to approach the subject with your parents, how to conduct a family discussion on the topic, and more...

L.A. Residents Walk to End Alzheimer's

More than 3,000 residents from across Los Angeles County came together for the 18th annual Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® to raise awareness and funds to fight Alzheimer’s disease.

Families and friends walked side by side with teams from community groups, businesses, schools, assisted living facilities and professional groups, raising more than $680,000 for Alzheimer’s disease care and research.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters; West Hollywood councilmember Abbe Land; Celebrity Champions: Steve Edwards, Leeza Gibbons, Gary Bryan, Rafer Johnson, Roslyn Kind, Matt Lanter, Edie McClurg, David Selby, Michael-Dean Shelton, and Tracie Thoms were among the participants. Seven-piece show band, the MVPs rocked Century Park with a mix of pop, rock and oldies.

The 5k walk was Sunday, November 7 at Century Park, 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City (Los Angeles 90067).

The Web site for donations is active through December 31 at http://www.alzla.org/mw

Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. In today’s challenging economy, this is more important than ever. Held annually in hundreds of communities across the country, this inspiring event calls on volunteers of all ages to become Champions in the fight against Alzheimer’s.
The Alzheimer’s Association is the only local agency providing disease-specific support and education to people living with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Since its founding in 1989, Memory Walk has raised more than $300 million nationally for the cause. For more information, visit www.alz.org/californiasouthland.

BE A SANTA TO A SENIOR

Each year Home Instead Senior Care offices throughout North America spread holiday cheer to lonely or financially challenged seniors through the Be a Santa to a Senior program.

In 2008, the Be a Santa to a Senior program is anticipated to exceed its goal of delivering over one million gifts to deserving seniors in the program's first few years.

To learn more about the program, visit the Be a Santa to a Senior website.

Home Instead Senior Care Program Offers Free Continuing Education Credits (CEUs)

The Home Instead Senior Care® network, the world's largest provider of non-medical in-home care for seniors, is now offering free continuing education credits (CEUs) in conjunction with the organization's Family Caregiver Support Webinar Series program. The program, titled Caring for Your Parents: Education for the Family Caregiver, has been adapted for CEU accreditation in cooperation with the American Society on Aging (ASA).

Omaha, NE (Vocus) The Home Instead Senior Care® network, the world's largest provider of non-medical in-home care for seniors, is now offering free continuing education credits (CEUs) in conjunction with the organization's Family Caregiver Support Webinar Series program.

Caring for Your Parents: Education for the Family Caregiver(SM) is a family caregiver support series that addresses senior resistance to care and features a variety of topics such as choosing an in-home care provider, the signs of aging, long distance caregiving and communicating with aging parents. The program has been adapted for CEU accreditation in cooperation with the American Society on Aging (ASA).

The CEU courses are offered compliments of Home Instead Senior Care so there is no cost for the CEU. The first webinar, titled Recognizing the Signs of Aging and Need for Care, will be held October 27; a second webinar, Challenges of Communication between Older Adults and their Children, will be held November 17. Both are scheduled at 10 a.m. Pacific/11 a.m. Mountain/12 p.m. Central/1 p.m. Eastern Time. Participants can pre-register through ASA's website at asaging.org/webseminars by clicking on the web seminar they wish to view and follow the instructions to register.

Pre-registration will be required for all webinars. Professionals will take a short survey online after the webinar and then will receive one hour of CEU credit through ASA. If a senior care professional is unable to participate in the live webinar, a recorded version will be available online for 60 days post-event, for which participants will still be able to obtain CEUs.

"We are pleased to offer this continuing education program as a way to thank the many senior care professionals we work with across the country who do so much to support older adults in their communities," said Paul Hogan, co-founder and chairman of the Home Instead Senior Care network.

CEUs are available if the senior care professional is licensed in a field or profession from one of the boards listed below. Professionals who are not sure whether the licensing organization will accept a particular board's CEUs should contact the organization before making their selection (one board per attendee, per event).

• American Occupational Therapy Association
• Association of Social Work Boards
• Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research
• California Association of Drug and Alcohol Counselors
• California Board of Behavioral Sciences
• California Board of Registered Nursing
• National Academy of Certified Care Managers
• National Association of Long Term Care Administrator Boards (pending)
• National Board of Certified Counselors National Commission for Health Education

About Home Instead Senior Care

Founded in 1994 in Omaha, the Home Instead Senior Care® network is the world's largest provider of non-medical in-home care services for seniors, with more than 900 independently owned and operated franchises in 14 countries spanning four continents. Home Instead Senior Care local offices employ 65,000+ CAREGivers(SM) who provide more than 40 million hours of client service each year through activities including companionship, meal preparation, medication reminders, light housekeeping, errands and shopping. Home Instead Senior Care founders Paul and Lori Hogan pioneered franchising in the non-medical senior care industry and are leading advocates for senior issues throughout the world. At Home Instead Senior Care, it's relationship before task, while continuing to provide superior quality service that enhances the lives of seniors everywhere.

About The American Society On Aging

The American Society on Aging (ASA) is one of the nation's largest associations of professionals working in the field of aging. ASA is a multidisciplinary professional association that produces a comprehensive array of educational programs and publications. ASA's comprehensive resources, publications and educational programs are designed by experts in the field to enhance the knowledge and skills of people working with older adults and their families in a wide range of disciplines and settings. ASA members come from a multitude of professions ranging from the aging network to business and health care to form a larger community whose purpose is to learn, network and exchange ideas and connect with others who work with older adults. Members, subscribers and partners include social service and health care practitioners, educators, researchers, policymakers and leaders of the business and nonprofit sectors.

Click here to take classes

Come out to see us at the Successful Aging Expo

About the Successful Aging Expo

Saturday November 6, 2010 from 9:00am - 3:00pm

Sheraton Universal City, Universal City

333 Universal Hollywood Dr
Universal City, CA, California 91608

The LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS invites you to participate in the first annual expo on “Successful Aging” designed especially for people ages 40 to 100. This FREE event will be held on Saturday, November 6, 2010 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City and will be rich in resources and information. Visitors and participants will have the opportunity to visit several booths of companies and firms with something of value to offer for young adults, baby boomers, those in mid-life and older adults.

Ongoing seminars will be offered on subjects such as:

   • Employment
   • Nutrition
   • How to slow the aging process
   • Healthy skin
   • Caregiving
   • Brain health
   • Finances in today’s economy
   • And much more ...

http://successfulagingexpo.com/dailynews/index.html

Study Casts Doubt on Hospice Admission Criteria for Patients With Dementia

TUESDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Many people with advanced dementia aren't getting much-needed hospice care because the admission criteria is flawed, researchers say.
"Dementia is a leading cause of death in the U.S., and hospice care can benefit patients with dementia. The main hindrance to getting palliative [comfort] care is guidelines that try to guide practitioners to wait until an estimated life expectancy of six months," said Dr. Susan L. Mitchell, a senior scientist at the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, and lead author of a new study.
Such end-of-life predictions are difficult to make with certainty in dementia cases. Instead of using life expectancy as the requirement for admission, hospice care for dementia patients should be offered based on the patient's and family's desire for comfort care, suggest Mitchell and colleagues in the study published in the Nov. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Hospice, or palliative, care is most often associated with cancer patients. The goal is to provide comfort and support to patients and their families, instead of life-prolonging treatments.
For people with cancer, the decision to switch to palliative care is more clear-cut. It generally occurs when someone decides to forgo traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation, that don't seem to be working anymore, and instead receive comfort care, which includes better pain management and discussions about important end-of-life care decisions.
For people with dementia, the decision process is murkier. Most people with advanced dementia are already in nursing homes, receiving around-the-clock care, but palliative care can provide families with additional support and help families make difficult decisions, such as whether or not to treat infections with antibiotics or to use a feeding tube to deliver nutrition. Palliative care may also provide better pain management and symptom relief, said Mitchell.
To improve the likelihood of dementia patients getting palliative care, Mitchell and her co-authors tried to come up with a better tool to assess their potential life expectancy.
This new method, dubbed the Advanced Dementia Prognostic Tool (ADEPT), includes 12 items, such as body mass index, ability to perform tasks of daily living like self-feeding, bowel incontinence, shortness of breath and oral food intake.
The researchers compared their assessment tool with the standard Medicare hospice eligibility guidelines on 606 residents in 21 nursing homes.
Their tool accurately predicted a life expectancy of fewer than six months 67 percent of the time, versus 55 percent for the Medicare guidelines, said Mitchell.
"While ADEPT was better than the Medicare criteria, its predictive ability isn't perfect," said Mitchell. "The delivery of palliative care should be guided by a preference of comfort care rather than by life expectancy," she added.
A 2009 study by Mitchell and her colleagues was the first to label dementia a terminal illness like cancer and other incurable diseases.
Dr. Joseph Shega, an associate professor in the section of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center, said he agrees that the issue of comfort care for dementia patients deserves attention.
"It's important to recognize that we're not really good at figuring out how long someone with dementia might live, and I agree with these authors that we should focus more on the goals of care and stop spending resources on trying to figure out how long someone might live," said Shega.
"Hospice provides more support for nursing home staff, better support for the family, and can help better educate the family on the natural process of dementia so they know what's going on," he explained.
Hospice also helps manage symptoms, like discomfort or agitation, Shega added, while making sure that care plans and treatment goals agree with the values and wishes of the patients and their families.
More information
Read more about dementia and end-of-life care from the U.S. National Institute on Aging.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20101102/hl_hsn/studycastsdoubtonhospiceadmissioncriteriaforpatientswithdementia

Why you need a flu shot -- again

Why you need a flu shot -- again

Why you need a flu shot -- again

It was only a year ago when Americans were scurrying to find flu shots to protect against the H1N1 pandemic flu, or swine flu. A record number of Americans were vaccinated in the last part of 2009 and first few months of this year. And since H1N1 is thought to be a predominant flu threat again this year, people might naturally wonder: Do I need a flu shot this season.

The answer is yes. The vaccine you received last year protects against flu for about six to eight months. The immunity from your last shot last winter has already worn off, according to an official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, even if you don't think you'll get very sick from catching the flu, getting the vaccine helps confer "herd immunity." That means that the more people who are vaccinated, the less the flu will circulate and the lower the odds that people who can get very ill -- such as babies or the elderly -- will catch it.

Finally, remember that each season's flu vaccine targets several strains of flu. This year's strains are: 2009 H1N1 virus, an H3N2 virus and an influenza B virus. No one can say with certainly which of those strains may be more prevalent this season, according to the CDC.

• There are some changes to this season's flu vaccine recommendations. The CDC voted earlier this year to recommend "universal vaccination." That means everyone 6 months and older should get vaccinated, unless your doctor recommends against for a specific reason.
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• Also, the CDC now recommends that children age 6 months through 8 years old receive two doses of flu vaccine at least four weeks apart if they are getting a flu vaccine for the first time. Children who got only one dose in their first year of vaccination should get two doses the following year.
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• For people age 65 and older, a new flu vaccine is now available that is targeted to this age group. The Fluzone High-Dose vaccine contains four times the amount of antigen (the part of the vaccine that prompts the body to make antibody) contained in regular flu shots in order to provoke a stronger immune response. Older people are at greater risk of severe illness from flu, and their bodies also have less ability to have a good immune response after getting influenza vaccine.
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• As of this week, no states reported widespread or regional influenza activity, according to the CDC. Flu vaccine supplies remain good.
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• For more information on the upcoming flu season, flu vaccines, safety issues and treatment of flu, see the CDC website on flu.
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• In flu-related news Thursdays, researchers at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting in Vancouver reported that young children hospitalized with flu complications were more likely to live with a smoker compared to children who were not hospitalized from flu. Another study found no serious complications from H1N1 flu vaccination among pregnant women. Other research presented at the meeting found that pregnant women who refuse flu vaccination are most likely to do so because of safety concerns.