Q.    My 85-year-old mom was sent back to the hospital after being discharged after recovering from a serious illness.  Is this common and what can be done about it?

It’s more common than you know.  One of five Medicare beneficiaries discharged from the hospital is readmitted within 30 days, and half of non-surgical patients are readmitted to the hospital without having seen an outpatient doctor in follow-up, according to a Commonwealth Fund-supported study in a recent New England Journal of Medicine.

Surprisingly, most patients were rehospitalized for conditions other than those for which they were originally hospitalized.

The rehospitalizations were so rapid that these conditions should probably have been the focus of discharge planning in many cases.  Overall, 73 percent of patients who were initially in the hospital for surgery were readmitted for medical diagnoses such as pneumonia, heart failure or bacterial infections.

The study also showed that a history of rehospitalization and prolonged length of hospital stay were stronger predictors of rehospitalization than age, gender, race, poverty or disability.  The authors suggest several steps to reduce rehospitalizations including:

•    interventions to better educate patients about self-care in the hospital discharge process;
•    helping hospitals better understand their comparative performance on readmissions by providing them readmission data for their patients including those who were rehospitalized elsewhere;
•    collaboration between physicians and hospitals to ensure patients get follow-up care; and
•    follow-up care from a primary care doctor as well as a surgeon for surgery patients.

At-home non-medical assistance also could be of benefit.  Home Instead CAREGivers often handle tasks around the house such as meal preparation, light housekeeping and medication reminders, which can help seniors devote their energy to recovering.

Image Source: pro.corbis.com

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.

When a family takes control of caring for elderly parents, tension and conflict often develops between siblings, because one takes on the majority of the care responsibilities for the aging parent.

Caregiving for a parent can re-ignite old conflicts and sibling rivalry in some siblings, while others may grow closer while coming together to determine the best way to care for their elderly parents. It’s also not uncommon for the sibling who plays the largest role in family elder care to become resentful of their siblings, because they feel like the rest of their family isn’t making a big enough contribution to the care of their elderly parents.

In order to share responsibilities, siblings need to define clear roles and responsibilities. While one sibling may become the primary caregiver for the aging parents, other siblings who live nearby should offer to provide respite; by bringing mom or dad to appointments, or coming over to allow the primary senior caregiver a night out, all siblings can do their part. It’s also important that all siblings are aware of decisions regarding the care and health of their parents; through communication all members of the family remain involved, however, the primary caregiver should ultimately be responsible for making decisions if all siblings cannot come to an agreement. In these cases, the rest of the family should work to support the decision and play their role.

With planning and communication, siblings can come together to ensure quality care for their elderly parents.

Sources:

1. Oregon State University Extension Service

2. Senior Truth (Helen Dennis)

Image Source: www.ehow.com

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.

Frustration, embarrassment, irritability. These are just a few of the emotions a senior feels when they suffer from incontinence. How can you help them cope?

Here are a few examples of strategies to guide you:

1.     Acknowledge the problem

2.     Focus on solutions

3.     Accept support when offered

4.     Have open, honest communication

5.     Sustain the morale for the senior

For the caregiver, creating a supportive environment is important. Here are five basic rules you can use with seniors:

1.     All interactions must be calm and reassuring

2.     Take the lead and help them be prepared

3.     Help the senior with their self-esteem. Don’t use words like “diapers”, refer to them as “undergarments”.

4.     Take a no-fault approach to problem solving. Vies this as a condition, and prepare yourself for the fact that accidents will happen.

5.     Use positive language such as, “It’s going to be alright”.

Think about the qualities that you would want in a person if you had to talk about incontinence. Treat your senior as you would want to be treated in this situation, and both of you will feel better about how you communicate with each other when dealing with a very sensitive issue.

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.

Getting Out From Behind Nursing Home Walls

Often elderly residents who live in Phoenix nursing homes tend to fall into a rut. They embrace the routines and the world inside the nursing home, and block out the rest of the world. For seniors who don’t have family living nearby, there is an even greater risk of falling into isolation and losing a connection with the real world. While this is a common reality for many seniors living in Phoenix and Scottsdale nursing homes, there is another way.

It might not seem like the obvious answer, but families can hire a professional caregiver to work with and provide companionship to a senior in a nursing home. Not only can these individuals bring news from the outside world to keep seniors in touch, they can also take seniors out into the world so they can have their own experiences and stay connected.

While a nursing home will encourage seniors to remain behind the closed doors of the facility and within the grounds, an independent caregiver can take seniors out into the world so the seniors can engage in activities of their choosing. Whether it’s going to a favorite store, seeing a movie, or just getting out for a walk, seniors can remain connected to the outside world with the help of a caregiver. Residing in a nursing home doesn’t have to be a life sentence for nursing home residents, but with the right motivation and guidance, they can get out to see the world from outside the nursing home walls.

Sources:
1.    Help Guide

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.

New Research Sheds Light on Alzheimer’s

Q.    With Alzheimer’s being a real threat for someone like me who is past 80, are there early warning signs and anything that can be done to help people avoid the ramifications of this awful disease?  So far I am in great health physically and mentally.

As a matter of fact, new research has shed light on what could be the earliest warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease, which may open the door to helping people fight back against the disease.

Even very early in Alzheimer’s disease, people become less efficient at separating important from less important information, according to the study, published in the May issue of Neuropsychology.

Remembering what’s most important is central to daily life. For example, if you went to the grocery store but left your shopping list at home, you’d at least want to remember the milk and bread, if not the jam.

The researchers asked participants, who were recruited from the Washington University in St. Louis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, to study and learn neutral words that were randomly assigned different point values. When asked to recall the items, participants were asked to maximize the total value.

All participants, even those with Alzheimer’s disease, recalled more high-value than low-value items. However, the Alzheimer’s groups were significantly less efficient than their healthy age peers at remembering items according to their value.

The authors speculated that Alzheimer’s disease makes it harder for people to encode what they learn in a strategic way.  Because encoding is the first step in long-term memory, this affects their ability to remember things according to their value.

This research, the authors say, suggests the potential for improved memory training. People with early-stage Alzheimer’s might remember important information better by learning to be more strategic and selective when encoding high-value information, even though it comes at the expense of neglecting less-important information, the authors said.

Another great way to stay healthy is to remain active.  Volunteer if you can and even consider a part-time job like that of a caregiver.  Home Instead Senior Care regularly hires other seniors to serve as companions to older adults, assisting them with household tasks or just serving as a friend.

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.

You might have heard of seniors using habit-forming prescription medications that lead to drug abuse or addiction, but these problems don’t only stem from the seniors themselves; shockingly, across the United States, there are other forces that can cause seniors to abuse prescriptions. According to recent reports, antipsychotic drugs typically used to treat patients suffering from Schizophrenia are found to be used inappropriately to sedate seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia because some facilities are finding them too much to handle.

Home Instead Senior Care in Phoenix can help families with elder care concerns like properly taking medications, giving “how to tips” on quality care at home or in nursing homes.

To learn more about medication abuse and how families can further help their elderly loved one, read the post linked below in My Elder Advocate.

Sources:
1. My Elder Advocate

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.

Image: www.oceanhillsrecovery.com

Older adults who feel most isolated report 65 percent more depressive symptoms than those who feel least isolated, regardless of their actual levels of connectedness. The consequences of poor mental health can be substantial, as deteriorating mental health also reduces people’s willingness to exercise and may increase health-risk behaviors such as cigarette smoking and alcohol use, explained Linda Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor in Sociology at the University of Chicago and a leading expert on aging.  Among the study’s findings:

The most socially connected older adults are three times as likely to report very good or excellent health compared to those who are least connected, regardless of whether they feel isolated.

Older adults who feel least isolated are five times as likely to report very good or excellent health as those who feel most isolated, regardless of their actual level of social connectedness.

If you find your aging relative is feeling depressed due to isolation in a Phoenix nursing home, please consider hiring a caregiving companion such as a CAREGiver from Home Instead Senior Care.  It’s a great way to help your aging mom or dad avoid loneliness.

Read how Loneliness Can Impact Seniors’ Health

Source: Science Daily

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.

Image: www.gettyimages.com

Pain treatment for seniors is no easy feat for any senior care provider or medical professional. Dealing with pain in seniors requires a special skill set because studies have shown that pain threshold increases in seniors when dealing with pain in all anatomical areas of the body except for the joints. It can also be challenging to interpret pain felt by [location] seniors as they are often unable to voice the physical sensations they are feeling, and no one else is able to feel the pain that’s being experienced.

Based on the challenges that come with treating pain in seniors, it’s crucial that senior care specialists have special training and knowledge regarding pain management for this demographic. That being said, this is not the case for many senior care providers who work in nursing homes in [location] and across the US, which results in inadequate patient care. Often times, senior residents of nursing homes are treated for the symptoms rather than the cause; while meanwhile serious health issues may be underlying that have remained asymptomatic until the pain became apparent. By treating the symptoms rather than the cause of pain, the health and longevity of seniors is compromised due to inadequate nursing home care.

Sources:
1. The Free Library

Image: verbmall.blogspot.com

Nursing Home Care Greater Phoenix & Nursing Home Care Central Phoenix gives Phoenix elders and seniors quality care at home. Call today 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959.