March is National Nutrition Month: Learn How Home Care in Montgomery County PA Can Help

March is National Nutrition Month: Learn How Home Care Can Help!

The key to a long, healthy life includes eating a wide variety of foods including nuts, fruits, grains, vegetables, and lean meats. This is even more important as we get older and our nutritional needs begin to change.

This year, March is National Nutrition Month, an awareness-raising campaign sponsored by the American Dietetic Association to help people plan their diets in order to support a long and healthy life.

This year’s theme is "Eating Right with Color," and the goals of the program are to teach people of all ages how to stay healthy and fit. This information can be useful in a number of contexts, including home care for seniors. Often, seniors receive assistance from elder care professionals who may be responsible for doing their grocery shopping, cooking, or meal planning. This is an important job for any caregiver, and so it is vitally important to understand how to promote healthy eating for older people. Many caregivers who work with elderly individuals say that they spend a considerable amount of time grocery shopping, cooking meals, or planning meals for their patients. This is important because it gives the caregiver an opportunity to help their patient find foods that are going to be nutritious. There can be a couple of obstacles to this, however. Some seniors regularly take several prescription medications that may interfere with the foods that they can eat. Others may have some kind of health problems that can restrict their diet. When hiring a home care professional, make sure they are aware of any restricted food items so these are avoided when planning meals.
As people grow older, their nutritional needs change, and many older people do not receive the proper amount of certain nutrients, such as calcium and Vitamin B, Vitamin B12, fiber, potassium, and others. These nutrients are important for helping maintain the bones and organs in old age. Many of these important vitamins and minerals are found in fortified cereals, fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, yogurt, and grains.

By working with a home care agency, you can rest assured that the foods provided for your loved one are both high in nutritional content as well as accommodating to their dietary needs. The caregivers will know which foods to avoid when grocery shopping and will be aware of any dietary restrictions or possible complications with medicines. Professional caregivers are well-trained to be able to identify ingredients in medicines that may interact with food products and adjust their menus accordingly.  Caregivers are also trained to know which nutrients are more important for men and women as they age. While both groups have less of an appetite as they get older, their nutritional needs are slightly different. Men should consume more potassium and fibers, whereas women need more Vitamin B12 zinc. Both men and women should increase their daily amounts of Calcium and Vitamin D. This is something that caregivers understand well, and they have the skills they need to properly care for your loved ones as they grow older.
This March, show your support of National Nutrition Month and consider hiring a professional caregiver for your loved one. By doing so, you will ensure that your loved ones are receiving the best possible care that caters to their special needs. All caregivers provide customized care for each patient to see that they receive the best care possible. Healthy eating is important for all people, and proper nutrition becomes even more important as we age. Consider hiring a professional elder care agency to care for your loved ones to be sure that they remain healthy and happy for many years to come.

Home Care Services In Montgomery County PA Can Beat Caregiver Stress

Home Care Services In Montgomery County PA Can Beat Caregiver Stress
A person who volunteers to be the live-in care provider for a family member runs the risk of encountering severe stress or burnout. Assuming the responsibility of providing elder care for a person who, due to physical or mental deterioration, can no longer live independently is very noble and can enrich the lives of both people involved; if respite care is not set in place, however, the living situation can become seemingly impossible.
The positive feelings that come from providing live-in care to a loved one can, unfortunately, become overshadowed by negative feelings. The stresses of being responsible for the care of another can result in feelings of anxiety, isolation, frustration and fear. In addition to the emotional impact, there is often an impact on the physical health of the elder care provider: The care provider often neglects their own health in favor of the needs of the recipient of their care. When the combination of emotional and physical impact goes unrelieved there are further complications for the care provider in the form of depression and feelings of inadequacy and failure based on their, self-perceived, inability to cope.
This is why there is a need for respite care. The person providing care is given a break from the amount of responsibility while knowing that the safety and well being of the person needing care are guaranteed. There are three basic types of respite available, each suited to different levels of need.
Adult Day Centers offer a community center setting. These centers often provide various programs, entertainment and socialization opportunities for the older person, yet still provide security in the form of experienced personnel to provide different levels of assistance. The majority of centers accommodate a range of participation from all-day, everyday visitors to those who only spend an hour at the center as they feel like it.
In-Home Care Services bring an experienced home care professional into the residence. The hours are more flexible than those of adult day centers and often of longer duration. In-home care professionals can be employed to watch for the person unable to live independently if the primary care provider has an outside job, if the provider of elder care simply needs an hour away for a break from daily concerns, or for an entire weekend when the caregiver needs to travel.
Assisted Living Respite Care can sometimes be found at assisted living homes, when space allows. For any number of reasons the caregiver may find themselves in a position of needing to find temporary care for an extended period of time, and no better aid can be found than in a facility that exists as a permanent residence for others that require assisted living.
The primary home care provider may initially be hesitant to use respite, but soon finds that taking short breaks from stress to focus on their own needs, both physical and mental, leaves them better able to care for their loved one. The previous negative emotions become, instead, an overall feeling of rejuvenation that leads to a happier relationship between the care giver and the care recipient.

For more information about home care in Montgomery County PA, contact the caregivers at Family Caregivers, we are a home care agency providing quality in home care and assistance to seniors in our community.

Baby Boomers’ Eldercare Wake-up Call in Montgomery County PA

Baby Boomers’ Eldercare Wake-up Call
There are approximately 78 million reasons for boomers to jump on the long-term care strategic thinking, planning and executing bandwagon.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau report in 2009, boomers were 78 million strong based on the 2006 census.
The staggering number of aging boomers in America serves as a wake-up call to boomers to start planning for our elder care needs. We’re only more than a decade late. How’s that timeline for urgency, my fellow boomers? Our millennial wake-up call is more urgent if any of the following scenarios are sound bytes from your life.

• Long-Term Care (LTC) Insurance: If you are familiar with LTC insurance, you get an “E,” for effort, as my octogenarian mother occasionally said about a few of her former elementary school students who didn’t quite make the grade in reading, writing, or arithmetic. If you have LTC insurance, you’re barely passing with a C-.  LTC coverage is a sound baby step, though maybe not for everyone.
• Childbearing Profile:  You are single and childless. While having grown children is no guarantee of having at least 1 trustworthy LTC gatekeeper in your golden years, being a parent of an adult child may yield elder care dividends down the road.
• Health:  You have been medically diagnosed with at least one chronic medical condition.
• Family Medical History:  You have a family history of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer and/or diabetes. As is said in Spanish, “¡Ojo!” (Translation: Keep an eye on that!)
• Relationships in Your Family:  Some families can’t wait to get as far away from each other as possible as members age. If your family’s relationships are strained, don’t count on family support in your golden years. Some caregivers could tell you stories about dysfunctional family relationships that erupt in nasty feuds when aging family members need long-term assistive care.  Who are your family allies? Do you know? You should. One day in the not too distant future, your daily eldercare may depend on a family member. If that day comes, your primary (family) caregiver should be your elder care advocate.
• Home Upkeep:  If you are a homeowner, you know that appliances and various parts of your home eventually will need repairs. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially, will you be prepared, and able, to keep up with increasing demands of homeownership as you advance in years?
• Family’s Go-To Contact?  Your parents are older and/or starting to show signs of age-related or chronic disease health decline. You volunteered, or, Dad asked you for help with mowing the lawn after his heart attack scare. Your sibling who lives closer to your parents than you do has been calling you to vent about “little things” around your aging parents.
• Sibling(s) Lives Closer to Your Elderly Parents: You’ve long assumed that your sibling was merely venting with those telephone calls about your parents. You never gave the conversations a second thought. Your sibling takes care of helping your parents and lives within 15-minutes of your parents’ home.
• Financially Tangled Elder Web:  You feel blindsided when you inadvertently discover that your parents have not paid their (property) taxes for more than a year now. Then, you discover unopened and unpaid bills in your parents’ home. How, and when, did your parents’ financial affairs get so out of hand?
• Your Emotional Roller Coaster:  You wonder what you may have missed and decide that the whole mess is your sibling’s fault. You had nothing to do with this.  You have no idea what to do, or, where to begin. You have your own life, marriage or divorce, relationship woes, job demands, financial challenges, adult child(ren) who just moved back into your home in a dismal economy, mounting debt, and more drama. You’ll help your parents because no one else in your family seems to care.
• Stress:  Your anger mounts. You’re depressed. You stop talking to your sibling(s). You argue with your parents.

You feel so alone.
With 78 million aging boomer cohorts and 65 million caregivers in the U.S., you are part of a supportive community.  Recognizing eldercare’s red flags is one way to achieve confidence that propels you to reach out to healthcare and eldercare professionals for help. Involve your parents and siblings in decisions.
You’re not alone. It’s a family affair.



 Family Caregiver Network caregivers can help your family with all of your home care needs.  We are a home care agency providing affordable in home care in Montgomery County PA.