The over-the-river-and-through-the-woods trip to grandmother’s house is prime time to also assess Mom and Dad’s health before a crisis occurs, aging experts say.

Counseling experts are already witnessing a 66% growth in calls this year from adult children seeking advice on complex medical, legal and financial issues involving aging parents, according to a report being released Wednesday by the ComPsych Corporation, an international provider of 13,000 employee-assistance programs. Add to that high volume the 18% increase during November and December, when families gather after long absences.

“A lot of the calls are financially driven and stress driven,” says Richard Chaifetz, chief executive officer for ComPsych. “People will call and say, ‘I think my father needs to go to a nursing home. Can you help us figure out our options and how to broach it with him?’ ”

Those life-changing conversations are rarely an appetizing mix with a celebratory feast. Chaifetz says it’s best to go home prepared to have a good time but to be aware of changes occurring in older parents.

“A lot of people will decide not to say anything to parents when they’re visiting,” says Chaifetz, “but then they’ll go home and start to realize their parents might need help.”

Or there might be a crisis, says Chaifetz, when adult children have to find alternative living arrangements for their parents.

“It can be extremely daunting and overwhelming for people to have to take over decision-making for their parents,” says Chaifetz. “Most people don’t know where to begin. Our experts can help them sort out options and offer support.”

Taking over for parents should be a last resort, says Sandy Markwood, chief executive officer of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, a division of Health and Human Services.

“It’s really best to have early conversations with parents about what they need and want so they can age in place,” says Markwood. “Sometimes what they might need is a ride to the doctor or a home-delivered meal or someone to help with chores. It’s rare that they need full support overnight.”

Wondering how to know if parents might need some help? Here are four questions to ask yourself, says Chaifetz:

•How do they look? If they were previously fashion divas or dapper Dans and their clothes are dirty or do not match, be sure to ask the next three questions.

•Is the home in good order? If the house and property were always photo-ready for Home and Garden and now are messy or have stacks of old newspapers and magazines scattered around, that could signify other problems.

•Are they eating well? If the refrigerator lacks healthy ingredients, they might not be meeting nutritional needs.

•How are their cognitive skills? If there are unpaid bills or expired pill bottles, or if they get lost on routine trips, they might be suffering from depression or dementia.

Continue reading from usatoday.com…

We help families every day with senior home care. To learn more about how we help families in the Florida areas of Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Englewood, Venice and North Port, visit us at http://floridahomecare.net.

If you are an adult child of aging parents, and you do not get to see your parents often, the holidays are the perfect (though perhaps not ideal) time to really look into how they are doing. What they tell you on the phone may not be the case once you see the state of affairs for yourself. As travels continue for the remaining holiday season, please broach the uncomfortable topics with your parents-so that their latter years are lived safely and with integrity. To learn more about how we help families in the Florida areas of Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Englewood, Venice and North Port, visit us at http://floridahomecare.net. 

The Holiday Reality Check
By Paula Span

I spoke to a couple of veteran geriatric care managers in the Boston area earlier this week. They were braced for ringing phones today, their own sort of Black Friday surge.

“I get these S.O.S. calls” from adult children visiting family at Thanksgiving, said Emily Saltz, who operates a practice called Elder Resources in Newton, Mass. “They’ve been talking with their parents all year, being told everything is fine. Then they get there, and it’s not fine. And the kids freak out.”

Suzanne Modigliani, who practices in Brookline, Mass., expects to hear the same stories. “The kids come home, they see rotting food in the refrigerator, clothes not washed, bills not paid,” she told me. “And subtler things, like increased frailties. They’re concerned, they sometimes dash around trying to do things — but then they have to leave.”

This jolt is more likely to hit adult children who are distant, who can’t regularly look in on aging family members. They’ve been reassured for months by parents who are trying not to burden them, or who don’t want to confront their own diminished capabilities, or who may not be fully aware themselves that they’re losing ground.

Then their children arrive, look in the medicine cabinet or get into a car a parent is driving and see that all is not well.

Some organizations urge families to use these holiday gatherings to raise the issue of advance directives, giving parents a chance to express their preferences for future care decisions before a real crisis hits. It’s a fine idea to initiate these conversations in person, when older relatives can hear and see their children and when siblings may also be on the scene.

The evidence suggests that it doesn’t happen terribly often (perhaps it seems insufficiently celebratory?) given that most people, even very old and sick people, don’t have advance directives. But, as Ms. Saltz urged, “even if Mom sends you packing, give it a try.” These are seldom one-shot conversations anyway.

(On a less charged subject, The Atlantic magazine has suggested that today should be Update Your Parents’ Browser Day, another idea I can endorse.)

But say we accept that a lot of families are going to duck this dialogue for now. The holiday reality check nevertheless can lead to some pragmatic steps that can help older people maintain their independence, at least for a while.

Continue reading from the New Old Age Blog:

November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month and Family Caregiver Month. About 60% of the nation’s 5 million Alzheimer’s patients will wander, according to Beth Kallmyer, senior director of constituent services at the Alzheimer’s Association.

“This is such a big worry for families,” she says. “We tell them their loved ones can wander off at any time, even when you just go into the kitchen for a minute to start dinner.”

Kallmyer advises families that there’s no way to keep an eye on someone 24-7, but that there are some steps they can take to decrease the chances their loved one will wander.

1. Keep wandering top of mind

Sometimes families are surprised when their loved one wanders. Lawrence Schonfeld, an Alzheimer’s expert, has noticed sometimes families forget that wandering is a huge risk because they’re so overwhelmed with other aspects of Alzheimer’s disease.

That can be a fatal mistake.

“Families are worried their loved one will leave the stove on in the kitchen, or they’re annoyed when their loved one asks the same question over and over again,” he says. “Wandering isn’t always their major concern.”

2. Pick up on the red flags of wandering

Wandering can happen at any time, but it’s more likely in certain situations, such as when someone with dementia is in unfamiliar surroundings.

People with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia often leave clues that they’re about to wander. If your loved one says, “It’s time to go to work,” she might truly be headed out the door in a few minutes. “I want to go home” might mean he’s about to go in search of his childhood home, and you have to stop him.

3. Distract them

Don’t say “Dad, you haven’t worked in 30 years,” or “Mom, you’re already at home.” Reasoning won’t work. Instead, distract.

“If they say they want to go to work, tell them ‘OK let’s go see if we can find your shoes,’” Schonfeld suggests. “By the time they get their shoes on they’ll have forgotten about going to work.”

Read more from cnn.com…

For Alzheimer’s care in the Florida areas of Englewood, North Port, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Venice, visit us at http://floridahomecare.net.

Whether you are an older American or have parents or family members who are getting on in years, you need to be aware that the burdens of long-term caregiving will increasingly fall more heavily on families and friends. The financial and demographic forces behind this trend are so powerful that the shift to increased self-reliance is unavoidable.

Like other problems that have been hiding in plain sight for years, the factors behind this trend are not new:

1. Senior populations are exploding. By 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be at least 65 years old. The country’s fastest growing age group is made up of people who are 85 and older.

2. This growing group of seniors is living longer, thanks to healthcare and lifestyle changes. But this also means adding years to the time periods during which many of these longer-lived people will need some form of ongoing care.

3. Republicans and Democrats are arguing over cuts to senior programs—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—as they debate how to close the yawning federal deficit. But neither the nation nor its taxpayers will be able to afford the growing price tag for supporting rising numbers of aging baby boomers.

4. Still reeling from recessionary conditions, American families increasingly can’t afford the price tag for nursing homes, assisted care facilities, and other long-term care services.

While these forces are raising the need for family caregiving, the nation’s family structure has splintered in recent decades. Increasingly, older Americans don’t live with or even near younger family members. There is some evidence that Americans have recently begun placing more emphasis on access to family members when they move. But such migration has ground to a halt because of falling home values and the difficulty of selling or buying new homes.

Of course, before Medicare and Medicaid, and before the rise of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, American families used to take care of aging family members. Multigenerational households were the norm, not the exception.

Economic pressures have recently triggered a rise in multigenerational households. That’s due in part to caregiving needs, but is being driven more by children being forced to move back in with their parents because they can’t afford to live on their own. As the economy slowly recovers and young-adult employment prospects brighten, most will move back out.

As senior advocates continue to battle budget and program cutbacks that affect caregiving, experts also advise families about caregiving planning and needs.

Consider multigenerational living. According to a recent caregiving survey by the National Family Caregivers Association and Allsup, a fee-based benefits advisory company, two-thirds of caregiving involves people living in the same home and 96 percent of all caregiving involves family members.

Understand what caregiving entails. There is a wide range of caregiving requirements based on the needs of the family member requiring care. If you’re a caregiver, it’s important to understand the care needs of the person you’re helping. People who are thrown into caregiving in a crisis report high levels of stress and anxiety about their roles.

Continue reading from usnews.com…

For senior home care in the Englewood, North Port, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Venice FL areas, visit us at http://floridahomecare.net.

A new shoe featuring a GPS system will be coming to the U.S. soon. Though it was not the original intention for these shoes to be made for Alzheimer’s patients, it turns out such a feature will ultimately save lives when dementia patients wander away. As our society confronts the dire statistics in regards to the rise of Alzheimer’s patients over the next two decades, such a product may prove to be beneficial for families, caregivers and law enforcement. To learn more about senior home care in the Port Charlotte, Englewood, North Port, Punta Gorda and Venice FL areas, visit us at http://floridahomecare.net.

GPS Shoes for Alzheimer’s Patients

Shoes featuring GPS transmitters to help find wanderers suffering Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia are coming soon to the U.S. market, Agence France-Presse reports.

The walking shoes, from GTX, have built-in global positioning satellite systems in the heels. They will retail for $300, and buyers will need to set up a monitoring service. The company said it has shipped the first 3,000 pairs to Aetrex Worldwide footwear.

The project was announced two years ago. The shoes are aimed at saving lives and the costs of police searches for seniors who have wandered away.

Project adviser Andrew Carle of George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services said that 60% of sufferers wander and become lost and that up to half who are not found within 24 hours may die from dehydration, exposure or injury.

AFP notes that seniors have rejected other GPS devices such as bracelets or pendants.

“The primary reason is that paranoia is a manifestation of the disease,” Carle said. “If you put something on someone with Alzheimer’s that they don’t recognize, they remove it. If it’s a wristwatch and it’s not their wristwatch, they will take it off. So you have to hide it.”

Originally, he said, the technology was targeted at children and long-distance runners.

Continue reading here…