by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Jul 8, 2013 | Caregiving, Dear Donna, Healthy Aging, Uncategorized
Dear Donna:
My father keeps falling. I live three hours away and have had to drop everything three times this month to race to his house after he had a fall. He says it is just a normal part of aging. I think there is more to it. What can we do? I will lose my job if this keeps up!
-Suzanne in Bay City, Michigan
Dear Suzanne:
The teams at Heritage Senior Communities hear stories similar to yours from families we work with across Michigan every day. We know the role of long-distance caregiver is a tough one. Especially if you work and have your own family.
And, you are right. While our senior population does experience more falls, they are not a typical part of the aging process.
There are a few things we can recommend you try to help keep your father safe at home:
- Consider having a physical or occupational therapist do an evaluation of his home environment. They can look at potential hazards that may be increasing his risk for falls. That includes throw rugs, places where grab bars should be installed, stairway safety, lighting and more.
- Has your father had a vision test lately? Many times poor vision and falls go hand in hand. It may be time for a new prescription for his glasses. Or he may be suffering from cataracts that are impairing his vision. It is best to have it checked out.
- Does your father take any prescription medications? The side effects of some medicines can cause an unsteady gait. Or it could be the interaction between two medications that is impacting his balance. Your father’s pharmacist is a good resource for helping you make this determination.
- Poor nutrition can also lead to falls. Is your father eating a well-balanced diet? If he no longer drives or suffers from a disease like Parkinson’s or arthritis, it may be difficult for him to prepare healthy meals. Your local Area Office on Aging will have recommendations on meal delivery programs that might help.
- Strength and flexibility are what help us maintain good posture and balance. If your father has a sedentary lifestyle, you might want to talk with his family physician about strength training and flexibility exercises. He might recommend chair yoga, Tai Chi or another form of no impact exercise to help him regain his strength and flexibility.
If you would like to assess his home on your own, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a great Home Fall Prevention checklist that can help.
I hope these tips help, Suzanne! Best of luck to you and your father.
Donna
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Jul 3, 2013 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Caregiving, Healthy Aging, Uncategorized
Just like a good walking program or a water aerobics class can help you stay physically fit, brain aerobics can help enhance your mental fitness. So what can you do to give your brain a real workout?
The experts from the Heritage Senior Communities share a few ideas to help Michigan caregivers and their aging parents:
- Learn something new. Tackling anything that is different from your normal routine helps to stimulate your brain. Foreign language DVDs are a quick and easy way to get started. Artistic pursuits may also be a good fit for your aging loved one. Watercolor painting or photography are two skills you can learn on your own and improve as you go.
- Try Neurobics. Have you heard of Neurobics before? It is when you try doing tasks and chores with your non-dominate hand. So if you are right-handed try brushing your teeth and combing your hair with your left hand one day a week. Or try teaching yourself to write with your right hand if you are a leftie. It is a great way to stretch your mind!
- 3. Play some Games. You may have already heard this but it is worth repeating. Many Alzheimer’s experts believe games and puzzles can help delay the progression of the disease. Playing board games with the grandchildren one night a week or a few rounds of cards at the senior center allow you to socialize while exercising your brain. There are also many educational websites devoted to brain fitness including Brain Metrix (http://www.brainmetrix.com/) and Senior Brains (http://www.seniorbrains.com/).
- 4. Dig out of your rut. Routinely doing the same things the same way day after day puts your brain on autopilot. It receives very little stimulation when it isn’t challenged with anything new and different. So dig out of that rut you may be in! Turn left instead of right on your way to church, and create a new route you use a few Sundays a month. Find a new walking path or reverse the one you currently take. Think about ways you can do tasks and chores a little differently as you go about your daily routine.
- 5. Read a good book. Reading is another easy way to keep your mind fit. It can be a good book or just the local newspaper you read each day. You could also subscribe to a few of your favorite magazines and read them on your iPad. All of the new information you take in provides a good workout for your grey matter.
- 6. Keep up with current events. If you spend any time in a Heritage Senior Living community in Michigan or Indiana you know this is a popular pastime for older adults. Keeping up with world events and debating the issues are great brain booster activities. You could help organize a group at your local senior center or even participate in a forum online.
Do you have any suggestions for readers to help boost brain power?
We would love to have you share them in the comment section below!
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Jul 1, 2013 | Caregiving, Healthy Aging, Uncategorized
Summer vacation has finally arrived for children across the state of Michigan! And that means kids have more time to spend with their grandparents.
As the family historians, grandparents have many stories to share. Finding ways to document those stories isn’t as difficult or expensive as it used to me. Largely thanks to technology.
Here are a few activities the life enrichment teams from Heritage Senior Communities across the state of Michigan thought might help your family build memories.
- Create a video diary. This can be a simple way to chronicle grandparents’ lives. It can be done with something as easy to use as the video camera on an iPhone or an inexpensive Flip Camera. Your children can come up with a list of questions to ask their grandparents beforehand. Ones that will get them talking about their lives. Then you can schedule a time for the “interview”. Consider having a friend do the taping so both you and your children can be in the video with their grandparents.
- Design a digital scrapbook. Technology has made this so easy to do! You can start by pulling out the box of old photos that almost every family has stored somewhere. Go through the photos with your children and your parents. It is a great way to reminisce and for your children to learn more about their family history. Take notes about the photos that seem most meaningful. Then you can scan the photos and use a digital software program to create the book. You can use the notes you’ve taken to tell the story behind each photo.
- Author a Family Cookbook. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t think their grandmother is the best cook ever? This would be a great project to could include the extended family in, too. Have everyone share their favorite family recipes –including the grandparents—and put them all together in a cookbook. It doesn’t have to cost a lot. There are family cookbook programs that start as low as $25.
- Create a Family Tree. Start this fun project by outlining your family history on craft paper or large poster board. Some suggested information to include on each family member would be their full name, date and location of their birth, and date they were married. Once you have that completed, you can decide how elaborate you want the tree to be. You could create an almost life-sized tree on craft paper with each branch of the family represented. You could scan old photos and print them out to glue to the tree. Or you could use a site like Ancestry.com to create a digital family tree.
- Build an Old-Fashioned Scrapbook. Not everything has to involve technology! In fact, this is one low tech activity that most kids never get tired of doing. Your parents and your children might enjoy creating a scrapbook full of family photos, treasures, souvenirs, and handwritten descriptions. Local craft stores such as Michaels and Hobby Lobby have a variety of papers, binders, fancy scissors, stickers and stamps that you can use.
We hope these suggestions help your family get started on a project of your own this summer. Your parents and your kids will enjoy the time they spend making their treasure together. And, equally as important, they will create a keepsake to one day share with their own children.
Has your family created any digital scrapbooks or cookbooks?
We’d love to hear your ideas in the Comment section below!
by trevor@addfuelfire.com | Jun 28, 2013 | Alzheimer's and Dementia, Uncategorized
Michigan caregivers who have a loved one living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia know how challenging the disease can be. The physical and emotional toll it takes on families can be devastating. And the number of people with Alzheimer’s continues to soar. According to the new 2013 Alzheimer’s Facts and Figures report someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease every 68 seconds. Michigan alone has an estimated 180,000 people living with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2025 that number is projected to increase to 190,000.
For caregivers, knowing if changes they see in a loved one are a natural part of the aging process or something more serious can be difficult to determine.
Eileen Drexler is the Alzheimer’s and dementia care expert for Michigan based Heritage Senior Communities. She offers families the follow tips to help determine what may just be normal aging and what might be something more serious:
1. Forgetfulness. The frantic pace most of us go through life at means we are all bound to forgot things from time to time. But if you are worried your aging parent is forgetting too much, consider what it is they don’t remember. Is it appointments and events they were supposed to attend or is it faces and names? Not remembering the name of someone they have known for a long time can indicate a more serious problem. If they forgot about activities or appointments they had planned, do they remember them later? If it is dementia, they likely do not remember at all.
2. Misplacing Things. There are some items that we all seem to have a hard time holding on to every day. Misplacing our keys or cell phones can be hard to keep track of at any age. But if we retrace our stops for the day, we can usually find them. A person with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia may not be able to do this because they can’t remember all of the places they were over the course of their day.
3. Change in Personality. People in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease often realize something is wrong. They aren’t sure what it is, but it often creates fear. They may withdraw from everything including the people and activities that are most familiar to them. They may also become irritable. A typically gregarious person may become difficult.
4. Getting Lost. This is probably the classic behavior we all recognize. An older person goes out to make a quick stop at the bank and can’t find their way home. An older adult in the beginning stages of dementia may forget where they are and how they got there. They may even have trouble remembering what day it is.
5. Bad Judgment. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia can impair a person’s ability to make good decisions. Even in the earliest stages of the disease. This makes them easy prey for scammers. Especially telephone scams and telemarketing fraud. If your loved one receives a lot of telemarketing calls or seems to be spending a lot of time on the phone with strangers, it is probably something you need to investigate.
Do you have a loved one living with dementia?
What was the first signal you had that there was a problem?
