Archive for the 'Elder care' Category
Did you know that falls are the leading cause of injury and disability among the elderly? One in three American adults age 65 or older falls every year, resulting in countless injuries and an estimated 9,500 deaths. Sadly, falling often leads to permanent loss of independent functioning and a need for longterm nursing care. So it makes very good sense to invest in fall prevention in and around the homes of your senior loved ones.
One of the first things we do with new clients at Good Company Senior Care is a thorough home assessment to identify potential safety hazards: View our detailed Fall Prevention Checklist here.
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Have you ever noticed how many people (including medical professionals) talk down to seniors, using a kind of baby talk? Sing-song voices and simple words and a cutesy tone, calling them ‘dear’ or ‘sweetie’? Sara Myers wrote about this recently on her insightful blog, “A Good Enough Daughter,” over at silverplanet.com. She wrote, “It’s called elderspeak—and it is more than annoying. It’s downright skin crawling….why would someone to talk to another person like that? Ageism is one reason.”
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We hear about this far too many times: a vulnerable elderly person gets a phone call, letter or email promising lottery winnings, inheritances, or some other vast sum of money. All they need to do, they’re told, is to provide bank account information and and some other personal details. Elderly people who are isolated, stressed, and struggling to handle day-to-day finances on their own are especially vulnerable to these schemes.
I read about a shocking recent case in the Wall Sreet Journal, ‘A Family’s Fight to Save an Elder From Scammers,’ and it has some helpful tips on protecting the seniors you love. Most importantly:
- Sign up their cellphones and landlines on the FTC’s Do Not Call Reigstry at DoNotCall.gov
- Put a short script by the phone for responding to telemarketers, something like “I’m very busy right now and cannot talk. Please remove me from your list.”
- Call the AARP Foundation’s Fraud Fighter Call Center at 1-800-646-2283
If the loved one has responded to a scammer, be supportive, not critical or judgmental. Explain that it happens to many people, and they are not alone.
Have you had any experiences with the seniors in your life being targeted by scammers or victimized by fraud operations?
The FTC estimated that more than 30 million people were victims of marketing frauds in 2005 alone, and the numbers are rising.
Is your elderly parent or loved one getting quieter and more withdrawn? Or do they start talking, get confused and ramble? As caregivers, we work with a lot of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, so we’ve developed some good tools to keep them mentally engaged. We also use conversational techniques and topics to help them to talk more comfortably and easily. Here are just a few ideas — and please share yours in the ‘comments’ section below.
- Family memories: get out a box of old family photos and ask questions about specific people and events. Ask about what was going on in the world at that time, like “Was that after the war was over?” or “Was Kennedy president then?” Specific historical questions will often prompt a lot of storytelling. Jot down some of the stories and names as they talk, so you can bring them up again next time you get out the photos.
- Old movies and tv shows: a lot of these are now available on dvd and there are of course 1000s of clips on Youtube. Ask about their memories of when these shows were on the air, what kind of tv they had (or their memories of their first television set), and what shows others in the family enjoyed. Who were their screen idols, and what movies did they never want to miss?
- Puzzles and games: depending on your senior’s level of dementia, these can be a great mental stimulation tool. Jigsaw puzzles, crosswords of various degrees of difficulty, word-search and other challenges are especially good when you are solving them together, encouraging interaction and asking questions. Board games are great too, especially ones that may be connected with warm family memories. A lot of old board games are being re-issued as vintage editions, so ask what games they loved growing up or what they played with their children, and seek those out.
- Gardens and nature: whenever you can, get your senior out for a walk (or a wheel) through a park, garden or nature trail. The combination of trees, birdsong, sunshine, fresh air and flowers can work miracles. And of course it provides so many openings for easy conversation. If they’re a gardener, ask questions about the names of flowers and trees. If they grew up in the area, ask about memories of this particular park or other parks they remember enjoying, or where they took their children to play when they were growing up.
Do you have an elderly loved one struggling with dementia or Alzheimer’s? What works for you in terms of keeping them engaged and getting a comfortable conversation going? We’d love to hear from you.