Lafayette IN

Paul Hogan, Chairman & Founder of Home Instead Senior Care says that his personal goal and corporate motto are the same: To change the face of aging. Paul stands ready to assist Home Instead Senior Care Franchise owners’ efforts on behalf of seniors.

Information is a game-changer for seniors. We live in an information age. As consumers and citizens, information directs the way we invest or spend our money, ultimately determining how we live out our retirement years.

Home Instead Senior Care discovered how well seniors and their adult children understand senior care issues. As senior care advocates, it did not surprise Paul Hogan and his wife, Lori, that survey respondents generally:

• knew little about senior care options

• were misguided about how much those options cost

• were poorly informed about the financial resources needed to cover senior care costs

For example, 71 percent of adult children and 66 percent of seniors could name only two senior care options. And, by a large margin, the two they named most frequently were the most expensive options-skilled nursing homes and assisted-living centers. In contrast, from the book that Paul and Lori Hogan wrote, Stages of Senior Care, lists nine choices in the senior care continuum.

Other survey findings showed:

• 50 percent of seniors said they have not planned for their futures

• respondents think senior care services cost more than they actually do, except in the case of skilled nursing homes. Nursing home care actually costs about $78,000 a year, but the majority of adult children of seniors thought it costs nearly $20,000 less than that.

These knowledge gaps are costly – and not knowing one’s financial options could quickly deplete a lifetime of retirement savings. In human terms, this may lead to seniors leaving their homes for facilities when that option is not necessary.  Seniors prefer to age in their own homes, and with safe and affordable in-home care, seniors can remain in their own homes indefinitely.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

The Challenges that Come with Caregiving

There are a number of challenges that come with caregiving. If you are considering being a primary caregiver, be aware of the following:

•    It is common that caregivers have to retire or change their employment situation.

•    Caregiving is costly.

•    It is very stressful, which can lead to health problems.

•    It can put a strain on your personal life.

Though caregiving is undoubtedly rewarding it is important to be prepared for the challenges that go along with it.

Statistics Pertaining to Caregiving in the United States

For a better idea of some of the challenges associated with elder care read the statistics below:

•    According to Sandra Timmerman, director of MetLife Mature Market Institute, caregivers spend more than $5500 per year on elder care expenses.

•    Long distance caregivers spend at least $8700 per year on transportation, food and supplies.

•    There 65.7 million caregivers in the United States, according to the National Alliance of Caregiving.

•    More than half of those surveyed by www.caring.com are worried about the financial impact caregiving will have on them.

To find out more read this article on BuffaloNews.com.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

Last month, Barb Berggoetz with the IndyStar wrote an article about how families can better prepare for elder care. Ms. Berggoetz interviewed experts like Tamara Wolske, Director of the Center for Aging and Community at the University of Indianapolis, Georgette Smith, franchise owner of Home Instead Senior Care in Indianapolis and Christopher Callahan, Director of the Indiana University Center for Aging and Research.

Barbara Berggoetz asked these experts point questions on how families can better prepare for an aging family member live healthier and a safe life at home. Being a caregiver, even if it’s only part time or for emergencies, can be difficult and has its challenges. Big concerns like: When do you step in to make suggestions or literally take responsibility of the aging person, how do you offer advice without being bossy, and What can family members do to help prevent emergencies? How do you best handle them when they happen?

Tamara Wolske at the University of Indianapolis says, “Preparing in advance really helps because it helps you to stay calm, the more you prepare, the easier it will be to make things simple for yourself and your loved one in a crisis.”

Home Instead Senior Care in Lafayette offers critical information needed for immediate care. It’s called Senior emergency kits, (www.senioremergencykit.com) and provides resources and tracking sheets for family caregivers when needing help dealing with elderly crisis.

Christopher Callahan at the Indiana University Center for Aging and Research says, “Keeping information updated because medications and health-care providers, for example, change frequently.” Key information, such as medications and doctors’ names, can be kept on the refrigerator door or the back of the front door — where ambulance personnel can easily see it. Adult children should collect the information from parents.

Callahan suggests asking them broad questions about their goals of care, such as if they would undergo certain emergency procedures, and their advance directives in case of life-threatening conditions.

Adult children also need to make clear they’re asking questions and collecting information because they care about their parents’ well-being and want to handle emergencies well and try to prevent them. “The tone, though, needs to be conversational”, says Wolske. “It shouldn’t sound like an interrogation.”

Call Star reporter Barb Berggoetz at (317) 444-6294. Read the full story Preparation prevents panic in event of loved one’s health crisis.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

Alzheimer’s is one of the leading concerns of boomers and aging seniors today. We read so much in the news, it’s a common response for people to ask whether you could be on the brink of the disease. And what makes the worry off the charts is knowing that a form of dementia affected one or two family members. Everyone forgets where they put the eye glasses or keys. Sometimes you might even forget why you walked into a room or failed to pay the utility bill.

In a recent article on AgingCare.com, it suggests to not worry or panic. “Stress can be a huge culprit when it comes to memory problems, as can medications, infections and sleep deprivation”, says Carolyn Bradley Bursack. She suggests that if you do have symptoms that bother you, see a doctor, for your care receiver’s sake as well as your own. If your mother has Alzheimer’s, you can’t properly care for her if you can’t keep her medications straight.

Other possible causes of forgetfulness:

-New Medications

-Medication Interactions

-Emotional and physical stress

-Infections

-Sleep deprivations

*Make sure your doctor is aware of your worry about the symptoms of dementia.

Read the full story on How to Tell If You Have Early-Stage Dementia

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

Get tips to make sure your senior loved one is getting proper nutrition. If you are caring for an elderly person be it a parent, other relative or friend, Home Instead Senior Care has designed a website loaded with nutritional help for family caregivers. Learn why proper nutrition is important and what can happen if your senior loved one doesn’t have good eating habits; simple ways to help your senior loved one shop for good food and eat right; as well as ideas for specific dietary and health concerns.

10 Warning Signs of Poor Senior Nutrition

• Loss of appetite
• Little to no interest in eating out
• Depression
• Sudden weight fluctuation
• Expired or spoiled food
• Skin tone
• Lethargy
• Cognitive problems
• More than three medications
• A recent illness

Senior Nutrition Tips

Many seniors with Alzheimer’s encounter something called Sundowning; a restlessness and inability to sleep at night. This is a concern for many Lafayette families who have seniors that suffer from this disease, because at night, when they should be asleep, is the time when they are most likely to be at home alone, and when unsupervised, some sometimes incognizant of their actions, this can be a serious safety concern. Home caregivers hired to help with seniors most often work during the day, unless they live in the senior’s home; and since this can be a more costly alternative for many families, it’s hard  to know what to do with seniors with Alzheimer’s to keep them occupied and safe during the nighttime hours.

Elderserve at Night is a one of a kind Alzheimer’s program to help families and seniors living with this disease cope during the nighttime hours when they can become the most restless and likely to injure themselves with no one available to help. With this nighttime program for seniors with Alzheimer’s, seniors are picked up from their homes and kept busy between 7am and 7pm every evening and well into the night. Seniors are given the opportunity to socialize, the engage in guided activities like painting, music, potting plants, and they are provided methods to just relax away from home where they constantly face the worries that come around when the sun sets.

With this program, seniors even receive meals, the opportunity to shower, and the chance to rest if the mood strikes them; but the top benefit is that seniors and their families know that their loved ones aren’t going to become victims of the night.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

It’s dinnertime. Do you know what’s on the menu at your mom or dad’s house? If a senior is home alone, chances are he or she might not be eating a healthy meal at all.

According to research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care^® network, lack of companionship is the biggest mealtime challenge for seniors.

That’s why the local Home Instead Senior Care office in Lafayette, IN has launched the Craving Companionship ^SM program. The program offers family caregivers tips and practical advice to encourage companionship and easy healthy meals.

Craving Companionship also features a recipe contest promote if speech is given during contest entry period of July 15 to September 15, 2011 that encourages family caregivers to dig into the family recipe box to find that favourite dish, and prepare and share a meal with their senior loved one.

Selected contest recipes and stories will be posted online as well as in the Homemade Memories^SM Cookbook, which will be available for purchase in time for the 2011 holiday season. Proceeds will go to the non-profit Home Instead Senior Care Foundation to benefit North American seniors.

For more details about the program including recipe contest guidelines and prizes, visit www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

Seniors who live alone eat more nutritiously when sharing family mealtimes, according to new research for the Home Instead Senior Care^® network. The network surveyed more than 600 adults ages 75 and older in the U.S. who live alone in their own homes or apartments.

Among other findings, the study showed:

• Seventy-six percent of these seniors eat alone most of the time.
• One in five seniors (20 percent) says he or she sometimes or most of the time feels lonely when eating alone.
• The most common obstacles that prevent seniors from sharing more meals with family and friends are they don’t have enough time (28 percent) and they live too far away (20 percent).
• Approximately 73 percent feel happier sharing a meal with family and friends
• An overwhelming majority of seniors (85 percent) say that having someone to share their meals makes those times more satisfying for them.

To provide further incentive for sharing family meals, Craving Companionship^Sm also features a recipe contest where seniors and their families can submit their favorite family recipes, along with the stories about those treasured recipes. The contest is designed to help families revive mealtimes with their loved ones. Selected recipes and stories will be posted online as well as in the Homemade Memories^SM Cookbook, which will be available for purchase in time for the 2011 holiday season. Proceeds will go to the non-profit Home Instead Senior Care Foundation to benefit North American seniors.

For more details about the program and the contest – which runs from July 15 to September 15 – visit www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

Research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care® network revealed that lack of companionship is the biggest mealtime challenge for seniors.* In the United States, approximately 40 percent of the population age 75 and older – 6.7 million people – live alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  In Canada, it’s approximately 37 percent, Statistics Canada reports. This research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care^® network also reveals 10 mealtime challenges for older adults. The following percentages refer to the number of seniors who believe these are challenges for older people who live alone. After each are tips for how to make the most of mealtimes, from the Home Instead Senior Care network.

1. Grocery shopping for one (79 percent) 

2. Lack of companionship during mealtimes (75 percent)

3. Cooking for one (74 percent)

4. Eating nutritious meals (65 percent)

5. Eating three meals a day (65 percent)

6. High expense of cooking for one (64 percent)

7. Loss of appetite (60 percent)

8. Relying too much on convenience food (57 percent)

9. Eating too little food (47 percent) 

10. Eating too much food (38 percent) 

Learn about the Home Instead Senior Care Craving Companionship^SM program at www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.

When hiring a private home caregiver for an aging loved one, remember to complete a thorough due diligence. If you are hiring someone without going through an agency know that you or the senior is responsible for the costs of medical care, if the caregiver is injured while performing their “on the job duties”. If the private caregiver has comprehensive liability and workplace injury insurance, then you may not be responsible but you need to know.

According to workplace injury statistics, in-home private caregiver injuries are substantial with one in eight being injured on the job; 70% of which occur when lifting or physically supporting a patient.  If a caregiver does not have liability coverage and they are injured performing a task on the job, then families become legally responsible as employers to pay the medical bills. Workplace injuries for caregivers can include falls in the home or even car accidents that take place when running errands for their elderly employer.

Private caregivers may be a greater liability for senior care injuries since they may not receive training in proper lift techniques and other safety measures when caring for seniors, compared to their agency counterparts. When hiring a caregiver, families need to take liability into account; because while private caregivers in Lafayette IN may charge less by the hour, the expenses derived from liability might last a lifetime.

If you are thinking about hiring a caregiver for your senior loved one,  take ample time to conduct a thorough interview. This way both you and your loved one will be comfortable with the care being given. Here are additional factors to consider:

• Ask the potential caregiver if they can provide medical care of any kind.
• Determine if they are self-employed, insured and bonded.
• Speak with the caregiver about their education and caregiving training.

Home Care Lafayette IN keeps seniors and elderly independent and safe at home. Call us for more information at 765-447-8800.