Having had to go through the decision of bringing a senior home care provider into my father’s San Francisco home when he was in the 70’s, I know just how hard it can be to know when it’s the right time. While I’m sure that every situation varies for each senior and their family, there were a few factors that made me determine it was the right time to help my dad by providing him with in-home care. For one, after recovering from an injury, I knew I wouldn’t be able to be there for his every whim once he returned home from the hospital, and I really wanted him to focus on his recovery, and didn’t want him to overdo it by trying to keep up with things around the house. Since I couldn’t be there all the time, I figured that an in-home care provider for seniors would be able to fill in the gaps.

Even after his recovery, we decided it was a good idea to keep the professional caregiver, because his doctor recommended that since his injury probably impacted his reflexes, he give up his car keys. While I had no problem arranging to drive my dad around to run errands, I knew that with my immediate family and my career, that I wouldn’t be able to accommodate him every time he needed me since I’d need to work around my schedule.

I would say, that anyone who sees their elderly parent or relative beginning to struggle, should consider home care to fill in the blanks.

- Stephanie, 45 San Francisco

Image Source: pro.corbis.com

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

Family caregivers do make up a large percentage of caregivers nation wide, but very few of them have adequate training in even the most basic elements of senior care. Family caregivers in San Francisco might be able to provide care and assistance when it comes to cooking, cleaning and running errands, as well as the more basic care elements; however, they don’t necessarily have the skills and training that they need to respond in a medical emergency. Unlike family caregivers who might not be familiar with CPR or basic first aid techniques that could be necessary should the senior have an accident, fall or sudden illness, home caregivers are professionals that can respond through their training to provide care until additional medical help arrives.

Home caregivers can also be proactive through their training to provide a safe environment for seniors in their homes by identifying potential safety hazards and suggesting changes that the family can make to prevent accidents. Professional caregivers from San Francisco Home Instead Senior Care are also trained to identify potential signs and symptoms of health problems, and can use proper handling techniques when helping seniors remain mobile around their homes. With untrained family caregivers, risks and signs that could indicate a health hazard for seniors might go unnoticed, and they could inadvertently hurt their loved ones while trying to help.

Sources:

1. Seniors Daily
2. Home Instead Senior Care

Image Source: pro.corbis.com

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

Coming up with fun activities for seniors and their home caregivers to do together can be tough; especially when there is a generational gap to contend with. Finding mutual interests for seniors and their caregivers is undeniably challenging, but there are activities out there that will bridge the gap and allow home caregivers to have a great time with their elderly care recipients in San Francisco, which is also great for the summer months to take advantage of the beautiful weather. One great activity idea for seniors and their caregivers is digital photography, which can also help to memorialize the things that are important to seniors while allowing them to express their creativity.

When encouraging a senior to start digital photography as a new hobby with a senior home caregiver, allow them to pick locations and photography subjects that have significance to them, and make sure that they have access to a camera that is well-suited to their technological abilities and motor skills. Digital cameras for seniors should have larger display screens for ease of viewing, bigger buttons to aid when dexterity is limited, and should only have features which are appropriate for the senior’s technical abilities.

If a caregiver approaches you about trying digital photography with an elderly family member of yours; get on board, you’ll probably find it opens their eyes to a whole new world!

Sources:

1. Suite101
2. eHow

Image Source: pro.corbis.com

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

Many seniors consider bringing a pet into their home to offer a sense of companionship and give them a reason to get out of bed everyday. However, there are some considerations that seniors need to make to ensure that they are physically and emotionally prepared for the responsibilities of pet ownership, especially if the pet in question is a dog.

• Seniors need to prepare their home – whether they choose to bring a puppy or an older dog into the home they need to ensure that tempting objects are moved away from floor level

• Purchase doggie gear – dogs need everything from collars to toys, food, bowls, beds, crates and more.

• Training – initially when a dog is brought into the home, they need to be put on a schedule and taught some basic commands that acquaint them with their new owner and their surroundings

• Maintenance – dogs need to be bathed, groomed and more on a regular basis. Owners can either complete these tasks themselves, or get the dog to appointments where they can be cared for

• Walks and feeding – dogs need to be let outside or walked multiple times daily, and need to have food and water available to them

Dog ownership can be a lot of responsibility, but if seniors want to have a pet for a companionship, they don’t have to do it alone to compromise their safety or risk having no one to care for the animal in the case of a medical emergency. Home Instead Senior Care can help by running errands before the pet comes home and can assist with walking feeding and more to ensure that both the health and safety of the dog and the elderly owner are always the top priority.

Sources:

1. Suite 101
2. American Kennel Club

Image Source: pro.corbis.com

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

In the height of a senior’s medical emergency the last thing anyone worries about is the dirty dishes in the sink or the rotting groceries in the fridge. The only thing on anyone’s mind is getting the San Francisco senior the immediate help and medical care that they require. As a result, once seniors have spent some time in a hospital or rehabilitation facility following an accident, looking after these elements in the home can fall by the wayside, and understandably so. However, when it comes time to return home, the last thing families need while trying to focus on helping the senior recover is to have to clean up the mess. In home caregivers can help seniors on all levels; providing seniors with the assistance they need to recover from their accident, and also helping them care for the home, both before and after they come back from the hospital.

Home caregivers can help seniors with the following tasks, so all they need to focus on is their recovery:

• Clean the refrigerator and pantry

• Buy fresh groceries

• Change sheets and linens

• Do the laundry

• Vacuum and mop floors

• Clean bathrooms

• Takeout trash

• Organize mail and newspaper delivery

• Drop off or pickup items from the dry cleaner

Sources:

1. Home Instead Senior Care

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

While there has been a long-standing misconception that the best place to provide care for a San Francisco senior suffering from Alzheimer’s is in a nursing home or assisted living facility, the reality is that not only would these seniors prefer to stay in their own homes, they receive greater benefits by living in a familiar environment. Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s can be overwhelming, and require you to make sacrifices in your work and family life in order to keep up with the senior’s growing needs. However, there are other options available to help keep seniors with Alzheimer’s living with some level of independence in their own home environments.

Home Instead Senior Care offers home care services which can help seniors deal with the areas of daily living that they struggle with, or with tasks where safety may be an issue due to the Alzheimer’s or dementia. Caregivers can help seniors with dressing, cooking, cleaning and more to preserve their safety and ensure their needs are being met. For those seniors who are suffering from more advanced Alzheimer’s and dementia, Home Instead Senior Care even have caregivers that are trained to deal with the specific needs presented by someone with Alzheimer’s, so families can rest assured that their elderly loved ones are receiving the highest level of care available.

Sources:

1. Web MD

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

Q – My dad in San Francisco has had to give up driving. I don’t live close enough to be able to take him on errands or to appointments. Are there any services available to help with transportation in his area?

A – In-home senior caregivers can help seniors with transportation to appointments, errands, and virtually anywhere else they want to go. At Home Instead Senior Care, we check all of our caregivers driving records with the DMV to ensure they are licensed to drive and have a good driving record. Caregivers can transport senior clients in the seniors vehicle, or in their own vehicle if the senior does not own a car. However, if they use the caregiver’s car, then transportation fees do apply.

While many communities do offer free transportation services for older adults that are similar to public transportation on buses, they do not offer the same level of flexibility or allow seniors to stick to their own schedule or routines. By having a caregiver to drive them, seniors can do everything on their own time without making sacrifices.

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

Image Source: www.drivealivedrivingschool.com.au

Senior Care decisions can put a strain on even the strongest family relationships. If you believe that discussing senior care or medical care for an aging parent or relative is putting your family relationships in turmoil, it may be time to seek help. Answer the following questions to determine if senior care family meetings are putting undue stress on your family in San Francisco and learn if it’s time to start making some serious changes.

• Your family members cannot seem to agree on the best way to care for your elderly parent, resulting in disputes

• Members of your family feel that senior care responsibilities are not evenly distributed

• If the primary family caregiver has been decided, other members of the family do not support the decisions

• The primary family caregiver feels like the rest of the family are not doing their part to care for the aging parent

• One member of the family is resentful of the financial contributions they’re making for senior care

If you have answered “yes” to any of the above questions, then if it hasn’t happened already, senior care is about to result in family conflict. In order to ensure that family conflict doesn’t tear your family relationships apart, use an elder mediator to help facilitate family meetings about senior care so that your aging parents best interests remain at the forefront.

Sources:

1. Plan for Care
2. Mayo Clinic

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

Q – My mom is in her 70’s and lives in San Francisco, I live about 30 minutes away and since she lives alone I worry about what could happen if she were to have an accident in the home and no one were there to help her. Is there anything I can buy that will help her to maintain her independence, so we don’t have to resort to an assisted living facility to ensure her safety?

A – Fortunately, with new technologies on the market catering directly to this issue, San Francisco seniors are able to find independence and safety together. Personal Emergency Response Systems are an easy solution for seniors like your mother, who live alone but risk no one discovering if they have an accident or medical emergency. With Personal Emergency Response Systems, if a senior has an accident or injury in the home, he or she can press a button which notifies the monitoring company that they are need of assistance. Upon activation of the device, the senior monitoring company contacts help, but way of medical assistance or by calling a contact name left by the senior. Additional features are available with these technologies that remind seniors when it’s time to take their prescriptions, or allow seniors to speak directly to an individual when an incident occurs. Consider your mother’s needs and choose a Personal Emergency Response System that provides the features that will allow her to maintain her independence, but helps you feel comfortable knowing she’s safe.

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.

Image: www.seniorspecialists.org

Whether you’re an older adult or a senior caregiver, you know that stress can be a regular part of your daily life. But while some level of stress might be normal, there are specific lifestyle factors that can leave you more vulnerable to the physical and emotional effects of stress, which can have and impact on your health.

The following factors can contribute to your stress vulnerability, and if they are part of your life, it’s probably time to make some changes and incorporate stress management techniques:

• You eat irregular meals, or do not have a regular, well-balanced diet

• You don’t engage in cardiovascular activities at least a couple of time per week, but ensure that they are safe for your level of physical fitness and mobility

• You rarely get a good night sleep of at least 8 hours per night

• You smoke or drink alcohol on a regular basis

• You have limited social contact, and don’t engage in social activities in your community or with your peers

• You lack a support system of family and friends that you can talk to about the things that are bothering you

• You refuse to talk with a professional when the stress gets to be too much

• You, like many Americans, are addicted to caffeine and consume multiple caffeinated drinks per day

• You find it impossible to find time to yourself, or feel guilty when you do so you never put yourself or your needs first

If the above sounds like you, you are putting your body and mind seriously at risk for stress related complications. You may suffer from a diabetes condition, heart condition, chronic fatigue, and even cancer.

Sources:

1. Medical News Today

2. Medicine Online

3. The American Institute of Stress

Image: www.dovechristiancounseling.com

Home Care San Francisco Bay Area serving seniors in San Bruno, San Mateo, Walnut Creek and Concord. Call us at 415-333-3944 or 650-877-8009.