Creating A Safe Home by Anne Marie Mills

Creating A Safe Home

Creating A Safe Home. Santa Clara Signal staff writer, Anne Marie Mills

One of the simplest modifications involves creating a “barrier-free” home. According to Santa Clara Signal staff writer, Anne Marie Mills in her article, “Is Your Home Safe?” what this means is that the home has no barriers prohibiting people with disabilities to freely navigate the home. For example, a person in a wheelchair needs to have door opening sizes increased from the basic 29 inch to 30 inch width to as much as 36 inches to 42 inches. Carpets need to be commercial-contract carpet similar to the type used in banks and office buildings, rather than the traditionally thicker home carpets so that a person in a wheelchair or using a walker will have no problem walking on them.

In addition, there are three other key areas of focus for modifying your home for your elder--lighting, the bathrooms and home furnishings.

The older we get, the more we need to tackle clutter

Surf Net Parents is part of the Surfnetkids.com family of kids sites from syndicated columnist Barbara J. Feldman a syndicated newspaper columnist, online publisher, author, mother, wife and Net surfer.

This information was found on Surf Net Parents and helps with the clearing out clutter tasks faced by many caregivers.

Tackling clutter is not always easy, and most people are not really sure how to do it, so the clutter worsens, and it becomes more and more overwhelming to tackle it later. However, there are ways to tackle clutter, and the following tips will help:

Choose a place to start: Honestly, the biggest problem with clutter is people look at it, get overwhelmed by it, and because they do not know where to start, they never do. So, if you want to tackle clutter, choose a place to start. One of the best places to start is whatever cluttered place you see most often, whether that is your room, your kitchen, your bathroom, or wherever. If you want to tackle clutter you have to start somewhere, so pick somewhere to start.

Reduce and simplify: Once you have your starting point, the best thing you can do is start reducing and simplifying. You want to get rid of as much stuff as you can. If you want to get rid of clutter you have to start by getting rid of as much of the stuff causing clutter as possible. So, make "reduce and simplify" your motto. Make sure you get rid of anything you have not used in a while, anything that you do not need, anything that invites clutter, etc.

Most homes have a certain degree of clutter. Book bags get dropped off at the door, mail piles up on the entry table, and drawers and closets are full of things like coupons, clothing, and other items you are certain at some point you will use.

For people who hate to throw things away, or who find sentimental value with many of the items that clutter their home, it can be difficult to get rid of clutter.

Home Safety Evaluation Checklist, from Toghers

Toghers' {Toe–gers} mission is to provide the roadmap that will guide caregivers along their own caregiving journeys.

They offer a comprehensive
Home Safety Evaluation Checklist .
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This evaluation can be used to determine if someone is safe living home alone given the current state of the home.

Any NO response indicates an area of concern. NO responses do not necessarily mean that the person can no longer remain at home, but do indicate areas in which the home may need to be modified or where assistance should be brought in to ensure safety.

If the care recipient is unable to perform a task independently mark NO; if a caregiver is available to assist with the task mark CAREGIVER. This will help determine whether the care recipient is safe without a caregiver present.

A Journal for Caregivers, Creating Moments of Joy

Amazon.com: Creating Moments of Joy: A Journal for Caregivers, Fourth Edition (NEW COVER) (9781557534620): Jolene Brackey: Books

Customer reviews

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Jolene Brackey has a vision. A vision that will soon look beyond the challenges of Alzheimer's disease and focus more of our energy on creating moments of joy. When a person has short-term memory loss, his life is made up of moments. But if you think about it, our memory is made up of moments, too. We are not able to create a perfectly wonderful day with someone who has dementia, but it is absolutely attainable to create a perfectly wonderful moment; a moment that puts a smile on their face, a twinkle in their eye, or triggers a memory. Five minutes later, they won't remember what you did or said, but the feeling you left them with will linger.
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Recommended to me by by JAB a trusted source of advice and assistance.

Mayo Clinic health education outreach coordinator Angela Lunde

Angela Lunde is a dementia education specialist in the education core of Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Abigail Van Buren Alzheimer's Disease Research Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Angela is a member of the of the Alzheimer's Association Program Services Advisory Council, co-chair of the Advanced Practice Professional Education track for the Minnesota State Dementia Conference, and a member of D-BART (Dementia-Behavioral Assessment and Response Team), a multidisciplinary outreach service assisting professional and family caregivers in understanding and managing difficult behaviors often present in dementia.

Caring elderly seniors, parent, elderly spouse, domestic partner or close friend

http://www.aging-parents-and-elder-care.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/mike_gamble

Elder Care - Overcoming the challenges of long term elder care

This article will walk you through the first steps of elder care – whether your loved one has Alzheimers Disease or another form of dementia, is recovering from a broken hip, or you are trying to figure out Medicare benefits. It is a primer - a source of both information and comfort. Each elder care situation is unique, of course. Your loved one's medical history, financial resources, personality, relationships with potential caregivers, proximity to services and other factors all determine the best approach to take.

Citizen Creator project, edit and share compelling narratives.

Introduction to Story Capture | story capture

Introduction to Story Capture

Our goal is to create an easy-to-use tool and process for chronicling non-profit initiatives, volunteer projects, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. But we've also realized that the same approach is useful in a wide variety of fields and communities, including healthcare, marketing, and product development.

Story Capture looks and works like many common blog systems, but provides a set of tools for reversing the sequence of blog posts (putting them in chronological order) and then editing the resulting "story line" into a coherent narrative. Participants and staff can input story material using widely accessible social media (blog posts, email, Twitter, etc.) and then edit that material (through a shared interface) into compelling stories, articles or web pages including photos, video and other types of media files.

The Basic Idea

The basic idea of Story Capture is simple ... create a story, blog about what you're doing (write a paragraph or two) on a regular basis, and attach photos or video that you've shot. Then we provide an easy way to roll up those blog posts and generate a "story line" ... the same content in reverse order (the linear sequence in which we would tell a story), formatted to be easy to read and/or re-edit into a final report or web document.

How Tos and Suggestions

Of course, the tool is just a convenience. What's important is your process for capturing the story. (Building a story can be an individual or group effort; if you're mainly a visual person, you might want to collaborate with a word person, or vice versa.) It helps to think and talk about what's the core story behind your project. What are you trying to do? Why is it important? Who's involved in this story? Who should I interview, what questions should I ask? What's the timeline of the project, and how often should I write and shoot video or take pictures? The depth and quality of the story will depend on thinking deeply about what you're trying to capture.

Check out "How to ..." for nitty-gritty help on using the tool, and "Suggestions for ..." to get tips on how to improve your stories and media.

Who We Are

The Story Capture program is an initiative of the Citizen Creator project, which is being supported by the Learning Worlds Institute. We're hoping to encourage the use of storytelling methodologies to help volunteers and non-profit organizations to document and celebrate the good work they do. We're interested in developing and spreading the Story Capture process and tools through pilot projects and workshops. Please contact us (pilots@storycapture.org) if you'd like to work together.

Short and Long term Care for your Pets, plan now

When Aging Parents Can No Longer Care for their Pets | Tender Loving Eldercare

Short Term Care Options

During a brief illness or a short-term hospital stay, seniors would probably prefer a family member, neighbor or friend to care for their pet(s). Identify who they would like them to be, and also designate one or two back up people just in case the first choice isn’t available for some unforeseen circumstance. Ask the designated individuals or families in advance if they can, and would be willing to, take on this responsibility. Also ask if they would or could consider caring for the pets if your aging parents’ hospital stay is lengthier than anticipated. Prepare a resource list of the pets’ daily routines, favorite foods (and treats), exercise needs, medical records, any medications they take and the veterinarians’ contact information.

Elderly Leave Nursing Homes for Home

Helping Elderly Leave Nursing Homes for a Home - NYTimes.com

A growing number of states are reaching out to people like Mr. Brown, who have been in nursing homes for more than six months, aiming to disprove the notion that once people have settled into a nursing home, they will be there forever. Since 2007, Medicaid has teamed up with 29 states to finance such programs, enabling the low-income elderly and people with disabilities to receive many services in their own homes.

The program in Pennsylvania provides up to $4,000 in moving expenses, including a furniture allowance and modifications to the apartment, and Mr. Brown has a home health aide every morning and a care manager to arrange for services like physical therapy. The new programs, financed largely by $1.75 billion from Medicaid, are a sharp departure from past practices, where Medicaid practically steered people into nursing homes.

CBS video: Caregivers Are Pressed For Cash

Caregivers Pressed For Cash

November 19, 2007 11:11 PM

A recent healthcare study has found that many caregivers are using a large portion of their income to cover costs. Sandra Hughes reports.

View the video report: Caregivers Pressed For Cash - CBS News Video.

"sandwich generation," Basically, it's a bummer,

More adult children support cash-strapped parents - The Mercury Life: Pottstown, PA and The Tri County areas of Montgomery, Berks and Chester Counties (pottsmerc.com)

Retirees are facing massive health care costs. They're living longer, so retirement funds are being depleted. And now rising prices, for everything from food to gas and heating oil, are only making matters worse.

Recent statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau found that the number of parents who've moved into their adult children's homes increased 67 percent, from about 2.1 million in 2000 to 3.6 million last year.

Other children are supporting parents who live in a separate home and who, in some cases, aren't even of retirement age.

Caregivers Face Role Reversal

Adult Children Caring for Aging Parents Face Role Reversal in Lorain, Ohio | senior home care Lorain Ohio (OH), Elder home care Lorain Ohio (OH), homecare Lorain Ohio (OH)

With all these added stressors, experts emphasize the importance of caretakers looking after their own physical and emotional health. “You can’t take care of someone else without taking care of yourself first,” agrees Bitner. This involves getting help from others, whether it be from siblings, a support group or a health care service.

The staff at Visiting Angels understands this need. The company provides non-medical caregivers who go into clients’ homes to offer companionship, do light housekeeping, run errands, prepare meals or do shopping — all services that can provide a respite for families dealing with the care of a loved one.

“You can be confident that your caregiver is qualified and has excellent references,” says Bitner. The company hires only experienced caregivers who pass a rigorous screening process. They also look for intangible traits such as a caring personality. Many of the company’s caregivers are former hospital staffers looking for the opportunity to do one-on-one personal care.

“We work with each family to develop an individualized program to manage the daily needs of the client and then match those needs to the best possible caregiver,” explains Bitner. Caregivers are then introduced to the family, who has the final say in the selection process.

Once the caregiver has been placed in the home, Visiting Angels continues its personalized contact through telephone check-ins and home visits to make sure the match is a good one.

Visiting Angels has senior homecare agencies in most states. For more information on the office nearest you, visit their Web site at www.visitingangels.com or call (800) 365-4189.

Courtesy of ARA Content Jeff & Robin Donnelly Visiting Angels

Your Caregiving Journey: a internet talk radio show

Your Caregiving Journey, with Denise Brown, delves into discussions about your caregiving situations. Each week, a topic related to the challenges of eldercare.
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BlogTalkRadio is a provider of thousands of internet talk radio shows.

the Alzheimer's Roller Coaster the slow journey into the Alzheimer's Twilight Zone.

Thoughts from the Roller Coaster by LCC Metairie, Louisiana

LCC shares her thoughts, feelings and ideas on a long, slow journey on the Alzheimer's Roller Coaster into the Alzheimer's Twilight Zone.

A very personal EOADer's journal by a woman sharing her daily life while dealing with Early Onset Alzheimer's. I became aware of LCC while reading her valuable contributions to cargiver discussions on the AD Message Boards

Moving Aging Family Member into Your Home .. sure?

Joy Loverde addressed Moving Aging Parents into Your Home on the EldercareABC Blog

Joy's information is applicable if you were to substitute "Aging Parents" with Brother, Sister, In law, Relative. What can start as a loving arrangement can turn very sour as we age and what was done on a handshake is hammered by fading memories, assumptions, and unforeseen changes in the needs of everyone.

Verbal contracts are bound to be regretted. After you read Joy's excellent article do not do anything until you have had a family meeting with a elder affairs attorney and review every point she raises. Then put the results in writing with signatures of the principles and your attorney. There is nothing so difficult as a house guest who comes to live in your home without a written agreements, who won't accept consequences of lifes changes, your health needs, your needing to relocate, selling your home and all the emotional, financial and other dynamics of living together.

Don't skip any of Joy's questions or suffer the consequences. They are available on line.

Dave Mainwaring.
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Moving Aging Parents into Your Home Are you sure?
Sep. 17th, 2009 By Joy Loverde

"When times are tough, like they are now, sometimes well meaning caregivers of aging parents insist that their parents Moving aging parents, eldercare, senior helpmove in with them without full consideration of what can happen. The most serious stories include elder abuse and neglect, the fastest growing crime in America today. The arrangement of sharing one’s home with aging parents often stirs ambivalent feelings for everyone involved."

"We mean well when we ask our loved ones to move in with us; but we may not realize the potential negative consequences – emotionally, financially and otherwise. For example, if parents move in and contribute to the cost of remodeling the house to accommodate their needs, do they gift their portion of the house to the caregiving child? How do siblings feel about this financial arrangement? Should parents have a contract in which they pay the children for caring for them? How does this living arrangement affect a person’s eligibility for Medicaid?"

"I’d like every caregiver who is currently thinking about this under-one-roof lifestyle for them and their aging parents to take a deep, deep breath and proceed cautiously and slowly. If you have already exhausted the multitude of senior-housing options I offer in my book, The Complete Eldercare Planner, and you have made the decision that combining households is the best option, then promise me before anything else that you’ll take a family consensus as the final checklist before the move."
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She is 1000% on target when she said:
The arrangement of sharing one’s home with aging parents is not for the faint at heart. If you succeed, you are beating the odds!

IF women only knew how to get their due from retirement

Women and Retirement

Linney Frank Bailiey wrote this piece as part of the 2009 The Irvine Foundation California Politics and Policy Fellowship program administered by New America Media.

Hounsell, 62, A Georgetown University trained lawyer, she runs the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, or WISER.

"Frequently, Hounsell said, women are unaware of their rights to some of their spouse’s retirement income, or they don’t want to appear greedy by pursuing it."

For more information, visit www.wiserwomen.org.

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"New America Media is the country's first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. Over 51 million ethnic adults connect to each other, to home countries and to America through 3000+ ethnic media, the fastest growing sector of American journalism."

"Founded by the nonprofit Pacific News Service in 1996, NAM is headquartered in California with offices in New York and Washington D.C., and partnerships with journalism schools to grow local associations of ethnic media."

http://ow.ly/15Psog

Read Inside Elder Care because you, a friend or a member of your family be providing some form of CareGiving.

The Inside-Elder-Care site is brought to you by Ryan Malone helping families learn how to make elder care a positive experience.

Massachusetts Advocates for Nursing Home Reform

Advocates for MA Nursing Home Residents and Nursing Home Reform

The Massachusetts Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (“MANHR”) is a network of family members, friends and advocates of long-term care residents.

Mission Statement
MANHR’s mission is to improve the quality of care and ensure the dignity and quality of life for MA long-term care residents.

Goals

* To promote effective solutions for achieving compassionate, individualized care for MA long-term care residents, with Culture Change as a primary focus;
* To empower Family-Run Councils in MA long-term care facilities;
* To provide education, resources, and support on long-term care issues to Members and the general public.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead (1901-1978)