Q: I see five doctors for several different ailments. As a 78-year-old woman, I sometimes get very confused. What can I do to keep all these doctors and medications straight?
A: Your confusion is quite understandable. Even if you had worked as a medical professional, when you are dealing with your own health all of the information being thrown at you can be particularly overwhelming.
There are a number of products on the market, which can assist you in organizing these vital facts. While it does not have to be fancy, it should be something you can bring along with you to all your doctor’s appointments. Your portfolio should include information such as doctor’s names and their contact information, your medical conditions, allergies, medications with dosages and how frequently you take them, surgical history, blood type, your emergency contacts, and current health insurance information.
By having these facts at your fingertips, you will be able to provide all of your physicians with up-to-date information regarding your medical status.
Be prepared to tell your doctor about recent changes in your health history which may be of concern to him or her. This should include symptoms, medication changes, recent diagnoses, hospitalizations or any other pertinent information.
Take notes while at the doctor’s visit. If this would be too distracting for you, ask a family member or friend to accompany you or consider hiring someone from a companionship service. Note, any tests which have been ordered, any test results discussed and any new medications or revised dosages. Pharmacists are a great resource.
If you consistently fill your prescriptions at the same pharmacy they would already have a wealth of information about your medical history. They can answer questions about drug interactions, side effects, and how to take your medicine correctly.
In keeping good and orderly records, you optimize your chances of proper diagnosis and treatment and overall will decrease confusion.
Answer provided by Cindy Harrington, RN the Community Relations Director for Home Instead Senior Care.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sandwich Generation
Sandwich Generation Doesn't Know Where to Go For Help
Q: I’m the mother of three teenagers in addition to working full-time and trying to help care for my 80-year-old parents. I’m near the end of my rope. What can I do?
A: First of all, I want you to know you are not alone. According to the U.S. Census, more that 42 million women fall into the category of the sandwich generation. Just like you, they are “sandwiched” between juggling the responsibilities of a family, job, and aging relatives.
A study commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Association of Social Workers explored the challenges faced by the sandwich generation women. More than 1,400 social workers who provide services to sandwich generation women were surveyed and it was found that nearly half of the women delayed getting help because they felt they should be able to shoulder caregiving responsibilities on their won. Of the women who participated in the journaling project 24 percent said they did not know how to ask for help with day-to-day caregiving responsibilities.
While caregiving can give you a sense of emotional satisfaction in knowing that you have been able to help another family member, it can also put a lot of stress on you both mentally and physically. I am concerned that you feel you are at the end of your rope. Do not ignore how you are feeling right now.
Signs that caregiving is putting too much stress on you can include changes in sleeping or eating habits, loss of energy, decreased interest in activities you used to enjoy, sadness or anger, and frequent health problems.
In order to be an effective caregiver, you need to take care of yourself first. Consult with your physician, exercise regularly, and maintain healthy eating and sleeping habits. Be realistic about what you can accomplish. You are only one person.
Do not be afraid to ask for help. Contact your county Office for Aging. They can give you a variety of respite options and other services available to you within your community.
Cindy Harrington, RN is the Community Relations Director for Home Instead Senior Care. For more information about the study above, visit: http://www.nyam.org/news/3057.html.
Q: I’m the mother of three teenagers in addition to working full-time and trying to help care for my 80-year-old parents. I’m near the end of my rope. What can I do?
A: First of all, I want you to know you are not alone. According to the U.S. Census, more that 42 million women fall into the category of the sandwich generation. Just like you, they are “sandwiched” between juggling the responsibilities of a family, job, and aging relatives.
A study commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Association of Social Workers explored the challenges faced by the sandwich generation women. More than 1,400 social workers who provide services to sandwich generation women were surveyed and it was found that nearly half of the women delayed getting help because they felt they should be able to shoulder caregiving responsibilities on their won. Of the women who participated in the journaling project 24 percent said they did not know how to ask for help with day-to-day caregiving responsibilities.
While caregiving can give you a sense of emotional satisfaction in knowing that you have been able to help another family member, it can also put a lot of stress on you both mentally and physically. I am concerned that you feel you are at the end of your rope. Do not ignore how you are feeling right now.
Signs that caregiving is putting too much stress on you can include changes in sleeping or eating habits, loss of energy, decreased interest in activities you used to enjoy, sadness or anger, and frequent health problems.
In order to be an effective caregiver, you need to take care of yourself first. Consult with your physician, exercise regularly, and maintain healthy eating and sleeping habits. Be realistic about what you can accomplish. You are only one person.
Do not be afraid to ask for help. Contact your county Office for Aging. They can give you a variety of respite options and other services available to you within your community.
Cindy Harrington, RN is the Community Relations Director for Home Instead Senior Care. For more information about the study above, visit: http://www.nyam.org/news/3057.html.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The 40-70 Rule
Your dad’s neighbor just called to tell you that your 79-year-old father sideswiped his parked vehicle and nearly hit a child standing nearby. Was it an isolated slip-up or the sign that it’s time for your dad to think about giving up his car keys? More importantly, how do you begin the discussion about such a potentially volatile subject?
Sensitive issues like this prompted the launch of a public education campaign called the “40-70 Rule.” This campaign will help adult children begin to address difficult issues with their parents such as driving, finances, independence and even romance. The ‘40-70 Rule’ means that if you are 40, or your parents are 70, it’s time to start the conversation about some of these difficult topics.
In general, Boomers have the most difficulty talking with their parents about independence issues, such as continuing to live in their own home, and that their parent’s desire to remain independent makes it challenging to address such sensitive issues as health and money. The fact that many of these families are still in a parent-child rather than a peer-to-peer role makes the conversations even more difficult.
Good communication also is vital to helping families know when it’s time to seek additional resources. Oftentimes both adult children and their loved ones can benefit from outside help, such as a professional caregiver. But the only way that will happen is if they can talk about it.
Home Instead Senior Care, a trusted source for non-medical care, has developed a free “conversations starters booklet” and complementary web site http://www.4070talk.com/ to help adult children learn how to better communicate with their senior loved ones.
40/70 Rule Sidebars
Seven Tips to Help Boomer Children Communicate With Their Aging Parents
Following, from Home Instead Senior Care and communication expert Jake Harwood, Ph.D., from the University of Arizona, are tips to help family caregivers communicate with their aging parents on sensitive subjects.
Get started. If you’re 40 or your parents are 70, it’s time to start observing and gathering information carefully and thoughtfully. Don’t reach a conclusion from a single observation and decide unilaterally on the best solution until you have gathered information with an open mind and talked with your parents.
Talk it out. Approach your parents with a conversation. Discuss what you’ve observed and ask your parents what they think is going on. If your parents acknowledge the situation, ask what they think would be good solutions. If your parents don’t recognize a problem, use concrete examples to support your case.
Sooner is best. Talk sooner, rather than later when a crisis has occurred. If you know your loved one has poor eyesight or has trouble driving at night, begin to address those issues before a problem arises.
Forget the baby talk. Remember you are talking to an adult, not a child. Patronizing speech or baby talk will put older adults on the defensive and convey a lack of respect for them. Put yourself in your parent’s shoes and think how you would want to be addressed in the situation.
Maximize independence. Always try to move toward solutions that provide the maximum amount of independence for the older person. Look for answers that optimize strengths and compensate for problems. For instance, if your loved ones need assistance at home, look for tools that can help them maintain their strengths. Professional caregiving services, such as those offered by Home Instead Senior Care, provide assistance in a number of areas including meal preparation, light housekeeping or medication reminders. Or find friends who can help.
Stay tuned in. If your dad dies and, soon afterward, your mom’s house seems to be in disarray, it’s probably not because she suddenly became ill. It’s much more likely to stem from a lack of social support and the loss of a life-long relationship. Make sure that your mom has friends and a social life.
Ask for help. Many of the issues of aging can be solved by providing parents with the support they need to continue to maintain their independence. Resources such as Home Instead Senior Care, Area Agencies on Aging and local senior centers can help provide those solutions.
Get Mom Moving
New Year’s resolutions to stay active and get fit are popular in all age groups… but they are especially important for seniors who want to maintain their independence.
Experts agree regular activity is vital to healthy aging… but new research shows that most seniors believe it’s a major challenge.
With that in mind, local senior care experts have launched a program designed to help keep seniors engaged and fit. Resources include free Get Mom Moving Activity Cards and a specially designed website http://www.getmommoving.com/ with practical and educational tools for seniors and their families.
Lack of activity can lead to a downward spiral of poor health resulting in frailty, a condition that threatens the mind, body and social life of older adults, according to senior care experts.
“We regularly see seniors who are literally trapped in their homes because they are too weak to perform many of the activities they need to remain safe and independent, or to even enjoy life,” said Nelson Carpenter owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Saratoga, Washington, and Warren Counties. “That’s why staying active is viewed by so many as vital to healthy aging. Differences in perceptions between family caregivers and seniors can make addressing these issues challenging for many families.”
Frailty can be difficult to define, but most know it when they see it, said Stephanie Studenski, M.D., M.P.H., one of the nation’s foremost authorities and researchers of mobility, balance disorders and falls in older adults, and director of clinical research for the University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging. Studenski and her colleagues conducted a series of focus groups with health care providers and family caregivers about how they perceive frailty in an effort to better identify the condition. “I think the thing that was most striking to me was that many family members we talked with perceived that an older person is getting more or less frail based more on social and psychological factors rather than physical factors. Doctors, on the other hand, focused on the physical manifestations in an older adult,” she noted.
Dr. Studenski said that frailty can be both prevented and reversed by activity. “One of the core ideas in aging is that there are underlying problems in the body’s self-correcting mechanism. For example, when a young person is bleeding, the body self-corrects by increasing the heart rate. But older adults, because of medication or health problems, may have lost the ability to self-correct by being able to increase their heart rate. Through activity, though, seniors can build both physical and mental reserves that can help their bodies better tolerate problems that come with aging.”
So, in a very real way, family caregivers who can encourage and integrate physical, mental and social activities in seniors’ lives are helping them ward off frailty and stay healthy. And that addresses seniors’ biggest fear of losing their independence as well. “This topic is at the heart of the concerns that we see each day in the lives of seniors and those who care for them,” said Home Instead Senior Care’s Carpenter. “Fear of frailty keeps seniors worried about whether they can stay home.”
How do family caregivers know what to look for?
Following, from Stephanie Studenski, M.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh geriatrician and researcher, and Home Instead Senior Care, are the signs that a senior might be becoming frail:
Change. If a senior has always been interested in talking to the neighbors, reading the newspaper or volunteering and is withdrawing from those interests, suggest your loved one see a doctor.
Inactivity. If your senior suddenly becomes less active, investigate what could be the cause.
Slowing down. If grandpa always used to have a bounce in his step and now, suddenly, trudges along, that’s a bad sign.
Loss of appetite and weight. A senior who always had a healthy appetite and doesn’t any more should be of concern to their loved ones.
Unsteadiness. Loss of balance comes with aging but an increasing unsteadiness is a sign that something could be wrong.
SENIOR FEAR FACTORS...
Many of the fears that seniors experience relate to the biggest challenge they say they face: staying active. According to a recent survey conducted for Home Instead Senior Care, seniors have these fears about the future, beginning with the greatest fear and in descending order:
Experts agree regular activity is vital to healthy aging… but new research shows that most seniors believe it’s a major challenge.
With that in mind, local senior care experts have launched a program designed to help keep seniors engaged and fit. Resources include free Get Mom Moving Activity Cards and a specially designed website http://www.getmommoving.com/ with practical and educational tools for seniors and their families.
Lack of activity can lead to a downward spiral of poor health resulting in frailty, a condition that threatens the mind, body and social life of older adults, according to senior care experts.
“We regularly see seniors who are literally trapped in their homes because they are too weak to perform many of the activities they need to remain safe and independent, or to even enjoy life,” said Nelson Carpenter owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Saratoga, Washington, and Warren Counties. “That’s why staying active is viewed by so many as vital to healthy aging. Differences in perceptions between family caregivers and seniors can make addressing these issues challenging for many families.”
Frailty can be difficult to define, but most know it when they see it, said Stephanie Studenski, M.D., M.P.H., one of the nation’s foremost authorities and researchers of mobility, balance disorders and falls in older adults, and director of clinical research for the University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging. Studenski and her colleagues conducted a series of focus groups with health care providers and family caregivers about how they perceive frailty in an effort to better identify the condition. “I think the thing that was most striking to me was that many family members we talked with perceived that an older person is getting more or less frail based more on social and psychological factors rather than physical factors. Doctors, on the other hand, focused on the physical manifestations in an older adult,” she noted.
Dr. Studenski said that frailty can be both prevented and reversed by activity. “One of the core ideas in aging is that there are underlying problems in the body’s self-correcting mechanism. For example, when a young person is bleeding, the body self-corrects by increasing the heart rate. But older adults, because of medication or health problems, may have lost the ability to self-correct by being able to increase their heart rate. Through activity, though, seniors can build both physical and mental reserves that can help their bodies better tolerate problems that come with aging.”
So, in a very real way, family caregivers who can encourage and integrate physical, mental and social activities in seniors’ lives are helping them ward off frailty and stay healthy. And that addresses seniors’ biggest fear of losing their independence as well. “This topic is at the heart of the concerns that we see each day in the lives of seniors and those who care for them,” said Home Instead Senior Care’s Carpenter. “Fear of frailty keeps seniors worried about whether they can stay home.”
How do family caregivers know what to look for?
Following, from Stephanie Studenski, M.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh geriatrician and researcher, and Home Instead Senior Care, are the signs that a senior might be becoming frail:
Change. If a senior has always been interested in talking to the neighbors, reading the newspaper or volunteering and is withdrawing from those interests, suggest your loved one see a doctor.
Inactivity. If your senior suddenly becomes less active, investigate what could be the cause.
Slowing down. If grandpa always used to have a bounce in his step and now, suddenly, trudges along, that’s a bad sign.
Loss of appetite and weight. A senior who always had a healthy appetite and doesn’t any more should be of concern to their loved ones.
Unsteadiness. Loss of balance comes with aging but an increasing unsteadiness is a sign that something could be wrong.
SENIOR FEAR FACTORS...
Many of the fears that seniors experience relate to the biggest challenge they say they face: staying active. According to a recent survey conducted for Home Instead Senior Care, seniors have these fears about the future, beginning with the greatest fear and in descending order:
- Loss of independence.
- Declining health.
- Running out of money.
- Not being able to live at home.
- Death of a spouse or other family member.
- Inability to manage their own activities of daily living.
- Not being able to drive.
- Isolation or loneliness.
- Strangers caring for them.
- Fear of falling or hurting themselves.
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