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Author: Craig Bass
Games for everyone to enjoy!
The best part about balloon volleyball is that it can be flexible. It can be played by all ages, sitting or standing, alone or together with family. Games also help family members, especially children, have a successful visit where everyone has a good time. We hope you have a great weekend with your loved ones!
Five Sleep Management Tools Your Senior Might Consider
Sleep is crucial for your senior’s overall well-being, but it might be something that she and you are overlooking. These tools can help them to start to get a better handle on sleep every single night, which can make days better, too.
Adding Exercise to Her Daily Routine
If her doctor clears her to exercise, adding just a little bit of extra movement into her daily routine can be hugely helpful for your aging family member. Muscles and joints need to move and burning off a little bit of energy allows her body to truly rest when she’s ready to go to bed. Starting out with a complex or challenging exercise routine is a bad idea. Start slow and easy. A home care provider can also help your senior incorporate exercise into her daily routine.
Consider How Food and Beverages Might Be Impacting Sleep
What is your elderly family member eating and drinking throughout the day? If she’s getting a lot of sugar and caffeine all throughout the day, she’s likely compounding her sleep problem. Time of day matters, even when she’s eating healthy foods. Start looking more closely at dietary changes.
Create a Plan for Winding Down Before Bed
Having a bedtime routine isn’t just for kids. Adults need to be able to wind down for the night, too. For your senior this might mean reading a book or taking a soak in the tub. She might also enjoy listening to music or trying some meditations before going to bed. Whatever helps her to leave her day behind is helpful.
Talk to Her Doctor about Other Health Issues
It’s also possible that other health issues, and even the medications treating those health issues, is part of her sleep problem. It’s a good idea to bring your senior’s doctor into the equation to get a more thorough understanding of how her health might be impacting her sleep and vice versa.
Keep a Sleep Journal
A sleep journal sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. This is just a small notebook where your senior can keep track of how much sleep she got, how she felt when she woke up, and anything else that she feels pertains to her sleep. This can be a helpful tool in talks with her doctor, too.
Making changes to your senior’s routine can be helpful, and yet leave her feeling a little overwhelmed. Having home care providers available to help as needed and to remind her of her routine can be grounding for your senior.
If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in Alamo, CA, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Walnut Creek. (925) 203-3039.
What services can Golden Heart Senior Care provide to me?
Golden Heart Senior Care in Walnut Creek provides comprehensive services to allow you to thrive independently and safely in your home or the setting of your choice. We offer home care services such as meal preparation, transportation, medication reminders, laundry, deep housekeeping, grocery shopping/errands.
We also provide personal care services such as bathing, grooming assistance, transferring and positioning, toileting and continence support, mobility assistance, and nutritional/diet assistance.
We specialize in supporting those with memory care needs due to Dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Contact us for a free assessment to learn how Golden Heart Senior Care can help you.
Help Us Pick
Who out there is creative and enjoys home decor projects? Well, It’s time for something new in the Golden Heart office and we would love to hear your ideas. What do you think we should put here?
Reasons Your Elderly Loved One Might Not Recognize You
Are you concerned that your elderly loved one doesn’t recognize you? This happens often with dementia and other neurological diseases. It can be a sad day when you realize that your elderly loved one doesn’t know your name or remember things that you have done together. The most important thing is to better understand why they don’t recognize you. Remember, it is the disease and not your elderly loved one doing this. They have no control over it.
Delusions and Paranoia
Two of the reasons why your elderly loved one might not recognize you are because of delusion and paranoia. With dementia, there are many changes happening with the brain. There are psychological issues happening, as well. This is why so many people who have dementia get delusions and become paranoid. The irrational feelings and thoughts take over, so they may not recognize who you or others in their life are. The delusions and paranoia might have them convinced that you are intruding on their space.
Memory Loss
Memory loss is one of the biggest reasons why your elderly loved one might not know who you are. When someone has dementia, the changes to the brain can be very significant. Depending on the part of your loved one’s brain that is damaged, they might forget names, events, or entire relationships. This can be very tough on the people who they forget. However, it is also important to remember that it is tough on your elderly loved one to. They are probably very confused on what is going on and why people “they don’t know” are in their house.
Delirium
Delirium is another reason why your elderly loved one might not recognize you. This can be caused by many things. However, one of the most common causes of delirium in those who have dementia is an infection. If your elderly loved one seems to be delirious, you should have them see their doctor as soon as possible. If the infection can be treated, your elderly loved one might remember you again.
Conclusion
These are some of the many reasons why your elderly loved one might not recognize you. While knowing these things may not make it any easier for you to cope with them forgetting you, it can help you to better understand what is going on. If necessary, be sure that you have elderly care providers take over for a bit of time and you get the support that you need.
Sources
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/cognitive-health-and-older-adults
If you or an aging loved one is considering elderly care in San Ramon, CA, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Walnut Creek. (925) 203-3039.
Meet One of Our Amazing Caregivers, Angela!
“I love working at Golden Heart Walnut Creek because I love helping others and our managers always respect me while making time to listen to the bad and the good.”
Angela is one of our awesome caregivers here at Golden Heart Walnut Creek. When you meet her ask her what her most recent craft project is. She loves creating gifts for the staff and clients.
How to Make Foods Appealing When Your Mom Loses Her Sense of Smell
The loss of the sense of smell is known as anosmia. A minimal sense of smell is known as hyposmia, and it also impacts how foods taste. It’s estimated that 3 percent of the U.S. population have anosmia, and the risk increases as you age. Around 4 out of 10 adults over the age of 80 have it.
If your mom’s been diagnosed with anosmia, you might find it is affecting her appetite. If she can’t smell the foods you make her, they won’t taste as she’d expect them to taste. Here are some tips for making foods more appealing when she’s lost her sense of smell.
Rely on Trial and Error
You may need to try different foods and ask her to rate them. When you find foods she likes, keep a list of the foods she liked. Focus meals around those.
Choose Bold Flavors
Salt may not appeal to your mom. Instead, sprinkle fresh lemon juice over her vegetables. Sour tastes may be easier for her taste buds to pick up as being different. Pineapple served on kebabs with chicken may also help her find meals more appealing.
You could do chicken that’s marinated in pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil. Put it onto skewers with red pepper chunks, pineapple cubes, and leeks. Grill those and serve them with pineapple fried rice. See if she likes that type of meal.
Improve the Texture
When smell impacts how foods taste, you have to start moving towards the other senses. Texture can help your mom find her appetite. Choose foods that have a mix of textures. Sushi with the crisp cucumbers, soft rice, and chewy nori appeals to some people with anosmia.
A Bolognese sauce with chunks of carrots and celery, soft onions, and meats like sausage, pork, and beef will be more appealing than a creamy alfredo. Serve that sauce with chewier gnocchi over slippery spaghetti noodles.
Aim for Colorful Presentations
Your mom can’t smell, but she can still see. Focus on presentation when plating meals and snacks. Bright colors will be more appealing than a plate filled with the same color. A stew of chicken breast, red peppers, eggplant, milk, kale, and green lentils will be more appealing than a grilled chicken breast with rice and steamed cauliflower.
Does your mom need help to prepare nutritious meals that taste appealing? As you work through the foods she does enjoy, jot them down. When you call a senior care agency to help her with meal preparation, you’ll have foods caregivers can focus on. Schedule senior care services to ensure your mom eats well and develops an appetite again.
Sources:
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-taste-smell#
If you or an aging loved one is considering senior care in Clayton, CA, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Walnut Creek. (925) 203-3039.
Things Your Elderly Loved One Can Control About Their Health
Does your elderly loved one often get stressed about not being able to control things in their life? Maybe they often worry about their health and things that happen outside their control. If this is the case, there are some things that your elderly loved one should know. First of all, there are some things they can control about their health.
Exercising
One of the main things that your elderly loved one can control is how much or how little exercise. Daily exercise is extremely important. It can help your elderly loved one improve their energy, lose weight, reduce health symptoms, and much more. This is a lot that your elderly loved one has control over when you think about it. You should spend some time talking to your elderly loved one about their exercise plans. Maybe they aren’t currently exercising regularly because they don’t know what to do. If this is the case, you or caregivers can help them out make a plan to exercise from this point forward.
Portion Control
Your elderly loved one also has control over how much or how little they are eating. If they are currently eating large portions for any meal, they can make a plan to change this. It can start by measuring out their food at dinner. This is often a good meal to start with. If they can stick with that portion control plan for about 21 days, then they can add in portion control on another meal of the day. They can also practice portion control with their snacks, as well.
Getting Immunizations
Your elderly loved one can control whether they get immunizations. There are many immunizations that are often recommended for the elderly. For instance, your elderly loved one could choose to get the flu shot every year. They can also talk to their doctor about other immunizations that are recommended. If there are any of these immunizations your elderly loved one has more questions about, they can ask their doctor about the appointments they have.
Conclusion
These are just some of the ways that your elderly loved one can control their health. If they can start by making even one of these choices, they can feel more in control of their overall health. If needed, your elderly loved one can even let their caregivers know what type of help they need with their help. For instance, they might need help managing medications. This is something caregivers can assist with.
Sources
https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/active-healthy-from-home/index.html
If you or an aging loved one is considering caregivers in Pleasant Hill, CA, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Walnut Creek. (925) 203-3039.
Tips for Making the Most of Situations That Seem Impossible
Some chronic health conditions seem overwhelming. As you help your mom or dad with personal care, grooming, housekeeping, meals, transportation, and more, it can seem impossible to fit it all in. Make the most of these challenging moments and days.
Remember No One Can Do It All
There are only so many hours in the day. Don’t think that you’re a failure if you can’t do it all in the time you have available. It doesn’t make you a failure.
Prioritize your tasks each day. Put the most important chores at the top of your list and focus your time and energy on those. Leave time for quality time with your mom and dad. Everything else can be completed if you have time. If not, leave them for another day.
Do the Best You Can
When a task seems harder than you’re able to do, give it your best attempt. If you don’t do something correctly, ask someone to help you. You may need to try something a few times before you do it correctly. You may not be able to complete it and need to bring in a professional. It’s okay to need help.
Laughter is the Best Therapy
On the toughest day, do something that gets yourself and others laughing. Laughter gives you the chance to start fresh and forget about the things that you were struggling with. You might want to put on a comedy and watch it with your mom and dad. You could simply put on a comedy sketch on a smart speaker.
You might simply start laughing and get your parents to join in. Laughter Yoga may seem weird, but it has helped many ease tension and reduce stress. You can find videos online to get you started.
Get Outside
Go outside and get some fresh air. A 30-minute walk is often all that’s needed to de-stress and clear your mind. If you cannot leave your parents alone, bring them with you on the walk if you have to. If they can’t handle a walk, sit them outside on a patio chair and walk around the yard while they’re within sight.
Arrange Professional Caregivers to Help Your Parents
What’s the best way to make sure you don’t become overwhelmed? Hire home care to help out. Instead of trying to help your mom and dad with every daily activity and care need, have caregivers take over. While your parents have caregivers helping out, take some time to yourself.
When you return to your role as a family caregiver, you’ll be refreshed and energized. Call a home care agency to learn more about services and prices.
If you or an aging loved one is considering home care services in Lafayette, CA, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Walnut Creek. (925) 203-3039.