Cognitive Stimulation

Keeping their brains healthy and stimulated is so important for aging adults. There are lots of ways to help seniors keep their brains active and engaged. Conversation, memory games, reading, puzzles, and similar activities all foster cognitive stimulation and health. Spending time with elder care providers helps seniors to get more cognitive stimulation because of the activities that seniors engage in with caregivers.

Creative Expression

Being able to express themselves creatively is another enriching activity for aging adults. There’s no one way to practice creative expression, either. Seniors can engage in all sorts of arts, crafts, writing, or even making music. Finding new ways to express creativity helps to boost mental and emotional well-being for aging adults.

Physical Activity

Pretty much everyone has heard that physical activity is important for aging adults. But it doesn’t have to be exhausting or unpleasant in order for seniors to get benefits from moving more. Home care providers can help seniors remember to move more, even engaging in activities like impromptu dance parties in the afternoon.

Nutritional Assistance

Eating right helps boost overall well-being and quality of life, too. For many seniors, keeping up with meal preparation and planning is not easy to do, however. Home care providers help seniors to focus on what they can do and what they want to do while offering them healthy and delicious foods to eat on a daily basis.

Companionship

Social isolation robs seniors of so much enjoyment in life. Aging adults can easily become isolated simply because they start to have more trouble getting out and about or they stop driving. That can mean that they just aren’t able to keep up with social engagements any longer. Caregivers offer friendly conversation and companionship that is easy and that comes to seniors in their own homes.

Customized Home Care Plans

Every senior has different likes and dislikes. They also have different needs, requiring different types of care plans. Home care services offer unique plans for each person they help. Everyone has the assistance they need to meet their individual goals in their own timeframes. As needs and preferences change, the plans can change just as quickly.

Independence and Autonomy

Probably the most important part of helping seniors have the best possible quality of life involves protecting their independence and autonomy. Elder care providers are there to support seniors in the ways that they need and want, while allowing them to make their own choices about their daily lives. They’re supported in being who they are.

Home care services offer essential assistance in keeping seniors moving toward the best possible quality of life, whatever that means for them as an individual.

If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in Concord, CA, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Walnut Creek. (925) 203-3039.

The post How Can Home Care Enrich Quality of Life for Seniors? appeared first on Golden Heart East Bay.

There are about 30,000 seniors who have ALS in the United States at any given time. ALS is a progressive disease that affects the nerves. There is no cure for ALS and seniors who develop ALS usually have a life expectancy of about five years after diagnosis, although some seniors can live up to ten years after diagnosis.

Because ALS is a progressive disease, early detection and treatment offer the best chance for improved quality of life. For seniors that have ALS, home care may be necessary if they want to remain at home. When seniors who have ALS have home care, they can safely age in place in familiar surroundings for as long as possible.

Some of the symptoms of ALS that seniors and their family caregivers should be aware of include:

• Difficulty walking or doing normal daily activities
• Tripping and falling
• Weakness in your legs, feet or ankles
• Hand weakness or clumsiness
• Slurred speech or trouble swallowing
• Muscle cramps and twitching in your arms, shoulders and tongue
• Inappropriate crying, laughing or yawning
• Cognitive and behavioral changes

Some of the symptoms of ALS can mimic the symptoms of other conditions that are also common in seniors like Parkinson’s disease. Anytime that you or a caregiver notices that your senior parent is having trouble with their balance, experiencing tingling or nerve pain in their hands and feet, or having a lot of muscle cramps or muscle weakness it’s important to get them checked out by a doctor. The doctor will need to perform tests to see if your senior loved one has a condition like ALS or Parkinson’s disease or if they have a condition like diabetes which can be treated.

ALS Risk Factors

The biggest risk factor for ALS is a family history of it. According to studies, anywhere from 5-10% of seniors with ALS inherit it. If your senior parent has a family member who had ALS they have a 50/50 chance of getting it. The second biggest risk factor is age. The chances of developing ALS increase with age. Most seniors are diagnosed with ALS in their mid to late 60s.

Even though seniors can’t mitigate their risk of getting ALS due to age or familial ties they can lower their risk of developing ALS if they stop smoking. Smoking increases the risk for developing ALS. Even if your senior loved one has smoked for decades quitting now can still help lower their risk of developing this disease.

Military service is another environmental risk factor for developing ALS. If your senior family member served in the military make sure that they are getting regularly tested for ALS so that if they do develop ALS they can start treatment right away and hopefully slow down the progression of the nerve damage caused by ALS.

Sources:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-fact-sheet
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354022

If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in Concord, CA, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Walnut Creek. (925) 203-3039.

The post What You Need to Know About Symptoms of ALS appeared first on Golden Heart East Bay.