Using Resources to Help Choose Home Care Home health care agencies can provide care to a loved one right in his or her own home. They offer a wide range of services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy and skilled nursing care. Receiving care in the home still offers the same effective care one would receive in a hospital or nursing facility, while typically being more cost-effective and convenient. Finding which home health agency to use for a loved one can be a daunting task. However, there are resources out there that can help ease the stress of finding the best home health care for a loved one. Read more
Tips for Connecting with a Senior Center Senior Centers are a vital community resource for older adults, providing a wide variety of programs, services and supports, and enabling older adults to remain active and engaged, while combating social isolation and loneliness. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) reports that “Today, almost 10,000 senior centers serve more than 1 million older adults every day.” It can be intimidating or challenging to initially connect with a senior center. Here are some practical tips to get started. Read more
Training Senior Volunteers to Implement a Group Music Intervention For Persons With Dementia The Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) is a national program with many regional offices that offers a variety of volunteer opportunities for seniors. Research demonstrates the importance of volunteering and social participation on the well-being, health and longevity of older individuals. Further, studies of RSVP volunteers have demonstrated marked improvement in their perceived physical, mental health and quality of life (McDonald et al., 2013). Little evidence exists, however, supporting the effectiveness of using senior volunteers to assist with or even lead activities programming for persons with dementia (PWDs). Seniors Making Connections through Music, a group program designed to engage persons in the moderate to advance stages of dementia, included the training of 21 RSVP volunteers to lead or assist with the program. Volunteers were mostly female (95%) and educated (80% college/advanced degree), with more than half reporting professional or personal experiences with dementia (62%). Data were gathered through structured interviews and post-session debrief meetings. Findings suggest volunteers felt they were able to use existing knowledge and experience, received good and helpful supervision, and reported increased knowledge of dementia after volunteering for the group. Other results summarize: Volunteer satisfaction with program, role, tools and materials used, the program’s impact on the community, and willingness to volunteer for the program in the future. Programmatic features, training protocols, and the impact of using retired senior volunteers to strengthen program sustainability will be discussed. Volunteer testimonials and video demonstrations will also be shared. Read more
Process and structure: Service satisfaction and recommendation in a community-based elderly meal service in Shanghai This study aims to examine elderly clients’ service satisfaction and service recommendation for community-based meal services in Shanghai by applying Donabedian’s (1988) quality-of-care framework. This study analyzed secondary data from randomly sampled elderly clients of a community-based meal program in the Jing’an District in Shanghai (N = 690). Findings identified that several structure and process factors were significantly related to respondents’ service satisfaction and service recommendation. Notably, these factors were not identical; we discussed the differences. This study adds evidence in urban China to advanced research on quality of care. Read more
Reducing the Stress of a Transition to Assisted Living The decision to move a loved one to assisted living can be one of the hardest a caregiver can make. However, if we are caring for a loved one with a chronic disease, particularly Alzheimer’s Disease or another form of dementia, it may become necessary to consider assisted living placement if we lack the time, resources or support to continue caring for a loved one at home. Shifting a loved one’s care to an assisted living facility may seem as if it will relieve many of the stresses of caregiving such as anxiety, depression or feeling overburdened. However, studies show that assisted living placement can instead change the type of stressors a caregiver experiences rather than eliminate them. Read more
Home Buying in a Retirement Community: Downsizing the Family Home When it comes to senior living options, there are a number of housing options available for today's older adult population. While some older adults will require the care and attention of nursing homes or assisted living communities, there are others who don't require as much, or any, care, but who instead want to be in a community of their peers. These retirement communities can provide us with a great opportunity to meet and participate in activities with others that we need to live the healthy and balanced lives we deserve well into our golden years. Read more
Advice for Overcoming Everyday Challenges Small, everyday challenges can impact us all as we age. The resources and programming offered at senior centers such as the Rose Centers for Aging Well can assist with overcoming these challenges by providing us with opportunities to receive guidance from both professionals and our own peers. Programs like the Aging Mastery Program can help us make small and impactful changes to overcome challenges we may face and improve our overall wellness. Read more
Helping a Loved One Maintain Good Credit While it’s important for all of us, at any age, to keep our finances in good condition, issues of credit card debt are growing among older adults. If we are caring for a loved one struggling with debt and maintaining good credit, it is important for us to understand credit scoring and how to help a loved one improve their credit so they can better manage debt. Read more
I’m the Man (and the Caregiver) All of us caring for aging loved ones face unique challenges. Societal expectations about who handles these responsibilities – and how they should be handled – make some of these challenges ever more difficult for male caregivers. After all, when we think and talk about family caregivers, most of us immediately envision a woman, usually a wife or a daughter, and it is with this image in mind that most caregiver support programs have been created. And yet, according to a recent AARP study, 44 percent of family caregivers for older adults—or six million caregivers—are actually men, and 28 percent of these men are millennials Read more
Delirium with UTIs in Older Adults Have you noticed a change in the behavior of an older adult you care for? Perhaps this change has taken place over the span of several days, and includes symptoms such as confusion, restlessness, hallucinations or social withdrawal? Before we jump to the conclusion that a loved one has the beginnings of dementia, we should have a physical exam performed by a physician. They instead might be suffering from delirium brought on by a urinary tract infection (UTI). Read more
