Year: 2019

Spotting Elder Abuse

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Perhaps you have already identified friends or neighbors who can stop in unannounced to be your eyes and ears. Sometimes, a geriatric care manager can help.

You can stay in touch with your family member by phone and take note of any comments or mood changes that might indicate neglect or mistreatment. These can happen in any setting, at any socioeconomic level. Abuse can take many forms, including domestic violence, emotional abuse, financial abuse, theft, and neglect.

Sometimes the abuser is a hired caregiver, but he or she can also be someone familiar. Stress can take a toll when adult children are caring for aging parents, or when an older person is caring for an aging spouse or sibling. In some families, the abuse continues a long-standing family pattern. In others, the older adult’s need for constant care can cause a caregiver to lash out verbally or physically. In some cases, especially in the middle to late stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the older adult may become difficult to manage and physically aggressive, causing harm to the caregiver. This might cause a caregiver to respond angrily.

But no matter who is the abuser or what is the cause, abuse and neglect are never acceptable responses. If you feel that your family member is in physical danger, contact the authorities right away. If you suspect abuse, but do not feel there is an immediate risk, talk to someone who can act on your behalf: your parent’s doctor, for instance, or your contact at a home health agency. Suspected abuse must be reported to adult protective services.

Signs of Self-Neglect

Self-neglect describes situations in which older people put themselves at high risk. People who neglect themselves may have a disorder that impairs their judgment or memory. They may have a chronic disease. Knowing where to draw the line between a person’s right to independence and self-neglect can be hard. Here are some signs that may mean it’s time to intervene, although they can be hard to recognize during a short visit:

  • Hoarding
  • Failure to take essential medications or refusal to seek medical treatment for a serious illness
  • Leaving a burning stove unattended
  • Poor hygiene
  • Not wearing suitable clothing for the weather
  • Confusion
  • Inability to attend to housekeeping
  • Dehydration

For More Information About Elder Abuse

Eldercare Locator-https://eldercare.acl.gov

National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse- www.preventelderabuse.org

National Center on Elder Abuse- https://ncea.acl.gov

Article Provided By:
National Institute on Health
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/spotting-elder-abuse-tips-long-distance-caregivers

Creating Memories for Those Struggling to Find Them

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Many aging seniors lose the ability to recall memories.  Some of this is a result of the aging process but for far too many it’s because of Alzheimer’s and Dementia.  What are the options for seniors facing this challenge?  Verbalizing stories early in the diagnosis is an exercise worth exploring.  It can allow a family member to capture in writing or via audio recording the history that still resides in a senior’s mind.  Storytelling with pictures and images is another way to spur those memories that are “stuck” and often is a successful way to help a senior articulate their memories.  These memories are the connections from their past to who they are now and the challenges and fears they are facing as they age.

Another option explored is using art.  Imagine a group of people with memory challenges, gathering in a sunlit room.  They’re tentative, cautious, don’t know each other, and all are at an early stage in their diagnosis.  They are with a caregiver, often a spouse or family member, and they too are apprehensive at this process.  Soon enough though, they begin to act as a group, enthusiastically smearing colorful paints onto white paper.  Communication in this room is comfortably awkward as words are searched for and caregivers share stories of acceptance and learnings.  Anything goes for folks who feel like everything was taken.  Relaxation is attained and memories, however fleeting, in the grip of Alzheimer’s disease, are created.  Participants are, for the duration of the session, comfortable with each other.

Welcome to the weekly “Memories in the Making” watercolor session under the auspices of the Oregon Alzheimer’s Association. While participants pay nothing, what they gain is priceless. The best of their works will eventually go to auction to raise funds for programs such as this and to help the Alzheimer’s Association blunt the pain of a relentless disease.  In 2018, nearly $180,000 was raised from their paintings in the Portland Metropolitan market alone.

Classes like these are offered at the Alzheimer’s Association office, Home Matters Caregiving office, and at more than 200 care communities across Oregon. Being able to gently guide participants in this process allows others to see the remarkable artwork created by folks who, in some cases, are uncommunicative otherwise. “You know life makes sense when you bring joy to someone’s life in a way that they weren’t exposed to prior to this opportunity,” says Christina Foutch, an Occupational Therapist and a specialist in Alzheimer’s care. Not only is art created, but also memories.

For further information contact The Alzheimer’s Association 1650 NW Naito Pkwy, Portland, OR 97209 or 1.800.272.3900 and ask specifically for locations where Memories in The Making is being offered.

Article Provided By:
Home Matters Caregiving
503-352-5634
www.HomeMattersCaregiving.com

More Older Americans are “Unretiring”

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Many Older Americans who have retired from their previous jobs are returning to the workforce, a process some are calling “unretiring.”

The main reason for seniors choosing to return to work is unsurprisingly money, according to a survey commissioned by a senior care provider, Home Instead, that drew responses from more than 1,000 “unretired” people, as well as those nearing retirement, in the U.S. and Canada. But the second-most common reason was fighting boredom, with 44 percent of respondents citing it as the reason they jumped back into employment.

In part, the trend reflects the widespread shortfall in Americans’ retirement savings. A recent Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies report estimates that workers’ median retirement savings is only $71,000, far short of what experts say is needed to retire comfortably. Only 30 percent report accumulating $250,000 or more. Meanwhile, the number of older Americans filing for bankruptcy has surged fivefold since 1991.

While financial necessity is driving many older Americans to get a job, more than half of retirees age 50 and older are open to working again if the right opportunity comes along, according to a 2017 report from the Rand Corporation.

Around 39 percent of workers over age 65 who were currently employed had previously retired, Home Instead found. Of those that do come back, nearly two-thirds changed their line of work. For former hairdresser Nancy Kading, back problems forced early retirement from her 26-year long career. But she wasn’t ready to stop working.

“I didn’t enjoy retirement. I needed something. I needed to feel like there was a reason to get up. I needed to feel like I was needed,” Kading told CBS affiliate KXJB in an interview. “My identity was taken. I was always ‘Nancy the hairdresser’, and now I just was a retired person and I was only 48.”

She decided to come out of retirement and become a caregiver.

“It’s important that I do something, and I think we are meant to help other people. We aren’t meant to just sit and do nothing,” Kading said, “Actually just yesterday, I had a caregiver call and she said, ‘you know, this is the best second career I’ve ever had.’”

Article Provided By:
Home Instead Senior Living
www.HomeInstead.com