General Health Issues Affecting the Elderly

General Hygiene and Assisted Living Care

lkg2011 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:03:25 GMT

I have for some time had some serious concerns about my elderly dad's lack of hygiene. He is 91 and suffers from short-term dementia, meaning he doesn't remember that the close he laid on his chair next to his bed he has had on for the last 5 days. He also has trouble shaving. The facility where he lives is several states away from me. For the most part I like this facility. However, I have repeatedly asked that they see that he has clean clothes on every day and that he indeed gets his shower once a week. Despite this, every time I visit I can tell this isn't happening. They always have the same response--"we want them to be as independent as possible." But when someone can't remember, that is useless. Has anyone else faced this issue and what have you done about it?

Rx Med. Assist Program....can't afford prescriptions??

helpful1 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:46:42 GMT

Please visit www.drugcardsforfree.com & scroll to the bottom of the page & click on the link & fill out the easy application to see if you/your senior applies for this wonderful program! We take out all the hassles & aggravation of all the red tape. You'll be glad you did!

How can I help my elderly parent with COPD?- from Encompass

encompassseniorsolutions — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:32:14 GMT

New Blog post from Encompass Senior Solutions based in Omaha, NE. How can I help my elderly parent with COPD? "Millions of elderly people suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is characterized by persistent, limited airflow, apt to inflammatory reactions to noxious particles and gases present in the airways and lungs. Sadly, COPD is a progressive disease with no cure, one that can only be slowed down by treatments and changes in lifestyle." To read more, visit http://encompassomaha.socialmediacontractors.net/2012/08/01/how-can-i-help-my-elderly-parent-with-copd/

What if your parent won't take their medications?

encompassseniorsolutions — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:47:59 GMT

New blog from Encompass Senior Solutions: What to do if an elderly parent won’t take medications "Mary’s mother had been stubborn her entire life — with money and opinions (right or wrong), with driving routes and restaurants to eat at (a rare treat for a frugal woman like Mary’s mom). Now since dad was gone, Mary’s mother was living alone." Read more at http://encompassomaha.socialmediacontractors.net/2012/07/27/what-to-do-if-an-elderly-parent-wont-take-medications/

Encompass Blog: Early Signs of Elderly Kidney Failure

encompassseniorsolutions — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:49:36 GMT

New Blog from Encompass Senior Solutions: What are the early signs of elderly kidney failure? "Kidneys play a vital in the overall health of a person at all stages of life. The bean-shaped organs that lie just below the ribcage in the back of the abdomen help purify the body of toxins as well as regulate bodily fluids such as electrolytes, stabilize blood pressure and even produce red blood cells. The elderly are at higher risk for renal failure than younger people — as the body ages so do the kidneys, especially after decades of working to cleanse the body of all sorts of impurities. Even though the early signs of renal failure can be subtle, when taking care of an elderly loved one it’s important to be aware of seemingly un-worrisome symptoms such as loss of appetite or increased/decreased urination." To read more, visit: http://encompassomaha.socialmediacontractors.net/2012/07/25/what-are-the-early-signs-of-elderly-kidney-failure/

Encompass Senior Solutions--Who We Are

encompassseniorsolutions — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:00:36 GMT

Just a little information on what Encompass Senior Solutions is and what we do. "Who we are and what we can do The professionals at Encompass Senior Solutions provide comprehensive in-home assessments, services and resources to people with the goal of helping them remain in their home environment." Go to our blog to read more. http://encompassomaha.socialmediacontractors.net/2012/07/24/how-encompass-helps-with-elder-care/

Important Medicare Supplement Insurance Information

gstar13 — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:12:05 GMT

Medigap supplemental insurance benefits have been mandated to be the same since 1992. So, a policy for Plan F, for example, provides identical benefits for senior citizens regardless of which company issues the policy. The companies, however, design their own rates and the premiums vary widely.

Weiss Ratings, Inc., that sells a consumer guide for Medigap shopping, has just issued its latest survey of premiums and says they find that senior citizens “continue to encounter striking differences in premium rates for policies offering identical coverage.”..click here to read more..

Why pay higher rates for the same thing you can get for less?

For example: a monthly rate of $106.83 for a 67 year old non smoking female and $122.66 for a 67 year old non smoking male.

Contact me today to see how I can help lower YOUR Medicare Supplement Insurance Rates.

All insurance companies pay their medicare supplement claims the same electronically. They have to..it's the law! The only difference between the companies offering Medicare Supplement Insurance..is their PREMIUMS.

You can apply today and start with your new lower rates as early as next month. It's that easy!

I look forward to helping you save money so you can have extra money for things in life you really enjoy.

Please pass this on to anyone this may help. Thank you!

Ganelle Djarlo

Ganelle Djarlo
Medicare Supplement Insurance Marketing Rep for Rene Apack
Mobile Phone: (847)984-0013

ganelle@insureyourfuture.com

Elderly and bathing

myck69 — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:16:17 GMT

Some please help me undersand why so many elderly people have a problem with bathing? I do not understand their concept or logic in not bathing.

Assisted Living Facility, Anaheim Hills

ElderlyCare — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:59:30 GMT

We run a assisted living facility in Anaheim Hills, CA. Our mission is to provide elderly assisted living to the elders. So, that they live a quality life by maintaining their independence and enjoying their familiar day-to-day home activities with the help of our thoroughly screened and well-trained staffs.

special products afffecting the elderly

tomermilbat — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:54:55 GMT

Hello After 29 years dedicated to helping the elderly improving their functionality and finding solutions for people with special needs MILBAT is offering a variety of unique assistive devices it developed for sale to the general public worldwide. We have opened an online store where we plan to sell some of the unique products we have developed for people with special needs. Some of these products we will be offering are patented and some are patent pending. Our website - http://www.milbat.org.il/scripts/txt.asp?pc=372718590 Our online store - http://www.milbatvirtualshops.com/main.sc Sincerely,Nachman PlotnitskyGeneral Director, MILBAT

Senior Eats- NEW Sunrise Food Blog

Sara Croes — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:46:59 GMT

I am pleased to share Sunrise’s new food blog Senior Eats™ which is an exciting resource for senior-friendly recipes, nutrition tips and food news. We know howimportant good food is to our residents and look forward to sharing all we have learned serving seniors delicious home-cooked meals for the last 30 years on this blog. Check out the blog today and visit it regularly to see new content multiple times each week. I look forward to your feedback on this new blog. Cheers! Sara CroesSunrise of Westtown(610) 399-4464

http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/blog.aspx?bc=senior+eats

How do you effectively communicate with 9-1-1 dispatchers if you have problems speaking?

EvEbb — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:26:42 GMT

Regards,

The Residency Dream Reality

katherin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:32:40 GMT

As a student attending college in sub-saharan Africa, one of my life’s dreams was to someday hold the staple as a Surgeon of international repute. In point of fact, I am still enthralled by the testimonies of Dr Ben Carson which I gleaned from his books: Gifted Hands, The Big Picture and Think Big. I love the hemispherectomies.

However, finding a residency position amidst the competition that characterizes the state-of-the-art medical schools in the US can be quite challenging. You must be able to convince the Professors of your capabilities and worthwhile vision as an emerging medical practitioner.

But thanks to the statementsofpurpose.com, a group furnished to help aspiring students to properly craft convincing and incisive statements of purpose for residency admission.

Candidly, I see statesmentofpurpose.com as a bridge to the world of medical residency.

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Troubling Back pain, have you heard...

capp — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:43:02 GMT

I'm taking care of an elderly aunt (granted she is pretty spry) who suffers from back pain she has tried medications to no help, has anybody heard

of this new product to help relieve pain you can view it at www.spinedokk.com & let me know if it worthwhile...otherwise any suggestions?

URGENT: Port Jeff area. Need reccomendations for a company that would visit my Mother and pre-dispence her medications

hassiman — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:33:12 GMT

Hello,

My elderly Mom lives in a wonderful Adult independent living home but due to her Macular degeneration she can no longer dispnse her own medications safely.

I am looking for a service that will send an RN to her home once each week to pre-dose each days medications for the week.

We had a service that was being provided by MediCare which we thought would last through December but they just called and said that this Wednsday ( tomorrow ) would be their last day....

I would be forever greatful id f anyone knows of suich a company in the Port Jefferson area and would be kind enough to let me know.

Thanks.

Touching

JohnT — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:49:41 GMT

Today I read an observation by social historian Robert Blythe.

"I think the old need touching. They have reached a stage of life when they need kissing, hugging. And nobody touches them except the doctor."

Let's all remember to hug our loved ones as often as we can.

Add your twitter link below! Do you twitter? Share your twitter link below!

ElderlyCare — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:30:48 GMT

Follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/evergreencare for latest information on elderly assisted living care

Adjustable bed

kay2wade — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 13:58:54 GMT

Is there someplace in the Plano area that has affordable adjustable (twin) or hospital beds? - used would be fine since we don't need the mattress. By affordable, I mean around $500.

Is Grandma drugged up?

Natalie Charette — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:08:26 GMT

By Elizabeth Cohen
CNN Medical Correspondent

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- One cold November weekend five years ago, Kelli Phillips and her husband traveled from their home in Norman, Oklahoma, to Kansas City, Missouri, to watch their beloved Oklahoma Sooners play in a Big 12 championship against Kansas State. Checking into the hotel, they looked forward with great excitement to the game.

Kelli Phillips' mom, Nancy Burns, turned out not to have Alzheimer's disease but was overmedicated.

And then Phillips' heart sank.

"When we got to the hotel that night, I turned my cell phone on, and I had four or five messages from my mother wanting to know what day it was and if it was morning or nighttime," Phillips says.

Phillips immediately called her brother, Brad Burns, who went the next morning to check on their mother. He found Nancy Burns stumbling around her home, confused and slurring her words.

Phillips and Burns took their 66-year-old mother to the emergency room when Phillips returned from Kansas City. At first, doctors thought she'd had a stroke, but tests showed that she hadn't. Burns was admitted to the hospital, and a neurologist diagnosed Alzheimer's disease or possibly Pick's disease, another form of dementia.

"Something in my gut told me it wasn't right," Phillips said. They took their mother to a geriatrician at the University of Oklahoma for a second opinion. She sat down with us and said, 'I don't believe your mother has Alzheimer's or Pick's disease. I believe she's overmedicated,' " Phillips remembered. "My brother and I looked at each other, and it was like, we knew it. We knew it."

Every year, 38 million older Americans suffer drug complications, 180,000 of which are life-threatening, according to research by Dr. Jerry Gurwitz, chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Click here to continue reading this article

Bedsore Prevention

GertrudeCNA — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:15:14 GMT

There are a number of things that can be done for prevention of sores:

Help the person shift frequently, at least every couple of hours.

If the person can't move at all, consider getting a bed that can shift teir position automatically.

Be careful of pressure on bony areas, like the heel or lower spine. Pay special attention to those areas.

For people who can't move their feet, I always try to place a sheepskin pad under their heels. The elbows can also be protected by pads.

If the bed tilts up, put padding or a roll pillow at the foot of the bed so that feet don't get wedged against a hard surface. Be careful of sliding.

Be careful not to allow friction burns from sliding on the bed. This can happen accidentally when tilting the bed up, when changing the linen, or when sliding the person off or on the bed.

Bathe daily, and more frequently as needed, using appropriate products.

Don't allow the skin to get too dry. After bathing or cleaning, use a good moisturizing lotion all over. Thoroughly massage the lotion into the skin.

Keep bedding clean and dry, and be careful of wet or damp linen or bedding.

If using a wheelchair, be careful of prolonged contact with hard surfaces. Use high quality pads.

Bedsore prevention - lotions

I recommend using the best cleansers and lotions you can get. These are often only available at medical supply stores or from online medical suppliers, and are usually expensive. I believe in being frugal, but this is one area where you don't want to save pennies.

Even if your client or loved one is in a long-term care facility, you will still want to look into this. There is a good chance that even acute care hospitals might not be using high quality products. Find out what is being used, and if necessary, bring in samples of your favorites. Be prepared to ask your client's physician directly for prescriptions for the most appropriate products, and then make sure the care facility actually gets them. If a lotion is prescribed for your client, you will want to be sure it is kept aside for his or her use and not put with the general supplies.

You may have to insist, but it's worth it. Of course these only work if used daily, and properly.

Bathing should be performed at least daily, with additional follow-up bathing as necessary. Prosducts for rinse-less bathing are available at some pharmacies and most medical supply stores. After the bath, lotion should be applied, and thoroughly massaged into the skin so there is no residue. You should be checking for the possible development of sores while doing this.

Bedsore prevention - high-end beds

The main reason high-tech beds like these are so helpful for preventing bedsores is that they can be set to gently roll your patient from side to side at regular intervals. The timing, speed, and amount of the roll can be preset, and can be set to be more gentle than you could do it yourself.

You can reposition the patient yourself, of course, but it is difficult to monitor that consistently around the clock, and you might need a second person to help. These beds can do the shifting so gradually that it won't wake or disturb the patient.

Some models of these beds also can have a percussion setting. For someone with respiratory problems, this acts like a regular pat on the back to help loosen any accumulation in the lungs. Some also have temperature controls to prevent sweat buildup, since sweating increases the chances of skin problems.

As I said before, these beds are expensive and the full featured models are not even available for home. The mattresses and controls, which are still expensive, are available for home use.
It is frustrating that you can't usually get these beds under most insurance unless unless there already is a sore.

Even the better nursing facilities won't have these, so you need to ask the physician if this would be appropriate. I was surprised that at a better known nursing facility in South Florida, the staff wasn't familiar with beds like these and needed to be trained to use the one we had them get.

More than the beds, the important point is proper positioning. You can still get that with your existing bed by using wedge pillows, which are available at medical supply stores. You just have to be attentive and reposition regularly.

When Bedsores are Discovered

First, I should say that my experience is with prevention, and you should discuss any treatment with a doctor.

Second, wound care is complex. The proper treatment, including ointments and cleaning materials, will depend on whether the sore is infected or not and whether it is wet or dry. Get expert medical treatment.

Bedsores are serious.

Bedsores are very serious, especially if they develop into open wounds. They don't heal easily, and can get worse quickly if not treated carefully and expertly. Bedsores are also commonly referred to pressure ulcers or pressure sores. If you look up the bedsore topic online, these terms are used more commonly on the medical sites.

Bedsores are classified by stage, one through four. Stage 1 is before it breaks the skin surface, while at Stage 4 it is an open wound all the way to the bone or tendon.

Don't look at these if you get upset easily, but there are pictures of the sores on the internet, including in Wikipedia under the bedsore definition.

Identification.

Hopefully you will be able to identify the existence of a sore early in Stage 1, before it breaks the skin. At Stage 1 the area will look red or purple under the skin surface. If you touch it, it won't temporarily turn white, like a spot that is red from routine pressure would.

The areas that are susceptible and should be checked are those where the bone is close to the skin surface and subject to pressure, such as the hips, lower spine (tailbone), heels, elbows, etc. These ares should be checked frequently, especially the tailbone area and heels.

At the very least, the skin should be fully examined at least daily, during the daily bathing. After the cleaning, you should be applying moisturizing lotion to the skin. As you apply the lotion to the entire body, check thoroughly for anything that could look like a developing sore. If you see a stage 1 sore, don't massage it, as this may cause further damage to the area under the skin. Also, you can sometimes identify that there is a sore from odor, so be sure to investigate to any foul smell.

Treatment.

If a bedsore is discovered, get professional medical treatment. At a very least, if these are discovered in a rehab or nursing facility, have them treated by a "Wound Care Nurse". Wound Care is a nursing specialty. Ask to speak with that nurse about the prescription for treatment. If the facility does not have a wound care nurse on staff, they should be able to arrange for one.

Make sure the prescribed treatment is followed. The dressing should always be dry, and should be changed according to schedule. My experience is that this often does not happen as you would think it might. In rehab facilities or acute care hospitals, there may be 15 patients assigned to each CNA and there might be only a few RN's on duty, so scheduled dressing changes can easily get overlooked.

I try to talk to the client's doctor about possibly prescribing specific cleansers and ointments, rather than have the staff rely on whatever is on hand at the facility.

Monitor carefully.

I might Trust, but I also Verify, so I'll sometimes mark or date a bandage so I can be sure that it is being changed. More frequent changing is much better than a skipped changing. Also, even if it has just been changed minutes before, if the dressing gets wet or contaminated at all, make sure the wound is treated and changed all over again. Wounds in the tailbone area or hip can easily get contaminated. Don't compromise if the wound gets contaminated. Be sure that it is cleaned and bandaged all over again if this happens, no matter how many times this may need to be done.

If the sore is being treated in a rehab facility, find out when the wound care nurse is scheduled for a follow-up so you can get the progress. By doing that you will also know that there actually is a follow-up.

Elder abuse?

Some patient advocate groups you find online consider any bedsore to be an indication of abuse. That may be a severe view.

My own opinion is that these sores are preventable. They afflict people who can't care for themselves, when the attention they require is not provided. These sores are painful. They come about when a person is left in one position so long that discomfort gradually builds up to the point that it is painful.

Is there anyone in the Houston area that...

RosyGaye — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:25:25 GMT

knows of a geriatric specialist? My mother in law is in dire need of a general doctor but she won't go to the ones she has already been to. I thought maybe a doctor that specializes medicine for the elderly would be a good place to start looking but I can't seem to find any close to the area we are located. We need someone in the Memorial or Katy area. She is very stubborn and won't listen to us. She has many physical problems but is on absolutely no medicines but Tylenol. She has a heart stent but never went back to see the doctor. Need someone's help soon.

Thank you, in advance.