in home care for seniors

GOOD NEWS FOR CHRONIC CARE
Associate Care Manager Gregory is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA), Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP), and Medicare Counselor, whose work...
Read more
August 6, 2018
0
0
Long-Term Doesn’t Mean Put It Off Until Later
Gregory Peebles is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA), Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP), and trained Medicare Counselor, whose work focuses...
Read more
June 24, 2018
0
0

In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

This month I have been posting exclusively about Alzheimer’s because November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness month. Most of us probably know someone who has been diagnosed with the condition, a condition that sees a new diagnosis in America once every 67 seconds. If you know anyone who is a caregiver to a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease you also know that the caregivers are losing sleep with the stress that Alzheimer’s can represent. But who would have thought that losing sleep itself can be a cause of Alzheimer’s? Researchers in New York have recently published their findings that show a distinct correlation between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and the accumulation of plaque amyloid in the brain. At first, the researchers had to seriously question whether the Alzheimer’s promoted the sleep issue or if the sleep disturbance could exacerbate the progression of Alzheimer’s. They divided a group of 55 to 90 year old adults into groups with no sleep apnea, those with mild sleep disturbance and those with pronounce obstructive sleep apnea. They followed these individuals for two years taking regular measures of the amyloid deposits in their brains through PET scanning as well as their OSA intensity through monitoring. They found that those with the more advanced sleep issues developed statistically more deposits of amyloid on their brains over time. The modest good news here is that not everyone who develops amyloid deposits is doomed to cognitive decline…it is not quite so linear. But people with more advanced Alzheimer’s symptoms also tend to have more amyloid plaque deposits. These scientists continue to work on this association, because while Alzheimer’s has no proven treatment to alter the decline in cognitive function, sleep apnea can be treated. And slowing the progression of a disease with no present cure by addressing OSA is a win. It is also important to take sleep apnea seriously, because it is not just the rattling of the rafters for the poor bed partner; it is a medical issue with implications for brain health. Please check my interview with Eric Horng of Chicago's ABC7 Sunday morning, November 12. We discussed what caregivers in the midst of a crisis can do ... for themselves! Please check it out on this link. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia. It is available through Amazon. But if you would like $10.00 off the Amazon price, I invite you to follow this link: and apply the discount code: ZH3VK3U6.
If you are a caregiver to someone with diabetes - Type 1 or Type 2 - then you know that one of the biggest challenges is the fact that food seems to have become the enemy to a diabetic. The difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes is that the former requires insulin to manage blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes, the more common of the two, can be managed by diet and/or oral medications. Both require a rethinking of food, however. And if you are caregiver to a diabetic, you may find it most challenging to help your loved one with the food side of the equation, but here are three tips that can make this manageable medical condition also a bearable medical condition.

1.    Don't Manage Diet with No's. Too often it is easy to think of all the foods that a diabetic cannot eat, because they contain sugar. According to professionals who work with diet, they suggest making the whole household's diet healthier. Rethink how you prepare or coordinate meals for everyone so that you are incorporating more complex carbohydrates, more fruits and vegetables along with protein. You should limit, but you do not need to eliminate, foods like cake. Make them special occasion foods, instead of every meal foods.

2.    Portion and Convenience Control. A lot of the excessive intake we all are prone to is because we don't think about proper portions. We make a bag of microwave popcorn, pour it all in a bowl and head for the TV. Instead, we should take a serving dish of the stuff and stop when done. Snack food tends to be high in sugar and salt, so make your own convenience foods. Package in small containers some baby carrots or unsalted nuts or something else that can take the edge off your loved one's hunger until meal time.

3.    Get up and Move. To get a diabetic to exercise, appreciate that they will not respond to a drill sergeant approach. Don't nag. ask them to join you for a walk. Put an exercise bicycle in front of the TV - or a treadmill. Buy a pedometer to record how many steps each day a person logs, and work toward 5,000 steps and then 10,000. Set a time goal of a 30 minute minimum, and have alternatives to walking for the days the weather may be uncooperative like mall-walking. (Many stores open early just for "mall walkers.")

      The way to gauge success long term is by monitoring long term A1C. Blood glucose can swing rather widely based on how recently a person has eaten, but the long term blood sugar measured by A1C should stay as far below 6% as possible. And remember that this is a long term measure just as the changes in diet and physical activity should be long term changes for the better.

            Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Case Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to ccbishop@creativecasemanagement.com.
Full Name:*

Phone Number:

Email:*

Your Question:

Type the Characters Shown:*

Personally committed to you and your loved one's well being.
Do you have pain in your back, particularly your lower back - that area around your belt line or slightly lower? If not, please consider yourself lucky, but also just wait. According to some experts, about four in five Americans will at some point in their lives experience low back pain...chronic low back pain. What may be surprising is that most of these cases have no specific cause that can be diagnosed. As a geriatric care management professional, I hear about this a lot. And if you are a caregiver to an older adult, you may hear this from your loved one as well, or you may be experiencing the pain yourself. So, as a consequence, doctors are seeing more and more of these patients, and without having a specific cause to address they may be tempted to treat the pain. While surgery may be an option for serious spinal conditions, most of this low back pain does not reach such a level of acuity to justify surgery. A lot of doctors have started giving injections into the site with anti-inflammatories, opioids, or in some cases vitamin B-12. Injections would be great if they worked, but there is not much evidence to suggest that the injections are any more than a short term fix for the pain. A research commentary, reported earlier this summer in the Journal of the American Medical Association, says that there is almost no evidence in the larger literature that injections have any positive effect over the long term. Other reports suggest that they likewise do not substantially reduce the likelihood of surgery later. There was one research study published in February that actually showed the opposite; patients with pinched nerves in their lower back receiving injections showed less pain relief than a control group who received no injections. The JAMA authors are now recommending against injections. What are the alternatives? Here are :
1. For those with above average weight, especially belly fat, weight loss can be very beneficial.
2. Strengthen the back muscles with more exercise. It could be as easy as taking longer walks, swimming or riding a bicycle.
3. In a journal called The Clinical Journal of Pain, doctors recommend yoga or Pilates as a somewhat more aggressive approach that has showed good results.
It does not have to be confusing. According to some physicians, we seem to have made a symptom into a diagnosis. That is to say that pain is the result of something being wrong, and we ought to treat the source of a problem. Yet, most doctors do not like to prescribe long walks or losing weight, because patients ask for a "quick fix" to their problems. We have come to view pills as a solution to our problems instead of changing our lifestyles. I have talked in other postings about helping older adults to have more active lifestyles, because it will be helpful for their sense of well-being. Being more active, it seems, also will be good for addressing low back pain. Do it in small measures at first, but be persistent and grow the number of minutes, laps, blocks or other measure of investment in an active life. If you as a caregiver are walking with your older loved one, you also may find that the social activity of conversation is a health boost. Make sure their shoes give them solid support. The pain may not totally go away, but chances are that there will be relief at least during the exercise. And the relief can continue to grow. Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Management professional and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to info@creativecaremanagement.com.
I have really lost track of how many conversations and/or blog postings I have had about Caregiver Stress. As a certified geriatric care manager, we work with families, and a substantial part of my focus is upon the stress of a caregiver trying to both deal with a loved one's eroding health, but also the demands on them from the others who depend on them. I would like to devote a bit of space here to addressing the stress of the aging loved one and how a caregiver can help them to cope with what life throws their way. Retirement is a break from the stressors of a workaday world, to be sure. But as one lives to do what one wishes as a reward from a long career, there comes a time when new stressors emerge. There can be increasing physical challenges from a medical condition that is not going to get better. Many of these conditions like arthritis, cardiovascular or pulmonary issues just get worse with time. As a person becomes less and less able to do the things they used to do to take care of themselves, the stress mounts. Other very common stressors are those that come with needing an elder caregiver, a spouse or partner to help with every day tasks; it takes an increasing toll. With general changes in health status can come a profoundly diminished sense of well-being and just plain depression. So much for the Golden Years. As a caregiver, look for these warning signs of excessive stress in one or both of your older loved ones:
- signs of anxiety, undue worry or outright panic attacks
- irritability or angry outbursts
- sadness, melancholy or lethargy
- indecisiveness or difficulty focusing
- difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep
- an array of aches, pains or other issues of nonspecific origin
- rashes, breathing problems or other "new" allergies
- drinking or eating too much or too little; or
- an increasing number of prescription or OTC medications on hand.
As a caregiver, you can help by helping your loved one to find a remedy for the stress. There is no absolute way to rid ourselves of all stress at any age, but the key is finding help to cope more effectively with the stress in our lives. For your older loved one, consider:
1. Gently and persistently encouraging your loved one to be more socially engaged with friends, clubs or outings in order to get a break from the stress cycle;
2. Help your loved one to find seek out talk therapy; it is not about getting another prescription nearly as much as "unloading" to a trained therapist;
3. Seeking a physical aid in the form of gentle massage therapy, exercise classes like yoga, relaxation therapy or just getting out for longer walks.
Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to info@creativecasemanagement.com.

See all Testimonials »

Creative Care Management, Inc.

1740 Ridge Avenue • Suite 111
Evanston, IL 60201

847.869.5118 x511 tel
847.869.0410 fax

info@creativecaremanagement.com

Evanston • Chicago • Skokie • Park Ridge • Glenview • Niles • Northbrook • Deerfield • Wilmette • Winnetka • Glencoe • Highland Park • Lake Forest • Naperville • Hinsdale • Wheaton • Oak Brook • Lombard • Glen Ellyn • Bloomington/Normal • Springfield • Decatur • Champaign/Urbana • Kankakee

Gay Friendly

in home care for seniors

GOOD NEWS FOR CHRONIC CARE

Long-Term Doesn’t Mean Put It Off Until Later

Contact

Newsletter Sign Up

Areas We Serve

Accreditations

Connect

Careers