Chicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence – Since 1991 • senior healthChicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence - Since 1991 | Page 8

Is This Normal?
As we age, our bodies give us feedback we’re not used to. Activities that never required a second thought...
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October 23, 2017
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Insta-Gram Part 2: The Internet and Aging Adults
Associate Care Manager Gregory Peebles returns with a series on the Internet and aging. Gregory is both a Certified...
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September 4, 2017
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What to Look for When Your Loved One Needs You But Can’t Ask
Associate Care Manager Gregory Peebles returns with a talk about hidden signals of aging that need our attention. Gregory...
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July 31, 2017
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Thanksgiving Clean-up
“It has been forever! You look so different!” Joyful cries of greeting such as these are so common at...
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November 30, 2015
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The older people with whom I speak often talk about the things they don’t do so well anymore, and the one that tends to top the list is sleep. While it is not just older adults who have trouble either getting to sleep or staying asleep, it can be a chronic issue. And one for which some of the medicinal therapies available may just not be good options. Why not a prescription sleep aid or perhaps one of the over the counter options like Benadryl – also known as diphenhydramine? Well, older adults tend to already have a number of prescription medications they take for any number of issues like elevated blood pressure or COPD or even neurologic conditions that just may not interact well with sedative drugs. The older metabolism does not process an added medication as easily as a younger metabolism, and a medication may simply be more potent to an older adult than a younger one because their bodies just have less fluid by volume for processing another medication. The American College of Physicians has a number of recommendations for getting their targeted seven to eight hours of sleep a night, and these can be guidelines for us all. They suggest: • The first seems to be a no-brainer, but they recommend you keep light and noise to a minimum and have a comfortable bed and pillow; • Keep the bedroom quiet and relaxing; watch television in another room, and in fact do your reading or have your conversations in another room as well; • Avoid having a clock where you can easily see the time, because it will just distract you from letting drift off; • If you do not fall asleep in about 25 minutes, just get up and go to another room; if you wake in the middle of the night, reflect back on relaxing thoughts like long walks; • Be active during the day, especially outdoor activity, but do not schedule your activity within two to three hours of bed time; • Limit caffeine to earlier in the day, and do not consume alcohol close to bedtime (it may make you drowsy, but it also will wake you when its effect wears off); • If you smoke, quit…the nicotine is a sleep inhibitor – never mind that the smoking itself is just plain unhealthy; and • Eat balanced meals, but again, not too close to bedtime. The ACP has a complete booklet you can download from their site, and it includes a personal diary for any of you or your older loved ones who do have trouble sleeping. They recommend maintaining the diary for the recommended week and bringing it along to the next visit with the physician. 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.
This is the third in a series of posts on dementia in advance of the release of my new book, How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia. It will be released through Family Solutions Press of Los Angeles and available from Amazon the week of July 17. We will keep you up to date on details. Who are the experts on dementia? There are some incredibly useful on-line resources that families with an older loved one suffering from dementia can turn. We offer a lot of wide-ranging resources in our book, but here are the links on a couple of the more outstanding among them. Consider these national resources available to support the individuals who may need help when dementia rears its head. In these and other resources, there also are local or regional chapters that can be that personal touch that makes such a difference.: 1. Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Caregiver Center is an arm of the Association that has done the most to help patients with the disease as well. The Center provides training and other resources to caregivers as well as a 24-hour telephone hotline. http://www.alz.org/care/alzheimers-dementia-support-help.asp 2. Aging Care offers answers and support from those caregivers who also are facing the challenges of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's or Dementia. The site allows you to “ask your questions and get helpful answers from caregivers, and memory care experts.” They also offer a free guide, "Life as an Alzheimer's Caregiver". The guide draws upon the experiences of elder care experts, caregivers to those with AD and patients themselves https://www.agingcare.com/Alzheimers-Dementia/Questions-1 In my book, we cover what we know about dementia, what can be done to stave off the effects of dementia and most importantly what caregivers can do for their loved ones with dementia and for themselves. We also offer a lot of resources, amny of them accessible on-line. 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.
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If you will be heading home for any of these seasonal holidays you will find that it can be a wonderful trip back in time as you revisit your own family history in the context of your mom’s or dad’s house. But when you visit, take a closer look at how safe that house may still be for your older parent living there. Some parts of the home interior landscape may be just like you remember them, but they may now pose hazards to your older parents.

    Start with electrical fixtures. Check for where the cords to lamps or telephones and other household appliances are. If they are in the flow of traffic, consider arranging furniture differently. Also, remember that extension cords are really only meant for temporary use, so it is a good idea to move fixtures to be closer to outlets. If you must use an extension cord, place it against a wall to reduce the trip hazard. If there are electrical cords under furniture, check for wear on the insulation to avoid fire risks. Cords under carpeting or rugs also can wear to the point that the floor covering becomes a fire hazard. And, of course, frayed or cracked cords should be replaced. Finally, check to see that all outlets have secure cover plates so that no wires are exposed. Do the hands-on test as well to be certain no outlet is unusually warm to the touch, a sign of potential overloads and therefore a fire risk.

    The Consumer Product Safety Commission has estimated that thousands of people 65 years and older each year are treated in hospital emergency rooms for falls associated with rugs or floor runners. Older adults have less agility and some shuffle as they walk making the trip hazard even greater, so remove rugs that cannot be securely attached to the floor. It is easy to use double-sided adhesive tape to secure rugs or use rubber matting under the rug cut to size is an alternative.

    In addition to replacing batteries in smoke detectors, make sure there are enough detectors placed throughout the house. Especially if one of your older parents has any difficulties with hearing, you will want to have multiple detectors, and they typically come with instructions on where they optimally should be placed in the house. Adding a carbon monoxide detector also is important if there are any fuel-burning appliances in the home. Even homes with electric kitchen appliances may have gas-burning heating units or water heaters.

Because accidents can still happen despite all these preventive measures, make sure emergency numbers are close to every telephone in the house. Include the local Poison Control Center along with a trusted neighbor’s number and your own family ICE (in case of emergency) contact. Write these telephone numbers in large print and tape conspicuously near each land line. Check also that phones and contact numbers are accessible to your parent in the event that an accident leaves them unable to stand.

    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 Charlotte Bishop.
May is National Geriatric Care Manager Month, but I am thinking that most of you probably did not get the memo. You may have been following my blog – especially those with an older parent or loved one – and you know what it means to be a caregiver, but not as many may know what a geriatric care manager (GCM) is. Geriatric care managers are the people who work with caregivers to older parents who want time for their own families and confidence that their mom or dad will be well cared for. We also work with older adults who do not want to be a burden to their families as they navigate health care issues and make decisions about where and how they can live as independently as possible.

And a person does not have to really be a caregiver to seek the services of a geriatric care manager. We also work with professionals who want to get help for their aging clients when they have had a life-changing incident and wish to remain as independent as possible. These are professionals who want to help their clients maintain quality of life when life changes and coordinate the medical and other resources that make that happen.

I sum up what it is to be a geriatric care manager by describing the four activities where I am most involved in helping elders or others with special needs:
1. Resource: GCMs make the home of a loved one who is aging in place more secure. We help show families what services can be brought to an elder’s home and at some point identify what are the best alternatives to home. And quite often with sandwich generation adult children of older adults, we can be there at a doctor’s appointment when they cannot be there.
2. Counselor: GCMs help families to reach consensus about how to best care for mom or dad when there are so many options or in cases where it may seem that there are no good choices. We help caregivers to older adults or even spouses to sort out whether it is just tiredness or if it is depression or old age.
3. Advocate: GCMs help to coordinate the care from multiple medical specialists who may be attending to an older adult and make sure they are all communicating with one another and with the caregiver. We also work to document a clear care plan the helps to preserve the life an older adult really wants, and we are the eyes and ears to look out for what is best for an elder if they are living in a senior community, assisted living or nursing home. We are particularly alert to any signs of abuse or exploitation.
4. Friend: GCMs are also good listeners, because it can be really important that a caregiver have someone with whom they care share how hard it really is to reverse roles with the parent who had raised them from childhood. It helps for me to have been a caregiver, so I can personally and professionally empathize with what it is like.
For more information on geriatric care management visit Care Manager.

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 Charlotte Bishop.

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