2009 December « The Professional Geriatric Care Manager’s Blog

Alzheimer’s Caregivers’ Support Group Continues

December 31, 2009 at 10:00 am | Posted in Pat Linard, PR | Leave a comment
Tags: alzheimer's, Caregiver's, Support, support group

Distinctive Care of Ridgewood, NJ continues to offer a support group for Bergen and Rockland County residents. The Alzheimer’s Caregivers support group continues on the first Monday of each month at 7PM at the First Presbyterian Church in Ramsey, NJ. In addition to discussion and support, the guest speakers from 2009 included Brian Keane, elder law attorney from Hartman & Winnicki and Amy Matthews from The Alzheimer’s Association; they provided much needed guidance. A guest speaker covering relaxation techniques will be featured in the first quarter of 2010. Mark your calendars for meetings on January 4, February 8 and March 1. Call Barbara at (201) 857-5283 if you would like to attend or want further information.

After the Holiday Visit

December 29, 2009 at 10:37 am | Posted in Sophia Heftler, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Aging, Changes, Holidays, Parents

One of the things that has been a constant for me since opening Distinctive Care Geriatric Care Management in Bergen County is that after the holiday visists our phones are much busier as adult children have noticed significant changes in their parents and are concerned about what to do

Should this year’s holiday visit open your eyes to current and potential problems or negative changes in your parent’s physical or emotional state, it’s time to put a plan of action in place. First, have a heart-to-heart conversation with your elderly loved one about their present circumstances, concerns and the measures they’d like taken to make things better. Introduce the idea of a health assessment appointment with their primary care physician. Would they feel more at ease if a home health aide visited a couple times a week? Maybe they have legal questions and would greatly benefit from an appointment with an attorney. Or they may need help with housecleaning or bill paying. While you may want to keep things light during the holiday season, do take this opportunity to collect all necessary information now to avoid frustration and confusion in the event of a crisis down the road. Pay a visit to the local Council on Aging or Town Hall for resources and services available in your parent’s community. And get a copy of the local telephone book to take home with you – it will come in handy as you and your loved one create a “go to” list of services over time. This list should include friends, neighbors, clergy, local professionals and all others who your family member has regular contact with. In fact, if you haven’t already, take the time to visit with those friends and neighbors and make sure you have their addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail information and make a point to provide them with your contact information as well. Now is the time to begin compiling a to-do list to be implemented over a period of future visits. Medical information should include your loved one’s health conditions, prescriptions and their doctor’s names and contact numbers. A financial list should contain property ownership and debts, income and expenses, and bank account and credit card information. You should also have access to all of your parent(s) vital documents that could include their will, power of attorney, birth certificate, social security number, insurance policies, deed to their home, and driver’s license. And remember to give your loved ones the power and permission to be in control of their own lives – as much as is reasonable. The more systems you have in place the more your loved one will be kept independent and safe in their own home,.

Should you require assistance with this or any other matters related to the care of your older adult loved-one feel free to contact me in one of our offices located in Ridgewood, Dumont and Tenafly by calling (201) 857-5283

Getting to know ____a week in the life of a Geriatric Care Manager

December 15, 2009 at 10:00 am | Posted in Lori Habersaat, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: GCM, Weekly

As a Geriatric Care Manager I often reflect on my visits to my clients at the end of the week. I am quite fond of all of them. There are one or two who seem to dominate my thoughts at one time more than another and A is on my mind this week. She is a wonderful 94 year old who has led an adventurous life and now feels tired and saddened by her aging. Her family is present via photos, phone calls, and occassional visits for lunch at her home. A is very quiet about her feelings, however she nods her head at me when I identify what is visible to me. She is always receptive to my visit but does not want the assistance of our geriatric counseler. “I used to talk to someone years ago, but I did not find them helpful”. In spite of this A states “I know that I am very lucky to be living in my home and have such a wonderf ul family”. I concur verbally and by nodding my head. We smile and I wonder what A was like as a young woman. How quickly time passes and steals youth away. For A I imagine a beautiful blonde haired aristocratic demeanor with a sterness yet a softness in dealing with others. I imagine that she knew how to get things done and probably did just that. I will make a point to ask A more about herself, her life, and who she was. Last week I told A that she was special and meant it. I suspected that she does not think this about herself anymore. It is important to me that I make certain that she knows it to be true once again.

Caregiver Stress and the Holidays

December 14, 2009 at 10:00 am | Posted in Sophia Heftler, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Caregiver, Holidays, Stress

As we all know as joyous as the holiday season is it’s also stressful under the best of circumstances. It can be even more stressful for those of us who are caregivers as well. As a caregiver myself I have become acutely aware of how the change in routine can effect our loved ones and how our unrealistic expectations of what it takes to make our holidays “perfect” can stress us out.

I wanted to share with you some of the plans I have implemented this year to make my holiday more joyful and less stressful. Hopefully some of these tips will help you as well, even if you are not a caregiver!

As many of you know, I lost my mother this year, almost 9 months ago. One of the things that I’ve done since before Thanksgiving is to acknowledge my feelings. I have given myself permission to feel sadness and grief and not forcing myself to be happy just because it’s the holidays. In allowing myself to acknowledge these feelings I have found that I’ve been able to find the real meaning of the holidays and spending time with my family; especially my father, who I am the primary caregiver for.

I am trying to be more realistic about the fact that the holidays do not have to be perfect and that they clearly will not be how they were last year. I have decided that it’s okay that things change and that this year we will be making some new traditions while cherishing my memories of the traditions my mother created. There is no such thing as “perfect” and I can’t expect the holidays to be like they are in the movies – I don’t have a production crew assisting me!

I know that when I get stressed out I invariably get depressed so I am going to be kind to myself this year. If things feel overwhelming with my father, I will ask my brother for help. If I need to take a nap after work, I will do so without guilt. I will also say “no” to the things I cannot do or choose not to do. I will not overbook myself because if I do I will not have time or energy to enjoy the joys this season presents us with.

As far as the overbooking goes, this year I am planning ahead. I have set aside specific days for holiday shopping, visiting with friends and planning my Christmas Eve menu and shopping list so that I am not scrambling at the last minute. I am going to have help on Christmas Eve so that all the work is not up to me.

I have made a committment to myself to accept my family members for who they are despite the fact that more times than most they do not live up to all my expectations. I will remind myself that others may be experiencing holiday stress and feeling depressed.

I am currently on a weight-loss program and I am not going to let the holidays become a “free-for-all” because I know that this will only lead to stress, guilt and frustration. I will stick to the healthy habits I have been developing and have booked time for myself to get physical activity and also will try to stick to my usual bedtime because if I don’t get enough sleep I begin to get depressed. I will also be sure to remember to do my light therapy to counteract the effects of our shorter, less sunny winter days.

My fifteen minutes…this is going to be an important part of my Christmas Eve. Since I will be hosting Christmas Eve this year I am going to take 15 minutes before my guests are expected to arrive to take a breather…to spend 15 minutes alone and without distraction in my bedroom listening to soothing music, clearing my mind and focusing on my breathing to help me restore my inner calm. I have also scheduled a 15 minute break to do the same thing after dinner while my enlisted help is cleaning up.

Professional help is something I am lucky enough to already have in place, but for those of you who do not, if you find yourself feeling persistently sad, anxious, unable to sleep, irritable or hopeless and palgued by physical complaints or unable to face routine chores that persist for a while, please talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and remember to take good care of yourself!

Hospice Services

December 11, 2009 at 10:00 am | Posted in Sophia Heftler, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Hospice, Medicare, Terminally Ill

When most people think of hospice care they think of the provision of care for people who are in the end stages of cancer. The care managers at Distictive Care have worked with many of our client families to arrange for end of life care for many different illnesses which has enabled our clients to remain in their homes as they wished.

I would like to review with you some of the illnesses that qualify for the hospice care Medicare benefit to enable our readers to take advantage of this very important entitlement.

Hospice care is devoted to caring for terminally ill individuals whose life expectancy is measured in months rather than years. It is appropriate when a cure is no longer a realistic expectation. With hospice care the desired goals are to maximize patient comfort and improve the quality of life. Hospice does not hasten death or postpone dying, but provides its presence and specialized knowledge during the dying process.

General guidelines that must be met include both a Life Limiting Condition and documented evidence of functional decline. The patient must also have one or more of the following:

multiple hospitalizations over the past 6 months;
documentation of decreased oral intake;
weightloss greater than 10% over the past 6 months;
serum albumin level less that 2.5g/dl;
cholesterol less than 156mg/dl, and/or
hematocrit less than 41 g/dl.

The following diagnoses may qualify for hospice care and our care managers are able to assess whether a referral to a hospice is appropriate:

Cancer
End-Stage Cardiac Disease
End-Stage Lung Disease (COPD)
End-Stage Dementia
End-Stage Renal Disease
End-Stage Liver Disease
Stroke & Coma
AIDS
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Failure to Thrive

If you’d like to have an assessment completed of your loved one, contact Distinctive Care in Ridgewood, Dumont, or Tenafly at (201) 857-5283. If hospice care is an entitlement your loved one is eligible for we will work with you to arrange for care with the highest quality hospice providers.

The Acceptance of a Caregiver and Dealing with Loss

December 8, 2009 at 10:00 am | Posted in Lori Habersaat, GCM | Leave a comment

In the life in the week of a Geriatric Care Manager , I often forget how difficult it can be to go through a period of change until I meet some of our wonderful families and watch their struggles with loss. I recently stopped to consider the many challenges our elder clients and their families have with the many losses, that time and aging can force apon a family. Many of our clients today were recently fully functioning, independent, active citizens of their community. Often they were capable of contributing many valuable gifts to their neighbors and friends and now find themselves in a position of receiving. This can be so difficult for some. Distictive Care has someone so very talented in helping clients and their families deal with these very issues, Bobbi.
I recently watched Bobbi work her magic with a wife who was dealing with her husband’s recent stroke and associated physical losses. The same wife who wanted to help her husband but could not was having an extremely difficult time accepting the caregiver and the help that she provided. To this wife these were the things that she did for her husband over the past 60 years of her marriage. She felt saddened that she could no longer care for him now that he needed her more than ever. The caregiver understood this but still found the situation to be very strained. Bobbi, a Geriatric Certified Counselor, visited the wife and husband and helped this wife talk about how this felt and why this was so difficult for her. In doing so this client was able to understand her own feelings so that she knew when her negative feelings were interfereing with her relationship with her husband’s caregiver. Bobbi was able to establish a relationship that allowed her to visit again to provide ongoing support for this wife and husband.