News « The Professional Geriatric Care Manager’s Blog

Older Americans Month

May 18, 2012 at 10:30 am | Posted in Deborah Varisco, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Aging, Health, Help, Life, News, Support

Each May we celebrate the contributions and achievements of older Americans. The 2012 theme for Older Americans Month is, “Never Too Old to Play.” This theme encourages older Americans to stay engaged, active, and involved in their own lives and in their communities. Older Americans are living longer and are more active. Since 1963, communities have celebrated Older Americans Month organized by the Administration of Aging through the Department of Health and Human Services. While there is a vast network of programs for older Americans, many still struggle everyday to stay healthy and make ends meet. Many seniors cope with multiple health conditions and find it difficult to pay for food, utilities and other basic necessities on a fixed income.

To maintain good health, it is important to do something active each day. Older Americans should select activities that they enjoy but also maintain their strength, balance, flexibility and heart health. Activity helps older Americans maintain a healthy weight, prevent or control illness, sleep better, reduce stress and depression, improve balance and feel their best. Being active has also been shown to improve memory.

The theme, “Never Too Old to Play,” is the perfect opportunity for people of all ages to play games together. Younger children or teens can play games with older relatives, neighbors and friends or they can volunteer to play games at area nursing homes. Games can include card games, such as Uno or War and board games, like Monopoly, Clue and Scrabble. Other activities they can participate in are trivia games, video games such as Wii games, bowling, cooking, swimming, going to the movies or a concert, or taking a walk.

Older Americans Month is a great opportunity to show your appreciation for older adults and to thank them for their contributions to our communities. Interactions with older Americans enrich the lives of everyone involved. As part of Older Americans Month, get involved with at least one senior and enjoy an interaction which will ultimately benefit both of you.

Distinctive Care Geriatric Care Management serves Bergen, Passaic, Rockland and Orange County with nurses licensed in New Jersey and New York. We help families dealing with various issues related to their elderly loved ones and would be happy to discuss any concerns you may have related to long term care.

Please contact us in our Ramsey or Ridgewood Office to schedule a consultation. 201-587-5283.

National Women’s Health Week

May 17, 2012 at 10:30 am | Posted in Amy Shein, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Advocacy, Health, Life, News, Personal, Safety, Tips

May 13^th-19^th is National Women’s Health Week. It is a very important week that women really need to look deep into, taking some personal time and care for one’s self. This week-long health observance was coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. It brings together communities, businesses, government, health organizations, and other groups in an effort to promote women’s health. The theme for 2012 is “It’s Your Time.” National Women’s Health Week promotes women making their health a top priority. It will also encourage women to take the following steps to improve their mental and physical health and lower their risks of certain diseases. Women need to:

Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings: mammograms and pap tests, a colonoscopy, and cardiac testing.
Get active and start a regular exercise program. Regular activity can help prevent unhealthy weight gain and also help with weight loss.
Eat Healthy: eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, fat-free or low-fat versions of milk, cheese, yogurt and other mild products. Incorporate of fish, skinless poultry, lean red meats, beans, eggs and nuts. Avoid saturated fats and Trans fats. Low sodium and no added sugar are very important to follow in a women’s diet.
Pay attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress.
Avoid unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking and not wearing a seatbelt or helmet when riding a bicycle.

With National Women’s Health Week, we remind women everywhere that they need to visit the doctor, make sure their screenings are up to date, and just take time to think about their own health.

Please contact us in our Ramsey or Ridgewood Office to schedule a consultation. 201-587-5283.

Come to the Ridgewood Health Fair

January 9, 2012 at 10:30 am | Posted in Pat Linard, PR | Leave a comment
Tags: Health, Help, Life, News, Personal

It’s hard to believe that the health fair that I have been so busily involved in is almost here. I’ve been very involved as co-chair of the committee and I think it will be a real success! I am hoping lots of people will take advantage of all that is being offered by so many in the community. Distinctive Care Geriatric Care Management has always had a policy of giving back to the community and volunteer activities like this are all part of our Distinctive Touch program.

The former Ridgewood Health Fair, now called Realistic Resolutions 2012, is being held on Thursday, January 19 from 5 to 8PM at the YMCA/YWCA of Bergen County at 112 Oak St. in Ridgewood. Amanda Arlauskas, runner-up from Season 8 of NBC’s The Biggest Loser will be the Keynote Speaker. Amanda will also be on hand to sign books and planners. I have heard Amanda speak before and I know how inspiring she can be. Maybe I too will be inspired to lose those couple of pounds that are making my pants tight!

This is a free event and will feature other happenings such as food demos and samplings from Whole Foods, chair massages, health screenings such as blood pressure, body fat analysis, reflexology and more from more than 40 exhibitors. Door prizes and giveaways will be abundant.

Of the many screenings that are being offered, Distinctive Care wanted to offer something that would be of real service to the attendees. Being in the middle of winter and knowing how many people suffer from depression, we thought it would be a good idea to offer screenings and advice for Seasonal Affective Disorder. We have written many blogs about this and now we are able to work directly with individuals to help them through what is a difficult time for many older adults and people of all ages. Two of our nurse care managers will be on hand to do this timely screening.

Seniors Staying in the Workforce

October 6, 2011 at 10:30 am | Posted in Amy Shein, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Aging, Life, News, Research

This past Sunday night was Andy Rooney’s final broadcast on 60 Minutes. At the age of 92 and still working as a writer, a profession that he has loved since starting out in the Army during WWII. He stated that he will not be seen on the television anymore, but he will never stop being a writer and will continue to write. I have always liked his ending commentaries at the end of 60 Minutes and looked forward to them each week. I could not believe how old he really was when I watched his last episode on Sunday.

I was visiting a client last week at a nursing home. The facility was celebratring the Assistant Director of Activities 85th birthday. She told me she loves her job and does not know anything different, but to get up each morning and go to work helping others. I see it in my own family. My father is 79 and my father in law is 81. They both go to work in their longtime careers everyday. Except when they go to Florida for a month or two.

I read from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistic on a current population survey, shows the number of workers age 75 years and older has steadily risen since 1985. Last year more than 1.2 million people age 75 and up were still in the workforce. It was said that seniors that are closer to age 65 are working because the cannot survive on their pensions or their retirement savings. Some researchers now say it is a different reason for the older senior, most of whom now work for social interaction and for the sense of fulfillment and keeping their mind and body functioning. They want to maintain their quality of life and feel that working is the ticket to keeping mentally and physically well.

After reading an article from Mind Power News about 70 Ways to Increase Your Brain Power, Number 13- is writing is good for your mind by telling your memory what is important and so you can recall things more easily. Number 33 is learning. So when an older person is still working, they are always learning or educating themselves and others. The best way to end this blog, is by stating; my kids love Betty White…

Open Enrollment Begins October 1

September 29, 2011 at 10:30 am | Posted in Joanne Jordan, Office Manager | Leave a comment
Tags: Eldercare, Family, Medicare, News, Personal, Tips

During the summer, I received a call from the daughter of one of our clients. She wanted to get a jump on reviewing her mother’s Medicare coverage, as she knew that open enrollment (the annual period in which changes in coverage can be made) would be coming up soon.

In fact, this window of opportunity is coming earlier—and ending earlier—this year. Details on coverage options for 2012 will be available on October 1, and changes to existing coverage may be made between October 15 and December 7, 2011.

Even though our client has an existing Medicare plan in place, her daughter is wise to review the plan each year, especially the Part D prescription drug coverage. Changes in her mother’s medications since last year can have a significant impact on out-of-pocket expenses and may warrant a switch to a different Part D plan to minimize drug costs. For some budget-conscious seniors, having good prescription coverage can mean the difference between compliance with doctors’ orders and being unable or unwilling to continue the care they need.

The daughter of our client was feeling somewhat overwhelmed at the prospect of analyzing all of the plans and making the best selection to meet her mother’s needs. I referred her to our Certified Senior Advisor, who is helping her to understand the available options and make an informed decision.

Resistant Germs

August 12, 2011 at 10:30 am | Posted in Deborah Varisco, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Education, Health, Life, Medication, News, Prevention, Research, Tips

Imagine a world where bacteria no longer responds to antibiotics. The widespread use of antibiotics in humans, animals and agriculture is creating an increase in resistant bacteria. Inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics has played a significant role in the emergence of resistant bacteria. Patients insist on antibiotics and physicians prescribe them. One third of people believe that antibiotics will cure the common cold. In addition, many individuals do not complete the course of antibiotics prescribed, stopping them once they feel better. Antibiotics are often used in animal feed and this use can lead to the creation of resistant strains of bacteria. Poor hand hygiene by hospital staff has also been associated with resistant organisms.

How does this happen? Everytime an individual takes an antibiotic to fight an infection, the antibiotic destroys most of the bacteria. However, a few tough germs may survive either by mutating or by obtaining resistant genes from other bacteria. These survivors can reproduce quickly, creating new drug resistant bacteria. The presence of these resistant bacteria strains usually means that the next infection will not be cured by the first choice antibiotic. As a result, more infectious diseases are harder to treat than they were a few decades ago.

Some of the bacteria that have resistance to antibiotics are:

Staphylococcus bacteria, which causes the majority of infections in patients in hospitals in this country;
Streptococcus pneumonia, which causes pneumonia, meningitis and ear infections;
Enterococcus, the bacterium which can cause everything from urinary tract infections to heart valve infections.

To help prevent drug resistance, a patient and healthcare provider need to discuss the appropriate medication for an illness and avoid overusing or misusing antibiotics. Diagnostic tests are needed to determine which antibiotic would best treat an infection. These tests sometime take days to give results. In the meantime, many physicians prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics when a more specific treatment would be better. The common practice of prescribing unknown infections with broad-spectrum antibiotics is another reason for the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. Follow prescription medication directions and never share or take medications prescribed for someone else. Do not save your antibiotics for the next time you get sick, take all the medication as prescribed. To further control drug resistance among disease-causing microorganisms, we need ongoing programs to decrease the use of antibiotics, both in the medical setting and agriculture; increase use of vaccines to prevent infection; and the development of new classes of antibiotics to fight emerging resistant bacteria.

Antimicrobial resistance is the result of overuse and misuse of antibiotics in people and animals, lack of diagnostic tests to rapidly identify infectious agents, and poor hygiene and infection control in the healthcare and community setting. All together these factors have contributed to the growing problem of resistant infections that are increasingly difficult and costly to treat.

July 28, 2011 at 10:30 am | Posted in Amy Shein, GCM | Leave a comment
Tags: Diet, Education, Health, Life, News, Study, Tips

I have worked in Cardiology for most of my nursing career, but now have tried to bring many of the things that I have learned over the years with me to my clients as a Geriatric Care Manager. One of the cardiologists that I worked very closely with was a firm believer of a prudent diet along with medication management. That is why we worked so well together, because I believe in the same objective. He often recommended the Portfolio Diet to many of his patients that had high cholesterol.

Around five years ago, research studies were conducted by Dr. David Jenkins from the University of Toronto. These studies had shown that various foods, such as nuts, soy protein, oat bran and plant sterol all can have a cholesterol-lowering effect. But, combining all these foods together showed that they are as effective as taking a statin drug. The results showed a 30.9% decrease in LDL cholesterol from the statin and a decrease of 28.2% from the portfolio combination of all these foods.

What is the Portfolio Diet?

Substitute soy foods for meat. Drink soy milk instead of dairy milk and substitute soy protein foods for other meats.
Eat as much fiber as possible. People in the study took three daily servings of natural Psyllium (Metamucil) supplements. Oats and barley replace other grains and preferred vegetables like eggplant and okra.
Include plant sterol-enriched margarines, such as benecol and smart balance. Plant sterols are also available in capsule form as dietary supplements.
The best and most important nut of all is the almond. A handful of almonds every day is a great thing you can do. The Almond Board of California offers the portfolio diet recipes on its website . But, any tree nut will help reduce cholesterol.

It is always recommended that you speak to your physician before you make any changes to your diet. I plan on writing more next week about the real break down and nutrients that you can find in almonds. This will make anyone a lover of almonds.

What a Good Read!

July 25, 2011 at 10:30 am | Posted in Pat Linard, PR | Leave a comment
Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiver, Eldercare, Life, Memory, News, Research

I read a good book recently, Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s by Lauren Kessler. The author is a journalist who feels that she failed in the role of caregiver for her mother who had Alzheimer’s. So when her mother passed away, she decided to give it another try, but in a different way. She went undercover as an aide in a dementia care facility.

What Lauren found was that aides in dementia care facilities are underpaid and usually living from hand to mouth. Their workload is heavy and their day is challenging both physically and emotionally. In many cases, the job of aide is not the only one that they hold. Their day is repetitive in the tasks they do but not in the challenges that interrupt those tasks. Quite often they are the caregiver that is there when a resident falls or has an accident or has an aggressive episode.

What Lauren also found was that she became attached to these elderly men and women with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Yes, they experienced behaviors typical to the disease, such as repeatedly asking the same question or experiencing episodes of paranoia, but they also had personality. And each one was an individual in many of the same ways that they had always been an individual before they were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. They were able to experience emotions like you or I, and although they didn’t have a memory of things that just passed, they were able to enjoy life in the moment.

The statistics for Alzheimer’s are staggering and worth us paying attention to as a nation, and as a world. Today, 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2050, as many as 16 million Americans will have the disease. Of Americans aged 65 and over, 1 in 8 has Alzheimer’s and nearly half of people aged 85 and older will have the disease. For more information on this devastating disease, go to Alz.org. Geriatric care managers and other healthcare professionals can help families in caring for a loved one in caring for those with dementia. To find a geriatric care manger in your area, visit CareManager.

Today’s Hot Topic: Dehydration

July 20, 2011 at 10:30 am | Posted in Joanne Jordan, Office Manager | Leave a comment
Tags: Health, Life, News, Personal, Prevention, Safety, Tips

Okay, you know it’s hot outside when your fit-as-a-fiddle landscaper passes out from the heat.

It is hot here in North Jersey. Really hot. Blistering-tar-in-the-driveway hot. It is 6 p.m. and my thermometer in the shade still reads 104 degrees. And this heat wave is expected to continue for the next few days.

I’m sitting here in my air-conditioned office, thank heavens, with a nice cool drink, but I’m still thinking about the heat and the risks of dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. I’m taking mental inventory of the people in my life – family, friends and neighbors – who might benefit from a reminder to make an extra effort to stay well hydrated during a heat wave. The elderly are especially at risk and may not recognize the warning signs of dehydration. These include dark or malodorous urine, decreased urine output, dry mouth, decreased sweating and tear production, muscle cramps, nausea and vomiting, constipation, heart palpitations, lightheadedness (especially when standing), increased fatigue, confusion and weakness.

Many medications used by seniors to treat a variety of ailments have diuretic properties, which increase the need for fluids. At the same time, some aging adults experience difficulty sleeping through the night and/or increased frequency of bathroom trips, so they purposely cut down on their fluid intake. These two situations leave them at higher risk of dehydration.

A quick test for dehydration is to gently pull up the skin on the back of the hand and release it. If the skin does not return to its normal state within a second or two, the person is likely dehydrated.

While water is best, a variety of fluids may be best for encouraging increased fluid intake. Contrary to popular belief, the diuretic properties of coffee and tea are modest compared to the amount of fluid consumed, so moderate consumption of coffee and tea (once or twice a day) is generally okay, as long as there are no other medical reasons to avoid them. Increased intake of fruits and vegetables are a wonderful way to combat dehydration and improve nutrition.

Hoarding Heartache

July 18, 2011 at 10:30 am | Posted in Pat Linard, PR | Leave a comment
Tags: Education, Health, Help, Life, News, Support, Therapy

I attended a seminar recently on hoarding at The Brownstone in Paterson, NJ. (Just a little aside, for those of you who are fans of Real Housewives of New Jersey, The Brownstone is the catering place owned by Caroline Manzo and her family of Franklin Lakes, NJ.) It was a lovely venue for a difficult topic; the event was sponsored by a local nursing home and rehabilitation facility. I learned some very interesting things in this three hour seminar from what hoarding is to tips on how to deal with it. Although most people would consider it a mental health issue, it is not listed as such in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The bottom line, however, is that hoarding is a disorder that is extremely difficult to resolve. Usually it has roots in information processing deficits and emotional dysfunction. And they are now thinking that it could also have a genetic component. Many people would consider it an obsessive compulsive disease, however hoarding has only the compulsive part since hoarders don’t obsess about what to save. They save it all! Every item has the same “value” as another, whether it be a drug store flyer or a stock certificate.

I learned some good tips about working with older adults who may be a hoarder. They and their possessions need to be respected. Although safety is of the utmost importance, it is best not to be critical of the client’s environment. The client needs to be involved in any decisions and it is best if the clean-up process is done slowly and with gradual changes.

Hoarding is a difficult problem to work with it, but there are organizations that are available to help and often a therapist can assist in the desensitization process. Often, medication management can be of help with drugs to treat anxiety and attention deficit disorder. Hoarding is a topic that is gaining more and more attention.