Home Care NJ - New Jersey Home Health 1-800-848-2336

The Family Caregiver Alliance offers good information to families across America when dealing with elder care. Visit their site often at Family Caregiver Alliance.

Caring for aging parents or ill relatives brings out the good and the bad in sibling and family relationships. Caregiving can be a time for siblings to come together and provide support for each other or it can be a time for stressful transition, causing strained connections and painful conflict.

A source of friction between adult children carries the existing legacy of family dynamics. Demands of caregiving bring up old patterns, unresolved issues, and tensions. Old family wounds are reopened and rivalries reemerge. Siblings can find themselves replaying their historical roles in the family, recreating old dynamics of competition and resentment as they vie for mom’s and/or dad’s attention and affection.

Other things arise such as denial over a parent’s condition. Siblings who are unable to accept the reality of a parent’s illness and refuse involvement may be protecting themselves from facing a parent’s eventual death and their own loss. This causes the active family caregivers to react with resentment, bitterness, and anger.

What is seen in families is that discord surfaces from the unequal division of caregiving duties. Usually, it is one adult child or sibling that carries the primary role of caregiving for mom or dad. This may be because he or she lives closest to a parent, is perceived as having less work or fewer family obligations, or is considered the “favorite” child. When this situation occurs, it can lead the overburdened primary caregiver feel frustrated and resentful and other siblings to feel uninformed and left out.

Go to http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=868

For help when caring for an aging relative at home go to Expert Home Care and call 800-848-2336.

Expert Home Care when your aging seniors in New Jersey needs live-in care, elder care, or senior home care in NJ  800-848-2336.

*Better Business Bureau - BBBOnLine Participation Confirmed For Expert Home Care, Inc. meets all BBBOnLine participation and Better Business Bureau membership standards and is authorized to display the BBBOnLine trustmark.

Continued from our posting date August 13th - Estate Planning for New Jersey Seniors

The place seniors should start is with a complete financial inventory. This includes taking not of income, assets, expenses and even liabilities. Talk about what the senior is interested in long term. Is retirement living an option or will the family home be sold. These are important questions that should be worked out early on before a situation arises. Finally, determine what kind of insurance the senior will have as well as how much money for retirement.

Also, discuss a senior life settlement. This is an option for seniors who want to sell their life insurance policy for more than the cash value the life insurance company would give them to cash out. This means seniors can sell life settlements and get money to live their retirement on and the individual who bought the insurance policy will simply cash it out upon death.

Before making any of these serious decisions it is important for seniors to discuss their options with a professional. Lawyers well versed in senior matters or financial planers are two great resources for seniors to have their legal questions answered and to receive the help they need planning their retirement. Most of the time using an expensive attorney will be expensive in the short run but it will result in major savings down the road and is worthwhile.

Expert Home Care in New Jersey at 800-848-2336 - We introduce Mr. Michael FitzPatrick, Managing Partner, The LTC  Partnership, LLC -

Michael FitzPatrick reminds us why women need to pay close attention to planning for their future.. the long term care future.  He asks a provocative question…  ”When visiting nursing homes in America, what do you see? More specifically WHO do you see in nursing homes?”

Thinking back when visiting my dad living with Alzheimer’s, I remember seeing more women.  “Why do you suppose that is?”, asks Michael FitzPatrick. 

We can only assume why there are more women in nursing homes is because women out live their mates, and we don’t plan for our on future. “Men”, as Michael shared, “don’t plan for their future…, why do you think?” Michael believes it’s because most men KNOW they will be taken care of by their family.. usually the wife first, and then the adult children.

Reasons there is a disproportionate number of women in nursing homes -

• Women live no longer
• Family is no longer close to provide care for aging relative
• Increasing number of women remain single and childless
• Women have no financial plan in place

2008 Statistics on Long Term Care for Women

• Average life expectancy is 84
• Social Security provides 40% of all retiree’s income
• 12-15 million Americans need long term care now
• Between 65 and 70% of women work outside the home
• Divorce rates are on the rise - 1 out of 2 marriages end in divorce
• 25% of baby boomers don’t have children
• Family members can live across town & the country

Expert Home Care invites women in New Jersey to learn how better care for themselves in the future. Call Michael FitzPatrick at (973) 394-0053 or visit THE LTC Partnership at www.theltcpartnership.com.

The biggest thing most family members wished they’d known about Alzheimer’s disease is the importance of understanding the ten signs of early onset. When you understand the difference between normal aging and the early signs like your loved one’s negative behavior becoming more aggressive with the onset of Alzheimer’s, then you would know that your elder loved one is not just getting old. This might put you in the drivers seat… to find the right doctors to perform testing like blood, neurological, memory, CT and PET scans and help uncover Alzheimer’s or dementia sooner.

Expert Home Care in New Jersey wants adult children to pay close attention to the early signs of Alzheimer’s and take proper action if you see a parent displaying one or serveral. Consult with a neurologist who specializes in dementia. A neurologist or an medical doctor who specializes in geriatrics will do the proper testings and evaluations to uncover Alzheimer’s or dementia early on. They will prescribe the right medications that help delay the progression of the disease. Hopefully the medications will help your aging parents and potentially keep them in that early stage for a longer period of time.

Memory loss that disrupts everyday life is not a normal part of aging - It may be a sign of Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal brain disease that gets worse over time and causes changes in thinking, reasoning and behavior. Although the disease is more common in people 65 and older, it can also strike those in their 30s, 40s and 50s.  Alz.org.

Visit us in a day or two when we give more information of the signs of the disease.

Expert Home & Live-in Care for seniors and elders in New Jersey.

Call us for help at 800-848-2336.

Nursing Homes - Five-Star Rating System delivered to you by Elder Law Answers!
 
Elders and Seniors in NJ can eat at a five star restaurant or stay at a five star hotel. By year’s end, you’ll also be able to select a five star nursing home.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced plans to implement a one  to five star rating system for nursing homes to help consumers in New Jersey evaluate a nursing home’s quality when selecting a facility. The ratings would appear on the agency’s Nursing Home Compare Web site.

CMS will base the ratings on government inspection results and the staff data and quality measures. It is yet to be determined - if the ratings will include patients with dementia or those on ventilators.

CMS Administrator Kerry Weems believes the public is hungry for this type of information. And he adds, “lower ratings will likely put nursing homes on the path to improvement . . . I don’t think we’re going to see many people who are very anxious to put a loved one in a one star home.”

But the new rating system was criticized both by consumer advocates and the nursing home industry, for different reasons.

A senior policy attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, Toby Edelman, said that two of three criteria CMS plans to use for the ratings like staffing data and quality measures are “self reported by nursing facilities and are inaccurate.” Edelman said, “Relying on nursing homes to describe accurately how well they are doing . . . just doesn’t make sense”

The president of the American Health Care Association, Bruce Yarwood, a long term care industry trade group, criticized CMS’s use of government inspection results as criteria for the ratings and said CMS should consider consumer and staff satisfaction.

If you want your elder or senior living in New Jersey to continue living at home go to Expert Home Care and call us at 800-848-2336.

Expert Home Care NJ provides caregiving in New Jersey for Senior’s at home. Many families ask us, “How do we know if mom and dad need help and caregiving, and if they do, how do I talk about it?” 

Frank Esposito and David Goodman, owners of Expert Home Care in NJ are Certified Senior Planners, members of the Society of Certified Senior Advisors. The Society works very hard educating professionals, like us, to work more effectively with our senior clients. We believe that the right kind of planning, recommendations and referrals can make aging a state to be savored instead of a fate to be feared. For us it means understanding the key health, social and financial factors that are important to seniors, and how these factors work together. 

To our families of aging seniors, knowing when the need for caregiving arises is key. Usually, it’s defined by functional ability, not by the age of your loved one. In our experience working with New Jersey seniors for the past 20+ years, most wish to remain independent. Seniors also wish to remain in control of their lives as long as possible. We’ve learned not to make generalizations when it comes to age. 

Determining if your NJ senior needs caregiving assistance will demand astute observation on the family member’s part. Also, you will need to ask revealing questions and pay attention to the telltale signs. It’s important to look for patterns of consistent neglect within the following:

• Basic tasks: difficult in walking, dressing, talking, eating, cooking, climbing steps, or managing medications
• Hygiene: infrequent bathing, unusually sloppy appearance, bad body/mouth odor
• Responsibilities: unopened mail, unpaid bills, unfilled prescriptions, unreadable checkbook, phone calls aren’t returned, low food supply, laundry is piled up, spoiled food in refrigerator
• Health: weight loss, appetite changes, difficulty swallowing, fatigue, burns, bruises, hearing loss, incontinence, spilling or dropping things (look for stains), sleeping too much or too little, dehydration
• Isolation: Lack of interest in friendships, hobbies, or activities; curtains drawn day and night, no access to transportation
• Attitude: sadness or talk of feelings of depression and despair, abuse of alcohol or drugs,  paranoia, refusal to communicate, unusual argumentativeness, verbal abuse
• Cognitive functions: consistent forgetfulness about where things are, getting lost walking or driving, confusion, loss of reasoning skills, difficulty answering questions, inability to find the right  word or complete a sentence, repetitive words or phrases, wandering, loss of sense of time or  season, forgetting how to use ordinary things like a pencil, consistently forgetting to turn off stove, close windows, or lock doors.

Pay attention to these signs - these are the telltale signs that give you information that you seek. Visit our next posting when we give tips on “how to bring up the home care help talk”.

If you need more help determining whether your loved one needs caregiving at home, please call us at 800-848-2336 or visit Expert Home Care New Jersey.

Expert Home Care helps New Jersey elders live independently at home in Somerville, Red Bank, Lakewood, Hackettstown, Ridgewood, Princeton, Trenton, Flemington, Morristown, Wayne.  Call us today! 800-848-2336.

Keeping elders and seniors healthy at home.. are your sniffles a cold or an allergy?

Though the symptoms are almost identical, the biggest difference between a cold and an allergy is the duration. Most colds last seven to ten days, while allergies can stick around for several weeks. Colds usually include a scratchy sore throat, thick mucus, muscle aches and a low grade fever. Allergies, however, mostly center on just sniffles and sneezes.

If you or your family seem to be involved in an endless struggle with allergy symptoms, one place you might want to look for relief is the ducts of your forced hot air heating and/or central air conditioning system.

Many home ventilation systems circulate the same air over and over again. Over time, dirt cakes against the interior walls of the ducts, providing a fertile home for a variety of indoor air contaminants including pollen, lint, dust, mold, mildew, dust mites, mold spores, animal hair and dander, fungi and potentially harmful bacteria. The American College of Allergists estimates that 50 percent of all illnesses are either caused or aggravated by polluted indoor air.

Discover Magazine reports that the average six room house collects 40 pounds of dust each year. And, The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers estimates that most commercial fiberglass filters for home heating systems are only 7 percent efficient in stopping dirt, dust, pollen, etc., from passing through.

What can you do to help improve your home’s health? If you have a forced hot-air heating system, contact a qualified contractor to have your ducts cleaned to remove the build-up of contaminants. If you are particularly sensitive to household allergens, you might want to consider having a whole house air purification system added to your ventilation ductwork. These two measures alone can save many people years of annoying and potentially harmful misery.

Expert Home Care helps aging seniors in New Jersey Live-in care, Elder care, & Senior home care in NJ - Expert Elder Home Care in Somerville, Red Bank, Lakewood, Hackettstown, Ridgewood, Princeton, Trenton, Flemington, Morristown, Wayne.  800-848-2336.

Expert Home Care when your aging seniors in New Jersey needs live-in care, elder care, or senior home care in NJ  800-848-2336.

“Mr. Sandman” Often Overlooks The Elderly in New Jersey

For many older people, getting a good night’s sleep can be a challenge. While for some, going to sleep is as easy as crawling under the covers and turning off the light, scientists are learning that more than half of the elderly have difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep.

Many well documented studies suggest that altered sleep patterns are a normal part of aging. Some studies suggest that the elderly produce less of the so called sleep hormone, melatonin, than they did when they were younger. Some evidence supports the view that those elderly individuals who complain of sleep problems have lower melatonin levels than other individuals who are the same age and who get better sleep at night.

Conversely, still other studies indicate that melatonin levels do not diminish as individuals age. Doctors are still trying to determine just how useful melatonin treatment could be for those over age 65 who experience sleep problems. Here are some suggestions from sleep experts that could help you improve your quality of sleep.

• Stay active - Many studies have shown that exercise can be helpful for people 50 to 78 to regulate their sleep. Even getting enough sunlight during the late afternoon can help, too.
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine - Having a cup of coffee after supper, or a few drinks before bed, can really affect your sleep. Alcohol might make you feel sleepy at first, but it actually makes it difficult for you to stay asleep and rest.
• Take short naps - Daytime naps are okay as long as you limit them to 30 minutes or less. If you find it difficult to get the sleep you need, you should discuss the topic with your doctor. “Mr. Sandman” may be passing you by, but that needn’t rob you of the benefits of a good night’s sleep.

Do you have problems getting a full night’s sleep? How did you overcome “Mr. Sandman’s” absence? Please share your stories, we’d like to hear them!

To learn more about the type of care Expert Home Care in New Jersey offers seniors and elders choosing to live at home, giver us a call 800-848-2336.

*Better Business Bureau - BBBOnLine Participation Confirmed For Expert Home Care, Inc.meets all BBBOnLine participation and Better Business Bureau membership standards and is authorized to display the BBBOnLine trustmark.

Ask your physician about the most common complaints he or she hears from elder patients in New Jersey and you’ll find the list of reasons for seeking medical help is common. Call Expert Home Care when your aging loved one needs live-in care, elder care, or senior home care in NJ 800-848-2336.

Here are some things that “worry” NJ patients and some of the symptoms that indicate you may need medical attention.

• Unexplained Weight Lost - when to worry: When accompanied by apathy and insomnia, it could be a symptom of depression. When accompanied by intense thirst and unusually frequent urination, it could be a symptom of diabetes. When accompanied with recurrent attacks of upper abdominal pain, it could be a symptom of a stomach ulcer.
• Persistent Cough - when to worry - After a bout with a respiratory illness such as the flu, the cough worsens instead of improving, it could be a symptom of pneumonia (lung inflammation).
• An Aggressive Rash - when to worry - When a sudden itchy rash appears, with or without hives, accompanied by swelling around the mouth or face, it could be a symptom of anaphylactic shock (a life threatening allergic reaction to a medication, food or insect sting). Go to the nearest emergency room for treatment immediately.
• Severe Headaches - when to worry - When accompanied with blurred or double vision, loss of peripheral vision, unsteadiness when walking, nausea and/or vomiting, it could be a symptom of a tumor. When a severe, sudden headache is “like nothing else you’ve ever felt before,” it could be symptomatic of an aneurysm or mild stroke and you should seek immediate medical attention.
• Chest Pain - when to worry - When sudden, severe pain in the center of the chest radiates into the shoulders, arms or back, and is accompanied by nausea, sweating and/or shortness of breath, it could be a symptom of a heart attack. When dull, heavy chest pain is brought on by physical exertion or strong emotion, but disappears with rest and calmness, it could be symptomatic of angina, a sign of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). In either case, seek prompt medical attention. The seriousness of most symptoms depends on what’s happening along with them. Symptoms that persist or worsen should always be brought to your physician’s attention as soon as possible.

Need Help Now? Call 800-848-2336. Expert Home Care is there for your aging loved one when you cannot be.

*Better Business Bureau - BBBOnLine Participation Confirmed For Expert Home Care, Inc. meets all BBBOnLine participation and Better Business Bureau membership standards and is authorized to display the BBBOnLine trustmark. This company has been in business since 01/01/1985.

New Jersey Elders and Seniors need to pay attention to their diet and nutrition.. must take the time!

The most frequently cited reason why we don’t treat our bodies and minds to healthy, nutritious food or even a moderate amount of healthful exercise for seniors living in NJ is, “Too much to do, and not enough time to do it!”

One study found that approximately 64 percent of people combine eating with some other activity, such as reading, working or watching television. The same study disclosed that approximately 50 percent of those people surveyed rely on frozen, packaged, or take-out for their evening meal.

Most seniors in New Jersey are aware of the fact that what we eat today will affect our future health. Lowering our consumption of fats and red meat are the two most frequently mentioned ways that people say they are trying to improve their diets. Others, unfortunately, look for shortcuts through dietary supplements that promise effortless “miracles” of weight loss without any changes to one’s eating habits or physical activity.

Physicians warn against relying exclusively on miracle weight loss drugs, and suggest that the most sensible course of action is a healthy balance between a good diet and moderate and regular exercise.

If you have made a commitment to a healthier lifestyle, or are thinking about it, we urge you to keep the following in mind:

• Always consult your physician before making any radical changes in your diet or exercise routine.
• Always demand to see the clinical and medical research evidence that substantiates the claims of any dietary supplement. If in doubt, consult your physician or a professional nutritionist.
• Remember, there is no substitute for nutritious food, properly prepared, combined with physical activity, to keep your mind and body healthy.

If you have an aging family member living in New Jersey and they need in-home or live-in care, contact Expert Home Care in NJ for a consultation. We can be reached at 800-848-2336.