Category Archives: New Jersey Help for Family Caregivers

Tips to Build Strong Family Bonds for Caregivers

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Reinforcing Family Bonds

Caregiving responsibilities can get in the way of family relationships because new roles are formed; stresses may cause strain in family and bonds between caregivers and their care recipients may feel clinical. Whether it is a spouse providing care for their elder partner or an adult child providing care for a parent, families need to make the effort to maintain ties that do not relate to care duties.

The following methods will help caregivers maintain strong bonds with their care recipients that stem beyond their responsibilities as a provider.

• Sit down and look over family photos and reminisce about past memories
• Get together with other members of the family regularly
• Make time for activities that you once enjoyed together
• Discuss your relationship regularly, and do not hesitate to voice any concerns
• Continue to offer your care recipient as much independence as possible, you are there to help them with their care, but don’t want to make them feel like you are interfering in their life
• Maintain intimacy with your spouse or partner
• Don’t remain in a relationship that has survived out of obligation
• If the care structure is creating too much tension, step back and allow another relative, friend, or professional to take over
Source: http://arthritis.about.com/cs/sex/a/sicknesshealth.htm

NJ Holiday Gifts for Seniors

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New Jersey’s Expert Home Care for Elders and Seniors provides care for your aging loved ones since 1984. Please call us when your loved one needs help – 800-848-2336.

Holidays are approaching.. are you grappling with gift ideas for the senior in your life. Let us help you with that! We found several articles that you might want to check out before going to the mall.

Some ideas “Gifts for Seniors” mentioned here are:

  • Blankets, robes, slippers
  • Personal items; hand & body lotions, shower & bath gels, scented candles
  • Gift certificates for gas, restaurants, or super markets
  • Books & magazine subscriptions
  • Towels, Wash cloths
  • Read the full article

Another good article offering senior gift ideas – Christmas Gift Ideas 

It suggests:

  • Offer to clean their house once a week or help them to maintain their yard. 
  • Do you have a child in your household who always needs extra money? Is the child old enough to wash dishes? Discuss the idea with the elderly and the child - You pay the child.
  • Do you love to bake or cook? Bake a cake, pie or prepare a meal for the person.
  • Give a gift basket filled with bath supplies.
  • Give food baskets filled with anything from cookies, candies, meats, breads, wines, and crackers and cheeses and everything in between.

Great gift ideas for your elderly loved one at Christmas!

Giving Thanks to New Jersey Seniors

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New Jersey’s Expert Home Care for Elders and Seniors provides care for your aging loved ones since 1984. Please call us when your loved one needs help – 800-848-2336.

The feeling of thankfulness is quite different from all other emotions. Gratefulness is a complex and powerful emotion that is inherently connected with the condition of faith. The word grateful comes from the latin root gratus, which is also the root word of gratis and grace.

To be thankful requires an acknowledgement of two important aspects of our lives; 1) that we have something for which to be thankful and 2) that we have someone or something to which to be thankful. We cannot have one without the other for they are indivisibly linked.

As we take stock of our good fortune and many blessings, we find that the most impressive wonders of life seem far from our conscious control… the beauty of a fall sunset, the majesty of a mountain vista at dawn, the radiant warmth of the sun on a clear, cool morn, the awesome site of a rainbow.

These simple, yet amazing phenomena bless all those who take the time to notice and appreciate them. More personally, if we review most impressive blessings of our lives, virtually all of them seem to have been beyond our control… perhaps gratis or grace inspired.

http://www.earthchannel.org/Peace/Thanks.htm

Home Care & Live in Care Planning in New Jersey

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New Jersey’s Expert Home Care for Elders and Seniors provides care for your aging loved ones since 1984. Please call us when your loved one needs help – 800-848-2336.

Government caregiver resource services such as area agencies on aging and related ADRC pilot programs typically reach out to caregivers through referrals from hospitals, discharge workers, doctors, home health agencies and nursing homes. Caregivers seeking help outside of this referral network generally aren’t aware of government advisory services.

In the private sector, help with caregiving issues is generally provided when a caregiver calls a specific agency, nonprofit organization or an advisor. There is no nationwide, private sector one-stop shopping source of help for all the types of care provider services that are available in the community.

The national care planning Council has discovered an answer to help desperate caregivers find the one-stop shop support they need. A 2004 study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP estimates nearly six in ten (59%) caregivers are currently employed. Many of these working caregivers will use their Internet access at work to find the caregiving support they need.

 

Aging NJ Seniors – Home Care Planning

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Expert Home Care delivers home health services to seniors at home. We help seniors live at home safely and independently in New Jersey. Here’s more information on whether you should consider a will or a living trust for your estate planning in NJ. We can be reached at  (800) 848-2336.

NJ Seniors Seek Simple Wills

You probably have read and heard throughout your life that if all you is take care of your legal affairs, you should write a will. That’s great advice. Keep in mind that when you don’t make a will before your death, then state law will determine who gets your property – the bad news it may not be whom you would have chosen!

What might be worse.. is a judge may decide who will raise your children. In your will, you can make these decisions yourself. Forget the fancy trusts you’ve heard about: most people can get by with only a basic will.

Maybe all you need is a basic will, you can confidently use a good self-help book or software to make a legally binding will that:

  • leaves your property to the people and organizations you choose
  • names a guardian to care for your minor children if you can’t
  • names someone to manage property you leave to minor children (yours or someone else’s), and
  • names your executor, the person with authority to make sure that the terms of your will are carried out.

http://www.nolo.com/resource.cfm/catID/FD1795A9-8049-422C-9087838F86A2BC2B/309/

Respite Care for Family Caregivers – Elders in New Jersey

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Expert Home Care and call 800-848-2336. More on Sibling Rivalry & Elder Care in NJ

Continuing our post from August 22.. Sibling Conflict in Elder Care

Resolving these conflicts can be challenging. But ignoring the difficulties in a caregiving situation can create greater challenges. Ultimately, strained family relationships can impede a family’s capacity to provide the greatest quality of care to a parent. How can families come together in caregiving?

Here are some suggestions:

  • Express your feelings honestly and directly. Let your siblings know their help is both wanted and needed.
    Keep family members informed regarding a parent’s condition.
  • Be realistic in your expectations. Allow siblings to help in ways they are able and divide tasks according to individual abilities, current life pressures and personal freedoms. Assistance with errands, finances, legal work or other indirect care may be the best option for some family members.
  • Express appreciation to your family for help they are able to provide.
  • Accept siblings for who they are and expect differences of opinion.
  • Try to respect other’s perceptions and find opportunities to compromise.
  • If communication is particularly contentious, arrange a family meeting that includes an outside facilitator, such as your FCA Family Consultant, social worker, counselor, religious leader or friend. A trusted outside party can ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.
  • If siblings are unable to help with care, seek other assistance to provide a respite for yourself.
  • Call your local Caregiver Resource Center, Area Agency on Aging, Senior Center or other community resource to locate help.
  • Try to forgive family members who continue to refuse to get involved in a loved one’s care. The only thing we have control over in a situation is our reaction. Attempt to work through your negative emotions to take care of yourself and move forward.

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

NJ Elder Care – Home Health Care New Jersey

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Family ties: The role of siblings in NJ elder care – Expert Home Care and call 800-848-2336.

In North America today, it is very common for children to provide full time care to their aging parents, often within their own homes. Adjusting to the arrival of a parent into a home can be both rewarding and burdening, and it is important that the caregiver receives both emotional and physical support from the rest of his/her family.

Unfortunately, caregiving for a parent is a situation that can often be a source of tension for siblings. It can be difficult for families to agree on the best methods of care, and is not uncommon for non caregiving family members to feel left out. In order to make the adjustment easier on the parent and caregiver, it’s crucial that non active siblings leave the major decisions to the caregiver while still being there for support. Siblings should respect decisions made by the caregiver and keep in mind the sacrifices that he/she has had to make in order to care for mom or dad.

Families need to stick together to provide for the well-being of their family unit, and maintain a peaceful and happy environment for their elder members.

Home health care safety – NJ

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Many New Jersey seniors are at risk during the summer’s heat and humidity.  Seniors over the age of 65 in four North American cities revealed that while nearly 90 percent of the respondents were aware a heat warning had been issued, only about half of the people did anything about it.  Many thought the warnings were targeting the NJ elderly, and not them.

To make sure that both you and your elder loved one are safe, here are some important tips:

  • Keep a glass of water in every room for quick access.  Drink plenty of fluids, even if you don’t feel thirsty.
  • Dress in light-weight clothing.  Remove all heavy materials, long sleeves and dark colors from closets. 
  • Stay out of the sun during the hottest times of the day.  Sunburn makes heat dissipation more difficult.
  • Take a nap during high heat times or find a good television program or movie to watch.
  • Keep shades down and blinds pulled. 

Most people know that extreme heat can make us sick. But we may think of heat-related illness as something that only affects people who are overdoing it like overheated marathon runners, professional athletes, or new recruits doing drills on military bases.

But most people who die from heat stroke in the U.S. about 400 every year, and possibly more don’t get it from overexerting themselves on a muggy day. In certain people during high temperatures, it’s all too easy to develop heat stroke while sitting perfectly still on the couch.

Heat stroke occurs when the body is unable to regulate its temperature. The body’s temperature rises rapidly, the sweating mechanism fails, and the body is unable to cool down.

Read the full article: Hot Summer Days Can Make Sick People Sicker.

Call Expert Home Care NJ if your elder needs Home Health Care in New Jersey at 800-848-2336.

Home Health Care for Elders in NJ

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If you are caring for a New Jersey elderly loved one at home, you should make them as comfortable and safe as possible. Quality home health care is important. This can reduce stress for you, as well as, your loved-one. The more secure your loved-one feels, the less the likelihood of them becoming confused, aggressive, or agitated. There are simple, little changes in Home Health Care that you can make to ensure a heightened level of contentment for your loved-one.

Expert Home Care New Jersey suggests the following home health care tips at home:

Buy a small, lightweight pitcher. Keep it filled with water at all times in a convenient place for your loved-one to get at. Remind them periodically about drinking plenty of water and where the pitcher of water is located. Staying adequately hydrated can ward off a number of different ailments like headaches, sleeplessness, and appetite suppression. It’s great for overall health and well being.

Avoid placing a lot of mirrors around your home. Mirrors can seem confusing for elderly people because they may not recognize their own reflection. Also, walking up to a mirror can startle or confuse them. If you like to have mirrors in your home, buy smaller mirrors and hang them relatively high on the walls. This is to prevent your loved one from seeing their reflection.

Visit us tomorrow when we give family members more home health care tips for their aging loved ones in New Jersey.

Call Expert Home Care if your elder needs Home Health Care in New Jersey at 800-848-2336.

Independent Senior Living – New Jersey Seniors – 24 Hour Care

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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.