Wheelchair to Car Transfers - Getting your patient AND the wheelchair in the car

home-health-care-physical-therapy.com/our-mission.html

Wheelchair to Car Transfers - Getting your patient AND the wheelchair in the car: Wheelchair to car transfers and wheelchair management is not exactly what most people think of when they think of home safety or independence ... but...

One of the toughest obstacles patients and caregivers alike face is that of getting in and out of a vehicle and accomplishing this safely for both patient and caregiver. No doubt this IS part of a wise home safety checklist. If attempted without any forethought, disaster can lurk at any point in this sometimes tricky transfer.

Yet, mastering this wheelchair to car transfer can spell freedom and excitement for years to come for those otherwise "stuck" at home. It is my theory that those disabled by stroke or any any other means live longer lives when they can go out with a caregiver. And getting out means getting in the car, going, and getting back out of the car.

Of great importance next to seat belt use and the like is your planning for this essential ability.

You may master the car transfers without a hitch until you turn and see that ole wheelchair. Unless it's truly a window shopping ride, that wheelchair needs to come along too. With so many moving parts, though, it can be tougher than getting mom or dad to get in the car!

Do-It-Yourself Home Health Physical Therapy is a free e-zine that is sent to you when something happens here worth notifying you about. In the future, we will be sending this out on a monthly (and possible weekly) basis. Either way, your Do-It-Yourself Home Health Physical Therapy newsletter keeps you up to date on hot home health care topics that affect your rehabilitation at home.

Beoynd the Video: Home Care—Lifting and Moving Your Loved One

Beoynd the Video: Home Care—Lifting and Moving Your Loved One: beyond the video
Home Care—Lifting and Moving Your Loved One

Video summary
This video demonstrates basic techniques for moving a person with limited mobility, such as after a stroke, from bed to wheelchair and back again.

The steps for each maneuver are simply stated, but these are the things you need to know first:

Help the person to work with you by placing yourself so that his stronger side is on the edge closest to the bed or chair.
Tell the person what you are going to do and that the move will take place when you say "Now" so that he is prepared and can work with you.
Always bend your knees and keep your feet spread about shoulder-width apart so that you can lift with your legs, not your back.
Use a transfer belt that is fastened around the person's waist with room for you to get your fingers underneath it for each lift. You will be reaching both arms around his waist (closer to his back) and putting your fingers underneath the bottom of the belt, with your thumbs at the top of the belt. This makes the transfer easier for you and also helps the person feel more secure.

How To Get Up After a Fall – A Short Video from Learn Not to Fall

How To Get Up After a Fall – A Short Video from Learn Not to Fall: LEARN HOW TO GET UP
Review Your Risk Now
How to get up
How to call for help



In this short video, Dr. Dorothy Baker, RN PhD, explains the importance of knowing how to get up if you fall, and shows a senior demonstrating these techniques.A  printable copy (PDF) of illustrated instructions on how to get up is available

 

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Alzheimer's Safety Proofing Households, Devices and Equipment
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Follow : Dave's Knowledge Networks  http://tinyurl.com/ny62zh3
“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”   B.B. King

Hidden Costs of Assisted Living - AgingCare.com

Hidden Costs of Assisted Living - AgingCare.com:

Carol Bradley Bursack, Expert
Author, speaker, columnist and eldercare consultant

The strong suit for in-home care agencies is their flexibility. During my years of caregiving for multiple elders, I used the services of two different in-home care agencies in the traditional manner, which was to fill the gaps in home care that I couldn't provide for my loved ones.

One of the reasons that assisted living centers are appealing to many people is that they offer a relatively high level of independence. If your parent is in good health and doesn't require much assistance with everyday tasks, assisted living is a terrific option. In fact, residing in an assisted living center is similar to having a private apartment, complete with private bathroom and kitchen, but you can rest easy with the knowledge that trained staff is on hand to help your loved one when necessary.

However, assisted living centers are not all cut out of the same mold. Depending on what part of the country you live in, what you get at assisted living may cost more.

Assisted living facilities provide a safe environment with convenient meals and social opportunities in their "base package." They are generally set up so that an elder can obtain help if he or she falls or has another emergency. Many also offer transportation by bus or other means for group outings or to specific locations.

But what about the basics of personal care: help with dressing, bathing, keeping track of prescription refills, setting up daily doses, injecting medications such as insulin, and a companion for trips to doctor appointments? Many assisted living facilities don't provide it in the "base" package. The services are add-on pricing.

So make sure you understand what services they do and don't offer per the contract, and what services may be available, but would cost extra. You might get some services you are expecting, but not all.

It works differently at different communities. At Emeritus Senior Living in Bonita Springs, FL the base rent is for what is called independent living. Any room could become an assisted room if the resident has a health care need. A caregiver goes to the room to help with showering, medication management and more. But, there's a fee for that.

Confabulating and Confabulations

Everyone and particularly medical personnel and caregivers must understand!

Confabulating and Confabulations

In psychology, confabulation (verb: confabulate) is a memory disturbance, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive.
Key factors in confabulations are there is no intent to deceive, second the person being unaware that the information is blatantly false. Confabulating is distinct from lying because there is no intent to deceive, and the person being unaware that the information is blatantly false.

Carers challenge: is what they say true? Confabulations become a far greater concern in the later stages, because confabulations are much more likely to be acted upon.

It is difficult for everyone to accept a mind is damaged.
Not only is memory damaged their ability to process thoughts and conversations is impaired.

Confabulations are a major annoyance and can be dangerous- when we the take everything in a discussion at face value. Confabulating is very frequently observed in people with Alzheimer's.

We all Confabulate when we make..verbal statements and/or actions that inaccurately describe history, background and present situations unintentionally. We must be aware of information that is blatantly false yet are coherent, internally consistent, and appear relatively normal.

PRINT THIS OUT AND GIVE OUT

The Truth About Hospice | Author- Kathryn Watson

"Hospice is about living not about dying."

The Truth About Hospice - Kathryn Watson

Like many today, Kathryn Watson was thrust into the world of Eldercare with little knowledge or understanding of the industry.

  Podcast- Listen to A Hospice Social Worker Explain  “What is Hospice” 

 The challenges Kathryn Watson overcame led her to write Help! My Parents Are Aging  Five steps to help you make the right decision regarding their care Paperback
      and
Help! I Can’t Do This Alone   When caring for your spouse becomes too hard Paperback

3 Factors to Help You Compare Nursing Home Care - AgingCare.com

Ross Blair, Expert
President and CEO, eHealth Medicare
 3 Factors to Help You Compare Nursing Home Care

Chances are, at some point you or a loved one may need to spend time in a nursing home.

 In fact, about 70 percent of Americans will need a form of long-term care at some point in their lives. As more baby boomers continue to turn 65 — seniors are expected to comprise 19 percent of the population by 2030 — a growing number of people will be looking for the right place to receive the care and services they need.


3 Factors to Help You Compare Nursing Home Care - AgingCare.com: 

Today's Geriatric Medicine - Alzheimer's/Dementia

Today's Geriatric Medicine - Alzheimer's/Dementia


    Dementia and Inappropriate Sexual Behavior
    Cognitive Evaluation for Memory Concerns
    Lifestyle Influences Brain Health
    Alzheimer's Research Comes of Age
    Music and Art in Memory Care
    Behavioral Expressions in Dementia Patients
    Alzheimer's Diagnosis in Primary Care
    Cognitive Decline Screening and Resources
    Gait Speed Reflects Cognitive Function
    Interventions Slow Brain Atrophy
    Lighting Affects Dementia Patients’ Sleep
    Therapeutic Options in Alzheimer’s Disease
    Holistic and Creative Arts Therapies in Alzheimer’s Care
    Fish Oils and Cognitive Function
    Alzheimer’s Disease and the Blood-Brain Barrier
    Evidence-Based Memory Preservation Nutrition
    New Target for Therapy in AD Patients
    Memory Maintenance
    Pharmacological Prospects for Alzheimer’s Treatment
    Medications Target Alzheimer’s Disease
    What Should You Tell Patients About Alzheimer’s?
    DBS to Treat Alzheimer’s Patients?
    The Gait-Cognitive Decline Connection
    Can You Recognize Lewy Body Dementia?
    Recruiting Patients for Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials
    Dementia and DSM-5: Changes, Cost, and Confusion
    Alzheimer’s Staggering Financial Impact
    12/15-Lipoxygenase’s Role in AD Prevention
    New Technology to Detect, Diagnose AD
    Dementia Care Model Facilitates Quality Outcomes
    Integrating Palliative Medicine With Dementia Care
    Dementia-Related Behavior Management
    Combating Dementia With Infrared Light?
    Deep Brain Stimulation
    Becoming ADEPT at Predicting Mortality
    New Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease
    MMSE vs. MoCA: What You Should Know
    Vitamins and Dementia — Delaying Cognitive Decline?
    Dealing With Dysphagia
    New Molecular Tools Developed in Alzheimer’s Research
    Hope for an Alzheimer’s Cure?
    Alzheimer’s Cure on the Horizon?
    Imaging Alzheimer’s Disease
    Cognitive Camouflage — How Alzheimer’s Can Mask Mental Illness

How the Invention of Alzheimer's World Changed My Life Alzheimer's Reading Room

How the Invention of Alzheimer's World Changed My Life Alzheimer's Reading Room: How the Invention of Alzheimer's World Changed My Life

 Alzheimer's Reading Room    The best way to find Solutions to the Problems that Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers face each Day

Alzheimer's Reading Room

The best way to find Solutions to the Problems that Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers face each Day

- See more at: http://www.alzheimersreadingroom.com/2011/07/why-i-invented-alzheimers-world-and.html#sthash.xGvr50v3.dpuf

Alzheimer's Reading Room

The best way to find Solutions to the Problems that Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers face each Day

- See more at: http://www.alzheimersreadingroom.com/2011/07/why-i-invented-alzheimers-world-and.html#sthash.xGvr50v3.dpuf

Dealing With Angry Seniors Under the Same Roof By Sarah Peterman on July 8, 2015

Angry & Elderly: Dealing With Angry Seniors Under the Same Roof   http://tinyurl.com/oqc8g56

By Sarah Peterman on July 8, 2015 under Aging in Place as a Family, Process of Aging, Senior Care Advice
{QUOTE}

Every experienced family caregiver knows that seniors have their good days and bad days. Mood swings resulting from dissatisfaction, poor health, stress, pain, and a loss of dignity can easily lead to your loved one to lash out against you and others that they care about. Being a family caregiver under these conditions can be particularly stressful for the sandwich generation, who are “sandwiched” between living with an elderly parent and caring for their own children.

While dealing with these feelings and the emotional strain they cause can require a considerable amount of patience and empathy, there’s much more you can do than simply hope for more good days than bad ones. Below you can learn about several simple steps you can take to help those you look after to be less cranky, and help preserve your own wellbeing as a family caregiver in the process.

Download A Free Guide to Dealing with Elderly Anger

Emotional Turmoil in the Elderly

Getting older can magnify our character traits, often in undesirable ways. Someone who was crabby in their younger days may be prone to full-on bouts of rage in old age. Unfortunately, caregivers are often the target of these outbursts, and it may seem at times as though there may be no simple solution to deal with this type of behavior. After all, when outbursts are not caused by serious problems like chronic pain or difficulties in memory, they’re often the result of serious illnesses like Alzheimer’s or dementia, over which your loved one has no control.

How to Handle Anger

The first step to dealing with these problems is to understand that you shouldn’t take these negative emotions and their associated behavior personally. Pain and disease can cause us to act in very inappropriate ways, and it’s important to take any opportunity for a break from your caregiving duties that you can get. In the long term, you’ll likely want to spread caregiving amongst as many friends and family members as you can to make the possibility of these breaks more frequent.

The best solution to dealing with difficult elderly parents is almost always communication. Unfortunately, parents can be generally uneasy talking with their children about fears of the future, finances, and their mortality. If your loved one seems increasingly frustrated, anxious, or otherwise emotionally disturbed, it’s your responsibility to find out why if you want to help fix the problem. The next time both of you are in a pleasant mood, try warming them up to the conversation, and be ready to try several times before you’re successful.{END QUOTE}

Read more: http://www.griswoldhomecare.com/blog/dealing-with-elderly-anger/#ixzz3fUK21wz9

Legal Issues – Revoking prior Powers of Attorney

From Jim Koewler's The Koewler Law Firm website
The agent named in a now-revoked POA may not be happy about being
replaced.  That deposed agent may use the authority in the old POA to
take actions with the principal’s assets.  The bank or investment office
or real estate agent (or anyone else, for that matter) has no way to
know that the POA has been revoked.  (Not many former agents would act
out in this manner, but those few that would certainly can hurt their
principals.)

To avoid an old POA being accepted as current, there are practical steps (in addition to the legal steps) to revoke an old POA.


The principal should try to retrieve all of the copies of the prior
POAs.  Retrieving all of them can be a daunting task if there are a
number of copies.  (Most POAs have a statement that a copy is to be
honored just like an original, so retrieval of copies is important.)

For advice, representation and peace of mind through these difficult issues, contact Jim Koewler of The Koewler Law Firm. Legal Issues when someone has Dementia – Revoke prior Powers of Attorney |

CMS will modify—not scrap—two-midnight' rule - Modern Healthcare

 Under the two-midnight rule, the CMS directs its payment contractors to assume a hospital admission was appropriate if a patient's stay spanned two midnights and otherwise should have been billed as an outpatient observation visit.

 The rule was conceived to address a spike in observation stays attributed to hospitals' fear that Medicare audit contractors would challenge their admissions.

 Many patients, as a result, found themselves ineligible for skilled nursing after spending days in the hospital because their stay had been billed as observation.

 CMS will modify—not scrap—two-midnight' rule - Modern Healthcare

5 Steps for Dealing with Anticipatory Grief - Visiting Nurse Service of New York

5 Steps for Dealing with Anticipatory Grief - Visiting Nurse Service of New York: It might be the hardest part of caregiving: Watching your loved one slip away step by terrible step, knowing you can’t stop the decline and grieving the loss of the person you once knew, long before they’re actually gone. Psychologists call this process anticipatory grief, and it’s very common among caregivers and family members of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and other terminal illnesses.

“As a disease progresses, there is so much frustration and sadness associated with watching the person you once knew go away,” says Vince Corso, M.Div, LCSW, CT, Manager of Hospice Psychosocial Services, VNSNY. “It can be overwhelming.”

nice little joke about inability to remember everyone’s names

The One-Stop Recruitment Shop Blog

Palliative Care Series

Palliative Care Series  
An Overview of Palliative Care
Symptom Management
Care at the Time of Dying
Ethical Considerations in Palliative Care
Family Caregivers

What Goes Into a Life Care Plan? | Hill Law Group, PA

Data gathering Forms  | Hill Law Group, PA

 These  planning questionnaires are worth their weight in gold! Everyone should, IMCO, have a family records notebook built from these forms.

Dave M.

Observation Status Bills Reintroduced in Both the House and the Senate (H.R. 1571/S. 843) || CMA

Federal Bill Would “Fix” Problem Related to Medicare and Hospital “Observation Days
Observation Status Bills Reintroduced in Both the House and the Senate (H.R. 1571/S. 843) || CMA

Personal Support Workers, or PSWs, are starting to fight back, but their wage increases equate to worry for clients, families and service provider agencies.

THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: A Fight Between PSWs, Clients and Agency Service Providers Spells Trouble For All
an article by always erudite Howard Gleckman  He wrote in Forbes:

Should the aides who provide home care for frail elders and younger people with disabilities receive a living wage and decent benefits?  If they do, how can families, who often are unable to afford care today, be expected to pay those higher wages and benefits?  Should the market be allowed to set these prices, or should government intervene through minimum wage and mandatory overtime laws? …. These questions have set off an enormous, but largely unnoticed, political firestorm.  In some states, they have pit states against the federal government, people receiving care against their aides, and large home care agencies against independent direct care workers.

In Ontario, exactly the same questions are being asked. This time last year, the then Ontario Liberal Health Minister Deb Matthews and Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced an election promise of an increase in the minimum wage for 34,000 publicly paid Personal Support Workers to $16.50 an hour by April 1, 2016, up 32 per cent from the current rate of $12.50.  Implementation of that promise hasn’t been easy.   According to the Canadian Union of PublicEmployees (CUPE), some home and community care agencies have chosen not to implement the wage increase or they exclude sick leave, vacation and training hours in the new hourly wages.  The sum total effect, says a CUPE spokesperson, is that most Ontario PSWs have yet to receive a wage increase.

The real lives of personal care workers are documented in a new film titled CARE, due for release later this year.   The trailer is riveting and I recommend watching it HERE for a clear picture of the human side of our crisis in home and community care.

The care workers depicted in the film are all women.  They are mothers and daughters who have left their own families behind in more impoverished countries in order to care for more affluent strangers in the United States. 

Many care workers in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand match this description.  Eva Kittay drills down into the issues surrounding immigrant care workers and the role they play in a larger, profit driven dynamic.

The migration of care workers is caused both by a pull, the need for care workers, and a push, the need of these women to provide for their families.


Eva Feder Kittay‘From the Ethics of Care to Global Justice

The truth is that people need care and care workers must be able to earn a living wage. 

New LinkedIn Group
Canadian Caregivers United is a new group on LinkedIn.

Palliative Care for Caregivers | Get Palliative Care

Palliative Care for Caregivers | Get Palliative Care

Mayo Clinic

Top 10 Things Palliative Care Clinicians Wished Everyone Knew About Palliative Care

August, 2013   By Jacob J. Strand, MD, Mihir M. Kamdar, MD , Elise C. Carey, MD

 Today, family caregivers provide about 80 percent of elder care, delivering meals, taking loved ones to doctor’s visits and managing medications and family conflicts. This results in lost work hours or lost jobs, high stress and serious declines in physical and mental health. Palliative care is a solution.

Get Palliative Care

Get Palliative Care


What Is Palliative Care

Learn more about adult and pediatric palliative care, refer to the glossary and get answers to some frequently asked questions.
How to Get Palliative Care

Talk to your doctor, find a hospital and meet with your palliative care team. Just two simple steps to get palliative care.
Is Palliative Care Right for You

Take a quiz to determine if palliative care is right for you or a loved one.

Home Health Aide Certification and Certificate Programs

Home Health Aide Certification and Certificate Programs

 Each state has its own requirements for home health aide certification. Some states only require that the employing agency be certified, while others require home health aides to pass a certification exam following completion of an educational program. Besides a skills assessment examination, certification may also require a state administered criminal background check. Some states maintain a registry database of certified home health aides that can be accessed by the public

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Home Health Aide Training Requirements in MA

Massachusetts does not require a State issued certification, nor is there a State exam required to be eligible to work as a Home Health Aide.  Instead the State recommends national certification through the National Association for Home Care and Hospice. The NAHC requires a 75 hour training course and a competency test before you are eligible to apply for their certification.

Caregiving Criticism and Unsolicited Advice From Family - AARP

AARP Home » Home & Family » Caregiving »How to Handle Criticis...
How to Handle Criticism While Caregiving
Well-meaning advisers try to help but some can cause hurt
by Barry J. Jacobs, PsyD., AARP, December 29, 2014

Take it from whence it comes

Caregivers would be well-advised (there's that word again) to not
just react to the message being given but to consider the background and
intentions of the messenger. Advisers often have a sincere desire to
help, because they truly are caring and invested. They just don't have
enough information and understanding to know how to actually be helpful.
They are also unaware that their good ideas may come across as
critical. If you express appreciation for their caring, they will
usually feel satisfied that they are making a difference and stop
pressing specific recommendations.


Some people, though, use pieces of advice as thinly veiled barbs. Out
of competitiveness or their own misery, they consciously or
unconsciously mean to take caregivers down a peg. They should be kept at
arm's length. It is seldom worth debating them or giving them the
satisfaction of having caused hurt.

 Caregiving Criticism and Unsolicited Advice From Family - AARP

staff scheduling and labor management

OnShift  provides staff scheduling and labor management software

They are focused entirely on the long-term care and senior living industry, software and services are built upon an in-depth understanding of how providers work day-in and day-out, and how industry regulations and issues affect their every move.

{ staff scheduling and labor management is of interest to the world of Caregiving}

Jan 26, 2015 Mark Woodka posted the following to their  Long Term Care & Senior Living Blog

For some strange reason we encourage ourselves to prognosticate about the future annually as one year recedes and another begins.  These projections might not always be correct, but I think they nicely balance out our attempts at New Year’s resolutions and give us something to aim for. (I hope this list goes more smoothly than those resolutions usually do…)

I’d like to outline my predictions for long-term care and senior living in 2015 – the big things that may change how you run your communities and provide care for your residents.  So without further ado, here we go:

    Affordable Care Act Penalties: The Employer Mandate began January 1 after two years of delays, and we must now be very, very cautious in managing our workforces to ensure we do not get penalized.  There was a bill proposed to exclude certain industries from having to participate due to large populations of lower-wage hourly workers and low margins.  Guess what?  One of the original intents of the ACA was to get these very workers healthcare benefits.   Therefore, this bill is a non-starter, and we will not see our industry excluded.   The Affordable Care Act will remain the law of the land until and unless we have a new party in the White House in 2016, so tracking employee hours will be key.
    
    More Doc Fix Activity: The game of kick-the-can that has been the Doc Fix for the past decade will continue.  However, in an effort to kick the can as far as possible, Adam Vinatieri will be the kicker, and he will kick it 21 months into the future.  This will nicely coincide with the new administration taking office in January of 2017.  (I don’t think Congress will want to deal with this again in 12 months.)  Ideally, our friends at AHCA will be able to focus the pay-fors to other segments or maybe even help them find a permanent solution if in fact there is an appetite for one.

- See more at: http://www.onshift.com/blog/5-game-changing-predictions-senior-care-2015#sthash.36ZATwXG.dpuf



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Dealing with a “Code Brown”

Dealing with a “Code Brown” | Scrubs – The Leading Lifestyle Nursing Magazine Featuring Inspirational and Informational Nursing Articles
by Ani Burr, RN • October 22, 2010
When you are doing your best to get your client cleaned up, there is still that smell issue that can get in the way of your ability to focus and get in and out of there quickly! While it’s not guaranteed, you can try these tricks to protector your olfactory senses: