Home Care Versus Nursing Home Care

Most elders would prefer to stay in their own homes, where they know their neighbors and can associate memories with each piece of furniture and object around them, rather than move to an institution as they age.

Things that can make “aging in place” — the current term for staying in one’s own home as one ages — problematic are tasks such as cooking, cleaning, toileting, shopping, doing laundry, and driving, as well as falls, which for frail elders could initiate a downward spiral.

Support systems

• Help could come from family members, friends, or neighbors, who take care of the specific thing the elder has trouble with — such as doing laundry or shopping.
• Or, some elders turn to their religious community, as often there are volunteers willing to enable a senior to age in place.

• Home care agencies can be hired to provide the extra help needed for the senior to be able to age in place. In some cases, expenses will be reimbursed by Medicare, but seniors will need to check with the home care agency to find out about this possibility.

New technology can help seniors

• Electronic devices are now available to help monitor whether or not a senior has taken his or her medication — and if not, to remind the senior — or to determine whether a senior has opened the refrigerator.
• Emergency buttons can be worn around the neck and pressed if a health or other emergency should occur, in which case a person will speak to the senior through the device, assess the situation, and call for appropriate help.
• Cameras can be installed to track a senior’s movements, allowing adult children to monitor the senior and be assured that he or she is functioning well.
• New devices are constantly being invented, and they can make an enormous difference in a senior’s ability to age in place.

With all of these options available, aging in place is an increasingly viable choice. Seniors and their loved ones need to assess whether this alternative is indeed best, the risk being that the senior may become too socially isolated despite being in familiar neighborhoods and homes.

Elderly women benefit strongly from nutrition and lifestyle changes, new research reveals

A new study reveals that it is never too late to make lifestyle changes that dramatically reduce your risk of cancer. It contradicts the common myth that it’s too late to make changes if you are in your 50’s or 60’s. In contrast, the study revealed that out of 29,000 women between the ages of 55 to 69 whose lifestyle habits were tracked, those who followed healthy recommendations such as eating fruits and vegetables and avoiding tobacco use were remarkably healthier 12 years later.

The study revealed that 22% of the cancers that did occur could have been avoided if all the women in the study group had followed all of the health recommendations. It also revealed that 31% of the cancers would have been avoided if people had stopped smoking tobacco and that 100% of the cancers would have been avoided if they had died at an earlier age, which just goes to show you that if you can’t prevent disease, taking antidepressant is always a good defense because it increases your risk of committing suicide, meaning you won’t get the disease in question because you’re already dead. Interestingly, only a third of the women in the study met the guidelines to eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruits daily.