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.

Grace Home Care Has Great Care Assistants Available For The Holidays.

If you or a loved one is need  of a great Care Assistant for the holidays or beyond, DO NOT hesitate to give Grace Home Care Services a call. We have qualified Care Assistants available for all shifts. Including day, night, 24 hour, or live-in.

If you need help cooking, cleaning, dressing, doing laundry, running errands, care for pets, or any other household chore call Grace Home care TODAY!!

Phone: 206.328.6251

Fewer Elderly Road Deaths After Driver’s License Renewal Law In Florida

Although there is little evidence to support an association between vision and car accidents, a vision screening law in Florida that targets drivers age 80 and older seems to have reduced the number of adults in this age range who die from motor vehicle collisions. The findings are published in the November issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

“Older drivers represent the fastest-growing segment of the driving population,” write Gerald McGwin Jr., M.S., Ph.D. (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and colleagues. “As this segment of the population expands, so too have public safety concerns, given older drivers’ increased rate of motor vehicle collision involvement per mile driven. Research has suggested that this increase may be partly attributed to medical, functional and cognitive impairments.”

Visual acuity has not been firmly linked to involvement in motor vehicle collisions, but that did not stop the State of Florida from implementing a law that required vision tests for drivers 80 years and older before renewing licenses in 2004. This change in law combined with data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau on rates of motor vehicle collision deaths from 2001 to 2006 provided McGwin Jr. and colleagues the necessary tools for a quasi-experimental analysis. The researchers also looked at death rates from motor vehicle accidents in Alabama and Georgia, neighboring states that had no change in license renewal policy.