Living Well Blog » Living Well best practices to age in place

“IF I ever need to go to a nursing home, kill me first”

Doris Bersing — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 17:35:13 +0000

Aging in Place: You do not need to leave your home!

Given that 89% of people do not want to leave their homes, this statement featured on the article The Technology for Monitoring Elderly Relatives on The New York Times (July 28, 2010) about new technologies to help people stay at their home, makes total sense.

The purpose of many of these technologies is to provide enough supervision to make it possible for elderly people to stay in their homes rather than move to an assisted-living facility or nursing home — a goal almost universally embraced as both emotionally and financially desirable.

Home Health Technology Can Help Lower Costs of Senior Care

Doris Bersing — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:27:04 +0000

Living Well Assisted Living at Home has been an advocate of the high tech – high touch model as a tool to enhance home safety for seniors at home and a model that helps lower costs for seniorcare. We found support to this stance on an article by Science Daily (1) on 12/31/10 “…Home health care technology may provide one important solution to global concerns about how to sustain health care systems threatened by rising costs and manpower shortages, but such a change faces multiple obstacles to adoption, according to a new RAND Corporation study. They continue by saying ‘…Home health care technology spans a broad spectrum from basic diagnostic tools, such as glucose meters, to advanced telemedicine solutions. Those advances have pushed the frontier of care management further into the home setting. The advances have the potential to not only support current care delivery, but to fundamentally change the model to a more efficient and more patient-centered one, according to the report. Home care also makes it easier for patients to age in place, if they prefer, and avoid institutionalization…” Read the report

Some other pieces of technology are the ones that assure home safety and fall detection. Read more about safety technology.

(1) RAND Corporation (2010, December 31). Home health care could help sustain health care systems, study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 3, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/12/101208130048.htm

Brain Wellness À la Wii

Doris Bersing — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:24:38 +0000

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As of August 2010, the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales and in December 2009 broke the record for best-selling console in a single month in the United States.

Nintendo hoped to target a wider demographic with its console. The productions are Nintendo’s first broad-based advertising strategy and include a two-minute video clip showing a varied assortment of people enjoying the Wii system, such as urban apartment-dwellers, country ranchers, grandparents, and parents with their children.The marketing campaign has proved to be successful: pensioners, as old as 103 have been reported to be playing the Wii in the United Kingdom.^. A report by the British newspaper The People also stated that Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has played using the Wii console!

Now, we have data that the Wii games have brought back feelings of being young again as the participants flex their mental muscles and improve their physical fitness. The Wii is improving the quality of life of many aging seniors.

Diane Carbo, in an article written for Senior Advice, states that “…Healthy aging and a brain fitness program along with the Wii promotes the development of new skills, and helps aging seniors learn from their mistakes. The best part of using the Wii as part of a healthy aging program is the laughter and excitement you see in the faces of the participants. The environment is electric as the aging seniors enjoy familiar interests in a new format. For many seniors it feels like old times again…”

Exercise and the “Mediterranean Diet” the best options to prevent Dementia, including Alzheimer’s

Doris Bersing — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:35:33 +0000

In a recent article appeared on The Hartford Courant of Connecticut , the fact of Alzheimer’s disease being uncurable and sriking 1 in 8 of us alarmed many. Nonetheless, the article explains that doing your part by eating the right kind of diet and keeping your body and brain engaged can help to prevent dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The article explains recent data connected to the benefits of exercising regularly, keeping a diet rich in Omega 3, olive oil, and wine…yes, wine… staying cognitively engaged, and avoiding depression is ultimately the most reasonable approach not only to prevent dementia but also “… to treat conditions like hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and diabetes…”

Technologies Help Adult Children Monitor Aging Parents

Doris Bersing — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:18:29 +0000

89% of Americans do not want to leave their homes when they age. Most of these people will be live alone and receive support from a variety of health and community-based providers, family caregivers. How will the long-term care system provide care to a growing number of seniors living in increasingly scattered locations? And more importantly, how can that system continue to provide quality care in the face of workforce shortages, rising care costs and decreasing resources? Technology has the potential to play a critical role in launching a new model of geriatric care that allows older people to live independently for as long as possible, supports family caregivers in the important work they do and gives health care providers the tools they need to deliver high-quality care at a reasonable cost. The just released article Technologies Help Adult Children Monitor Aging Parents on The New York Times, states that these technologies “…are godsends for families. But, as with any parent-child relationship, all loving intentions can be tempered by issues of control, role-reversal, guilt and a little deception — enough loaded stuff to fill a psychology syllabus. For just as the current population of adults in their 30s and 40s have built a reputation for being a generation of hyper-involved, hovering parents to their own children, they now have the tools to micro-manage their aging mothers and fathers as well…”

We, at Living Well Assisted Living at Home, believe the provide a safety net for the elders, an option to stay at home while providing peace of mind to the adult children and family members.

Read the full article

Building a Safety Net for Elder Care: More Home-Based Models are Needed

Doris Bersing — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:49:18 +0000

The St. Louis Today, reported on the need that our communities have to build a strong home-based and community-based system for those who can pay for care and those who can’t pay for it. Building a safety net for those in need is the focus of the 35th Annual National Association of Area Agencies on Aging Conference & Tradeshow, which kicked off over the weekend at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St. Louis during the weekend of July 22-24, 2010.

The facts are well known, the St Louis Today reports: “…By 2030, about 72 million Americans will be 65 or older — roughly twice the number in 2000, according to estimates by the National Institute on Aging. While plenty of attention has been given to how this coming tidal wave of seniors will strain Medicaid, aging specialists and health care advocates are also beginning to address the “forgotten population” — those who may have enough assets to pay for some health care services but not the cost of a long-term nursing home.

It can be a difficult population to care for. Typically, people 80 or older have one chronic disease; those 85 or older have two chronic diseases. Many of these seniors also have problems doing everyday tasks such as cooking meals, washing their clothes or tying their shoes. On average, 24-hour care in a nursing home runs about $60,000 a year…” Therefore the need for building that safety net for all elders.

Before You Leave Your Home: Eight Questions To Ask Before Buying Into A Senior Community

Doris Bersing — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:32:31 +0000

In an article on Forbes USA, Ashlea Ebeling states that moving into a continuing care retirement community requires a big investment and a lot of research. She invites us to ask the right questions “…Are you (or your aging parent) the kind of person who likes to plan for all contingencies? Then you might want to consider a continuing care retirement community–a development that usually includes independent apartments or town homes for spry seniors; assisted living units for those who need some help; plus a nursing home…”

Frustration When it Comes to Avoid Abuse in Residential Facilities

Doris Bersing — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:10:57 +0000

Alarming is the word we can use to define the findings of the U.S. Department of Justice-funded study by Hawes and Kimbell that examined state processes for detecting, investigating, resolving and preventing elder abuse in Residential Care Facilities.

This study focused on detection, investigation, and resolution of elder abuse and neglect complaints in what are known as residential care facilities (RCFs). These facilities are the most rapidly growing form of senior housing. This growth is a result both of the preferences of the elderly and their families and of public policy aimed at reducing nursing home use. RCFs are referred to by a variety of names across the states, including assisted living facilities, personal care homes, domiciliary care homes, adult congregate living facilities, adult care homes, and shelter care homes. The best estimate is that some 50,000 facilities nationwide house a mainly older population in between 900,000 and one million beds. In addition, an unknown number of unlicensed homes house a mixed population of poor older persons and individuals with mental illness. By contrast, there are about 17,000 nursing homes with 1.6 million residents.

The researchers found a lack of adequate resources in all states and all agencies, as well as deeply flawed processes. The report highlights smart practices by Ombudsmen and identifies policy suggestions, training needs, and research recommendations.

Download the U.S. Department of Justice-funded study by Hawes and Kimbell.

Six Questions to Protect Elderly Patients

Doris Bersing — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:45:26 +0000

Living Well provides medical advocacy to help patients who are hospitalized

On the Wellness section of the New York Times, Pam Belluck compile the advice of three experts on the questions family members can ask to lower a patient’s risk for delirium during a hospital stay.

Pam says “…Many readers have asked me what family members can do to help lower an elderly patient’s risk. To find out, I turned to three experts – Dr. Margaret Pisani at the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Wes Ely at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Dr. Sharon Inouye at Harvard Medical School. Based on their advice, here are six questions family members should ask to lower an elderly patient’s risk for hospital delirium…”

Read the article

Not All Assisted Living Facilities Are Safe. A Report Describes How Elders Are Dying in Nursing Homes.

Doris Bersing — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:26:26 +0000

Not all senior care or residential facilities are safe!

America’s largest elderly people live in California. 3.7 million over age 65. Most of these seniors live in institutions and although some of these facilities provide an outstanding care for many seniors, a staggering number of others are being abused and neglected and even are dying on these residential care facilities. Some of these facilities are so eager to retain the residents that they ignore the issues that will need real medical care and well trained medical staff and keep the residents away from the needed care until it is too late.

Tanya McRae conducted an investigative report on abuse and neglect of the elderly at skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes. In the video, one daughter shares her story of her mother’s horrific death, and attorneys explain staggering number of other criminal cases.

Watch the video