Comfort Keepers® Wallingford, CT

COMFORT KEEPERS OF WALLINGFORD, CT WOULD LIKE TO SEE FAMILY CAREGIVERS AND PRIVATE COMPANIONS TRY TO PREVENT FALLS AND ACCIDENTS IN OUR HEALTHY AGING SENIOR CITIZENS HOMES BY REMOVING OBSTACLES AND MAKING MINOR REPAIRS

Carol Carbutti — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:52:46 +0000

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 3 elderly seniors fall every year resulting in 90% of senior citizen hip fractures. Approximately 60% of these aging retirees who fall die from complications. The risk of falling increases with age and falling is the number one cause of injury in adults over 65. These numbers are cause for great concern, but awareness and prevention can help decrease the likelihood of falls in the senior citizen years.

With the healthy aging in home elderly population, it is important to recognize factors that contribute to falls. They include: change in eye site, lack of strength or physical ailments, changes in medication or dosages, poor lighting, stairs, throw rugs, small objects lying around the house, and other risk factors that add to the list.

How can family caregivers and private companions help prevent the risk of falling for your at home senior loved-one? First, caregivers need to assess the living situation. Does the house or apartment have stairs? If possible, opt for housing that is one level or requires little use of stairs. If this is not an option, make sure there are handrails to assist your elderly parent while climbing the stairs. Also, put handrails near the toilet and shower in each bathroom. Next, exchange house slippers for well- gripped shoes, remove loose throw rugs or tape them down, and tack down carpet edges.

Private homemakers will also want to keep all wiring or electrical cords out of walkways and keep living areas well-light. In addition to the aforementioned, make sure all surfaces around the house are even. Homecare professionals may advise family caregiving members to fill any cracks in the sidewalks or driveway and remove unsteady porch swings or benches.

Taking care of your senior loved-one’s health will also decrease the chance of falling. Set up hearing and eye appointments every year to check for changes or any indicators of concern…

Personal care assistants should periodically contact a health professional to review all of their senior clients’ medications. Some medication combinations can make one dizzy or cause other serious issues. Also several medications may be less effective as the body ages.

Finally, consult your aging loved-one’s physician about a regular exercise program. Exercise will increase both strength and stamina, which decreases the likelihood of falls. Physical activity will also help improve your healthy aging senior citizens coordination and balance.

With age comes the risk of falls and falls can lead to serious injury or death. Improving you’re their health and being aware of potential hazards will help ease the mind of you or your elderly loved-one.

Comfort Keepers Believes Future Retired Baby Boomers, Retired Veterans and Our Active Senior Citizens Would Enjoy the Benefits of Volunteering Their Time While Giving Back to their Local Community

Carol Carbutti — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:32:40 +0000

Carol Carbutti, owner of Comfort Keepers in Wallingford, CT understands that most people think of senior retirement as a time to plan on doing all the fun things that they had to forgo because of the demands made on them by their job. However, there are an increasing number of baby boomers who view retirement as a time when they can contribute to the society, and seek opportunities to perform volunteer work.

Over the years, many of the retiring baby boomers have acquired knowledge and skills that may be helpful to others. So some retirees find volunteering a source of incredible fulfillment. This will give an elderly senior purpose and a new meaning to life. When a senior citizen works their entire life, they may find that a new activity will help fill a void in their open schedule. In fact, many experts agree that one of the most important factors in promoting healthy aging is for a senior to find a special purpose in their life.

By volunteering, our healthy aging seniors can add to their meaningfulness. They can use their abilities, wisdom, knowledge and skills in purposeful new ways by enriching others lives. Senior citizens may enjoy learning new skills while making a difference in their community. By volunteering, retirees will feel good about how their time is being utilized, while helping to make a difference for others who are less fortunate.

Volunteer work can involve many different types of activities like writing letters, answering telephone calls, caring for people, running errands, shopping and delivering things to homebound seniors, and the like. One of the most fulfilling things that young at heart retirees can do is to spend time reading to terminally ill children at the hospital in their area. There are many volunteers who also provide a lot of pleasure to people with visual impairment by reading for recorded books. Another valuable way in which aging seniors can contribute is to help with crisis or homework hotlines.

If you are an active retiree, and feel volunteer work is for you, you can find opportunities for volunteering all around you. All you need to do is be open to new kinds of ways of helping other people and know where to look for such opportunities. For example, you could check with the hospitals in your local area, or a VA hospital near you, hospices, nursing homes, charitable organizations, the police, and the fire department. Our company Comfort Keepers also has opportunities for volunteers who visit our elderly clients in their homes. Many aging seniors just want companionship, someone to talk to and pass the time, like having a lunch date twice a week. This gives an at home senior something to look forward too. You can also contact local community services and government organizations who enlist volunteers to help them out in many ways.

Caregivers, family members and Retirees can contact their church, they usually require volunteers to do various things such as teaching less privileged children, cooking, delivering food or groceries to in home seniors, and so on. The Internet is also a great source of finding a wide variety of volunteer work.

Of course, senior baby boomers will need to look for particular organizations that offer the kind of volunteer work that suits their interests and skills the best. But retirees can be assured that whatever abilities or skills they have, there will be some organization either in your locality or some worldwide organization, which will need their assistance. If this kind of activity is new to them, it may come as a pleasant surprise to find out the sense of accomplishment and purpose that they can derive from it. All seniors need to do is find a niche that feels like they are useful. Many elderly senior citizens who offer their time and help will soon discover new abilities that will make a significant difference while bringing much joy to others, which can be a rewarding and exhilarating experience for them in return.

Comfort Keepers Would Like To Offer Three Helpful Ideas To Our Healthy Aging Senior Citizens With Dementia, Their Family Caregivers and Private Companions of Three Powerful Techniques From The Alzheimer’s Innovation Institute

Carol Carbutti — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:52:10 +0000

Carol Carbutti, the owner of Comfort Keepers in Wallingford, CT would like to share some techniques from the Alzheimer’s Innovation Institute. She believes that these ideas will improve the effectiveness of all caregivers. All three techniques integrate several cognitive stimulation approaches together to increase the neural connections being used by the senior client during their exercise. By performing these exercises senior citizens will associate situations with their past memories, like years ago when they saw their mother put on her cooking apron and they automatically knew she was going to be cooking something soon. Caregivers should experiment to discover what works best for each of their in home elderly clients and their family members.

1. The first idea caregivers can try is to incorporate multi-modal sensory stimulation to enhance neural connections. Senior parents can associate an activity like matching playing cards from two decks, then listening to the aging retiree’s favorite music while preparing a pot of tea. While these activities may at first appear unrelated, the elderly client will soon make a connection with at least two of them. Perhaps they will remember having tea and hearing Frank Sinatra singing. The more senses involved in remembering, the more likely it is that one of those senses will connect us to a past memory. By performing these simple tasks, auditory cues (the music), with a visually based action (matching playing cards), and a familiar routine (such as having tea), they will sustain more memories. It is very important for caregivers to personalize the activities and other choices toward their senior citizens preferences for best results.

2. Caregivers can associate highly familiar action-based routines from the past with less familiar tasks. It is easier for an in home elderly senior with dementia to associate an event, such as lunch or dinner time, if you use action based cues associated with the event. In the past most seniors are used to getting ready for lunch or dinner by preparing for meal times and going through a highly familiar action-based routine. A good example of a various action routines would be to have your senior client start with washing their hands, have them help set the table and then remind your aging senior to dress appropriately for dinner. Elderly clients may no longer remember when its lunch time or dinner time if they reside in a facility because action cues are no longer provided as part of the process of their meal times. You may find other self care activities like showering that may be more easily accomplished using this same technique.

3. Another approach personal companions can try is Dyadic training. This is a method to instruct others so that they can work as part of a team towards a common objective. Dyadic training can be a tremendous value in utilizing the clients family to reinforce the work caregivers do. Now if the family and private caregivers are confident that their senior can follow their specific instructions, they can leave behind an unfinished booklet exercise. During the other times they may wish to organize and set up something a little more elaborate in order to address any other issues. The time spent in instructing others will likely pay big dividends for the aging client being cared for and for the personal care companion providing the care!

Comfort Keepers Of Wallingford, CT Would Like To Remind Our Local At Home Non Medical Senior Citizens, Their Family Caregivers and In Home Personal Care Family Companions, That There Are A Lot of Helpful Resources Within Their Community.

Carol Carbutti — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:59:42 +0000

When you’re the main homecare person responsible for providing non- medical senior care for your aging parents, life can become quite hectic. This situation is particularly stressful for family caregivers who have the dual responsibility of caring for their own children as well as their senior parents. One of the best ways to cope with elderly in home personal care is to find resources from within your local community. Here are a few good ideas for finding those resources.

An excellent source of information can be found at your seniors’ doctor office. The doctors may know of many community resources that can help you with geriatric care for your aging seniors. You can also speak with their office family practitioner, who is often approached by a lot of excellent contacts, to get you started.

A good place to begin your search for homecare advice would be your retired parent’s local church. Family caregivers can contact their aging mom or dad’s church representative who may have a lot of resources that will be extremely helpful. A church minister is highly connected to the community, and will know about a variety of services and programs that senior families may never have heard of before. Your aging parent’s church may also have senior social workers and specialists on staff. They can specifically help families with healthy aging elderly parents.

If your seniors live in a large community, there might be a wealth of resources for your aging parent right there in the phone book. These can range from senior community centers, day trip organizers, adult day care, home health aides, personal care assistants, and more.

Always remember to ask for help from your immediate family and close friends. If you have a large network of friends and family members nearby, they may know about resources in your community too. Caregiving friends, particularly those who have started in home care for their own elderly parents, may be looking for or have already found community resources for their own needs and they’re more than willing to help you as well. If you and your friend are becoming caretakers for aging parents around the same time, you can split the work of finding community resources and share them with each other regularly

Carol Carbutti, owner of Comfort Keepers in Wallingford, CT would like to personally remind families of the overwhelming responsibility of caring for senior citizens. Carol suggests looking for a local support group for family caregivers of elderly parents. Family care helpers seldom realize that doing this alone can be very stressful, especially for women who try to do everything themselves, and end up burning out from trying to do too much without any assistance. By joining a support group, you will have a large source of emotional support on hand whenever you need it. That support will come from other caregivers who have gone through similar situations that you and your family are experiencing right now.

Here are 6 Useful Tips for Family Caregivers and Private Companions That can Help Find In Home Non-Medical Resources for our Healthy Aging Senior Citizens Within Their Local Community

Carol Carbutti — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:49:35 +0000

When you’re the main homecare person responsible for providing senior care for your aging parents, life can become quite hectic. This situation is particularly stressful for family caregivers who have the dual responsibility of caring for their own children as well as their senior parents. One of the best ways to cope with elderly in home personal care is to find resources from within your local community. Here are a few good ideas for finding those resources:

1. Since many retired parents remain active in their local church, family caregivers and private companions might want to check with their church representative for some advice. A familiar clergy member may recommend someone who may have resources that will be extremely helpful for your healthy aging parents. A church minister is often very connected to the local community, and will know about a variety of services and programs that senior families may never have heard of before. Your senior client’s church may also have social workers and specialists on staff that can specifically help families with their elderly parents.

2. Private personal assistants can also research information in the yellow pages. If your senior parents live in a large community, there might be a wealth of resources for your aging parent right there in the phone book. These can range from senior community centers, day trip organizers, adult day care, home health aides and more.

3. Family caregiving members and close friends should try to find local support groups because as a homecare helper to an aging parent, your responsibilities can become vast. They’re also quite stressful, and many caregiving daughters particularly try to do everything themselves, and end up burning out from trying to do too much without any in home assistance. By joining a support group, you will have a large source of emotional support on hand whenever family caregivers need it, and that support will come from others who have gone through the exact same things you are experiencing.

In addition to the much needed emotional support you will receive, a support group often pools all their knowledge, experiences, and resources together for the general good of the entire group. During the meeting you can explain your senior mom or dad’s situation and maybe another member will have an idea that will help that they tried in the past.

4. Your elderly parent’s doctor and his personal assistants may also have knowledge of your town’s senior resources. Doctors who specialize in geriatric care will have the most information and resources for you about available community services. You can also talk with family practitioners who are also very well connected within the community, and they may have some excellent contacts for you to get started with.

5. Don’t forget to ask for help from your family and friends. If you have a large network of friends and family members nearby, they may know about resources in your community too. Friends, particularly, who have started caring for their own elderly parents, may be looking for or have already found community resources for their own needs and they’re more than willing to help you as well. If you and your friends are becoming caretakers for aging parents around the same time, you can split the work of finding community resources and share them with each other regularly.

6. Carol Carbutti, the owner of Comfort Keepers, in Wallingford, CT understands how hard it is for caregiving families who have a small network of helpers. Carol suggests that they may want to look for a local in home caregiving agency to help with some of your senior parent’s daily chores. Comfort Keepers is a franchise with over 600 offices nationwide and they offer help with housekeeping, cooking, running errands while promoting interactive care. This type of in home non-medical service may help relieve some anxiety due to safety issues and give family caregivers some extra time to unwind from their very hectic schedule. If this sounds like something that might interest you and your family members please view our website www.comfortkeepers.com for an office near to you.

Carol Carbutti the Owner of Comfort Keepers, an In Home Non-Medical Caregiving and Homemaking Service in Wallingford CT, Would Like to Remind our Retired Elderly Parents and Their Interactive Caregivers about How Enjoyable Quilting Can Be on a Cold Winters Day,

Carol Carbutti — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:25:48 +0000

Quilting is for all ages, especially in the senior retirement years, the craft seems to grow in its appeal and meaning. With innovative new tools, the hobby is even more accessible to our active elderly clients. It’s the perfect way to relax, keep their mind occupied, and utilize an aging parent’s imagination in a meaningful way.

For ages, quilting has been an important part to many American families. The quilt is like a canvas to paint their memorable stories and the needles are their brushes. Caregivers and family companions can encourage quilting at home or they can contact a local senior center to see if they sponsor quilting groups. These elderly groups are quite popular and often meet once a week to socialize, snack, and create rich works of textile art. The popular film, How To Make An American Quilt (1995), is a great example of this.

Although it seems like quilting would be nearly impossible for our healthy aging elderly seniors with certain difficulties like low vision, arthritis, or back problems to enjoy, in reality there are some simple tricks that can help a lot.

Personal care companions can try raising their elderly clients work surface to relieve minor back and neck aches. Family Caregivers can also purchase table-leg raisers which are shaped like a plastic cone and go right under the legs of their table. This handy device will keep aging seniors from bending uncomfortably over their work space. This will also help our retired parents by keeping them relaxed and efficient for a longer period of time.

Now if your elderly mom has trouble with her eyesight, quilting can seem like an impossible task. However, family caregivers and personal companions can find a needle- threader with a magnifying lens built right in at their local craft store.. You can also look for sewing machines that have an automatic threader to relieve our seniors of this task altogether.

If your elderly client needs additional help you can purchase magnifying lenses that are mounted on the neckline and angled so that active seniors can lean forward and look straight through the lens and onto their work. Again, family caregivers can ask their local hobby store for assistance.
If your in home elderly parent has difficulty using their hands for finely detailed stitching, they can use the more traditional method of “tying” on your quilt-top. With this method, senior citizens use widely-spaced yarn ties to join the quilt, instead of countless smaller stitches. They can also use a larger needle for this method, which is very helpful.

Personal care companions may suggest using a machine-quilt for their quilt-tops. Caregivers can also encourage using an electric sewing machine, this will speed up the process and make it easier for a senior citizens arthritic hands. Another alternative you could try would be to contact an affordable machine-owner and have them do the quilt top for them after your aging parent does the piecing. At-home entrepreneurs will run a quilt through a long-art quilting machine and charge only a modest fee. They might also provide binding materials and backing as well.

With these simple tools and techniques, seniors can continue to quilt well into their golden years with ease and enjoyment.

Check out these sites online for quilting tools, or go to your local Michaels’s or JoAnn’s craft store:

www.KeepSakeQuilting.com
www.fabriclandwest.com
www.quilt.com

Carol Carbutti, The Owner Of Comfort Keepers In Wallingford, CT Believes These Six Keys To Regular Exercise Will Benefit Our At Home Elderly Seniors While Promoting A Healthy Aging Lifestyle

Carol Carbutti — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:05:26 +0000

The benefits of being physically fit for in home healthy aging retirees are so numerous that it makes no sense not to encourage them to develop a reasonable level of fitness. As our baby boomer parents and retired grandparents age, keeping fit can become more of a challenge, but the benefits are even more numerous and rewarding. Here are six keys that every senior and their private caregiver should keep in mind as they are pursuing a fitness program:

1. Frequency – How often your elderly senior parents exercise is an important factor in a successful fitness program. Family caregivers and companions need to remind their senior parents who are pursuing a health related fitness program that they do not have to exercise all that often. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) says that excellent results can be achieved by aging seniors with 2 sessions per week of strength training and at least 3 days a week of aerobic exercise (walking, etc.).

2. Intensity – How hard your healthy aging parents push themselves is also important. Seniors looking for in home health related fitness don’t have to push too hard. For aerobic exercise your elderly mom or dad should aim to work at a heart rate of about 60 -70% of their target heart rate (220 minus their age). Strength training requires enough weight to challenge an at home senior clients muscles, but not so much that it makes them really uncomfortable. The “no pain, no gain” mentality is definitely not necessary for good results.

3. Duration – This refers to how long an elderly client’s exercise session lasts. For good health, the requirements are very reasonable. A good target for aerobic exercise is 30 minutes per day. A caregiver can encourage sessions of as little as 10 minutes and build up to 3 times a day. Following this healthy routine proves to create sufficient results. For strength training, duration is not too important. It’s more important that homecare family members to observe and make sure their senior mom or dad’s routine covers a variety of exercises that target all of your major muscle groups.

4. Stretching – As our retirees get older, most of them lose some of the flexibility in their joints. Regaining as much of this flexibility as our elderly seniors can is extremely beneficial. For our homebound and respite care clients I recommend that they try to do some stretching exercises every day. Even a few minutes a day can make a big difference.

5. Warm-up – Everyone including our active senior citizens should include at least a few minutes of warm-ups before they start their regular exercises. The goal of a simple warm-up is to simply loosen up the muscles which they are about to use and get some extra blood flowing. For strength training a warm-up might include a set of exercises with little or no weight. For aerobic exercise, have your elderly parents start their exercise at a slower rate at the beginning then gradually pick up the pace, you will find that this method works well. A warm-up before stretching is also a good idea. Just a few calisthenics can safely and gently move the joints for our aging parents.

6. Cool Down – This is overlooked by many healthy aging seniors. The principle is pretty much the opposite of a warm-up. When your senior parent is done exercising, they need to gradually slow down their movements for a few minutes to bring the body back to a more normal level. Caregivers should make sure their senior clients continue by slowing down their movements to bring their heart rate back down to a more normal level before they stop completely.

Using these keys will help our retired seniors to develop an exercise program that is both beneficial and easy for them to follow. Your in home elderly parents will feel the results in a few short months. This will make their effort well worth it. Keep in mind that an exercise program to improve their senior health is something they must plan on doing the rest of their life. Family Caregivers and private home aids need to remind their clients continuously that their effort to achieve a happy and healthy lifestyle is worth the time.

I know that some family caregivers do not have the extra time in their busy schedule to encourage this kind of physical activity, so you may want to ask some of your relatives and close friends to help out. Another option to look into would be to hire an in home non medical caregiver and companion for a few hours a week to perform some household duties, run errands and encourage activities with healthy interaction. You can find important information about our company by going to www.comfortkeepers.com.

Family Caregivers and Companions Should Try to Plan Weekly Outings for Homebound Elderly Senior Parents in Order To Raise Their Spirits.

Carol Carbutti — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:29:11 +0000

Blog #28 1/12/2010

Family Caregivers and Companions Should Try to Plan Weekly Outings for Homebound Elderly Senior Parents in Order To Raise Their Spirits.

Carol Carbutti, the owner of Comfort Keepers, a provider of private caregivers for in-home non-medical care, in Wallingford, CT would like to remind family caregivers and senior citizens about the benefits of going outdoors. Fresh air is so important for our aging seniors who are confined to their rooms due to lack of mobility, or any other disability. The only environment many seniors see for days on end is their room and the hallway with the nurses’ station. This can be frustrating and cause healthy aging seniors to go stir crazy. Taking your elderly parents out once in a while will be good for their overall mental health and help prevent depression. With proper planning, such trips or outings can be fun and a welcome change from their mundane lives. In a case where the senior is recovering from an illness, there is no better therapy than a breath of fresh air!

An outdoor trip for the elderly entails a lot of detailed planning before the actual outing. These cannot be undertaken spontaneously, as there are many factors to be considered. You need to first go over the activity for its suitability to the elders’ condition of physical health. For instance, a retired senior who is confined to a wheelchair cannot go swimming. Instead, a family caregiver or a private companion can arrange to take them out for a ride to a nearby park. Everyone will enjoy spending some time outdoors with nature.

Planning a day trip of shopping or catching a show at your local town green are two good outdoor activities for the at home senior in your care. These activities will give the elders a sense of freedom and contentment. It will ease the boredom and monotony of the routine life they lead. However, you as the caregiver should first make sure that the place you plan to take your senior parent can accommodate them. You need to find out if the mall has wheelchair access. Does this shopping center have convenient handicap parking? Are the restrooms easily accessible? Caregivers and companions need to research where they are going and call to ask any necessary questions to keep the senior client safe.

Before you and your elderly parent leave the house, take time to prepare for any situation. Carry all the medications that may be required. Caregivers should always pack a few snacks and water when you know you will be gone for the day. Family companions should check the weather the night before the trip to ensure aging parents are dressed in appropriate clothing for the outing. There are many such checklists you must verify before you venture out of the house with the elder in your care.

An outing for the elderly in your care may not exactly be a cakewalk for you! Caregivers and homecare professionals have to be constantly on the lookout to avoid potential mishaps or accidents. However, it is worth the effort for the pleasure it gives the retired senior citizen. There is no greater feeling than seeing the person you care for smile, when they have little left in life to smile about.

Outings can make a positive change for your elderly mom or dad in your care. You should try to incorporate these trips into your routine as much as possible. They promote good spirits in the elderly and remove any feelings of boredom they encounter leading to a more relaxed and healthy aging lifestyle.

A Few Important Tips For Family Caregivers And In Home Elderly Seniors About The Symptoms of Diabetes From Carol Carbutti From Comfort Keepers In Wallingford, CT

Carol Carbutti — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:20:19 +0000

Diabetes impairs the health and well-being of 16 million people in the United States, and senior citizens run a particular risk. Due to already existent challenges to their health and lifestyle, it is more difficult to diagnose elderly seniors with diabetes. Often other illnesses can mask diabetic symptoms.

Aging seniors with diabetes run a greater risk of complications like heart disease, stroke, and loss of limbs from poor circulation, kidney disease and even blindness.

Diabetes is a disease that hinders the body from making or using its own insulin, a substance in the body which transforms sugar into usable energy. There are two types of Diabetes; Type 1 and Type 2. Those who suffer from Type 1 are in most cases children or young adults. Type 2 accounts for 90%-95% of all diabetes sufferers, and is most often found in people over the age of 45.

The chance of getting Type 2 diabetes escalates as you age. Some 18% of our senior citizens over the age of 65 are sufferers. Those at risk usually have a history of Type 2 in their families, are overweight, get little to no exercise, or have problems with their cholesterol. African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic groups are at greater risk.

Family caregivers should observe their elderly parents and watch out for common symptoms and warning signs including frequent urination, extreme thirst and hunger. Other signs in home caregivers should pay attention to are excessive weight loss, exhaustion and irritability. Many senior citizens with diabetes ignore their symptoms and it goes unchecked until something major alarms them like blurred vision. Personal care companions should also pay attention and keep track of frequent infections from cuts and bruises that heal slowly or won’t heal at all. If your senior parent or a private caregiver notice some of these symptoms then you should make an appointment for them to see doctor immediately especially if your elderly parents feel tingling or numbness in their hands, feet and if they complain about to many infections skin, gum, or bladder infections.

So what are your options if you’re elderly mom or dad have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes? For the most part, it’s a self-managed disease. The most important way to regulate your own diabetes is through diet and exercise. Losing weight if you are overweight, staying active and consistently keeping your blood sugar levels under control through self-monitoring will keep your diabetes symptoms and overall health in check. Your elderly parents will need access to supplies like meters, test strips, and insulin. These supplies are often covered through your health insurance policy.

It’s unfortunately difficult for elderly clients with diabetes to obtain and keep health and life insurance, but not impossible. Insurance options for seniors with Type 2 include Medicare Plan D, state programs like EPIC (Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage) and State Health Insurance Counseling and Assistance Programs (SHIP). Research your options online or talk to a healthcare agent.

Family members and caregivers need to encourage physical activity to promote healthy aging for retired in home seniors. You can try to find an age appropriate physical fitness program for your senior loved one at your local YMCA. If your retired parents are homebound, chair exercises or just simple tasks like gardening and cleaning can be helpful. Check with your physician before beginning any physical regimen.

Carol Carbutti, Owner Of Comfort Keepers Of Wallingford, CT Would Like To Wish Our Seniors And Their Families A Happy New Year and To Encourage Our Healthy Aging Parents To Exercise Daily

Carol Carbutti — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:49:59 +0000

Exercise is one of the factors that help in improving the health and quality of life, especially for a senior citizen. No matter what age they are and even if they have never exercised in their young days, elderly parents can always start at any point of time. It has been proved that there are many benefits of exercising in their golden years, as most seniors have started taking it seriously and living longer and healthier.

To promote healthy aging family caregivers need to encourage daily exercise. Personal care companions and family caregivers can seek medical advice during a senior client’s medical checkup to find the right exercise routine to prevent injuries.

Comfort Keepers of Wallingford, CT wants caregiving families to realize that as the body ages the muscle mass in the body decreases. Exercising your muscles helps the body in many ways. It keeps the body strong and burns the calories so that the body weight can be maintained. Working the muscles daily also contributes to bone strength and balance of the body. The muscles of the body are interrelated to the neurological system of the body. If you want to perform any action with your muscles, the brain first processes the thought. It then sends signals to the muscles which need to move and perform the action.

It is true that a 60 year old senior will find it difficult to start and maintain a strict exercise program due to the body slowing down. As one grows older the body’s movements and reflexes decrease, immunity reduces and healing becomes more difficult. However, science has discovered ways to help an elderly parents aging body to renew itself and make it easier to get the energy needed to participate in an invigorating exercise routine.

Elderly seniors need to maintain optimal health. It is wise to benefit from the many different ways their diet can be supplemented. Elderly parents and their caregivers may need to support optimal organ and tissue function with products that have been scientifically proven in clinical studies.

Before your aging parents start a daily exercise program you will need to consult with a doctor or a dietician so that they can check the status of their health. Family caregivers can also regulate healthy meals and set up a diet according to the doctor’s advice. Ask about the nutritional pyramid and anti aging care. Remind your retired senior to eat the food that suits their body, and not the food that makes them sick, even though they may enjoy it.

It is interesting to note that if your healthy aging mom or dad starts exercising, the muscle patterning improves, even though there is no increase in the muscle mass. Therefore, exercises can be beneficial for seniors as they can get stronger without building big muscles. Walking is the most common form of exercise recommended for our elderly seniors, as walking burns the fat in your body and a simple-to-use step counter could be a part of their daily fitness program. Walking generally helps our aging parents sleep better at night so that they can wake up fresh the next morning. A senior should make walking a part of everyday life; it will contribute to their overall health. You can also check with your community senior center to see if there are any walking programs. Another idea is to start a walking group, where people of the same age group can walk together.

Strength exercises for your at home senior should be done with care, especially if one is starting for the first time. Our retired seniors need to go slow and build up step by step, so that they don’t lose confidence and give it up totally. There are certain safety tips which every senior should be aware of. While doing strength exercises in a fitness center, concentrate on their breathing. They should never hold their breath, as it may affect the blood pressure. A senior citizens body is not agile, so have them avoid jerking and thrusting movements, just make the movements smooth and steady. The muscles may remain sore for a few days and there may be slight fatigue as well. But there should not be exhaustion and sore joints. If painful muscle pulls should occur, the exercises are not being done properly. Muscle exercises are otherwise helpful for elderly men, whereas brisk walks help aging women to reduce anxiety, stress and depression.