Pure Home Care Services

Do you wake up every morning appreciative of another day or do you roll out of bed with, “Oh, another day of the same old thing”? Our attitude sets the stage for how each day plays out. Attitude can affect our health, our marriage, our career and the very essence of our lives.

Most of us model our attitudes based on our parents’ – that can be both a negative and a positive. If you had parents who were very critical, you might make a real effort at not being like them and always look for someone or something to compliment. Yet, again, you might be overly critical yourself (and that usually means self-critical as well). If you find yourself in the latter group, your attitude might just be coloring your life with a very dark crayon and contaminating your ability to live life fully.

A person with a positive attitude is someone who always sees the possibility in every situation as a potential gift – yes, the forest fire can bring about new life and clear the forest of the overgrowth.

The positive attitude seems to breed an “attitude of gratitude”. We like to be around positive people; they make us feel good about ourselves and usually help us feel grounded and safe. They always say “thank you” and you find they smile a lot as well.

Thankfulness is one of the quickest and most powerful ways to create a change in our circumstances.  Being thankful raises us to a new level of consciousness, giving us the ability to see possibilities, discover what we truly want, receive ideas on what to do next, and realize a vision for the future.

What we think is a matter of choice. It is up to us to choose powerful thoughts that move us in a direction that serves our purpose.  Powerful thoughts bring us peace and inspire us. Thoughts of thankfulness, vision, purpose and possibility are powerful thoughts.

Practice thinking thoughts of thankfulness. Some suggestions for having a positive attitude:

• List everything you are thankful for, especially things you are unhappy about. If we hold contempt for anything we wish to change, we block our ability to change it.
• At the end of each day, think of everything you are thankful for from that day. Our spirits are lifted when we are appreciative of even the smallest things.
• Throughout the day, take note of what you are thankful for and be thankful for each experience.
• When you catch yourself thinking self-defeating thoughts, take a deep  breath, first exhaling deeply, and ask yourself “What can I be thankful for in this moment?”

Having a positive attitude can help us live a happy, and very importantly, healthy life!

Source:  http://eldercareanswers.com

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Shelby Township or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

Preventing Medication Errors

It is not hard to imagine how medication errors can occur. Bottles can be mislabeled or can be filled with the wrong medication. Patients don’t always read the label for directions and may take the medication incorrectly. Language can also be an issue.

Here are some helpful hints to help prevent medication errors. First always carry a current list of medications with you. Check it with your doctor and with your pharmacist whenever a visit is made and if there is a change in medication. If you take more than 2 medications more than once a day, it is safer to use a medication box. They come in all shapes and sizes and you will certainly find a type that works for you.

If you are filling a medication box yourself, make sure you pick a quiet time with little distraction. This sounds like simple advice, but this is where many errors occur. Check and recheck the label on a bottle of medication several times before filling the medication box.  Check the instructions on whether or not a medication needs to be taken on an empty stomach or with food as well.

If you are caring for someone else who may misread their box, forget what day it is or just be curious and move things around, make sure you or someone close looks over the medication box regularly to make sure things look right.

There are also automatic medication dispensers that dispense at designated times of day. For some people these work well. It is important that we think about the system that is most appropriate and holds the least chance of error for ourselves or the persons we are caring for. Then we can all breathe a little easier!

Source:  http://eldercareanswers.com

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Grosse Pointe or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

You may be caring for a parent or older person who wants to stay up all night and sleep at odd hours during the day. This behavior is known as “sundowning.” The Alzheimer’s Association states that 20% of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease exhibit increased confusion and disorientation at dusk with the behaviors continuing throughout the night.

This behavior may be caused by a number of factors including: a change in medications, disruption of the normal daily routine, packing too many activities into the day or even something subtle, such as a change to daylight savings time.  A combination of the following tips may help in caring for someone who stays awake during the night:

1. No coffee or soft drinks with caffeine after 6 pm. These beverages work best with breakfast or lunch. A smaller meal works best at the end of the day and a light snack before bed, such as apple slices or crackers.

2. When dusk approaches, draw the drapes and/or dim the lights in the living room and bedroom and lay out pajamas or sleepwear on the bed to remind your loved one that bed time is approaching.

3. Playing soft music sometimes helps if your loved one is agitated during this time.

4. Plan activities during the day such as walking, exercise or an outing to increase the feeling of being tired at the end of the day.

5. Stick to a routine and encourage meal times, walks, TV and other activities at the same time each day.

6. Make sure that your loved one is comfortable in the room where he or she is sleeping. Proper ventilation, familiar objects and a night light will help.

7. Discuss this problem with their primary care physician who will review their medications and may prescribe medication for sleep or agitation.

8. Bladder or incontinence problems can often cause disruptive sleep. Bedside commodes or other devices to assist with bladder control may help reduce agitation connected with getting up during the night.

Sundowning or sleep disruption can upset our own lives as well as those of a loved one. Pinpointing the cause, as well as trying the above solutions in conjunction with a conversation with the doctor, will help put them on the right road to normal days and evenings.

Source:  http://eldercareanswers.com

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Sterling Heights or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

A simple thing can change your life—like tripping on a rug or slipping on a wet floor. If you fall, you could break a bone, like thousands of older men and women do each year. A broken bone might not sound awful. But, for older people, a break can be the start of more serious problems.

Many things can cause a fall. Your eyesight, hearing, and reflexes might not be as sharp as they were when you were younger. Diabetes, heart disease, or problems with your thyroid, nerves, feet, or blood vessels can affect your balance. Some medicines can cause you to feel dizzy or sleepy, making you more likely to fall.

But don’t let a fear of falling keep you from being active. Doing things like getting together with friends, gardening, walking, or going to the local senior center helps you stay healthy. The good news is that there are simple ways you can prevent most falls.

Take the Right Steps

If you take care of your overall health, you may be able to lower your chances of falling. Most of the time, falls and accidents don’t “just happen.” Here are a few hints that will help you avoid falls and broken bones:

• Stay physically active. Plan an exercise program that is right for you. Regular exercise improves muscles and makes you stronger. It also helps keep your joints, tendons, and ligaments flexible. Mild weight-bearing activities, such as walking or climbing stairs, may slow bone loss from osteoporosis.
• Have your eyes and hearing tested. Even small changes in sight and hearing may cause you to fall. When you get new eyeglasses, take time to get used to them. Always wear your glasses when you need them. If you have a hearing aid, be sure it fits well, and wear it.
• Find out about the side effects of any medicine you take. If a drug makes you sleepy or dizzy, tell your doctor or pharmacist.
• Get enough sleep. If you are sleepy, you are more likely to fall.
• Limit the amount of alcohol you drink. Even a small amount of alcohol can affect your balance and reflexes.
• Stand up slowly. Getting up too quickly can cause your blood pressure to drop. That can make you feel wobbly.
• Use a walking stick if you need help feeling steady when you walk. If your doctor tells you to use a cane or walker, make sure it is the right size for you and the wheels roll smoothly. This is very important when you’re walking in areas you don’t know well or in places where the walkways are uneven.
• Be very careful when walking on wet or icy surfaces. They can be very slippery! Try to have sand or salt spread on icy areas by your front or back door.
• Wear non-skid, rubber-soled, low-heeled shoes, or lace-up shoes with non-skid soles that fully support your feet. It is important that the soles are not too thin or too thick. Don’t walk around on stairs or floors in socks or in shoes and slippers with smooth soles.

Always tell your doctor if you have fallen since your last checkup—even if you aren’t hurt when you fall.

Source:   Nia.nih.gov

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Franklin or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

What’s on Your Plate?  A Publication from the National Institutes on Aging

It’s time to make lifestyle changes so you can stay active in the coming years. Research shows that it’s not too late for smart food choices and other good health habits, like being physically active, to help reduce your risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis and the disability that can result from them.

Making wise food choices as you grow older might be easier than you think. A lot of good information is available about nutrition and older people. In What’s On Your Plate? Smart Food Choices for Healthy Aging, the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), introduces you to the basic facts for making good food choices a part of your daily life and for adjusting those choices as you grow older and your needs change.

What’s On Your Plate? is based on the nutrition recommendations for older adults in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Much of the information is based on evidence from research, including studies conducted and supported by the NIH.

What’s On Your Plate? includes a lot of resources you can check for more information. Some of them are websites. If you have a print copy and don’t have a computer or another form of Internet access, whenever possible, we have included a phone number where you can get similar information. If you are reading the book online, you can click directly on the link.

As with many things, one size does not fit all. One of the eating plans described in this book might work for you. But if, for example, your Aunt Sadie has special needs, her doctor might suggest checking with a dietitian, an expert in how diet and health go together. No matter how you move forward, we hope you find What’s On Your Plate? a valuable resource for helping you choose better nutrition, an important part of health and aging.

Source:   Nia.nih.gov

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in West Bloomfield Township or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

Advances in medical technology now enable individuals to survive illnesses and injuries that previously would have been fatal. These advances may be a blessing for many, but they raise questions about the quality of life as it is prolonged.

Health care decision making can be stressful to discuss. Most people don’t like to think about increasing dependency, not being healthy, or not being capable of making their own decisions. Many individuals feel that clarifying and discussing their preferences and wishes about health care is important but put it off to do later. It’s also easy to think that ‘it won’t happen to me.’ Health care decision situations can lead to conflict among family members, feelings of guilt or abandonment, and feeling burdened by not knowing what the person would have really wanted.

Competent adults can execute several documents that can provide information and assistance to your loved ones and health care providers if you are unable to make health care decisions for yourself.  These documents include durable medical powers of attorney, do not resuscitate orders, and living wills.

The Medical Power of Attorney allows you to designate a person to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make these decisions for yourself. This person is called your Health Care Agent. A do not resuscitate order (DNR) allows patients to refuse specific life-saving treatments if the heart stops beating or breathing stops. Finally, a living will tells health care providers whether you want life sustaining procedures withheld or withdrawn if you have a terminal or irreversible condition. The Directive does not become effective until your doctor examines you and states in writing that you have a terminal or irreversible condition, which is fatal without life-sustaining treatment (such as medication, mechanical breathing, or artificial feeding and water). Comfort care and pain management will still be provided once a Directive is in effect.

Your chosen agent has no authority to act and make decisions until your physician certifies in writing, and files in your medical record, that you lack the capacity to make your own health care decisions. Once this happens, you can still object to any decision made by your health care agent. Your physician and health care agent must make reasonable efforts to inform you about decisions that have been made. If you object, your agent’s decisions will not be followed.

Source:  Fcs.tamu.edu

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Bloomfield Hills or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

Elderly Parents Can Help Build Positive Relationships

What do elderly parents owe their children? What can they do to improve relationships with adult children as health declines and they need more assistance? If you are an aging parent:

• Learn about the developmental changes of middle age and the problems that adult children face today.
• Cooperate with adult children when help is needed.
• Make it as easy as possible for adult children to help. It may mean being more flexible to prevent frustration of adult children. For example, the fragile 95-year-old can permit people other than her exhausted 75-year-old daughter to do the household tasks—even if she prefers her daughter to do them rather than hire someone else.
• Accept help graciously. Rely on others and let them rely on you. This opens the way for the adult child to help with the elderly parent. This way the aging parent permits the adult child to grow to fullest maturity.
• Communicate openly. Build a climate where feelings can be shared and solutions can be reached together.
• Share with adult children what it means to age. You may even help your adult children to accept their own aging.

Families that view dependence needs as normal and varying across the life span—from infancy through old age—create a climate for the development of interdependence. An intergenerational strength with the potential for supportiveness by more generations is created. In mutual dependency the old will not attempt to manipulate or control the behavior of the young nor will the younger generation attempt to take control or treat their parents as helpless. With mutual dependency, the aging parent and the adult child can each maintain self-esteem.

Source: Fcs.tamu.edu

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Birmingham or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

Providing care is stressful and demanding. For many, it can be the equivalent of a full-time job or more. Sleep patterns may be altered. Activity with others may be drastically reduced.

An adult child may need to assume a new role with his parent. A healthy spouse may need to become more assertive and assume greater control over his partner’s life. This can be particularly difficult if the caregiver has been the passive person in the relationship.

These role changes can cause fear, conflict and confusion for everyone. Ill persons may resent the burden they have created.

They may also feel anger and frustration in relinquishing roles, and feel out of control.

Balance your responsibilities. Caregivers can easily try to meet too many obligations and responsibilities to the ill person, to other family members and to themselves. Before assuming caregiving responsibilities, carefully assess the impact on everyone—children included. Look at sacrifices everyone will need to make as well as possible benefits. Caregiving should not be assumed without careful thought to the expense to your relationship with your spouse, your own physical and emotional health, or the welfare of your children. Time and energy needs to be available to maintain quality relationships with spouse and children, who may be unintentionally neglected.

Meet your own needs. Self-sacrifice needs to be tempered with healthy recognition of your own needs. Ignoring your own needs is detrimental to yourself and to the person who needs care. Providing heavy care and getting little sleep leads to poor physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Set limits on what you can do. And most important, communicate your needs and what you can and cannot do for your parent and other family members. It is unrealistic and unfair to expect other people to know when you need help. Eliminate tasks which can be left undone.

Also, delegate tasks; ask family members to help. If another family member is not available, hire someone or ask a friend, neighbor, someone from your church or other organizations or get a volunteer from a local agency.

Plan time for yourself. This is not always easy to do, but it is important. Many people feel guilty about leaving the ill person and enjoying themselves. Caregivers can jeopardize their own health, and lose efficiency and effectiveness. If you become physically or emotionally exhausted, you will find your susceptibility to illness increasing, your problem solving ability decreasing, your frustrations mounting, and your emotions getting out of control—all warning signals. Maintain your friendships. Leisure time has positive effects on morale and energy.

Realize, too, that the decision to be a caregiver is not a permanent one. There may come a time when you are no longer able to provide care. Consider options—including nursing home care—in advance.

Involvement in a family support group may also provide answers to problems of caregiving and reduce social and emotional isolation. Sharing with others who are living through the same experience can be beneficial, and a source for venting feelings with others who understand.

Through awareness of the full life cycle with each of its stages may be at times dismaying, learning in advance about those stages can help ease the transition.

Source:  Fcs.tamu.edu

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Macomb County or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

What if there’s a fall and nobody’s there to help?

Even when a caregiver makes diligent efforts to prevent their elderly parent from falling, falls are often inevitable. Falls can result from a variety of conditions such as mobility, difficulty from arthritis, vertigo from poor circulation, negative reactions to medication, etc. Whatever the cause, more than one third of seniors will fall this year.

Personal emergency response systems can help by providing a “panic button” device that a senior can press if an accident occurs. But what happens if the senior is unconscious, forgets to wear the device, or is in shock from falling and simply forgets to press the button? In those cases, that “panic button” is essentially useless. The majority of the products on the market are only effective if the senior presses the panic button. This means that many seniors are left unprotected during a fall.

Some new technologies are addressing the issue by detecting falls automatically.  Automated fall detection means that no button needs to be pressed. If the senior falls, the device detects it and calls for help. Fall detection sensors measure a person’s sway, orientation, and impact with surface. The senior clips on a chest strap or wrist band. Because the strap comes in contact with the skin, the monitoring company and caregiver will know if the senior is wearing the device, or they forget to put it on.

A similar product is a pendant-style help button that can automatically place a call for help if it detects a fall.

These devices use sensors to constantly monitor a person’s movement and activities. It uses multiple sensors to constantly monitor a person’s movement by assessing height, orientation and accelerated movement to distinguish between normal activities and falls. For example, when a person is walking, sitting in chair or getting out of bed, the systems are monitoring those motions as normal activity. The systems measure the acceleration in changes in movement, as well as the person’s height and heart rate. When a person falls, the device automatically senses the acceleration of a movement and change in height. The monitoring system automatically activates and calls for emergency help, as well as contacting the caregiver.

This type of technology enables caregivers to take comfort in knowing their parent’s button will call for help, even if they can’t.

Source:  Agingcare.com

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Farmington Hills or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.

Making the decision to hire a home care service to provide care for your loved one is an important decision and can, at the same time, be very difficult. If an illness or recovery from surgery requires nursing care or physical therapy, a physician may order skilled home care services that provide both skilled providers and personal aides. Your decision is then based on the obvious medical determinations made by the doctor. But what if you as the family caregiver must determine the extent of care needed without the help of a doctor?

Each home care situation is unique. In the beginning, family or friends step in to help with simple tasks and support for aging seniors who want to stay in their homes. As long term care needs progress, more time is required to manage those needs. Physical and mental conditions change with aging making usually routine hygiene and daily living activities difficult for an aging individual. Even with the healthiest of seniors, the ability to drive a car, shop for groceries or do general housekeeping eventually needs to be relinquished to the responsibility of another person.

Before starting your search for a non-medical or personal home care company, determine what the care needs are and how much time each week will be required for assistance from the company. You may want to consult with the family physician and other family members as well as experienced social workers or care managers to determine needs. Most home care companies, as well, will help you do an assessment at no charge. With your care needs in hand, you are ready to begin your search.

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice gives the following guidelines and checklist in searching for a home care company.

• How long has this provider been serving the community?
• Does this provider supply literature explaining its services, eligibility requirements, fees, and funding sources? Many providers furnish their home care clients with a detailed “Patient Bill of Rights” that outlines the rights and responsibilities of the providers, clients, and family caregivers alike.
• How does this provider select and train its employees? Does it protect its workers with written personnel policies and malpractice insurance? Does it protect clients from theft or abuse by bonding its employees?
• Does this provider assign supervisors to oversee the quality of care clients are receiving in their homes? If so, how often do these individuals make visits? Who can the client and his or her family members call with questions or complaints? How does the company follow up on and resolve problems?
• What are the financial procedures of this provider? Does the provider furnish written statements explaining all of the costs and payment plan options associated with home care?
• What procedures does this provider have in place to handle emergencies? Are its caregivers available on notice?
• How does this provider ensure client confidentiality?

Source:  Longtermcarelink.net

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Franklin or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.