Pure Home Care Services

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.

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.

All people reminisce. Remembering times past is a pleasant diversion, stimulates the mind, and helps give us perspective and a sense of who we are. As a recent study from the Association for Psychological Science states, “Nostalgia is now emerging as a fundamental human strength.”

Reminiscing, the process of “life review,” is an important part of old age. As seniors recall their accomplishments and come to terms with past conflicts and disappointments, they achieve a heightened sense of personal identity and meaning in life.

Reminiscing also enhances self-esteem. Studies suggest that seniors who are encouraged to share events from their lives with others experience an increased sense of peace and self-worth. We all have a lifelong need to see ourselves as unique individuals, and the recollection of pleasant experiences, past accomplishments, and triumphs over adversity is part of this.

Reminiscing can be an important tool for socialization. Think about what happens when you first make a friend: you spend much time “filling each other in” on your life history—who you are and have been, where you have lived, who is important in your life. For seniors who receive home care, sharing memories is a great way for staff to get to know the person better by learning about their life stories and accomplishments.

Reminiscing can be especially important for cognitively impaired persons. Those with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia can often recall long-past occasions better than the events of the current day, since the disease affects long-term less than short-term memory. Interactions that include the recollection of events past can have a positive effect on the dementia patient’s emotional well-being.

Why Does My Loved One Repeat the Same Stories?

Sometimes family members and friends are concerned if the older adult repeats stories, returning to the same ones again and again. But recognize that this, too, is part of the life review process: the repeated stories are probably those that the person finds the most pleasant to recall, or may concern events that he or she is “working through.” Remember that a response from you is not necessarily required; he or she may just need you to listen in a non-judgmental manner.

Sometimes an older adult may seem to dwell upon life experiences that cause sadness, anger or frustration. Understand that this, too, is a way of dealing with the past and can be a sign of emotional health.  Allow these feelings to come out, and don’t try to suppress such expressions by immediately attempting to cheer up or distract your loved one. But if he or she seems “stuck” in a particular disturbing experience or time, encourage your loved one to speak to the healthcare provider.

Older adults are a treasury of stored experience. Life review and discussing “the good old days” is a beneficial, purposeful activity that helps older adults maintain a positive outlook.

Pure Home Care Services serves  Grosse Pointe and the surrounding area.  Our caregivers would love to reminisce with your loved ones.  Call us today! Our number is (586) 293-2457.

Source:  Caringnews.com