Web Site Helps Caregivers Navigate Medicare

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Kaiser Health News

The Department of Health and Human Services has created a web site called "Ask Medicare" to help caregivers navigate the often confusing Medicare system. CNN reports on the experience of Kim Mickens, a caregiver who used the site to help her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. "Medicare personnel helped her get some of the medical supplies she needed and also recommend a new Web site called Ask Medicare. Designed to give easy access to people taking care of elderly relatives, Ask Medicare provides information and links to services that are important to caregivers."

CNN reports that HHS says "at least 44 million Americans provide care for a chronically ill, disabled or elderly family member or friend. Of those family caregivers, 7 percent -- like Mickens -- provide 40 hours or more of care a week. The new Web site... is meant to be a navigational tool for caregivers -- for whom time is valuable -- that cuts through all the bureaucratic red tape. ... According to the Center on an Aging Society at Georgetown University, family caregivers provide approximately 80 percent of long-term care services in the United States"

See the topics at Caregivers Navigate Medicare

Don't parent your parents

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Sharon Brothers MSW

Are you a new family caregiver?
View a FREE training module, Becoming a Caregiver.

Remember your teen years? Most of us cringe when we think of the relationship (or lack thereof) we had with our parents during those years. Some of us (not me, of course!) still have secrets from our folks about our adventures during those tumultuous years...secrets that, God willing, we'll take to our graves!

So why would we want to revert to a relationship with our own parents that echoes those years? Why has our culture assumed that as our roles shift in our later years - as they do throughout life - we're moving to a "role reversal?"

Our relationship with our parents is one of the strongest forces in our lives - from birth onward.

We're 100% dependent on them for our survival in the first years of live. As we mature and naturally progress through the stages of life, our dependency grows less and less, until we're fully independent adults.

Along the way, of course, the relationship is fraught with challenges. Not all parents are up to the task, either physically or emotionally. Relationships can be difficult or destructive instead of nurturing and loving.

Whether the parental relationship is one that is fundamentally healthy or not, many adults in their prime years are finding that the relationship shifts once again. From living independent, largely separate lives, they begin to become more closely intertwined as the child steps into caregiving or advising roles.

It is a shift in roles, but it isn't time to start "parenting" your parents.

It's a time to respect them as adults. Allow them to make their own decisions, even if those decisions are not what you'd prefer. To collaborate in making life-altering moves (like leaving a long time home and moving into a care environment) and decisions about care.

Certainly there are times when our parents are no longer able to make their own decisions because of cognitive declines, confusion or memory loss.

That brings yet another shift in the relationship - but one that still reflects the need to treat our parents as adults, not as children.

Adults with whom we have long relationships, often winding and complex.

Adults in whom we're willing to invest time, energy and passion they move into the latter phases of their lives.

Finding our path to this shift in roles is often difficult. It might include false starts and a need, from time to time, to reconsider our fundamental values in the process.

Let me suggest these values: dignity (respecting privacy, decision-making and adulthood); autonomy (the right to make informed, independent decisions about one's own life, health and circumstances); independence (as opposed to surrender of abilities and decisions); choice (the right to select what one wishes).

Clearly, when mental function is compromised by diseases such as Alzheimer's, some of these values may shift. The value of safety takes precedence over nearly everything else, but we're still shifting roles within the context of adults, not children.

I don't know about you, but I'd pretty much do whatever it takes to avoid going back to a relationship with my parents that feels like adolescence - theirs or mine. I have no interest in reversing the roles (even though imposing a curfew on them might be a little bit fun)!

What I'm interested in is learning how we travel through this next phase of life together, strengthening the relationship we have developed over the years so that it is richer, fuller and even more rewarding to us all.

Rebecca Colmer Speaks to Caregivers about Respite Care

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bignews.biz

Rebecca Colmer is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and a caregiving professional who developed MeAndMyCaregivers.com, a communications hub for everyone on the care giving team. Rebecca recently spoke at a meeting where adult caregivers get together to network, share ideas and offer support to one another.
The topic of discussion was respite care. “Respite services cover a wide range,” said Colmer. “They may include volunteer services, adult day care or even a care-receiver’s brief stay in a nursing home or assisted living facility. Respite care can also be provided by a private duty nurse, a family member or a friend to give the primary caregiver a break.”
Rebecca explained the importance of scheduling regular respite care to allow the primary caregiver to have time to him/herself. “It is important that the care-receiver and the care giver have some time away from each other. Without a break, the caregiver can develop stress overload or burnout.”
Rebecca covered the details of planning and topics to discuss with respite caregivers, including emergency procedures, medical needs, daily schedule and other special needs that the care receiver may have. “It is a good idea to have detailed instructions written out and ready for the respite caregiver,” said Rebecca. “Do not wait for an emergency to start answering questions; keep the information with the care-receiver’s other important documents.”
Rebecca Colmer is the creator of the Family Caregiver Organizer which includes a Respite Caregiver Checklist.

Memories Return from Depths of Advanced Alzheimer’s for Mice Given Neural Stem Cells

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SeniorJournal.com

Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health

The stem cells secreted a protein causing new neurites, strengthening and increasing the number of connections between neurons -

It is one of those things you might wish for if given just one wish – the recovery of memory for those suffering with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists at UC Irvine say they have made it happen using neural stem cells with mice.

The mice, genetically engineered to have Alzheimer's, performed markedly better on memory tests a month after mouse neural stem cells were injected into their brains.

The stem cells secreted a protein that created more neural connections, improving cognitive function and raising hopes of a potential treatment for the leading cause of dementia that afflicts 5.3 million people in the U.S.

Essentially, the cells were producing fertilizer for the brain," said Frank LaFerla, director of UCI's Institute for Memory Impairments & Neurological Disorders, or UCI MIND, and co-author of the study, which appears online the week of July 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lead author Mathew Blurton-Jones, LaFerla and colleagues worked with older mice predisposed to develop brains lesions called plaques and tangles that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's.

To learn how the stem cells worked, the scientists examined the....read all of Memories Return from Depths of Advanced Alzheimer’s for Mice Given Neural Stem Cells

Eating Strawberries Boosts Brain Power

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Latest Research Provides More Reasons to Eat America's Favorite Fruit


WATSONVILLE, Calif., July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Strawberries are good for your brain, according to breaking news out of the 2009 Berry Health Symposium. Several of the latest studies, conducted by world-renowned researchers, consistently showed that strawberry consumption is a simple way to improve cognitive function.


For example, one study presented by researchers from the Chicago Healthy Aging Project (CHAP) showed that older adults who consume strawberries at least once per month have less cognitive decline. More specifically, women who consumed more than one serving of strawberries per month had a 16.2% slower rate of cognitive decline versus those who consumed less.


With increasing age, brain function diminishes. This has been conclusively shown in laboratory studies, by Drs. James Joseph and Barbara Shukitt-Hale of USDA Agricultural Research Service at Tufts University. Their latest research at the conference demonstrated that aging results in deficits in learning, memory and motor function, such as balance and walking speed - and concluded that strawberries and other berries improved both memory and motor function.


Berries Can Preserve Brain Function

Researchers from the 2009 Berry Health Symposium described how berries may be contributing to the preservation........read more about Eating Strawberries Boosts Brain Power

SENIOR SAVVY: No pattern to progression of Alzheimer's disease

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Daily News Tribune

By Linda Sullivan and Debbie Gitner
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Q: My mother has Alzheimer's disease. Over the past few years the disease has progressed, but in the last three months I have seen a decline in my mother's ability to dress herself, care for herself and even feed herself. I find that my mother needs reminders to eat. She also has incontinence. Can Alzheimer's disease progress that rapidly?

A: Yes it can. Alzheimer's disease can progress rapidly or progress slowly. There is no pattern to the way the disease progresses. It is unpredictable. Alzheimer's disease affects the way someone is able to care for themselves and make decisions about themselves. As the disease progresses, changes occur such as what you are seeing; incontinence, more help with dressing and grooming, plus an increase in memory loss. The middle stage of Alzheimer's disease can affect a person's ability to walk, and cause them to repeat the same stories or ask the same questions, talk but not always make sense, fidget with things, argue about tasks like taking a shower or changing, and sometimes leave the house to look for their house. Some people have mood changes and become argumentative. They may bite or hit and push away caregivers or family. Other behaviors include thinking items are being stolen. They have poor decision-making skills and little safety awareness. It is also possible that now that your mother needs more care, you are seeing the changes that have been coming on slowly.

Q: My father has Parkinson's disease. It is becoming more difficult for him to care for himself, yet he is trying to stay as independent as possible. What should I be doing for him?

A: Parkinson's affects........read the answer and more No pattern to progression of Alzheimer's disease

Paying for Alzheimer's Care

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Paying for Alzheimer's Care