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Providing for the needs of someone ill or elderly can be draining.  Respite care can give you a much needed break, while ensuring that your loved still receives the attention they need.  Being a caregiver for seniors can be as rewarding as it is exhausting, and sometimes you need a break.

Caring for an elderly parent can be difficult, especially if you have a full-time job and children. Respite care can give you a reprieve from your daily duties, so you can run errands, go to a meeting, or just take a breath.

Respite Care

Respite care can be in your home or a care facility. Most people are more comfortable with home service because it keeps their loved ones in familiar surroundings. This is especially important if the person has dementia or Alzheimer’s. With home care, companions look after their clients and may do some cooking, cleaning, housekeeping, and bathing, among other services that can be found here.

In a facility, the care can be for a day, overnight, or for a few days. Staffers care for seniors in a setting that allows them to be around others with some of the same health issues. In this setting, they can take part in activities with their own peers.  Seniors often find this change of pace fun as it gives them some time away from their typical abode as well as a chance to interact with others.

In-home respite care can get your loved one out of the house, as well.  A companion can take seniors to the park or other places they enjoy going.  The companion will be able to keep your senior happy and safe while out and about.

Concerns

If you have been taking care of your loved one, it is normal to be a little apprehensive about changing the routine. That is perfectly normal. You don’t want just anyone around them. You want to be sure that they will be well-taken care in your absence and that this care is affordable. This is where you need to do your research. You may be able to get financial assistance to help you pay for some or all of the amount. There may also be government programs that can help you pay for the care.

When you are looking into the care agency, it is essential to do your research. You want to make sure the companion is reliable, certified, and well-trained. Be sure to ask questions about certification and training when you speak to an agency.  At BlueDot Cares, we can offer you peace of mind and quality care.  Visit us today to see how we can help you and your loved ones.

As the weather turns chilly, seniors can find themselves facing long periods of time shut inside without much to do.  With fall right around the corner, having fun, senior-friendly activities ready to go can make the difference between an exciting autumn season and a drab one.

Fall Activities: Make a Puzzle

With chilly wind, icy rain, and shorter days, fall is a great time to bring out inside activities that are both enjoyable and help time fly by.  As far as fall activities go, this one keeps seniors warm and dry!   Bring in a puzzle with many pieces, up to 500, to have a good time fitting it together.  If mobility is limited, puzzles can be a great way to enjoy their time, either with a partner or by themselves.  Puzzles can keep their minds and their fingers active.  If your senior citizen struggles with arthritis, look for puzzles made specifically for them!

Fall Activities: Coloring Books

Coloring books can be fun for both children and seniors.  Adult coloring books have exploded in popularity and offer a relaxing yet fun afternoon activity.  There’s a ton of options out there, so look for something you know they like.  It could be flowers, animals, or any of the other hundreds of options.

If your senior has limited vision, make sure to get one that is big enough for them to see. While some are on the shorter side, adult coloring books can also be very lengthy and provide hours of soothing entertainment.

Fall Activities: Get Outside

Fall is one of the most beautiful times to take a walk and enjoy the splendor of nature. You don’t have to go all over the place, either!  If your senior is spry on their feet, short walks around the neighborhood or a local park can be a welcome break from the abode.  If they’re wheelchair bound, consider giving them a push around the block!  Even if they just want to sit on a bench and enjoy the crisp air, Autumn is a great time to get outside.  Just make sure to bundle up!

Fall Activities: Prepare for Halloween

It is Halloween season and prepping for this holiday is one of the best fall activities out there. Trick-or-treaters will be at the door in no time, so making wreaths, carving out pumpkins, making cards, and origami are some of the activities that you can partake with your seniors. The preparations can take time so look for the fun ones so that you keep them entertained.  Sharing scary stories and reminiscing about past Halloweens can also make for some great bonding!

Keeping seniors entertained can be quite a task, but it is easy to get flowing once you figure out how to have fun.  Fall is a time of family, friends, and enjoying the change in the weather.  Just make sure that whatever you do is safe for everyone involved!

Hiring a caregiver for an elderly family member can be a great boon for you, but they can often feel uncomfortable or isolated.

Finding someone to adequately care for your loved one is a crucial mission.  Providing that care can sometimes be an overwhelming task for the caregiver themselves.  From the stress of daily errands to dealing with patient advocacy, it can be challenging to avoid feeling isolated from the world.

How to Find the Ideal Caretaker

Finding the perfect caregiver is not an easy task. You want to find someone who can cater to your elderly family member’s needs while providing engaging companionship.  This will help your senior avoid boredom and keep their mind sharp.  Also, you want to find a person who can handle isolation due to the stress and overwhelming level of necessary care.

What Are the Causes of Isolation?

There are many reasons for a caretaker to feel socially cut off from their world. Chief among them is a lack of support from other family members. The enormous amount of stress that comes with daily care is another – caregivers can seem to lose themselves in their duties. Advanced medical needs, such as neurological or physical disorders, can only add to these stresses. When a caregiver is overwhelmed by stress, feelings of isolation will intensify.

What Can I Do for My Caregiver?

To avoid making your caregiver feeling isolated, encourage them to take some time for themselves. The responsibilities associated with the job can be all-encompassing, leading caregivers to ignore the symptoms of being isolated. Please encourage them to speak to friends and get an outside perspective on their workload. Self-care is essential for caregivers. We should always look out for their health while they take care of our loved ones.

While this job can cut the caretakers off from their social circle, it is crucial to recognize that it can be just as debilitating for the patients. Look for businesses that cater to the particular needs of your loved one. They will have specially trained staff to make it easier for both caregivers and patients to escape the confines of the home.

People today are more reluctant than ever to visit the doctor for appointments. After all, how can you practice social distancing in a crowded waiting room? Going to the doctor may be a particularly big concern for aging senior citizens who are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of COVID-19. Thankfully, more offices than ever are offering virtual appointments with telemedicine.

The Many Advantages of Telemedicine

This exciting approach can open people up to a world of superior safety. It can be priceless in an uncertain climate these days. This practice, first of all, makes social distancing simpler than ever. That’s because it empowers people to seek medical care from the comfort of their homes, far away from everyone else. If you no longer want to have to walk anywhere near-total strangers who may be sick, telemedicine may be the option for you.

Telemedicine can do more than keep you safe and secure. It can also help you decrease your costs significantly. If you handle your medical appointments on the internet, then you no longer have to deal with the expenses of paying for transportation. Since you don’t have to deal with going from point A to point B, you can save a lot of effort and time. And, if you look after children, this medicine approach can be a big help. Visiting your doctor will virtually stop you from having to search for a babysitter.

People who opt for this form of medicine don’t have to panic about getting COVID-19. They don’t have to panic about getting all sorts of other viruses, either. Telemedicine can help you get on the right track if you want to approach getting medical care with all of the serenity in the world.

Do you want to learn more about remote care and all that it can do for you? If your answer is yes, then we can help you here at BlueDot Cares. Contact us without hesitation for more about the ease of remote care.

Caregivers do great work in their communities. Because they interact with people from all walks of life, it can be hard to figure out how to communicate effectively. Developing robust communication techniques helps caregivers serve people better and find more joy in their work. Communication is an integral part of service delivery. That’s why it’s almost impossible to serve other people if you cannot communicate properly.

While developing outstanding communication skills can take a long time, here are four tips to get you started.

Listen

The most crucial step in communication is to listen. Most people desire someone who will listen to them. Just by listening, caregivers can show the person they’re helping empathy and make them feel like they’re really cared about. The problem is that some people think that they are helping the other person by speaking a lot. An adage goes that silence is gold while speech is silver.

Listening allows you to hear what is being said and internalize before speaking. However, many people listen with the intention of responding.

Don’t be judgmental

It is very easy to judge another person while communicating. As a caregiver, you need to listen to everyone objectively. This means putting all your prejudices aside and treating everybody with respect.

If you have any underlying prejudices against some of the people you attend, you won’t be able to communicate with them properly.

Learn to use the right tone

Sometimes, what you say isn’t as important as how you say it. The tone of your voice speaks volumes! Some people, such as those suffering from Alzheimer’s, are sensitive to the tone being used by caregivers during communication. They might not understand the meaning of those words, but there can be a lot discerned from the sound of the voice.

Don’t argue

The only good thing an argument can do is turn the communication process toxic. Sometimes you have to ask yourself if the argument is worth it. Do you want to be happy or to win the argument? While attending to patients or seniors, try to avoid disputes as much as possible. Although you may be right, don’t correct or argue when communicating.

Interested in learning how to be the best caregiver you can be? Visit BlueDot Cares Home Care for more information today!

If you are a senior citizen stuck at home for whatever reason, boredom can be painful. With so many people practicing social distancing, you may also find yourself missing friends and family. Reading is a great way to break the boredom and reconnect with people. The best way to do that? Join a book club!

The benefits of reading

Reading has many ideal health benefits for seniors. Stress relief is a big bonus of spending time reading. Holding a physical book in your hands can be therapeutic for some people. Others prefer to use an e-reader and scroll down the screen to solve a ‘who-done-it’ mystery, learn a new language, or explore a hobby.

Audiobooks are a great way to reap the benefits of reading while resting quietly with eyes closed and body relaxed. Relaxation is an effective way to release the stress of a busy day or the challenges facing all of us at this time.

An extended benefit of stress relief is likely to be improved sleep. Reading a good book can ease tension to allow for regular, restorative sleep. Getting a good night’s sleep may lead to enhanced cognitive function. For senior citizens, the result of all these benefits can be to delay or prevent cognitive decline.

Help seniors escape boredom by joining a book club

Suppose you are one of the millions of Americans who have the dual challenge of raising and educating your children, working full-time to support your family, and taking care of the changing needs of aging parents. In that case, you are not alone in your need or the potential help available to you.

You would do anything for your parents. They were there for you when you could not do things for yourself. Still, you cannot be two places at the same time. You need a dependable helper who can be there for your Mom or Dad when you have to be at work or taking care of other responsibilities.

One option would be to find someone who can fill in for you when you cannot be there. You would want a person who could connect with your senior parent or grandparent for companionship and help with basic needs.

One easy place to start providing a senior with the social needs they have is to join a book club. Some perks of attending a monthly meeting might be:

• Making new friends
• Gaining new perspectives on world events
• Exploring new genres of books
• Learning and sharing ideas in a relaxed environment
• Sharpening communication skills
• Awareness/understanding of different world views

If you are limiting outings in a COVID-19 world, check out online book clubs to enjoy some of these benefits from the comfort of home. Oprah, Emma Watson, and Reese Witherspoon offer amazing groups to be accessed at the click of a mouse. Read and enjoy!

With the ongoing pandemic still keeping us inside as much as possible, many seniors have decided to start writing their autobiographies to pass the time. If you have a senior citizen that wants to know how to write an autobiography, they might turn to you for help. Writing an autobiography is a great way to memorialize oneself and the events of their life.

Have them make an outline

An outline is essentially the backbone of a book, autobiographies included. Its goal is to come up with the main points to write and where to write them. For an autobiography, you usually want to go sequentially, starting from childhood, then onto adulthood, and finally onto the senior years.

It can be written without an outline, but doing so makes it likely that things will be missed and you’d have to go back to it later to fix it, so having an outline is highly recommended.

Hire an editor

An editor’s job is to make sure the book is well-formatted and free of errors. A common misconception is that editors just look for spelling mistakes or grammar issues. That is one part of their job, but they also look for structure; making sure ideas are fleshed out, closing up any holes in logic, and generally seeing that the book reads well. An editor doesn’t need to be a hired professional. It could be a friend or family member with a flair for catching errors. If your senior is receiving companionship through home care services, his or her companion would probably be thrilled to offer another set of eyes as well.

Find a publisher

Once the autobiography is written and editing is finished, you’ll want to look into getting it to print. There are publishing companies that focus on autobiographies, so that is where you could start.

There is also the option of the self-publishing route, though this method might require some legwork to get the book out there in front of readers. If the autobiography is meant for only close family and friends, you could help them get their work printed and bound through a simple local printing service.

Showing a senior citizen how to write an autobiography is a great bonding activity and will provide a wonderful, valuable historical account for posterity.

The Internet is chock-full of informative, educational, and stimulating online entertainment options for seniors, which they are sure to find appealing. They just need to know where to look.

Here is a quick guide to some free, but priceless content that seniors could peruse during quarantine:

1. Reading Blogs

Show your parents that blogs, almost like digital newspapers, are pages online that are regularly updated and they represent every interest imaginable.

You may be wondering what seniors want to read about. Well, they enjoy the same things as others, but they also want a healthy dose of life experience added to their chosen content by older bloggers.

For example, AARP has many blogs on different subjects that are of interest to seniors, included “The Download,” which focuses on technology. Or, maybe your folks are looking for a general blog addressing the culture of senior life. If so, have them try “Time Goes By,” or, if they want to meet new people in a senior-oriented social media network, they should look into “Buzz50.” Of course, our own BlueDot Cares blog also provides plenty of interesting and useful content for seniors as well as the caretakers who look after them.

2. Streaming Video

Do your parents know they can watch movies and TV shows for free on websites and apps like Crackle and Popcornflix? Each offers episodes of vintage TV shows and older movies or independent films.

However, the best place for free streaming content is YouTube. They need to understand that isn’t all Generation Z stars and cat videos. People can, and do, upload anything. Teach them to simply use the search bar and they’ll be amazed at what they can find.

3. Listening to Podcasts

Tell seniors that these are nothing more than pre-recorded internet radio shows that can be streamed anytime for listening. Like blogs, they are also numerous and reflect a plethora of interests.

In particular, Baby-boomers may appreciate “Stuff You Missed in History Class,” which focuses on historical events and figures that not as well-known as those studied in school. And then there is “Good Job, Brain,” an interactive quiz show that tests their knowledge and is sure to keep them on their toes while they go about the day’s chores.

Many older folks and young people alike tend to enjoy “This American Life,” a human interest podcast that tells hidden stories from all walks of life in this country in great detail.

4. Play Online Games

Playing games online will keep senior citizens’ minds sharp and can also be a whole lot of fun. Interactive games like chess could even pit them against a live opponent through cyberspace. Chess is also great because it appeals to both the logical and creative centers of the brain, giving your parents’ minds a workout.

They can keep up that momentum by playing Web Sudoku, which requires logical thinking, or instead they could try many of the free crossword puzzles provided by sites like Boatload Puzzles or USA Today.

These free online entertainment options for seniors can be easily found online. With a little help, the seniors in your life should be able to keep themselves occupied by finding and following their interests during this trying time.