State Governments Hoping to Improve In-Home Services

New York State is the most recent state government to announce that it will be re-focusing its efforts on improving in-home senior care services. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced recently that New York would be seeking an extra $15 million in funds to help with state costs associated with in-home and community based care. This would include programs like transportation to and from doctors’ appointments, meals and meal preparation, and in-home care tasks, like help with grooming, toileting, and transfers within the home.

 

This isn’t the first time that New York has directed its attention to in-home care. In 2010, the EISEP program was launched to try and help more seniors that were not eligible for nursing homes to receive personalized in-home care. This was a great start, but more attention was needed. This new measure is designed to help pick up the shortcomings of EISEP. There will likely need to be more improvements in the future, but this seems to be a promising step forward.

 

New York is not the first state to focus on the needs of senior citizens. It’s also not the first state to recognize that in-home care services can do a lot when it comes to improving the health of the elderly. Even though a $15 million investment here might seem like an astronomical figure here, it will more than likely help the state to save much more money than that. By spending money to focus on preventative and maintenance tasks, New York is likely going to save money when it comes to Medicare, Medicaid, and other services.

 

State governments, like New York, are hoping to improve in-home care services to help reduce costs.

 

Time after time, studies show that it is far more cost effective to age within the home than it is to go to a nursing home or to a hospital to receive senior care. Now, there’s nothing wrong with nursing homes, and sometimes this is the very best type of care that someone can receive. But it’s also been shown that many people who receive care in a nursing home do not actually need the level of care that this type of facility provides.

 

If you’re looking for the best in-home care for an elderly loved one, give us a call today. Based out of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, we pride ourselves in being one of the most highly rated care services in the area. During a free consultation session, we can sit down with you and go over the needs present in your family. One of our expert caregivers will go over those needs and see if our service is the best fit for your family. Through a customized approach to giving care, we might be the best choice for you, but if we’re not, we will let you know that, too.

 

It’s important to find a good fit for care for a loved one. Not only will it help you to save money as states like New York are discovering, it will also ensure that your loved one gets the high quality care and attention that they deserve.

 

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Is Medical Marijuana Safe?

One of the many changes that has happened in the United States over the last several years is the introduction of medical marijuana usage. For many of us, there are a lot of lingering questions about this. And whether we like the introduction of this or not, it is a growing trend in the U.S. Many states, such as California, have adopted laws that have made the use of this legal for medical purposes. If you have an elderly loved one that you think might benefit from this drug, you probably have a lot of questions about whether it is safe or not. While we’re not medical professionals, there are some resources that we can point to that will help us to better answer this question.

 

Medical marijuana is used to help treat chronic symptoms like pain, nausea, some diseases, and some of the side effects of medical treatments, such as chemotherapy. It is also used to help alleviate symptoms associated with terminal illnesses. Because of its uses, it stands to reason that many elderly individuals will fall under the category of those who might be good candidates for using medical marijuana.

 

For many, this can be a difficult decision. For so long, this drug was considered to be illegal and harmful, and that mindset can be tough to change. Even if the legal status of marijuana has changed, there are still a lot of questions out there about its safety. Although there hasn’t been enough research on the topic conducted, many scientists believe that marijuana use can cause cancer and that it is addictive. It certainly isn’t in the same category here as something like heroin, but studies indicate that if you have used this drug it is hard to stop doing so.

 

Medical marijuana is growing in acceptance across the country, but is it right for your elderly loved one?

 

Yes, there are drawbacks. And yes, there is a stigma against the use of marijuana, whether it’s for medical reasons or recreational. Yes, there are negatives to using marijuana. However, there’s a chance that it might be helpful to someone that you love. If that’s the case, and you live in an area where medical marijuana use is allowed, getting in touch with an experienced doctor can be helpful.

 

Technically speaking, medical marijuana is still a banned substance under federal law. Because many states have circumvented this law, including California, it is unlikely that someone who is legally using the medication under their state’s law will get in trouble.

 

The bottom line is that this is a decision that will need to be discussed with your family and your loved one’s medical doctors. There are some benefits that come with the use of medical marijuana, but there are also many known long term negative side effects that the drug can create. Oftentimes, doctors will not recommend using this substance unless nothing else has brought any sort of relief. But, what’s best for your loved one will depend on their individual circumstances. If you have more questions about whether or not this will be helpful to them, please get in touch with a doctor who is knowledgeable on the subject.

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How Can Hospital Readmission Rates Help Us Improve Care?

A recent study out of Canada found that different regions of the country experienced different rates of readmission into the hospital after someone suffered from some sort of cardiac event. Researchers found that individuals that had been hospitalized with atrial fibrillation, stroke, heart failure, or a heart attack were much more likely to be readmitted into the hospital within 30 days if they lived in Northern Ontario than those that lived in Southern Ontario.

 

There are a number of reasons why this might happen, and the researchers posited a few suggestions for why this might be occurring. Southern Ontario is more urbanized, and because of the closer access to city hospitals, researchers believe that this helped the short term recovery of patients. Another reason why could be more long term in nature. Because patients in Northern Ontario might not be receiving the same quality of healthcare throughout their lives, recovery from a cardiac event might be more difficult. As you can probably guess, there’s still a lot of opportunity for research here.

 

The researchers published their findings in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

 

Hospital readmission rates can help us to find shortcomings in our care system–and then improve them.

 

For us in California, this study might not look like it has any bearing on what we do. But actually, there’s a lot that can be learned here. The big thing is that quality care is important. Care of any sort is expensive, and by providing better preventative care and follow up treatments, the cost of care can be reduced, and elderly individuals can live a better quality of life at the same time. We can also see that not everyone has the same access to care. Wherever we find holes in our healthcare system, we should be doing our best to try and fix those things so that more people can live better lives.

 

If you have a loved one who has recently left the hospital for whatever reason, it stands to reason that they are at a higher risk of dealing with future health issues than others might be. There are things that you can do on your end to help them. Besides making sure that they have access to high quality medical care and keep all of their doctors’ appointments, ensuring that your mom or dad is receiving good senior care can also help them in this respect.

 

Paradise In-Home Care can help you. If you’re looking for the best in-home care solution for your elderly loved one, give us a call. We can schedule a free consultation and go over what we do, and help you to determine whether or not our services will meet the needs of your family. Each family situation is different, and we want to help you find the right custom solution to meet and surpass the needs of your parent or grandparent. We might not be the perfect fit for you, and if we’re not, we’ll let you know. We can help you to get pointed in the right direction so that regardless of which service you go through you can be assured that your family is getting the very best help that they can.

 

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Is it Realistic to Avoid a Nursing Home Stay?

Most senior citizens do not want to stay in a nursing home. Even though there is sometimes a sense of community in these care facilities, they have gained a bad reputation amongst seniors over the years because of what they stand for. Many view nursing homes as a place where they will go–against their will–when no one wants to help them anymore. And while this has been true of some cases in the past, that’s usually not the intent of the family members and others that make these decisions. Still, a nursing home tends to be an unwelcome care choice for seniors.

 

Now, add to this the fact that some nursing homes have been in the news because or abuse or poor quality of care, and there is even greater reason for elderly individuals to want to stay out of these care facilities.

 

As family members who love our parents and grandparents, it can be tempting to tell them not to worry about this, that we will do all that we can to keep them out of a nursing home. But is this really a good choice? Is this a promise that we can honestly make?

 

Sometimes, it is not realistic to avoid the nursing home at all. In fact, because of the unique care that a nursing home provides, sometimes it is actually the best type of care that can be given. It all depends on the needs that your elderly loved one has. No one really wants to stay in a nursing home, but for some, it is the best choice.

 

Avoiding the nursing home is not always possible, but there are things that you can do to reduce the odds of needing it.

 

With that said, a stay in a nursing home isn’t always the best course of action. In fact, nursing homes are used far too often today. Other forms of care, such as in-home care, are often far superior when it comes to the balance between the type of care that is received and the amount of independence that is maintained. Finding a type of care that meets all of the needs of your family is the best thing that you can do for them. In-home care does a far better job of meeting emotional needs than a nursing home does, most of the time.

 

If there are advanced medical needs present, in-home health care can also be an option. This is nursing home level care, provided by a nurse, but in the setting of the home. This is more expensive than in-home care, but it is often much cheaper than a nursing home because there is no residential cost to take into account.

 

It’s not realistic promise your mom or dad that they will stay out of the nursing home. There’s no real way to tell the future, and you never want to make a promise that you cannot fully keep. However, there are a lot of things that can be done to help reduce the odds of this becoming necessary. If you haven’t done so yet, taking a look at in-home care and what it can do for your family is a good way to help approach this issue.

 

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Why are Care Market Studies Important?

You will often come across government and privately sponsored long term care studies when you are searching for information online. Things that talk about senior care numbers, dollar signs, and future predictions might not seem to be all that important right now–how do we know what’s going to be true 30 years from now? However, even though these predictions might not seem to be important at this particular moment, they do carry a lot of weight. They allow family caregivers and professionals to know what they might be up against in the future.

 

If this alone was what these studies revealed, that would be more than enough. But that’s not all that these studies will do. They also give government agencies, like those that oversee Medicare and Social Services, information that can be helpful when they are facing tough decisions for the future. If the studies are done with accuracy, the decisions that are made because of them can help people in the future. Even though the temptation might be to ignore these, it is very important to take them into consideration.

 

One such application here is the impending care crisis, as it has been called. Because the population of senior citizens is growing at such a rapid rate, care market studies have helped to prepare care services so that they an begin to expand in order to better meet the needs of the people that they help.

 

Are these studies always accurate? No. But they can help to identify trends and show what the repercussions of those trends might be if they progress. They act as a way for professional care services to stay a step ahead, rather than fall behind in the quality of care that’s being provided.

 

Market studies can help us to prepare for the future, but it’s important to remember the individual.

 

Ultimately, whatever’s going on in the senior care industry doesn’t really matter in your personal life. Care services, such as ours, should be paying attention to these things because it helps to gain an idea of overall trends within the industry and how to best meet the needs of large amounts of clients. But in the end, it is your unique situation that is important. It is the needs of the individual that need to be taken into consideration, along with how the care service that you choose will meet those needs is what matters.

 

This is why we at Paradise In-Home Care take pride in what we do every day. We pay attention to the data that is driving the senior care industry as a whole so that we can be prepared to anticipate the changing needs in our society, but we also remember that it is real people that we work with. It is a fine balance to maintain, but it is one that places the needs of the individual at the forefront. It is what helps us to provide the best care in a customized manner to every single person that we help.

 

We’d love to help you, too. Give us a call if you have questions about care that we can help you with.

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Can Technology Reduce Senior Care Abuse Cases?

The United States, Japan, and many European countries are experiencing a shift in population demographics. This year, for the first time ever in the United States, there will be more people over the age of 65 than there are under the age of 5. The country, and many others around the world, are seeing the population grow older. This is bringing about a certain number of challenges. Medical doctors are finding that there is a higher need for those that specialize in geriatric medicine. Non-medical caregivers are finding that there is a larger demand for their services than ever before.

 

This makes sense. As the senior population grows in size, the unique services that this population requires will also grow in size. Along with the logistical difficulties that might come along with this, there are other issues, too. One of these is a rise in cases of abuse. Senior abuse of any sort is already a major concern. No one deserves to be treated unfairly or in a harmful manner. As the need for senior care is set to rise, there’s a possibility that abuse cases will also rise. We should do everything that we can to help reduce the likelihood of that happening. In some places, care services are turning to technology to combat this. The hope is that this will reduce the number of neglect cases that occur so that all seniors can live safe lives, regardless of what type of care that they are receiving.

 

The technology already exists to monitor senior safety remotely. Sensors in rugs, smart home technology, and virtual communication devices, like tablets and smartphones have helped seniors to live safer and happier lives over the last few years. These are designed to help keep people safe, but they also help to reduce the strain that caregivers might be under. This can help families to not feel overextended, and to help professional caregivers to focus their efforts where they will be most effective.

 

Technology can be a valuable tool in the fight against senior abuse.

 

Finding the right care for an elderly loved one is important. You want someone that you can fully trust so that suspicions of elder abuse will never bother you. Unfortunately, that’s simply not what’s happening in our society today. For whatever reason, elder abuse is still a severe problem for many. Finding methods to help alleviate this issue is valuable to all seniors.

 

There is a bit of skepticism regarding technology’s place in monitoring neglect. This is definitely warranted. Even the smartest computer in the world cannot see the simple things that humans take for granted. A computer does not have the insight and levels of observation that a human does. Technology can never be a substitute for person to person contact because of this. However, technology can be a strong supplement to personal care. It all depends on what the specific needs of your loved one might be.

 

If you are concerned about the safety of an elderly loved one, you have many options in front of you. Give us a call and we can go over the steps and precautions that we put in place to ensure that each one of the elderly individuals that we care for are as safe as possible.

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Making Care Changes Without Guilt

Oftentimes, there is a level of guilt that comes when we are trying to help an older loved one with senior care. It can start out when we are acting as a family caregiver. Am I doing enough to help mom around the house? What about my job? Am I giving the other people that I love the attention and time that they deserve? These are all good and respectable questions, but it’s easy to see how they can also lead to a spiral of guilt that we aren’t doing enough to meet all of our obligations to the best of our ability.

 

As a family caregiver, your family’s wellbeing should be your highest priority. Sometimes this can mean removing yourself from a position of helping so that a professional can step in. Rather than being unhappy about this, we should be reassured that we are doing what’s best. You wouldn’t want to treat your child’s broken bone yourself; you would take them to someone who has medical training. And in many instances, we need someone with professional care training to step in and help where we do not have the right experience. Recognizing this can be a freeing experience as you are now assured that your parent is receiving the best care possible, even when you are away.

 

That doesn’t always change how we feel about things. Loving your family is good, and we want to do all that we can. But you can be a better family member if you take better care of yourself, too.

 

Caregiver burnout and the guilt that can be generated are common. But just because they are common does not mean that they should happen. You don’t ever need to feel guilty about doing what is right to help your loved ones. And if you are overwhelmed by the amount of care that is necessary to help your mom or dad, then finding a professional that can step in and help to supplement that you are providing is actually the right choice because it will enhance the quality of care that your parent will get.

 

Caregivers often feel guilt when finding a professional to step in, but this is often the more responsible choice.

 

Yes, we want to be able to step in and do it all. But when that’s not possible, then it is completely okay to enlist the help of a professional caregiver. This is not a relinquishing of your duties, but rather a recognition that your parent might need more help than what you are able to give them. If you can’t do it all, don’t worry. No one can.

 

Are you experiencing caregiver burnout? There are resources out there to help. Respite caregivers are available through many services (such as ours) that can help to temporarily ease your burden. Other resources, like your County, can also provide guidance on this issue. There’s no reason to continue feeling the crushing stress of this. If you’re in this situation, please reach out to someone for help carrying this. It might be a tough first step, but it will definitely be worthwhile to you and your entire family.

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