How Can You Provide Quality Care to Your Aging Loved Ones?

Taking care of our elders can be a challenging task. Many have no idea where to start or how to handle senior care duties with the sensitivity it needs. Older adults need proper care to maintain their quality of life, which includes as much independence as possible. Here are a few tips to help you provide better care to your aging loved ones.

• Healthy meals – It is important for the seniors to eat a healthy and nutritious diet for overall good health. Make sure to provide a healthy meal that includes enough fresh fruits, vegetable, and whole grains. Consult their doctor or a nutritionist to help find a diet plan based on their health.
  
• Medication management – Make sure your loved one takes their medicines on time. Help them keep track of all their medicines, dosages and when to take them ensure proper medication management.
  
• Regular exercise – In order to stay physically fit and active, regular physical activity is important. Encourage them to join a senior fitness club or an exercise program through the community. Not only with this help them stay fit, but also provide an opportunity to engage and socialize with people of same age that will benefit their mental health.

If you are unable to provide the care your loved ones need, consider hiring an in-home caregiver. Always Best Care is a leading senior care organization that has highly trained, bonded, and insured caregivers who provide compassionate in-home care services in Harford County.  For more information, call (410) 877-3787.

Veterans: Don’t Let Obstacles Deter You from these Benefits

While there are benefits available to veterans to assist them with in-home care or senior living community expenses, many are so bombarded with scams and hoaxes that they just give up and end up not getting a penny of what is rightfully coming to them. Other obstacles can include being confused by the application process and not being able to gather the correct documentation.

One of the most under-used VA benefits is the Aid and Attendance pension benefit. Some veterans or surviving spouses might even think it a scam due to the scam artists who try to gouge seniors out of their hard-earned money with promises of being able to fully guarantee acceptance. This, of course, can only be done by the Department of Veteran Affairs itself.

What are the obstacles?

• As immoral and unbelievable as it may sound, there are unscrupulous people out there who make a good living off of charging exorbitant fees to seniors who just want to gain VA benefits. They often promise a guarantee of eligibility – but seniors shouldn’t be deterred by these scam artists because the Aid and Attendance pension benefit is a real benefit that has helped thousands of families in the past.
  
• Many veterans and/or surviving spouses don’t realize that they might be eligible for this VA benefit. It’s a commonly held belief that to be eligible for the Aid and Attendance pension, the veteran must have sustained injury during combat or service. This simply isn’t true. Some of the eligibility requirements that most people might not be aware of include that the veteran didn’t have to see combat; the veteran doesn’t have be retired from the military; and they don’t have to have a service-related injury to receive this pension.
  
• Finally, one of the biggest obstacles remains how very complicated the process can be. Here’s where you can count on the website: VeterainAid.org for help. They list all of the information you need, and provide assistance – all for free – with every step of the eligibility and submission process.

Are you a senior living in the Fallston area interested in senior veterans care in Baltimore County or home care in Harford County? You are encouraged to contact the Always Best Care Fallston location at 410-877-3787 to set up a free care consultation. They look forward to chatting with you about your bright future!

Reducing Seniors’ Anxieties over Moving to Senior Living Community

It’s a long held belief that when someone moves into a senior living community, they either can’t take care of themselves or they are close to dying. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Today’s senior living environments are geared toward many different levels of care – independent living, assisted living, memory care, and more. However, today’s seniors might still be apprehensive over making the move.

What are some of their objections?

• “I’ll sit around all day and do nothing.” The truth of the matter is that today’s senior living communities are chock full of activities that they provide for their residents. It might be exercise classes, outings, crafts, gardening clubs, etc. The senior will have plenty to do.
  
• “I’m afraid of moving out of my house, I’ve been here for such a long time.” Fearing change is nothing new; it’s all a part of being human. Try asking your senior loved one questions like – What if you can’t take care of the house anymore? What if (your spouse) passes away? Moving into a retirement community as a couple may also seem far preferable.
  
• “I don’t have the money to move into a senior living community.” Many people don’t realize how much they are actually spending on their own home. There’s the maintenance, repairs, taxes, mortgage, etc. Plus, seniors often have a good amount of equity built up in their home which they can use.
  
• “I’m not old enough to move into a senior living facility.” Most people feel like they are young at heart, and that they can’t possibly be old enough to move into a retirement home. Talk to them about what a wonderful gift aging is, and how much they’ll be able to enjoy their retirement years in a senior living community.
  
• “What’s going to happen to all my things?” By the time they are seniors; people have collected and accrued many items. Many of them wonder about what will happen to their things. Ease their mind by helping them sort through everything by donating some things, giving things away to family, throwing some things away, and keeping only the things that are necessary.

If you are a senior living in the Bel Air area and would like to learn about assisted living in Baltimore County or about in-home care in Harford County, you are encouraged to contact the Always Best Care Fallston location at 410-877-3787 to set up a free care consultation.

How Practicing Mindfulness Can Benefit Seniors

No, it’s not a religion. Mindfulness is simply a way of looking at your life, of handling the daily stresses, chronic pain, or anything else that is going on in a way that restores your energy and enthusiasm. Studies have been done that show practicing mindfulness can have a positive effect on your health, it can improve cognitive functioning, create a positive way to manage stress, and it can also greatly improve quality of life.

How Mindfulness is Practiced

Mindfulness improves not just the mind, but the body as well. Through meditation, seniors can learn to relieve stress, maintain balance, create harmony in their lives, and they are better able to handle chronic pain and trauma. Through yoga, seniors can gain the physical benefits of mindfulness which ultimately reduce the risk of disease.

Physical Benefits of Practicing Mindfulness

• By practicing walking meditation, seniors can improve their physical fitness levels while also reducing depression and stress.
• By practicing yoga and meditation, immunity can actually be boosted. These mindfulness practices aid in reducing inflammation, which can decrease the risk of disease.
• Meditation can slow down aging. Could it be the fountain of youth? Almost. Meditation stops our chromosomes from being shortened, which is a marker for aging. They shorten through stress, disease, and aging.
• Meditation slows diseases from progressing, including HIV, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
• By being present in the present (the definition of mindfulness) instead of the past or future, seniors can live in the now and not be anxious about the past or future. This reduces loneliness, which, in turn, leads to a decreased risk of depression and disease.

Ways Assisted Living Communities can Help Seniors Practice Mindfulness

• By offering yoga classes suitable for seniors
• By offering meditation classes
• By offering massage sessions
• By offering acupuncture sessions

Always Best Care Senior Services has been in the senior care giving industry since 1996. During that time, they have assisted over 25,000 seniors remain independent in their homes, and have logged over three million hours of care giving time. If you are interested in receiving information about in-home care in Harford County, or other types of home care assistance in Harford County, call the Always Best Care local office at 410-877-3787 or email them at egill@abc-seniors.com.