10 Tips for Elderly Home Care

Many families choose to take care of elderly relatives in their home instead of taking them to a nursing home. However, this type of care involves a series of changes, both at home and in everyday habits and customs in general.

Dementia

Dementia is not a specific disease but a general term for a chronic or persistent decline in mental processes including memory loss, impaired reasoning, and personality changes. A decline in memory or other thinking skills can reduce a person's ability to perform everyday activities. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, as it accounts for 60 to 80 percent of cases. According to Elly Kleinman, Americare founder and CEO, Alzheimer is also the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Currently, there are over 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease.

How to Detect Dementia?

As healthcare executive Elly Kleinman Americare explains, dementia encompasses a wide range of symptoms associated with thinking impairments, communication, and memory that interfere with an individual's ability to perform everyday activities. Although the early signs and symptoms of dementia can vary greatly, some of the more common dementia symptoms and signs include:

·         Memory problems, particularly remembering recent events

·         Reduced concentration

·         Increasing confusion

·         Loss of ability to do everyday tasks

·         Personality or behavior changes

·         Poor reasoning and judgment

Many types of dementia are progressive, which means the symptoms start out slowly and gradually get worse. In fact, as Elly Kleinman Americare describes in his articles, in most cases, the symptoms develop gradually and go unnoticed for a long time. That is why, quite often, people fail to recognize these symptoms or mistakenly assume such behavior as a normal part of the aging process. Symptoms may also develop gradually and go unnoticed for a long time.

Elly Kleinman Americare has written several publications on this particular topic, noting that dementia is caused by damage to brain cells. This damage interferes with the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other. When brain cells cannot communicate normally, thinking, behavior and feelings can be affected. However, there are also some diseases and conditions that can lead to dementia, or dementia-like symptoms such as:

·         Huntington's disease

·         Parkinson’s disease

·         Infections

·         Stroke

·         Brain Tumors

·         Nutritional deficiencies

·         Drug effects

·         Heart and lung problems

For now, there is no certain way to determine if someone has dementia. The only way to diagnose Alzheimer's and other types of dementia is through frequent physical examinations, laboratory tests, following one’s medical history and the characteristic changes in thinking and day-to-day function. Since brain cell death cannot be reversed, there is no known cure for degenerative dementia. Management of disorders such as Alzheimer's disease is instead focused on providing care and treating symptoms rather than their underlying cause. If you or a loved one is struggling with dementia, you can get additional resources for information, education, referral, and support from Elly Kleinman’s organization Americare.

Elly Kleinman Americare: Care-giving for People Suffering from Mental Disabilities

Around two to three percent of Americans have a need for caregiving. Some of those people are suffering from mental disabilities. For that reason in the past decades has been opened several institutions that provide various services for elderly and disabled persons. One of those is Americare, as one of the best healthcare providers in Brooklyn. That means that the person finds it more difficult to learn and process new information and to manage the complex tasks required for everyday living, shares Elly Kleinman, a healthcare executive from Americare.

World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day is an annual event celebrated on 10 October, created by the World Federation for Mental Health to raise public awareness of mental health issues worldwide. This year the World Federation has chosen "Dignity in Mental Health" as the main theme. Public education and raising awareness of dignity was the center focus on this year's ceremony co-hosted by Americare's founder Elly Kleinman held at New York City Mental Health Institute. The idea behind this ceremony was to establish different ways in which dignity can be provided in all aspects of mental health, and share those viewpoints with the general public.

Healthy Habits for the Holliday Season and Traveling

Ready or not the holidays together are right around the corner, and this time of year is full of traveling. And as the air gets chillier, the days get shorter, and your jeans start getting tighter. It’s so easy to give up on your health habits during the feasting season or when traveling, since you are out of your normal routine. But why not try to take your routine with you? As Americare president Elly Kleinman brought this to our attention, we have four months of constant feasting, says. It begins with Halloween candy, then some the Thanksgiving stuffing and pies, followed by the Christmas treats and New Year's toasts. Even after that, there are Super Bowl chips and dips and Valentine's Day chocolates. If we contend with all of that, then not only will jeans feel tighter, but we might even fail putting them on.