How to Make Long Term Care Plans For Your Senior

Regardless of how energetic and active your elderly loved one is, it is always wise to have a long-term care plan in place. Planning for long term care allows the family to get organized and make decisions that will allow the elderly individual to live in comfort as they age.

The key components of long term planning

When a family begins to make long term plans for their senior, they should focus on the follow aspects of care:

• Health decisions
• Legal decisions
• Financial decisions

The home care team at Always Best Care of Asheville-Hendersonville encourages families to work with their seniors on creating an advance directive, which spells out a senior’s wishes for medical care in the event of an emergency or the end of their life.

An advance directive allows your elderly loved one to specify who will make medical decisions on their behalf in the event that they are not able to do so for whatever reason. Though the topic may be hard to deal with, it is important to discuss, as it helps to take the burden off the family and ensures that the senior will have their wishes heard. Expertise and guidance from a lawyer can be useful during this process.

Making important financial decisions

Eldercare professionals encourage families to work with their elderly loved ones in order to make financial plans, which are another important part of long-term planning. It is important that you have a plan in place about how your senior’s care will be paid for when it becomes necessary. Some people prefer to split the burden among family members, while some seniors like to use their own savings to provide for this care. This is a personal decision and there is no right answer, but it is important that there are measures established that ensure that there is enough money available to cover the cost of this necessity.

Making appropriate living arrangements

Part of the aging process includes ensuring that your senior understands the value of their assets, and knows how they would like to proceed when they are no longer capable of caring for a home on their own. Though it may be several years before your elderly loved one looks to sell their home and move into a retirement community or with family, it is still important to plan for this date. This type of advance planning helps to relieve stress and make it easier to execute the senior’s wishes accordingly when the time comes.

Regardless of how difficult the conversation may be, long term planning is a necessary part of home care. When you have these discussions early on, you can feel confident that your senior’s wishes will be executed exactly as they would like.

What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer and Your Elderly Loved One

Knowing the facts about breast cancer is an essential part of understanding senior health. While women of all ages are vulnerable to breast cancer, elderly individuals are particularly at risk. In fact, an article asserts that 80 percent of all breast cancer occurs in women over 50, and 60 percent is found in women over 65. A woman’s odds of contracting breast cancer in her 30s is 1 in 233, but this jumps to one in eight when a woman reaches her 80s. For this reason, families and their elderly loved ones should have a good understanding about breast cancer, including effective treatments and the necessity behind regular screenings.

Once an elderly patient is diagnosed with cancer, doctors will work to come up with a comprehensive treatment plan to prevent the disease from spreading. The treatment regimen will vary depending on the stage of the cancer and the number of malignant cells. The four major treatment options that are most commonly used include:

• Surgery
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy
• Hormone therapy

Fortunately, early detection and regular screenings can work to ensure that the patient learns about their cancer right away, thus allowing them to start on the right course of treatment as soon as possible. However, regular screenings can become a challenge for an elderly individual who may have limited mobility. In this case, families of elderly loved ones should consider hiring an eldercare professional who can help make sure that the senior gets to their appointments without a problem. They can also lend a hand when it comes to getting any necessary medications. Senior care professionals become an important partner for that elderly individual and their family, ensuring that medical needs are met and that the senior is able to be proactive about their health.

While senior care professionals can prove tremendously helpful for a family and their elderly loved one, family members have to continue to take an active role in protecting their senior’s health. In the event that the patient does receive a cancer diagnosis, the family should sit down for a meeting with the doctors who will be providing treatment. They should carefully go over the treatment plan, and be sure that the necessary steps are being taken to get that elderly individual well once again.

Hearing Aid Assistance for Seniors

Photo credit: birminghammag on Flickr.

With World Hearing Aid Awareness Week just around the corner (September 29 through October 5), it’s important to take a moment to understand just how integral it is that seniors have access to the resources they need to keep their hearing at the highest level possible. With regard to senior health, hearing is one of the senses that is most frequently lost or weakened during the aging process. As such, eldercare professionals in Hendersonville and Waynesville urge you to understand how you can help your elderly loved one to get the best care pertaining to their hearing possible.

Individuals who provide eldercare, Always Best Care Asheville professionals included, serve as a lifeline of sorts between seniors and the healthcare they need to stay in optimal shape. Below are a few things to keep in mind when celebrating Hearing Aid Awareness Week—and to remember as you care for your elderly loved one.

1. Hearing loss can make seniors feel disoriented and cause them to become frustrated, as they have difficultly communicating. For many elderly individuals it is hard to admit that they are suffering from hearing loss, so it is important to schedule an appointment for your loved one if you believe they may be experiencing this issue. 
2. Getting used to a hearing aid takes time, and the process of getting a hearing aid and using it can be intimidating to some people. Make sure that you remain patient with your loved one and that you take the time necessary to help them adjust to their hearing aid while providing them with the instruction they need to use it properly. 
3. Keep in communication with your elderly loved one’s doctor. It is important that your senior has a support network that is there to help them through this experience. By keeping up with information regarding your loved one’s condition, you can better support them and their needs as they transition to the use of a hearing aid. 

Getting a hearing aid is something that greatly improves the quality of life for seniors who have hearing impairment. To celebrate Hearing Aid Awareness Week, why not schedule a hearing screening for your senior to make sure that they have access to the support they need?