November is Caregiver month, did you know?

I give workshops on care for the caregivers as well as advocacy for patients and they fill an important role for those charged with caring or advocating for those who need extra help. This post was a result of reading a post by "A Place for Mom" who provides and honours family caregivers.

Here are some things that caregivers and others need to know and remember.

Caregiving is costly. 
According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College about 17% of adult children take care of their parents at some point in their lives. Once they become caregivers, adult children are likely to commit a substantial amount of time, about 77 hours on average each month to look after their relatives. 

For people who provide round-the-clock care, the commitment is even greater. More than 40% of caregivers spend at least $5,000 a year to help pay for transportation, clothing and medical costs, according to a survey by Caring.com, a website that helps pair consumers with caregivers.

Help is available.
If you do decide that your loved one needs more than you alone can provide, A Place for Mom can help as can the following sites:
Next Step in Care

http://www.nextstepincare.org
Next Step in Care provides easy-to-use guides to help family caregivers and health care providers work closely together to plan and implement safe and smooth transitions for chronically or seriously ill patients.
 
Lotsa Helping Handswww.lotsahelpinghands.comLotsa Helping Hands is a free caregiving coordination web service that provides a private, group calendar where tasks for which a caregiver needs assistance can be posted. Family and friends may visit the site and sign up online for a task. The website generates a summary report showing who has volunteered for which tasks and which tasks remain unassigned. The site tracks each task and notification and reminder emails are sent to the appropriate parties.
 
Caring.com
www.caring.comCaring.com is the leading online destination for family caregivers seeking information and support as they care for ageing parents, spouses, and other loved ones. Caring.com offers helpful content, advice from leading experts, a supportive community of caregivers, and a comprehensive directory of eldercare services. Caring.com’s carefully researched and expert-reviewed content includes advice from a team of more than 50 trusted leaders in geriatric medicine, law, finance, housing, and other key areas of healthcare and eldercare.

• Caring.com’s Steps & Stages offers a free guide to Alzheimer’s care. Expert advice and practical tips provided in a Custom Care Guide and e-newsletter help family caregivers learn what to expect, what to do, and how to cope with Alzheimer’s.
• Caring.com also publishes findings from research with family caregivers at http://www.caring.com/about/news.

 
Financial Steps for Caregivers
WISER (Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement)Financial Steps for Caregivers: What You Need to Know About Money and Retirement is designed to help you identify financial decisions you may face as a caregiver. The decision to become a caregiver can affect both your short-term and long-term financial security, including your own retirement. For more information on planning for a secure retirement, please visit http://www.wiserwomen.org.
 
National Transitions of Care Coalitionwww.NTOCC.orgThe last concern most individuals have when they or their loved ones are dealing with a health situation is ensuring effective communication between their doctors, nurses, social workers and other healthcare providers. However, poor communication between well-intentioned professionals and an expectation that patients themselves will remember and relate critical information that can lead to dangerous and even life-threatening situations. NTOCC has brought together industry leaders who have created resources to help you better understand transitional challenges and empower you as part of the care giving team.
 
Family Caregiver Alliance
http://caregiver.org/node/3831Established in 2001 as a program of Family Caregiver Alliance, the National Center on Caregiving (NCC) works to advance the development of high-quality, cost-effective policies and programs for caregivers in every state in the country. Uniting research, public policy and services, the NCC serves as a central source of information on caregiving and long-term care issues for policymakers, service providers, media, funders and family caregivers throughout the country.
 
Caregiver Action Network
http://www.caregiveraction.org/
Resources from the Caregiver Action Network, including a Peer Forum, a Story Sharing platform, the Family Caregiver Tool Box and more. CAN also provides support for rare disease caregivers at http://www.rarecaregivers.org

Knowledge can make your job easier.
A National Alliance for Caregiving survey found that  44% said that reading books about caregiving and visiting supportive websites helps them not only to manage their daily frustration but also gives them a sense of community. 

You are America’s #1 long-term care provider.
Family caregivers provide a staggering 90% of long-term care in America. (The National Academy of Medicine)

Your work is valuable.
The value of the unpaid care these 65 million caregivers provide is estimated to be worth $375 billion. (National Alliance for Caregiving)

You are not alone.
More than 65 million Americans care for their ageing or disabled loved ones on a yearly basis. (National Alliance for Caregiving)

you can take a break.
Just because you’ve committed to caring for a parent or senior loved one doesn’t mean you can’t take a break. Respite care is short-term care, lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, that can be provided at a local senior living community or even in the home. Adult daycare is another similar option. These services allow family caregivers to “recharge” with the knowledge that their loved one is safe and sound.

You have limits.
Despite the demonstrated perseverance and strength of family caregivers, each of us has limits. It’s important to recognize when our loved one has declined to a point that professional care is the best option.

You have someone to talk to.
Caregiver support groups meet throughout the U.S. For those caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, the Alzheimer’s Association maintains a database of support groups. General caregiving support groups that aren’t specifically focused on memory loss can be found by contacting your local hospital. Furthermore, there are many online support groups for caregivers.

You have to care for yourself first.
This is one of the most important things to remember. If you’re not keeping yourself happy and healthy, it’s doubtful that you will be able to do your best for your parent or senior loved one. Review the “Caregiver Bill of Rights” and remember to take care of yourself.

Keeping Your Brain Young

One good telltale of our real age is our mental capacity. We expect that as we become grandmas and grandpas, our intellectual performance can never be the same with its prime years. But why does this happen? And what can we do to avoid thinking like we are old-aged already?

THE PROCESS OF AGING

Our neurons are non-regenerative. That means they do not divide to reproduce more of its kind. Once they die, they can’t be replaced by another one. As we age, these brain cells of ours start to reduce in size and in number. This reduces our ability to call to mind some things that we have learned, including those in school, and even those details when we were younger. 

A neurotransmitter called acetylcholine also declines as we age. This neurotransmitter is directly involved in memory and conveying of messages from a cell to another one. Moreover, because of the stresses that we have, the hippocampus, our memory bank, diminish in function. 

As we get old also, we develop plaques and tangles that accumulate between and within neurons, respectively. Plaques are proteins that mount up in between neurons while tangles are fibers that grow within the brain cells. Too much of these two are thought to kill nerve cells, like in Alzheimer’s Disease, an age-related disease. 

In addition to this, substances are created as a result of our lifestyle and environmental pollution. These substances called free radicals can damage our DNA and impede the production of energy which can cause early cell death. 

STAY SHARP

To delay the signs of ageing with regards to our mental capability, we should make a number of things a habit. 

As they say, stress is inevitable in everyday life because we need it to overcome large and small obstacles. But, of course, stress has a lot more negative effects than good ones. So, avoid too much stress. According to some studies, stress does not only make you look older, it also accelerates the degeneration of your brain.

Those who are easily stressed have higher risks to cognitive impairment than those who are not. You should examine yourself and determine the best ways in which you can cope with the obstacles of the day. Praying is one of the best examples. Planning ahead of time can reduce possible stress. An hour of it can even reduce two hours of your working time.

To stay sharp, one must also have adequate sleep. A new research in Massachusetts General Hospital shows that adequate sleep can help you think well. Adequate sleep helps the brain collect different bits of information and have the correct interpretation of them. On the contrary, if you sleep less than the required number, you would most likely have a bad performance and mood problems. 

Another thing we should regularly do to preserve our brain functions is to meditate. Doing it actually improves attention, learning, and memory. Regular meditation can also help you slow down the shrinking of our gray matter. For the younger ones, a thought of it is quite ridiculous because meditating is just for the oldies. But a new study has shown that people who meditate earlier in life have better attention in their succeeding years.

I can’t end without mentioning about eating right. It is true when they say that an apple a day can make you okay. Apples are rich in flavonoids that help protect the brain cells from free radicals. These fruits also contain a good number of antioxidants that do not only make your skin look young, it also raises the levels of the neurotransmitter called acetylcholine that diminishes as we age.

Alternatives To Gift Baskets

When searching for the perfect gift for one of your family members or even one of your friends there is usually a whole lot of pressure to buy the right thing simply because you don't want to disappoint anyone. There are times when you just don't know what to buy, and everyone has those experiences as well. Some people choose to take their time when buying gifts while others like myself, try to get it done as quickly as possible. I have, when buying for a person who has everything, bought a gift basket. Gift baskets can be good gifts for multiple reasons, the best one, I think, is that your loved one gets a whole bunch of smaller gifts instead of one.

However, some people may consider gift baskets to be some of the most impersonal gifts they could ever get (even less so than cash!) just because it shows that the person who's buying it doesn't really know him or her at all. Gift baskets can be seen as impersonal but they can be made personal. For example, if you know a person likes sports, for example, you could by a sports memorabilia gift basket or other theme based basket.  But if you don't want to buy a gift basket, here are some ideas to check out that can be used as alternatives to gift baskets:

Board Games

Unless you know the person really well and know that he or she doesn't like the thought of board games, buying a board game usually always is something that plenty of people enjoy. Whether you are buying an older game such as Monopoly or buying one of the latest games on the market there are plenty of options in local stores or online. If you don't want to buy a gift basket then you board games can be used as one alternative to gift baskets!

Gift Cards

Another alternative is a cash card. Buying a cash or gift cards for your friends and family can be a unique thing to do if you know where the recipient likes to shop. These are a perfect alternative to a gift basket. 

Instead of putting your money into one large basket that may contain a bunch of things that your friends and family dislike, placing all of the money that you'd be spending on the individual on a store gift card is a great idea! Of course, you may just want to include a little bit more money on the gift card than you would have actually spent, but buying gift cards is a great present for someone whom you don't know what to buy.

Of course, there are plenty of other perfect gifts that are great ideas and alternatives to gift baskets. 

Finally, gift baskets can be big, and bulky so buying something that is less cumbersome is a good idea!

If You’re Feeling Stressed, Volunteer

At times, it can seem as if you’re on a constant treadmill at work.  There are deadlines to meet, people to consult, relationships to cultivate.  You may feel as if you’re under consistent stress, but you don’t know how to manage it effectively.  You could always quit your job, but your next position might be just as stressful.

Stress can take a tremendous toll on both body and spirit.  It can leave you feeling fatigued, making it hard for you to concentrate.  You may be more susceptible to illness as a result of your stress, resulting in increased absenteeism from work.  You may be more prone to getting into accidents, and you may feel as if you’re on edge much of the time.

There are a number of strategies you can employ to deal with stress.  But perhaps one of the most rewarding is to engage in volunteer work.  There is something so comforting about donating your time to helping someone else.  The mere act can elevate your spirits, helping you to better cope with the stressors in your life.  You are giving a tremendous gift—the gift of your time and talent.  And you find your reward in the smiles on the faces of the people (or animals) you’ve assisted.

If you’re considering volunteering, you don’t want the search for volunteer opportunities to be stressful.  Therefore, you’ll want to make the process as simple as possible.  A good resource can be your local newspaper.  Often, the Sunday paper lists organizations that are looking for volunteers.  The newspaper usually provides complete contact information so you won’t have to hunt around for a phone number.

Deciding on which organization to volunteer for can be a challenge.  There are so many causes worthy of our attention.  For instance, there are groups that assist people in times of disaster groups that lobby for research to find cures for debilitating diseases…homeless shelters…soup kitchens…and pet shelters.  You might also consider volunteering at a school, where teaching assistants and mentors are always appreciated.

In order to decide where to put your talents to use, you might ask yourself some questions.  For instance, how much time can you realistically devote to volunteer work?  Are you limited to doing your volunteering in the evenings or on weekends?  How much of your own money can you spend in connection with your volunteer work?  What causes are the most important to you?  The answers to these questions could help you to choose the volunteer opportunity that’s right for you.

Next, you’ll want to tour the volunteer facility.  You want to get a sense of whether you will enjoy the work.  If you find that the other volunteers are difficult to work with, it could simply produce more stress in your life.  Usually, an initial tour will help to give you a good idea of what it would be like to actually volunteer at the facility.  Also, be sure to find out if the organization offers training to its volunteers.  This could be quite important, especially if you have only a nodding acquaintance with the work of the organization.

Volunteering does require commitment, and you might be wondering if that commitment will add additional stress to your life.  Actually, the opposite will probably be true.  If you find yourself being energized by your volunteer work, you’ll be able to put your problems in better perspective.  Knowing the difficulties that other people face can make your troubles seem quite negligible in comparison.  However, you will want to make sure that you don’t overcommit.  Devote only a limited amount of time to your volunteer work, and resist the urge to do more.  Otherwise, you could find yourself exhausted by the end of the week and unable to perform well on your job. 

Volunteering can be one of the great joys of life.  It is a privilege to serve other people, to make a difference in another person’s life.  Through your volunteer work, you’ll be able to meet people you might otherwise not have the opportunity to encounter.  You can forge friendships which can last a lifetime.  You’ll be contributing greatly to your neighborhood and your society, and your little corner of the world should be brighter because of it.