Immunizations Are Crucial for Loved Ones
Immunizations Are Crucial for Loved Ones | Comfort Keepers is an agency whose caregivers provide in home care services to seniors in Calgary. Years of experience in this kind of work have thought these caregivers a thing or two about the senior health. One people get old, their health gets so weak that even some seemingly-light issues can cause them serious troubles. For instance, even as common disease as influenza can result in the death of the senior.
The good news is that such issues can be easily prevented. The key lies in immunization, which is something Comfort Keepers recommend heartily. Of course, the caregivers aren’t the only ones who propose vaccination as a way of preventing pulmonary diseases; a big majority of the medical community is very much in favor of it.
Unfortunately, many seniors aren’t aware of this. In fact, the official data shows that a worryingly small percentage of seniors actually go through the vaccination. The most recent stats show that only 66% of the people aged over 65 have gone through the vaccination for influenza. The things are even worse when it comes to other diseases; the percentage of those who went through anti-pneumonia vaccination is 46%, while the vaccination for shingles was done by only 16% of the elderly citizens.
What’s So Worrying About Immunization?
One of the main reasons why people decide not to go through immunization is that they’re worried about the side effects. However, judging by the experience of the caregivers providing in home care services, the side effects are pretty light in most cases.
And even if the side effects are serious, there can’t go anywhere near to the consequences that can occur as a result of non-vaccination. Considering that pulmonary diseases are the eight leading cause of death among Canadian citizens, immunization definitely is the better alternative.
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Can Help
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.
Contact the Comfort Keepers Calgary office to learn more about how we can help maintain safety, comfort, and happiness in the home.
Dealing with Grief During the Holiday Season
Dealing with grief during the holiday season
Dealing with grief during the holiday season | The holiday season is meant to be the time of the year when families get up together to spend some time together. Therefore, the holidays are usually associated with positive feelings. But, there are some people who get depressed at this time of the year. A person who’s lost a close family member, friend, or a spouse, can find it very difficult to stay happy during the holidays.
The reason is that the holidays bring out the feeling of happiness they had with the people who are no longer with them. And the result of that is the feeling of grief. This is something that can be very difficult to deal with, particularly if the person in question is a senior who’s living alone. For those people, holidays can open the doors to depression.
How to Help Grieving Seniors?
If you have a senior loved one who might get struck by grief, there are some things you can do for them. The most important thing is to talk to them openly about this issue. By explaining to them that grief is a normal thing that can occur at any time, you will be able to prepare them emotionally for the upcoming season.
Unfortunately, even if they realize what grief is and how it works, they still might not be able to handle it properly. And the consequences can be really serious. They can sink into depression, anxiety, and fear. The only way to snap them out from the claws of negative emotions is not to let them be alone during the holidays.
How Comfort Keepers Can Help?
If you live far away from Calgary, AB and you’re not able to spend the holidays with your senior loved one, the solution is not to let them stay alone. Instead, why not hire someone to come and check up on them?
Comfort Keepers can do exactly that. This is an agency whose employees provide care at home services to the seniors, regardless of their emotional, physical or mental state. So, even if your aging loved one is perfectly healthy, you can still hire Comfort Keepers to give them compassion care.
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Can Help
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.
Contact the Comfort Keepers Calgary office to learn more about how we can help maintain safety, comfort, and happiness in the home.
Comfort Keepers of Calgary, AB Offers Respite Care for the Family Caregivers
Respite Care for the Family Caregivers
Comfort Keepers Offers Respite Care; Solving the Problem of Family Caregivers’ Fatigue
Respite Care for the Family Caregivers | Canadian seniors who live alone usually get to a point when they need to decide their future. When the times come when they’re no longer capable of taking proper care of themselves on their own, it’s time to decide how to deal with it. One option is to move to a nursing home. Unfortunately, moving away from the place where they spend the best days of their lives. Doing so can leave serious consequences on their emotions.
And their children understand this, which is why many of them decide to become family caregivers. But even that isn’t the perfect solution. If you’re a family caregiver, you know what we’re talking about. You know that this can be a very challenging job.
Compassion Fatigue
After a prolonged period of providing home care to their senior loved ones, family caregivers could get in a very bad place emotionally. The issue is called compassion fatigue and its main cause is watching your aging loved one struggling to cope with the challenges posed by the old age.
If compassion fatigue isn’t treated, it can have serious consequences. It can result in depression, anxiety, fear, social withdrawal, and so on. The good news is that all of these things can be prevented easily. The solution is taking a few days off from your work of a family caregiver.
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Can Help with Respite Care for the Family Caregivers
If you think you would do great with a few days off, the question is who’s going to take care of your senior loved one. If the senior’s home is located in Calgary, Comfort Keepers will be able to help you. This is an agency that provides personal home care across Alberta, so they won’t have any problems coming to your aid.
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.
Contact the Comfort Keepers Calgary office to learn more about how we can help maintain safety, comfort, and happiness in the home.
What is Compassion Fatigue and How to Deal With It?
What is Compassion Fatigue?
What is Compassion Fatigue? | Becoming a family caregiver is a noble thing and a sign of how much you care for your senior loved one. However, as it’s often the case, family caregivers get to a point when they’re no longer capable of taking care of the senior. At least not without feeling bad, both emotionally and physically.
This condition is called compassion fatigue and is pretty common. It comes as a result of too much stress that comes with providing care to the senior loved one, as well as watching them struggle with all the problems that the old age brings.
Although the signs of compassion fatigue depend on the personality of the caregiver, there are some symptoms that are more common than others. Those include the following:
- Physical exhaustion
- Emotional exhaustion
- Failure to concentrate
- Irritability
- Depression
- Trouble leading a normal social life
- The loss of empathy towards the senior
If you recognize some of these symptoms, it means that it’s time for you to take some break. The good news is that even just a couple of days could do wonders for you. The thing we recommend is to take a small vacation, visit friends and relatives, or simply watch movies and series on TV. But, get some rest from your work as a family caregiver.
The question you’re probably asking at this point is who’s gonna take care of your senior while you’re away. The answer is Comfort Keepers. This is an adult home care agency whose caregivers can fill your spot while you’re absent.
They have the skills and the experience necessary to give your aging loved one all they need. And because they work in shifts, there’s gonna be someone watching over your senior loved one at any given time.
How Can Comfort Keepers® Calgary Help?
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.
Contact the Comfort Keepers Calgary office to learn more about how we can help maintain safety, comfort, and happiness in the home.
Winter is Coming: How to Ensure Your Senior Stays Safe During the Cold Months
Ensure Your Senior Stays Safe During the Cold Months
Ensure Your Senior Stays Safe During the Cold Months | Winters can be pretty tough in Canada and if your aging loved one life in Calgary, you have every right to be concerned about their wellbeing over the course of the next few months. The air temperatures in this city often go below −20 °C (−4 °F) during the winter months, with dry Chinook winds making it even worse.
Ensuring that the home of your senior remains warm over the winter should be on top of your list of priorities. And if you need some assistance, we’ll be glad to help. Here’s a little checklist to help you stay organized when preparing your senior’s home for the winter.
Home interior checklist:
- Make sure that the furnace and other heating units are working properly
- Make sure that the wood is near the fireplace
- Make sure there are smoke detectors in the senior’s home
- Make sure that there are fire extinguishers within easy reach
Home exterior checklist:
- Install weather strips and caulk the windows
- Seal any holes that might create the draft
- Insulate pipes
- Purchase all the de-icing equipment, as well as ice-melt salt
Emergency checklist:
- Create a stash of bottled water and canned foods
- Purchase a set of batteries and/or power bank
- Make sure there are some matches, lighters, and flashlights in the senior’s home
Of course, even doing all this will not guarantee a complete wellbeing of your senior loved one. In order to make sure they are okay, you will have to pay them a visit occasionally during winter. But, if you can do that too often, the solution is to hire someone who can. We’re talking, of course, about hiring a professional in home caregiver.
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Can Help
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.
Contact the Comfort Keepers Calgary office to learn more about how we can help maintain safety, comfort, and happiness in the home.
Medication Safety for Seniors: Home Care Tips for Ensuring Wellbeing of Your Aging Loved One
Medication Safety for Seniors
Medication Safety for Seniors | Medication management is among the most overlooked issues regarding elderly citizens. But, its importance is huge. Not taking the right medicaments at the right time can slow down the recovery process for the seniors suffering from certain illnesses. Even worse, taking too many medicaments can compromise their health or even lead to death.
If your senior loved one is living on their own, medication management is completely in their hands. But, there’s something you can do for them. Here are the steps to take to help your aging parent stay free of over or under-medication:
- Make a list of all the medicines they’re taking
- Write exact times when each medicament should be taken
- List all the potential drug interaction
- Write down all the symptoms of overmedication for each drug they’re taking
With this list in their hands, the senior will have fewer problems taking care of medication management. At the same time, they will know if they’re feeling ill due to taking a larger dosage than described by the doctor. And this list can also help the doctors know what’s causing the problem if the senior’s taken ill.
How Comfort Keepers Can Help?
The best way to ensure your senior loved one’s wellbeing is not to let them live alone. But, if you can’t move in with them, what are you supposed to do? Moving them into a senior home is one of the solutions, but it usually does not do well for their emotional and mental state.
The fact is that most people prefer aging at the comfort of their own home. And that’s exactly where Comfort Keepers step in. This is a home care agency whose caregivers offer all sorts of services, including medication management.
To learn more about home care services of Comfort Keepers, you can visit their office in Calgary, AB or give them a call at 1-877-242-4361.
Surprising Effects Poetry Has on the Senior Brain
The Senior Brain and Poetry
The Senior Brain and Poetry | As people get older, their cognitive functions start diminishing. It’s been like that since the time of immemorial, but recent scientific studies have shown that this process can be slowed down. We’re not talking about taking medications; we’re talking about enjoying poetry. Yes, you’ve read it correctly – poetry has the power to make the senior brain work better.
Benefits of Poetry on the Senior Brain
Benefits of poetry writing:
- Creativity boost – Writing poetry is guaranteed to take the senior’s mind into a creative mode, which can later help them solve all kinds of problems that are not related to poetry. A creative mind can solve all kinds of everyday problems.
- Therapeutic effect – In order to create poetry, the seniors need to be focused on their work. And this means that they will have to forget about everything else, including everyday problems that might be making them lose their nerves.
Benefits of poetry reading:
- Memory – Reading poetry may bring back some long-forgotten memories from the senior’s past.
- Calming effect – Because poetry makes you focus on the words, it can help the seniors forget about the stressful situations that come together with aging.
The Role of Comfort Keepers
Poetry is best enjoyed when in someone’s company. If you let your senior write/read poetry on their own, they can get in a bad mood. To prevent that from happening, you ought to provide them company. And if you don’t have enough time on your hands for that, you need to hire someone who does.
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Can Help
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.
Contact the Comfort Keepers Calgary office to learn more about how we can help maintain safety, comfort, and happiness in the home.
Are There Any Senior Care Services That Can Boost the Senior’s Brain Power
Boost the Senior’s Brain Power
Boost the Senior’s Brain Power | Our brains can play tricks on us, making us forget names of people or misplace our keys. The good news is that the memory lapses are usually just temporary problems. At least when it comes to younger people. But, when it comes to the seniors, memory issues can be a sign of serious cognitive decline.
As people get older, their cognitive performances diminish. It’s a natural part of the aging process. But, it’s not a pleasant one. Neither for the senior nor for their family members. If you have a senior loved one whose cognitive functions are starting to worsen, there are some things you can do to slow down the process.
Here are some brain-boosting tips that can help your senior:
- Exercise more – The seniors who are physically active usually have fewer problems with forgetfulness.
- Socialize – The seniors who have a lot of friends usually have a much better cognitive function than those who spend most of their days of their own.
- Sleep better – Sleep is essential for the health of the brain. People need to sleep between 6 and 9 hours every night.
- Stimulate the brain – Same as any other organ, the brain also needs to be challenged in order to stay sharp.
As you can see, most of these brain-boosting methods require you to be actively involved. You need to be there with your senior to provide them assistance with exercising, as well as challenge them in conversation and other activities meant to stimulate their brain. But, what are you supposed to do if your everyday obligations prevent you from doing it?
Comfort Keepers® Calgary Can Help Boost the Senior’s Brain Power
At Comfort Keepers®, we create individual care plans for every client. These plans include wellness goals that consider physical, mental and emotional health. Our caregivers can help support physician-prescribed diet and exercise plans, provide medication reminders, provide transportation to appointments and help seniors engage in the activities they love the most. And, our caregivers can help senior stay connected with loved ones through video chats, phone calls and care updates. We believe that every senior should experience the best in life.