Book Review: A Guide for Caregiving - What's Next?

I am pleased to call Tina Marrelli, MSN, MA, RN, FAAN, a friend. She is also a fabulous award-winning, best-selling author. Everything she writes is done to perfection and so it's no surprise that she has combined her vast knowledge as a nurse from the home health and hospice field with the art of caregiving for her loved ones. Tina has chosen to share some of the very best tips that you'll find anywhere in her award-winning book, A Guide for Caregiving - What's Next?  

Caregiving for your aging loved ones is probably one of the most difficult roles you'll encounter in your life. Any assistance you can get to reduce the burden and let you know you're not alone in your feelings that can include anger, resentment, depression, loneliness, as well as satisfaction and joy is worth its weight in gold! Even for seasoned nurses, caregiving for your aging loved ones is foreign. All assistance is welcome! This book is an essential resource.

In 2017, the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) honored the book with 3rd place in their Book of the Year- consumer health listing. Caring.com also honored the book in 2017 as a Best Caregiving Book.  In January 2019, Caregiver.com bestowed a Today's Caregiver Friendly Award on the book. 

A Guide for Caregiving - What's Next?  plays a dual role as a guide for caregivers as well as for health care clinicians to work through the process of caregiving aging loved ones at home. Ms. Marrelli provides a wealth of resources and information to make the task easier. This includes information about home safety, infection control issues and prevention, and how to use a caregiver notebook to simplify the process. Work with your home health or hospice nurse to help you provide the very best care for your loved ones.

There is an important chapter about self-care for the caregiver! This is a very important part of being a caregiver; taking care of you. If you don't, you're going to break down and be unable to provide the care. Don't let yourself become part of the problem.

The book also has a wealth of information about disease-specific care such as for Alzheimer's or other dementias, diabetes, cancer, COPD, stroke, and cardiac conditions. There is a specific chapter on caring for bedbound patients, on for those with arthritis and another devoted to amputations.

There is also a section on a glossary of health care terms and a section on how to become an advocate and coordinator for your loved one's care. And no book would be complete without a multitude of other resources. The book is spiral bound and easy to read and locate the information you need.

This is one of the best caregiving books on the market and a must-have for any caregiver's library. Order online from Marrelli.com.

For more information about caring for your aging parents, please consider downloading my course, Caring for Your Aging Parents, from Teachable.com. It takes a couple of hours, and you can just hit play and listen while you go about other business.

Gift Recommendation : Laminator

I got a new laminator that will laminate papers up to 13" wide. It's reasonably priced and comes with a great supply of various sized pouches to get you started. It also came with a trimmer and a page rounder. The instructions are easy to follow and it works quite well.

While not all legal documents can or should be laminated, copies of them can be so you can place the originals in a safe place and be able to access the copies as needed for information purposes.

Laminators are also great for work projects like training materials and marketing or reference materials. Arts and craft projects like placemats, bookmarks, and other projects that need to be waterproof or preserved for a while can be laminated. It's also great for preserving artwork or school work from your children or grandchildren.

Note that lamination is not recommended to serve to preserve papers and photos for archiving.

I got mine from Amazon and it was delivered promptly.

#Laminator

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Caring for Your Aging Parents Course On Sale

Celebrating Black Friday through Cyber Monday

The price for the Caring for Your Aging Parents course on the Teachable.com platform is on sale from Black Friday through Cyber Monday for just $12. That a 48% DISCOUNT!

Purchase and download today and enjoy the course anytime in the future. You can even download it and listen to the audio while you're multi-tasking, and review the slides later to make note of the points that will help you best on this journey.

I have just completed that last leg of my journey in this sandwiched generation with the passing of our 4th parent, my mother-in-law. As a home health care and hospice nurse for over 35 years, I've combined all of my knowledge and experiences into a course designed to provide you support and shortcuts to make your journey easier. It's clearly the best gift you can purchase for yourself or a loved one!

Special Guidance for Those Facing a Terminal Diagnosis

Little is more overwhelming than finding out you or someone you love is terminally ill. However, when faced with life’s final journey, covering some critical details can provide peace of mind, both for the dying and for those who must carry on. Read on for information that can help you forge a pathway during this most difficult time.

 

Add Financial Security

On top of the emotional distress that accompanies a terminal illness, many people find themselves in financial upheaval. There can be substantial medical expenses involved, and it’s not unusual for families to face mortgages, credit card debt, and other lingering obligations. And as much as we hate to dwell on it, there will also be funeral expenses. The average cost of a funeral in the United States is roughly $9,000, so finding ways to finance your burial, as well as any services you wish to have, could relieve your family of a significant burden, allowing them the room to grieve.

This is also a good time to discuss personal particulars relating to services, memorials, and preferences. Sometimes, people have very specific requests, which you can delineate in a letter of last instructions. Also, consider including things like contact information for various insurance policies, retirement account data, safe deposit box information, passwords for online accounts, marriage certificates and divorce decrees, and bank account information.

Note that shared bank accounts will automatically fall to the surviving party, which alleviates one worry for many people. Similarly, many banks allow account holders to designate beneficiaries.

 

Putting Things in Order

You’ve probably heard the expression “putting affairs in order,” and you might have even been told to do so at this time. While it’s a common expression, it can seem vague, especially when you’re the one in crisis. This generally means putting legal documentation in place that ensures property, funds, and decision-making are secure.

 

Last Will and Testament

The legal document people are most familiar with is a last will and testament. This document addresses how the terminally ill person’s estate will be distributed. There are several legal requirements surrounding a will, and while there are online templates you can use to create one, it’s in everyone’s best interests to meet with an estate planning attorney to ensure the document is legally binding and accurate.

 

Living Will

People are often confused by the terms “living will” and “last will and testament,” but as the Balance explains, the terms address entirely different situations. A last will and testament comes into play after death, while a living will determine what medical procedures you would like to sustain life if you become unable to make those decisions for yourself. A living will specifically directs what medical personnel are allowed to do.

 

Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is a legal designation of who can make decisions on your behalf; you decide how broad or limited the decisions will be. This can pertain to particular accounts, properties, types of decisions, and so forth. You still retain the right to control your funds and properties, but it ensures someone else can address things like paying bills from your checking account if you should have a time when you are unable to do so.

 

Medical Power of Attorney

A medical power of attorney is similar to a power of attorney, but it relates specifically to health-care-related decisions. Contrary to a living will, medical power of attorney gives decision-making to a designated person, and in this way, it is more flexible than a living will.

A terminal diagnosis is devastating news. For the sake of yourself and loved ones, make sure affairs are in order, and that family members have financial security. Addressing important details can help provide guidance and comfort during this trying time.

Photo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-holding-hands-1773113/

Craig Meadows is the creator of Surviving Day One, a site he created to offer support to anyone going through a traumatic or difficult experience.

Thanks Craig!

For more information about caring for your aging parents, please consider downloading my course, Caring for Your Aging Parents, from Teachable.com. It takes a couple of hours, and you can just hit play and listen while you go about other business.

Internet Security for Seniors

What your parents must know when online

Nowadays, Internet use among seniors is on the rise. But unfortunately, predators frequently prey upon the elderly taking priority of their trusting nature and a lack of tech knowledge. Statistics tell no lies. According to the Aviva agency survey, 73% of over-45s internet users confessed that they had been targeted by email scam and 6% of these claimed they had been caught in a cheat's net.

Although there are many techniques that everyone can use to identify a possible intruder before it causes any real harm, some older adults may say “I am too old for that stuff.” So it becomes their children's task to make their parents a more difficult target. Moreover, a lot of security tools are easy to set up and use, so even a twelve o'clock flasher can manage them.

These are some important things you must teach your grandparents to ensure they are safe when online:


1. Never assume any stranger online is a good man
Some older adults behave as if they were born yesterday. They trust every stranger that seems to be tender-hearted. There is a golden rule your parents must know: "unless you have a real-world relationship with the person trying to establish communication with you via email, video chat, messengers, he is likely looking to profit at the expense of you.”

Sometimes a stranger offers a deal that is too good to be true. There is every likelihood that the offer is fictitious and was created to make you reveal private information, install software with malicious code, or wire money to a hacker.

2. A good and secure password is a half the battle
Your parents' computer has to be protected with a password that is both hard to guess and complex. Just teach your lovely relatives how to create these passwords. In a perfect world, it will be a combination of random numbers, letters, and characters. No personal information such as date of birth, maiden name, or pet's name should be included. (And have a secure plan for remembering/retreiving passwords.)

3. Use security software
If you have a computer or any other device with Internet access, make sure that security software is installed.

• Use a firewall to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network.
• Use antivirus software to protect your system from viruses and malware. 
• Use a VPN to encrypt all incoming and outgoing bandwidth and hide your IP for secure internet shopping. 

All these tools are easy to install and use, some of them enable automatically when your computer system turns on.


4. Put your parents up to common scams worth knowing

Here are only a few of the rampant internet scams your parents have to watch out for:

• Phishing It is the most popular type of scam nowadays. Scammers create a fake website of a church, hospital or any other company to make people reveal their personal data. Although the fake websites look legitimate (scammers use a company`s color scheme, logo, design), you can notice that it is a fake. Keep your eye out for a domain name. It may originate from a domain like Am.azon.com.

• Banking Scams Hoaxers often send out emails that look like an email from your bank. They claim that they need your account details to confirm something or investigate unusual activity. Needless to say what they can do with access to your private data.

• Lottery scams If you think that nobody believes in fake lottery emails, think again. That scam is both actionable and easy to perform. You receive an email that congratulates you for being the only winner. You are overjoyed. All you have to do is to enter your data in order to get your money. Guess what happens next...

5. Let them know you are there to help

Some older adults don't know what's what and might not be sure whether a website or email message is legitimate. That is their children's task to show them that we are ready to help in them become Internet literate. Let your parents know that they can ask you questions if they have any suspicions.No question is a dumb question when it comes to safety!

Author's bio:
Sam Chester is a tech enthusiast, computer geek, and founder of www.cooltechzone.com. This site was created as a non-profit project; it neither sells anything nor advertises any IT product. Together with his brother, Sam is struggling for the internet that is open, globally connected, trustworthy, secure and available to everyone.


Thanks Sam!

For more information about caring for your aging parents, please consider downloading my course, Caring for Your Aging Parents, from Teachable.com. It takes a couple of hours, and you can just hit play and listen while you go about other business. 

 
 

MobileHelp Introduces TRELAWEAR

MobileHelp introduces a new line of pendants for the fashion conscious user. I know with my Mom, she hung "that ugly pendant thingy" on the lamp next to her recliner (where it was basically useless to her) and definitely refused to wear it when she went anywhere. And my Mom was far from being a diva about her fashion.

But I've heard these complaints from patients and family members for years. The pendants are ugly. They don't want to wear them. They remind them that they are getting old and need help. So that being said, TRELAWEARTM is now available for purchase and use with MobileHelp systems.

Per MobileHelp, "TRELAWEAR is a beautiful high-end “smart” jewelry accessory that includes best-in-class emergency response technology when paired to a compatible MobileHelp base station or mobile device that takes you anywhere you want to go...safely."


Safety is one thing you cannot put a price on. Falls are a leading cause of death among the elderly. And even if your loved one doesn't suffer a major injury, they may not be able to get up and lying on the floor or ground for hours can be just as serious. This is something you can control.

With the holidays approaching, perhaps a pretty jeweled pendant would be the perfect gift for Mom, especially when she's impossible to buy for these days! And be sure to use the savings links on our site. (Yes, they are affiliate links and I make a small commission to help keep this site going. Thanks!)

For more information about caring for your aging parents, please consider downloading my course, Caring for Your Aging Parents, from Teachable.com. It takes a couple of hours, and you can just hit play and listen while you go about other business. 

Helpful Tech That Can Be Accessible and Affordable for Seniors

By Andrea Needham

 
Our lives revolve around tech these days. For senior parents and relatives, however, accessing the latest tech isn’t always easy. Learning how to use technology can be a challenge for some older adults, but thankfully, some of the most useful new gadgets are actually very simple to operate. So if you know a senior who could benefit from having more technology in his or her life, here are some basics you should know about the latest senior-friendly tech.



Mobile Technology Can Be Helpful for Seniors

Seniors may not be attached to their tech like younger generations, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dialed into the ways technology can make their lives easier. For example, many older adults have fully embraced mobile technology, which includes smartphones and wearable tech. However, even though seniors may be keen on mobile technology, they aren’t always sure what features to look for when upgrading or buying a cell phone. Thankfully, there are tons of options for seniors when it comes to the right phone and data plan. Whether you or a senior loved one is looking for something that’s as simple as a flip phone (like the LG Exalt LTE), as durable as a military-grade phone (like Kyocera’s DuraXV LTE) or even a smartphone with senior-friendly modes included (such as the Samsung Galaxy J3 V 3rd Gen), finding the right fit in terms of features and price shouldn’t take much effort. Cell phones are not the only mobile tech that can be fun and practical for seniors; older adults can benefit from using wearable gadgets as well. For instance, smart watches are simple wearable tools that seniors can use to track their health and fitness, or even set reminders for medications and other essential tasks that need to be taken care of throughout the day.

Smart Home Tech Can Help Seniors Age in Place

If you are a family caregiver who is concerned about the safety of an aging parent or relative in their own home, you should really consider all of the ways that smart home tech can make aging in place safer. For example, installing smart lighting throughout the homes of older adults is a simple update that can reduce falls and help seniors move around their home with more ease. Motion detector lights are a great solution, since they activate when they sense movement and remove the need for seniors to switch them on and off themselves. Voice-assistant speakers, such as Google Home, can also be a valuable tool for seniors aging in place at home. These speakers not only provide seniors with a simple and effective way to call for help during an emergency, but they can also provide some much-needed relief from loneliness and isolation. Isolation-related depression is a common concern for aging adults living alone. Having the right tech can alleviate those feelings and provide some additional peace of mind for family caregivers, especially when they live far away.
-->Although not technically new, medical alert systems are another tech feature that can make aging in place safer for seniors, and can relieve stress for family members and caregivers.
Tech doesn’t have to be simple to be senior-friendly; it just needs to be easy for seniors to operate and use in their everyday lives. Thankfully, a great deal of the most advanced and newest tech is user-friendly and even affordable, so seniors can take advantage of all of the added convenience, comfort and quality of life that modern technology can provide.

Andrea Needham created Elders Day to remind everyone that getting older isn’t synonymous with slowing down. Everyone has their own pace, but age shouldn’t be what stops you from fulfilling dreams, goals, and desires.

Photo Credit: Pexels
#guestpost


For more information about caring for your aging parents, please consider downloading my course, Caring for Your Aging Parents, from Teachable.com. It takes a couple of hours, and you can just hit play and listen while you go about other business.