If aging in place is important to you, it pays to plan ahead for in-home care. That’s particularly true for individuals at risk of becoming “elder orphans,” defined as seniors without spouses or children to care for them as they age. Without the safety net of family...
What role does the Mediterranean diet play in dementia care? If you’re a family caregiver, you may be asking this question after seeing recent news stories about this diet and its link to cognitive decline. But family caregivers aren’t the only ones asking about the...
The goal of in-home senior care is to make aging in place easier, safer, and more comfortable for the elderly. Home ergonomics play an important part in this process. Even though most people think of caregiving as a series of tasks and activities — like making meals,...
Vision loss is a serious home safety risk for elderly adults and a major concern for family caregivers. Roughly 6 million American seniors are either legally blind or live with impaired vision — a condition that has a bigger impact on seniors than many people realize....
As a caregiver, you need to pay attention to your emotional and mental well-being. Caregiving can trigger feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. In many cases, your personal well-being depends on finding ways to relieve caregiver stress. You probably already...
Walking may be the best form of physical exercise for seniors. Packed with health benefits, walking has all of the hallmarks of senior-friendly physical exercise: it can be performed at low or moderate intensity, it’s easy on joints, it has a low risk of injury, and...
Caring for an elderly loved one can be a thankless task. It can also be an emotionally draining one. Experts believe anywhere between 40% to 70% of unpaid caregivers suffer from some form of clinical depression, and studies have found that caregiver stress puts a...
When your mom or dad is coping with dementia, it can be difficult watching them lose their grip on old memories. After all, losing our memories means losing a part of ourselves. In the same way, memory plays a key role in our ability to hold onto those we love. When...
If you’re a caregiver for someone with dementia, chances are you know the value of a good night’s sleep. Sleep plays a crucial role in our physical, mental, and emotional health, and quality sleep plays a huge role in quality care. Unfortunately, poor sleeping...
A great caregiver can come from almost any background. But when you’ve spent twenty years in home care, it becomes clear that some professional backgrounds do really prepare caregivers for working with seniors. At Visiting Angels, some of our most successful home care...
As Alzheimer’s progresses, verbal communication becomes more and more difficult. Alzheimer’s has a devastating effect on the brain’s ability to recognize and process verbal language. Language impairment is considered one of the “primary components” of cognitive...
When a parent, spouse, or relative is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it can feel as if you’re starting an uncertain journey without any sort of roadmap. It’s a feeling that can persist even as the disease progresses. Often, caregivers look back during the later stages of...