Caring for caregivers

By the Numbers
66: Percent of family caregivers who are women
20: Hours of in-home care family caregivers provide each week (often unpaid)
4 to 8: Number of years caring for an Alzheimer’s patient can shorten your life
46: percent of caregivers who are clinically depressed

Roughly 65 million people in the United States are caring for a chronically ill, disabled or elderly family member. The vast majority of these people are also raising kids and holding down full-time jobs and consequently they’re burning out.

“So many caregivers suffer from stress and health issues,” said Susan Baida, 42, co-founder of eCareDiary.com, a website that offers online tools to help caregivers understand the diverse aspects of their duties, including medical legal and financial issues.

Baida’s father-in-law, who had Parkinson’s disease, saw his condition worsen in his early 80s. Baida and her husband, John Mills, took intense care of him the last few years of his life. He died in 2007. Now, Baida’s 92-year-old grandfather is living in a nursing home with dementia.

“My husband and I both have experience in the healthcare and technology fields, and we were stunned at how decentralized the services are. The hospitals don’t talk to the long-term care service providers who don’t talk to the insurance companies. The caregiver becomes the CEO.” -- Susan Baida

To prevent burnout, Dr. Kathy Johnson, founder and chief executive officer of Home Care Assistance, suggests a number of steps caregivers can take to protect their health and stress levels. She recommends that caregivers stay involved in personal hobbies, eat a well-balanced diet, join a caregiver support group, and rotate the caregiving responsibilities (bathing, eating, medication) among family members to vary the duties. If you feel guilty for taking time for yourself, stop. “The best role you can play is that of son, daughter, loved one and to rekindle the original relationship you had with the person you’re caring for. There is no guilt in that,” said Johnson.

To help manage their own health and stress levels, Baida and her husband exercised together. “It got to the point where there was so little time for any focus on ourselves as a couple—we couldn’t take vacations—that exercise was our respite. We would go to the gym and work off our stress and anger.” Baida’s husband also sought counseling, which turned out to be a saving grace. “I couldn’t be his sounding board because I wasn’t a neutral party,” Baida said.

Diane Kelley, 55, a resident of Germantown, is caring for her parents, both in their early 80s, who live on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. Kelley made the nine-hour trip once a month this past summer after she noticed her mom and dad, who both suffer forms of dementia, struggled to manage their daily activities. She called them daily until it became too much. “I was trying to coordinate their medical care, their calendars, and help them with their meds.” Her parents would get confused and often forgot the conversations Kelley had had with them just the day before. Kelley solicited the help of her siblings and her parents’ grandchildren. This winter, the family came to a mutually agreeable decision to put Kelley’s parents in a temporary care facility.

Now, Kelley wishes she had talked about long-term care issues with her parents in the past, when they were able to make rational decisions. Baida thinks that’s a good idea. “If there is a history of stroke or heart disease in your family, ask your parents what their wishes would be if they were afflicted,” Baida said. And get legal documents in order. Called advanced directives, the documents allow people to dictate who they want to be in charge of their health care if they become physically or mentally incapacitated, and allows people to choose what life-sustaining measures they do—or don’t—want. Finally, Baida recommends long-term care insurance. “The earlier you sign up, the less expensive it is.”

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Financial planning advice for your 80s, 90s, and 100s

As more seniors live well into their 80s, 90s, and 100s, the need for long-term financial planning becomes more imperative. Particularly, those stricken with deteriorating health or mental diseases must deal with a multitude of costs such as living arrangements and medical care. In the case of dehabilitating mental diseases such as dementia, arrangements should be made as soon as possible while they still can be made.

Perhaps the most important decision to be made is where you intend to live in your elderly years. If you already have a home that is paid for, it is still important to have money saved to cover the costs of health care. In many unofrtunate circumstances, seniors have been forced to sell their homes to sover these costs. Often times, living alone in a house can be dangerous and arrangements should be made for home health care or residential care. All of these factors should be considered when planning for your future.

Make sure to watch out for elder financial abuse by having an enduring power of attorney. It is a good idea to require the attorney to provide full transperancy of financial information with those involved. If a family member can demand a financial update from your attorney it makes stealing and other abuses much harder to commit. Use your power of attorney to get someone to do the banking for you rather than have a joint account. This reduces the tension and complications involved with sharing finances with family members and loved ones.

The need for compassionate, independent legal and financial advice is just as critical at this stage of life as it is at any other. The difficulty lies in the loss of control that some seniors experience because of failing health or simply by being too trusting.

Source: The Globe and Mail

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

How Small Businesses Prepare for Elder-Care Emergencies

What do small businesses and elder-care emergencies have in common? Well, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, about $33.6 billion reasons. Less than 10% of companies offer elder-care resources which makes it difficult for employees. These employees are caught in the middle, working for their employers and being caregivers to their parents, plus taking care of their children, if they have any. When an individual is the primary caregiver for a parent, it is not uncommon for him or her to occasionally miss work. Productivity can decrease, thus affecting other team members and the organization as a whole.

In 2006, the MetLife Mature Market Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving released a study stating the cost of $33.6 billion that is associated with elder-care emergencies is based on employees' “absenteeism, workday interruptions, work leaves and cutbacks in hours, among other factors. Some workers quit altogether when faced with parents’ illnesses, causing employers to spend money to replace them.”

As the number of people 65 and older continues to rise rapidly, the issue of small businesses preparing for elder-care emergencies continues to move to the forefront of conversation. Below are ways small businesses can prepare for this societal change:

• Free Information. Providing information on resources can save employee’s time and employer’s money. Websites, including www.eldercare.gov and www.n4a.org, can help find local services such as transportation, meals, home care, caregiver support and legal and financial assistance.

At a National Council on Aging site, www.benefitscheckup.org, an employee can determine which federal and state assistance programs their relatives and loved ones are eligible for. Encourage employees to learn about options for their parents before an elder-care emergency strikes.

• Paid leave. Be informed about employee rights. In California, businesses with two or more employees must allow their employees up to six weeks of leave annually to care for a seriously ill parent or family member. During that time, the employee receives partial pay, but it comes out of a state fund for this purpose (employees pay into the fund while working). The employee has to obtain a doctor’s certificate confirming the family member’s illness in order to get this benefit.

According to Labor Attorney Richard S. Rosenberg, California employers with paid sick leave programs are required to allow workers to take up to 50% of the worker’s annual allotment of sick days to care for family members, no matter the size of the organization.

• Job training. Cross-training employees on different jobs at a small business can head off elder-care problems

• Flexible work arrangements. Job sharing, telecommuting and alternative career tracks can also be options for employee caregivers who need more flexibility at work.

Courtesy of Home Care Blog

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

Ignatieff outlines national home care strategy

October 5, 2010

OTTAWA -- Today Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff detailed his national home care strategy which he calls the "next frontier" of policy after his "number one priority" a national child-care program. Ignatieff argues that the Conservative government is not looking out for the priorities of everyday Canadians. In contrast, Ignatieff is attempting to portray the Liberal party as being in touch with Canadian voters.

"[The] government is spending $1.3-billion on a G8-G20 summit, $16-billion on planes without a competitive bid, triples the publicity budget of the government and is about to give big corporations a $6-billion tax break...When is the government going to pay some attention to the growing needs of Canadian families for home care assistance? When is it going to get its priorities right?”" -- Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in Question Period

In the October 4 Question Period Ignatieff invoked a story about a woman from Montreal that he met who was caring for her two ailing parents at home with little support from the government. Ignatieff roughly estimated that there were three million women in similar situations in Montreal alone.

Ignatieff gave a preview of his home care strategy to Postmedia News last month which features tax credits for caregivers and more funding for professional caregivers to visit patients living at home.

Senior Liberal officials assure that the home care strategy will be balanced and fiscally responsible however Ignatieff has not offered any answers to how the program would be funded. His proposal to reverse all of the $6-billion in corporate tax cuts - $1.8-million of which is will become law on January 1 - has already been devoted to increase financial support for aboriginal students, invest in skills and language training for immigrants and the aforementioned national child-care program.

Sources: National Post - "Liberal promises adding up", Macleans Magazine - "The Commons: There once was a woman from Montreal"

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

Preparing Your Advance Directives or Living Wills

By Anne Pagnoni, HCA New Jersey

If we had a crystal ball and could see into the future, we would not need to prepare ahead for end of life decisions.

James was 62 years old when a stroke made it impossible for him to communicate with his family. Neither his wife nor children knew anything about his financial or medical information. James had always taken care of things himself and left no written directives in his behalf. Besides having to locate important documents, the family was left to make their own decisions about James long term care. 

The National Institute on Aging gives three simple, but important steps to putting your affairs in order:

• "Put your important papers and copies of legal documents in one place. You could set up a file, put everything in a desk or dresser drawer, or just list the information and location of papers in a notebook. If your papers are in a bank safe deposit box, keep copies in a file at home. Check each year to see if there's anything new to add.

•  Tell a trusted family member or friend where you put all your important papers. You don't need to tell this friend or family member about your personal affairs, but someone should know where you keep your papers in case of emergency. If you don't have a relative or friend you trust, ask a lawyer to help.

• Give consent in advance for your doctor or lawyer to talk with your caregiver as needed. There may be questions about your care, a bill, or a health insurance claim. Without your consent, your caregiver may not be able to get needed information. You can give your okay in advance to Medicare, a credit card company, your bank, or your doctor. You may need to sign and return a form."
  

Preparing Advance Directives or Living Will

Advance directives are legal documents that state the kind of medical care or end of life decisions you want made in your behalf. It is a way for you to communicate your wishes to family or health care professionals. Emergency response medical personnel cannot honor advance directives or living wills. They are required to save and stabilize a person for transfer to a hospital or emergency facility. Once at the facility a physician will honor the directives.

The Living Will as part of your directives gives your consent or refusal for sustained medical treatment when you are not able to give it yourself. If this document is not in place then a family member or physician will decide such things as:

• Resuscitation if breathing or heartbeat stops
• Use of breathing machines
• Use of feeding tubes
• Medications or medical procedures

Advance Directives and Living Wills are legal throughout the Canada; however, some provinces may not honor other provinces' directive documents. Be sure to check with the province you live in for their requirements. Review your directives periodically. They do not expire, but your wishes may change.
A new or revised Advanced Directive invalidates the old one. Be sure your family member or healthcare proxy has a current copy.

Choosing a Power of Attorney

General Power of Attorney - authorizes someone to handle your financial, banking and possibly real estate and government affairs as long as you remain competent.

Special Power of Attorney - authorizes someone you designate to handle certain things you cannot do yourself for a period of time.

Durable" Power of Attorney - the general, special and health care powers of attorney can all be made "durable" by adding certain text to the document. This means that the document will remain in effect or take effect if you become mentally incompetent.

Many people do not know the difference between a general and a durable power of attorney. A general power of attorney is a document by which you appoint a person to act as your agent.

Agents are authorized to make decisions for you, sign legal documents, etc. Many people are unaware that a General Power of Attorney is revoked when the person granting that power becomes incompetent or incapacitated.

It is the "Durable" Power of Attorney that allows for an agent to continue making decisions on your behalf no matter what happens to you. A responsible adult child of an aging parent would be given a "durable power of attorney" to act on behalf of the parent. This provides broader authority than just adding the child's name to bank accounts and documents.

You may choose to produce notarized power of attorney documents on your own. If your estate is large and real estate or business is included it is advised to secure a reliable attorney.

Sources: HCA New Jersey, National Care Planning Council 

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.