It is natural to want to stay at your home as you grow older. The familiar can be comforting as you face the inevitable losses that come with aging. Moreover, your home has a lot of memories and neighborhoods with loved ones. However, understanding the various services offered by seasoned live-in caregivers in Tarzana like Mom's Home Care can assist in determining whether staying at home suits your needs and preference.

What are Home Care Services? Who are Ideal Candidates?

It can be challenging to accept that you might require care assistance after the age of sixty-five. You might be handling most of the tasks, sharing responsibilities with your spouse, or depending on your loved ones for minor assistance. However, as your age and circumstances change, taking care of yourself and getting around become more challenging. If the idea of moving to an assisted facility, nursing home, or retirement community does not appeal, home care services can help you live in your home for long.

Additionally, you can also contact Mom's Home Care if your loved one:

  • Needs a person to offer transportation services, take them to appointments, and run errands
  • Is recovering from an operation or illness
  • Has a chronic ailment or health condition
  • Requires aid ambulating or is at an increased risk of falling if left alone
  • Needs assistance with basic tasks like personal care, meal preparation, and house chores
  • Is suffering from Alzheimer's, dementia, among other personality conditions and requires supervision
  • Your current caregiver is attending to other matters or requires a break.

Common Services we offer to our clients include:

Help with Exercising

Being fit should be your priority as a way to stay healthy for long. According to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, persons above sixty-five years of age should engage in moderate-intensity aerobic activities for at least 2.5 hours per week and muscle-strengthening activities for the entire body for two (2) days a week.

Exercising has numerous benefits other than burning calories. It can also help you prevent heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, memory loss, and dementia.

Some of the senior exercises our experienced caregivers can assist you to engage in include:

  • Aerobics
  • Balancing and stretching exercises
  • Strength exercises

Dealing with Dementia

A dementia diagnosis is not easy for most families to accept, particularly when it affects an elderly grandparent or parent. It is almost impossible to believe that a person you have known for long as a kind, gentle, mild-mannered person can suddenly become combative and aggressive toward their family trying to assist them.

It is common for families caring for dementia patients to support and tolerate a patient with substantial impairment, memory loss, loss of ambulation, disorientation, and incontinence. However, physical aggression, mood swings, psychotic symptoms, and agitation usually prompt families to take the patient to an assisted facility.

Consider hiring a living-in caregiver instead. The caregiver will come up with age-appropriate activities that not only provide recreation and enjoyment to the patient but also preserve their self-respect and dignity. The activities include:

  • Playing with paint swatches- Depending on your parent's disease progression, they can engage in paint swatches in different ways. These include matching similarities, creating a color palette, and manipulating paint swatches with hands.
  • Exploring a jewelry box- Most people have fond memories of looking through their relative's jewelry box as a minor.
  • Cutting coupons- Irrespective of whether your aging parent was an enthusiastic coupon lover or not, there is a fulfillment that comes with coupon flipping. It keeps the mind occupied. It also encourages socialization, especially if the patient is working on coupon flipping with the caregiver.
  • A pocketbook- From a wide range of textures, snaps, and zippers, a pocketbook offers a great entertainment value, particularly with exciting items to explore, like books, photos, keys, and jewelry. An experienced caregiver will take time to consider things the dementia patient would enjoy finding in the handbag.

Companionship

According to an article published in the Los Angeles Times, feelings of isolation might cause a decline in general health and depression.

A study conducted by researchers from Harvard, Stanford University, and AARP Public Policy Institute on persons above sixty-five years discovered that fourteen percent of the participants felt isolated. It is because either their children have moved out, friends and spouses have died, or their mobility is restricted.

Companionship care involves an experienced Tarzana caregiver offering services like:

  • Intellectual stimulation
  • Conversation and discussing current occurrences
  • Discussing past life experiences
  • Watching TV
  • Attending social events
  • Playing games

It gives your loved one a renewed sense of purpose as well as an opportunity to build relationships.

Offer Elderly Transportation Services

Getting from one point to another can be hard for an older adult. However, that should not be a reason to avoid running your errands or staying in. One of the services caregivers can offer is elderly transportation services accompanied by a trainer caregiver, to safety take you to and from:

  • Therapy and doctor appointment
  • Outpatient facility and hospital
  • Grocery shopping
  • Prescription pick-ups at a pharmacy
  • Visiting friends and relatives
  • Attending religious and social events or engage in entertainment activities

Any specially qualified caregiver should help you to the motor vehicle, accompany you during the trip, offer disability assistance throughout your trip, with your well-being and safety as their priority. Once the trip is complete, they should safely take you home.

Fall Prevention

A stumble, a missed step, or loss of balance can result in your parent falling. Falls among senior citizens are common and can result in severe injuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 2,500,000 adults above sixty-five years are treated for fall injuries annually.

Common injuries sustained include a broken hip, ankle, arm, and wrist.  Even if your senior loved one falls with no injuries, they might become afraid of falls and cause a reduction in essential activities like exercising or walking. Consequently, the inactiveness can cause muscle weakness as well as a higher risk of falling.

A practical method to prevent falls from occurring is hiring a home caregiver. The caregiver will monitor the home environment and ensure there are no trip hazards like throw rugs, items on the floor, and wet floors, which could be an obstruction.

Moreover, the caregiver will assist your loved one in ambulating to the kitchen and bathroom.

Your caregiver can also engage your loved one in strength and balance exercises. One of the risk factors for falling is the loss of bone mass that weakens bones.

Meal Preparation

Any seasoned Tarzana home care agency offers cooking and meal preparation services for elderly clients. Taking healthy food on a consistent schedule is crucial for both physical and emotional health. For your aged parent, keeping track of what and when to eat can be overwhelming, not forgetting preparing, cooking, and doing the dishes.

Meal preparation assistance involves:

Meal Planning

First, your caregiver will discuss special food requirements and food restrictions with you, your loved ones, a doctor, and a nutritionist. If you have a health condition, the caregiver will make sure all food and meals meet the requirements as well as fluid intake monitored.

After discussing the dietary restrictions, your caregiver will come up with a meal plan that has all food groups, including protein, fiber, fruits, and vegetable sources.

Cooking Assistance

From lifting heavy pans, standing for hours, and carrying heavy grocery bags, cooking and meal preparation is dangerous for the aged.  The senior citizen might injure themselves or even forget to turn off the stove. This is especially true for persons who have Alzheimer's or dementia. 

The caregiver can offer a wide range of assistance services depending on your medical condition, desired level of support or care, and dietary restrictions. Normally, the caregiver provides companionship during mealtime and safety supervision.

Shopping for Groceries

Although there are numerous food delivery services out there that deliver frozen meals, they cannot be compared to fresh, home-cooked healthy meals.

Your caregiver will also accompany you to the store and help you shop and bring in the groceries. If you cannot make it to the store, the living-in caregiver will handle the shopping needs.

Depending on your needs, the caregiver can make a grocery list that includes necessary ingredients. The service streamlines both meal preparation and cooking, making it easy for the caregiver to monitor the kinds of foods you eat.

Dinner Companionship

As elderly individuals lose appetite, caregivers can offer companionship as well as encourage the importance of eating healthy foods. Additionally, this service provides your loved one with a person to chat with and show them that a person is concerned about their health and nutritional needs. It can assist in alleviating depression in the senior person.

Do the Dishes

Nobody likes to do dishes, particularly if they have mobility difficulties. Your caregiver can do the dishes and ensure you are full without worrying about the mess.

Technology Assistance and Organization

Your caregiver can also assist in staying organized and alert. They can offer guidance on when to renew your insurance policy, pay bills, check emails, and fill out applications and forms.

Staying organized also involves communicating with your loved ones. The caregiver should guide you on how to use various social media platforms, share videos and photos, and use a computer or cell phone.

Personal Hygiene Services

As human beings age, the immune system is affected, making people more vulnerable to viruses and germs. Personal hygiene goes beyond maintaining an appearance and a clean smell. It plays a significant role in life longevity and physical health.

Personal hygiene services provided to the aged through Tarzana living-in agencies include:

Bathing and Hygiene

Balance and mobility challenges make tasks like bathing difficult. Your caregiver is well-trained in bathing, using different bathing items, and washing the clients' entire body. Taking a shower gives you a rejuvenating feeling, removes bacteria on your body, and prevents infections.

Other hygiene services offered include:

  • Oral care
  • Haircare
  • Skincare
  • Colostomy care
  • Grooming
  • Nail maintenance

Toileting and Continence

Most elderly persons have bowel or urinary challenges.  Your caregiver should be trained to help you handle these issues by changing bedpan, diapers, bladder incontinence care, colostomy care, and toilet assistance. Your caregiver knows the role that toileting care plays in your self-esteem, social life, and comfort. Therefore, they will make the process comfortable and easy for you.

Light Housekeeping

When your parents live in a clean and organized home, they are happy and healthy.  Garbage should be emptied, and stale food should be thrown away. Also, kitchens and bathrooms should be cleaned regularly to get rid of dirt and germs. To avoid fire hazard, oven, stoves, and other kitchen appliances should be cleaned to prevent crumbs, oils, and grease buildup.

Proficient home care agencies also offer housekeeping services to adults living with disabilities and senior citizens. The caregivers will cover numerous light housekeeping duties as well as sort through the clutter to keep your home organized and neat. They can also personalize their services to ensure that all cleaning needs are met. You can expect the following home cleaning services:

  • General cleaning services like sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, emptying garbage cans, and mopping.
  • Cleaning your kitchen- It involves washing dishes, cleaning countertops, sweeping and mopping floors, cleaning appliances, and organization.
  • The caregiver will clean and sanitize your bathroom, organize your medicine cabinets, and make sure the bathroom is safe for you.
  • Taking care of your laundry, including ironing, washing, putting away, and folding linens and clothes.
  • Changing and cleaning your beddings.

Medication Safety

Any experienced caregiver in Tarzana is specialized in reminding their aged client to take their medication alongside all dietary considerations related to the medicine.

Here are medication management tips your caregiver uses:

  • Keep a list of your medication, dosage time, and doses.
  • Use pill dispensers
  • Store your medication safety in a cool, dry place
  • Write a journal of all changes in your behavior when a new drug is introduced, certain drugs are eliminated and dosage changes and communicate to your doctor

Find a Skilled Caregiver Near Me

If you are searching for a pocket-friendly and comprehensive alternative to a nursing home, you should consider hiring a home care agency like Mom's Home Care. The caregiver gets rid of emotional stress related to moving away from the comfort and familiarity of your home that might result in loss of freedom, diminished life quality, and physical decline. The services you receive are designed for your health condition, preference, lifestyle, and hobbies. To learn more about how we can help you, contact us today at 323-244-4789 if you are in Tarzana.