Caregiver Help Webinar Series

February 19, 2019/in Caregiver Services, Caregiving Support, Premier Caregiver Services' Events/by Premier Caregiver Services

We’ve been so proud of our partnership with the Parkinson Support Center in their Caregiver Help Webinar Series. This 8 month webinar series incorporated humor and real-life caregiving stories into difficult topics such as caregiver anger, guilt, depression and grief.

Based on her own experience of caring for family elders, Caregiver Speaker Elaine K Sanchez, developed a passion for helping others cope with the emotional stress of caring for family elders. She frequently delivers keynotes, workshops and caregiver training sessions at caregiving and healthcare conferences, as well as to business organizations across the U.S.

Sanchez is the author of the unflinchingly honest and surprisingly funny book, “Letters from Madelyn, Chronicles of a Caregiver.” She is the co-founder of CaregiverHelp.com, a video-based caregiver support website. She writes blogs and articles for numerous magazines and online publications, including the Caregiver Blog on her website as well as the Huffington Post.

You can catch the most recent recorded webinar entitled, Ducks in a Row here: https://youtu.be/EMy1WHs1Fsw

In this presentation, Sanchez explains how to connect with organizations that can assist you in finding resources for a loved one who needs more support than you can currently provide. She also describes the three essential end-of-life documents every person needs, and you will see how planning ahead of time can have three huge benefits.

Premier Caregiver Services is an independent and locally owned agency specializing in personal care services. We strive to offer the best in home health care by providing dependable and experienced caregivers to elderly adults across the area. We offer a wide variety of home care services, have multiple payment options available, and are happy to provide a free assessment to get you started! Contact us through our website or by calling 877-724-3678 today!

Home health care is an iportant conversation to have. Read more about these 5 tips.

5 Expert Tips on Talking to Aging Parents about Home Health Care

January 24, 2018/in Caregiver Services, Caregiving Support, Family Issues/by Premier Caregiver Services

It can be extremely difficult to talk to aging parents about getting extra help at home. In a current report that discussed a survey by AARP, 9 out of 10 seniors expressed interest in staying in their homes while aging. However, it is estimated that 70% of seniors will need in-home assistance to stay safe while aging in place. So, how do you speak to your aging parents about getting outside help from a home health care agency? While it can be extremely difficult to do so, it can be done. It must be done with care and sensitivity. Otherwise, you risk the discussion turning into an argument or an immediate shutdown on the topic.

A lot of aging seniors see home health care as a surrender of freedom. While it may seem that way, hiring an in-home care provider can actually bring more freedom to a senior’s situation than anything else! Whether aging parents are resisting because they see home health care as a surrender of independence or fear they will become a burden, these 5 expert tips will help make the discussion easier.

5 Tips on Starting a Discussion about Getting an In-Home Provider

1. Don’t Discuss the Limitations, but the Advantages to Home Health Care

One of the most important things to know about talking to your parents about home health care is that you should go into it positively. Most people will get defensive when first confronted with the idea of giving up independence. However, if you discuss the advantages of home health care instead of the limitations, they are more likely to be open to the idea. One of the best advantages to discuss with aging parents is that in-home health care is better than assisted living. As we stated earlier, 90% of elderly adults want to age in their home. That is one of the biggest advantages of home health care and making clear from the very beginning often makes the discussion a lot easier.

2. Suggest Home Health Care Instead of Insisting on Assistance

Being told to do something is never easy. This is especially true when role reversal is involved and a parent is being told to do something by their child. By suggesting home health care as an option instead of insisting on assistance, elderly parents are more likely to be open to the idea. Daily Caring – an award winning caregiver resource – has great insight into how to suggest home health care. They recommend that you “talk about how they’ve [your parents] reached a point in their life where they deserve a personal assistant to make life easier and smoother”. By spinning a home health care assistant as a luxury, parents may be more open to the idea of making their life easier.

3. Focus on Others Who Have Tried Home Health Care and Benefited

Before approaching the subject of home health care with a parent, do some research. Do they have close friends who use home health care assistants? Who do their friends use and how do they like having help around the home? By focusing on others, especially close friends, who have tried home health care and benefited from it, your parent is more likely to open up to the idea. As the common saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding”. If their friends are really happier with some in-home assistance, why wouldn’t they be? Focus on the benefits of home health care including:

4. Include Them in the Decision Making Process

When it comes down to it, the suggestion for home health care can be yours but the decision should be your parents. Make it clear to your parent that they will be a part of the entire process of choosing a caregiver. They will be the one person spending the most time with this caregiver, so it is important they like them and feel comfortable with them. By giving your elderly parent a say in the process, it will help them feel more in control. Control is extremely important during a time in which they are losing some of their independence, so be sure to include them in each decision.

5. Run Care Giving Trials with Different Agencies

It is always better when you can test something out before purchasing it. When it comes to home health care, most agencies will offer “trial periods” to see if in-home care is the right option. By making it clear to your parent that the first run is a trial and nothing permanent, they may be more open to giving it a shot. Homecare.com has a great tip, too, regarding trial runs. While your parent is getting to know their home health care professional, take a trip! Being out of the picture can give your parent a real chance to get to know the caregiver and what it would be like to have home health care assistance without it feeling permanent.

Home health care is a sensitive topic for parents and children alike, but these tips can help make the approach easier. By softening the idea of home health care with familiarity, inclusion, and test runs, parents often warm to the idea as time goes on. In the end, in-home care providers can help relieve the burden of aging off of parent’s shoulders as well as children’s. The benefits of home health care greatly outweigh the drawbacks. However, for some, it takes a little longer to realize that than it does others.

At Premier Caregiver Services — in Louisville, KY and Eastern, KY — is an independent and locally owned agency specializing in personal care services. We strive to offer the best in home health care by providing dependable and experienced caregivers to elderly adults across the area. We offer a wide variety of home care services, have multiple payment options available, and are happy to provide a free assessment to get you started! Contact us through our website or by calling 877-724-3678 today!

Premier Caregiver Services partners with Norton Healthcare to host a free care workshop to create a care plan for aging parents.

Free Senior Care Workshop Helps You Create a Care Plan for Mom and Dad

March 21, 2016/in Caregiver Services, Caregiving Support, Family Issues/by Premier Caregiver Services

If you are the eldest daughter in your family, you are most likely going to be the one making decisions about your parent’s long-term care. Do you have a plan in place to keep your mom or dad safely at home? When–and–how do you have a conversation about taking away car keys or moving into an assisted living arrangement? Do you know your parent’s medical medical history, medications and care preferences? Where do you turn for help? These questions are important, and we encourage you to join Premier Caregiver Services for a discussion about creating a care plan before you need one with a free Senior Care Workshop.

Amy Jo Condo, a busy mom and business owner, will share her challenging and humorous experiences caring for her parents. The following experts will be on hand to answer your questions and connect you with important community resources:

Merrily Orsini, elder care professional
Kate Probst, Pharm.D., BCACP, pharmacist
Misty Clark Vantrease, attorney with Kentucky ElderLaw PLLC

Wednesday, March 30 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Marshall Women’s Health & Education Center
Norton Medical Plaza 3 – St. Matthews, Suite 108
4123 Dutchmans Lane
Louisville, Kentucky

Space is limited. Call (502) 629-1234 by March 28 to RSVP for this free Senior Care Workshop.

Sponsored by:

Urinary Incontinence

December 16, 2015/0 Comments/in Caregiving Support/by Premier Caregiver Services

Urinary incontinence — the loss of bladder control — is a common and often embarrassing problem. The severity of urinary incontinence ranges from occasionally leaking urine when you cough or sneeze, to having an urge to urinate that’s so sudden and strong you don’t get to a toilet in time.

These factors increase your risk of developing urinary incontinence:

Sex – Women are more likely than men are to have stress incontinence. Pregnancy, childbirth, menopause and normal female anatomy account for this difference. However, men with prostate gland problems are at increased risk of urge and overflow incontinence.

Age – As you get older, the muscles in your bladder and urethra lose some of their strength. Changes with age reduce how much your bladder can hold and increase the chances of involuntary urine release. However, getting older doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have incontinence. Incontinence isn’t normal at any age — except during infancy.

Being overweight – Being obese or overweight increases the pressure on your bladder and surrounding muscles, which weakens them and allows urine to leak out when you cough or sneeze.

Smoking – A chronic cough associated with smoking can cause episodes of incontinence or aggravate incontinence that has other causes. Constant coughing puts stress on your urinary sphincter, leading to stress incontinence. Smoking may also increase the risk of overactive bladder by causing bladder contractions.

Other diseases – Kidney disease or diabetes may increase your risk for incontinence.

Urinary incontinence isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom. It can be caused by everyday habits, underlying medical conditions or physical problems. A thorough evaluation by your doctor can help determine what’s behind your incontinence.

Caregiving at its Best

November 9, 2015/0 Comments/in Caregiving Support/by Premier Caregiver Services

Working as an employee at Premier Caregiver Services in addition to working at Premier Caring Hands has given me the opportunity to help others in ways I never thought I would. Just as an example – While caregiving for a patient of ours, it was brought to my attention that Mr. B (as I call him) had been very sick to his stomach throughout the week. In addition to this, his home oxygen concentrator was not working properly. When he mentioned he didn’t seem to be getting enough oxygen, I immediately contacted our main office in hopes of finding a solution to Mr. B’s oxygen problem.

After reaching the on-call technician., I was able to find that the humidifier bottle on his concentrator had build-up around it. The on-call technician had me change the humidifier bottle and Mr. B’s oxygen seemed to be running perfectly fine. Before leaving his home I noticed that although the hours on his machine didn’t qualify him for a concentrator check, that last statistics did. His oxygen machine had earlier been tested at 95% running at 1.7 LPM. This means his concentrator met Medicare guidelines. After leaving for the weekend and returning to my 9 to 5 at Premier Caregiver Services Retail Store, it dawned on me that Mr. B’s oxygen should had been tested at a higher LPM since he is a high liter flow patient.

That Monday, while at work I told my manager all about the situation. He immediately got on the phone with one of our corporate schedulers and had them schedule a time to check Mr. B’s concentrator. The P.C.A. Arrived at his home that day and after checking over the machine, found that it was not running adequately enough for Mr. B to get the oxygen he needed. Even though this patient was not eligible per Medicare guidelines to get a concentrator check, Premier’s team went above the call of duty to help him. When finding that it was not working properly, Premier’s team went above the call of duty again by replacing his machine with a brand new one.

The following weekend when I was at Mr. B’s home, he could not express his gratitude enough. He told me he was feeling much better and knew that the lack of oxygen is what was making him sick. He thanked me and the entire family at Premier Caregiver Services for making such an impression in showing we all truly care about his well being. Working for a company this compassionate and committed to excellent caregiving services makes me truly grateful for what I have, and even what I don’t have. Experiences like this really show that Premier Caregiver Services is not full of hundreds of employees here to make money, but rather a giant family all working together to find solutions.

Dementia and Driving

April 3, 2015/0 Comments/in Caregiver Services, Caregiving Support, Family Issues/by Premier Caregiver Services

When to Take Away the Keys: Dementia & Driving

If you have a family member suffering from Dementia, one of the many issues that will arise is dementia and driving: letting them operate a vehicle. Early on, it may not seem like such a topic to concern yourself with. Over time, however, we become desensitized to the dementia, meaning we know they have it and we deal with it and “forget” as time goes by.

It is almost impossible to gauge the aggressiveness of dementia, as it moves at its own pace and can accelerate without any sign. There are multiple differences in dementia itself: your loved one can have long term memory loss (not remembering life-long friends) or short term memory loss (not remembering what they ate for dinner). Or even a combination of both.

Personally, I can only speak on short term memory loss. Even though my mom has short term loss, driving a car is a long term thing she has been doing for years. This is where it starts to get tricky – you have to remember you are more than likely taking away an aspect of the dementia’s patients life that is older than you are! Driving may have been their first feeling of freedom and perhaps their last bit of independence as they age.

This decision does not have to come from their doctor. You can try talking with them individually but it may end up a moot point as the person with dementia sees (or remembers) nothing wrong. No matter how well you explain it, you have to remember that tomorrow can be a whole new day in their mind!

Our first plan was to try and slip the keys out of her purse which did not go over well. We ended up giving the keys back because we could not rationalize why we did it. We then tried the doctor thing and that did not work well either. Finally, we found something that did work; telling her the car had some problems and needed to be fixed. She agreed to have it put in the auto repair shop. It took about 2 weeks of daily reminding, then we changed the story to tell her that there was a serious engine problem that could not be fixed. She came to the conclusion that she was not going to buy a new car and agreed to sell it (we did). Most importantly, we reinforced the idea that we would still take her to wherever she wanted.

Although this is a indirect and non-confrontational way of taking away the keys, it leads my mom to believe it was her decision to give up the keys and sell the car. It still requires us to remind her every day that it was her own decision to sell the car. Our fall-back plan ended up being disabling the car by pulling the negative battery terminal. If all else fails, you may have to resort to something as simple as this to keep your mom safe and off the road.

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