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The point I am trying to make across is every worker deserves a great salary, no doubt, but when you don’t have a degree, your choices become very restricted; being an aide has to turn into a quick cash kind of deal, I do what I want the job. Many so-called domestic workers are seniors themselves who many had not had a chance to go to college or have a better education and now are flooding the home health care industry with their so call experience by taking care of their own family members.

Every time we onboard a new client, I hear a complaint about they don’t want and are tired of people coming to their homes and not just stealing from them as well as they stay on the phone most of their working hours time. Some aides are afraid to call 911 when an emergency arises. Some are immigrants and are afraid to be taken in custody, unable to explain what’s going on with their patients/clients. They are simply unprepared for a lack of professional experience and training.

On the other hand, I also have great friends that at heart they think they are seeking what is best for their friends, and think that requesting a graduated geriatric case manager worker to assist with a friend’s daily needs, mental health issues, tidying up and grocery shopping and worked for $20.00 to $35.00 an hour that won’t be happening. Why? One would not make an effort to go to college for six years, finance and refinance and actually get in debt for the $20.00 to $35.00 an hour. To hire a nurse to supervise a client at the shower, turn in bed, observe how to perform bowl routine, assist the client with nebulizer and cough assist, copping the nurse requested $75.00 per hour for three days, without sleep in. To attend a home health care class will cost you around $1500.00 for three to six weeks course, including the hours you have to have to experience nursing home facilities.

This has to stop; your friend needs professional medical help at home, they need a home care attendant with Dementia care, or whatever their home care needs, they don’t need a geriatric case manager when there is a diagnosis of Dementia.

You are a good friend, but you should not intervene in what you think it should be. Your intentions are well placed; however reality, it isn’t every single family who can afford the $75.00 per hour, and health insurance also is known for put a break into paying for everything as well, to have health insurance paid for the services, there is have to have a diagnosis first, doctor’s order. Companionship for your parents is out-of-pocket expenses, not health-related charges. Your loved one is alone at home with dialysis needs, and health insurance has to apply. The aide is essential, so your loved one has the means to go to a dialysis center or at-home machines.

When a geriatric case manager crosses over to the private sector is because the salary can be much higher than he/she is making right now. A home health care aide struggles to make a living with $15.00, oftentimes is very demeaning where the geriatric case manager receives the praise and the home health care aide do the heavy lifting. There are situations where a home health care aide is expected to overperform and deliver for the $15.00.

One way we can stop this unbalance? Home healthcare aides need to have a college degree and or refreshed courses. Do you want to work with disabled individuals, seniors, or mental health patients, you have to have certifications training and be limited by its agency the number of times you check your phone; otherwise, you should be interacting with your disabled individual, senior or elderly patient and or client, all these should not be a problem if you were trained and certified. Certification and training are never enough to keep yourself in the job market. If you don’t have the means to go to college, workshops will help. You need to know how to interact with a patient with mental health issues. No one wants to pay for someone else to come to their home, sit down at their couch and talk on their phone. It’s about time to see a home health care aide as a professional, maybe the lowest medical professional in the healthcare spectrum, nevertheless a medical professional. Being an aide means being a professional caregiver, home health care aide, personal care assistant, and certified nurse aids.

There are no formal education credentials required to be an aide, which brings us to many immigrants and uneducated people trying to make quick cash without fully understanding the responsibility of being an aide. Is it the same to say that you are a nurse in your country? How about the country you are in right now?
Without education, you lose your ground for argumentation, you have no bases to prove a point, and the older you get without the diploma you need, you won’t have a chance in the job market, you will be pushed down by those who have the geriatric case manager degree.

In the UK, a 34 years old man passes on from Dementia, and doctors believe that he is the youngest person in the UK to have and pass on the disease. His dad passed away 25 years ago from Dementia, the family decided to save a DNA sample, and when he was sent to test and compare with him, it was determined that he inherited the disease from his father.

The gentleman left behind a wife and twin who also has Dementia gens. What really was a surprise for me was he learned that he was suffering from the disease because he had shown signs of depression.

I myself had a neighbor whose brother was diagnosed with Dementia when he was 45 years old, then in 2007, and the doctor honestly believed that he probably was having symptoms at least ten years prior.

For those who believe that Alzheimer’s/ Dementia is an old people’s disease, I am sorry to say, but you are wrong. Diseases do not target anyone because they’re aged. It’s well known that many older adults struggle with Alzheimer’s or Dementia, and also we have witnessed seniors living well into their triple-digit ages without any signs of mental decline.

For me, the real question here is what causes the disease to manifest very early for some and for others comes later or does not manifest at all. And in some cases, how can we prevent when you are on the other side, and the disease does not run in your family’s DNA.

Providing senior caregiving can be overwhelming at times. You may not know where to begin, trying to meet every need in an effective way.  Often it’s necessary to take a hard look at declining abilities and go from there. Fortunately, there are tools available to help you formulate a game plan — Health Care New York presents a guide to get you started below.

Assessment

In order to offer the best possible help, it’s important to make a thorough evaluation of your loved one’s abilities.  By gauging the areas where assistance is required, you can provide effective and appropriate care.  The University of Michigan Medical School suggests reviewing your senior’s ability to perform certain tasks independently, including two general areas:

Activities of Daily Living (ADL), the basic essentials of independent living. This includes:

• Bathing
• Dressing
• Transferring (moving from one position to another, such as from lying in bed to standing)
• Grooming
• Feeding

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), items that may require services for independent living. This includes:

• Self-administration of medications
• Shopping for groceries
• Meal preparation
• Telephone use
• Driving and transportation
• Handling finances
• Housekeeping
• Laundry

Simple solutions

Communicate with your loved one in-depth about how much help is needed in performing both ADL and IADL tasks.  By carefully assessing each area, you can determine ways to help your loved one remain independent.  Sometimes uncomplicated lifestyle alterations can help your older people remain independent longer.

Some professionals advise simple solutions like improved lighting.  Just leaving more lights on, using brighter bulbs, adding lights where rooms and hallways are dim, and adding nightlights can improve safety for many seniors.  Also, decluttering walkways, broadening floor space by moving or removing furniture, and eliminating sharp objects can reduce risks.  If you are concerned, your loved one may wander off; adding a deadbolt higher or lower than normal on a door can help.  Another option is putting a large piece of furniture in front of the door to hinder access, or you can try hanging a curtain over the door to disguise it.  You may want to consider investing in a tracking device if your senior has a history of getting lost.  Sometimes a little creativity can resolve serious risks!

Assistive technology

According to some studies, there is great benefit in enlisting technology to help your loved one remain independent.  Using simple devices such as PocketBuddy can help your senior communicate with a sort of journaling program.  Users record their days and remark about how successful they feel.  Another option can be adding voice-operated internet devices for controlling thermostats, turning on and off lights, listening to music, and reading books.  Users improve not only safety and independence but add more accessible entertainment to their lives.

High risk

Bathrooms, in particular, can be a serious danger zone for seniors.  Approximately 80 percent of falls take place in the bathroom, according to Aging.com…  People over the age of 85 suffer over half of their injuries near the toilet.  The riskiest activities are showering, bathing, and getting in and out of the bathtub or shower.

There are some terrific options for bathroom-related risks, such as grab bars that can be colored for added visibility and raised toilets.  Shower seats and roll-in showers are also great options to explore.  However, make sure you outsource any plumbing-related tasks to professionals with plenty of experience.  Search for local plumbing companies online and read through reviews to make sure the plumber you select can handle the job.

Assessment provides answers

When providing care for a senior, making a thorough evaluation is key in offering good care.  Assessing your loved one’s abilities gives you a foundation for effectively meeting needs.  With creative and proactive solutions, you can keep your loved one safe and independent.

Best,
Ted James

When I started working in the healthcare field in 2005, I had no experience and certainly wasn’t prepared for the home nurse position I was hired for. I had never heard or known about living in or the meaning of 24/7 work. So as I was by my patient’s bedside, we were talking about next week’s doctor’s appointments. I had just brought in her lunch in a tray, so I set the tray down to rise the hospital bed so she could eat. A little background on her, she was bed-bound, has been in remission several times from cancers treatments that did not work for her, had several mental diagnoses and lately had been diagnosed with Dementia, by then her many doctors were doing house calls.

I really wasn’t aware of her capabilities. As I set the tray in her lap, she grabbed the fork and tried to stab me. If I was quick and at least aware of my surroundings, she would have stabbed me on my neck. Needless to say, that shocked me. I then spoke with her ex-husband, who advised me to change, utensils, glasses, and everything that presented a danger to plastic.

A person who has an episode the Dementia can become unstoppable, strong, and even dangerous to themselves. After that, every time I send out our support medical staff to our clients who have been dealing with mental health issues, I advise them to my story. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, not my clients or patients, their loved ones, or my staff. I don’t have to relive the day again.

To read our blogs, click the link Health Care Recruiting Company | Blog – Manhattan, NY | Health Care New York

When did you become a doctor from the time you received your diagnoses to the minute that you were admitted to the hospital?
Know your body, symptoms, side effect, and being your own advocate for your health is one thing. Other is wide guess what doctors are thinking, why there is a request to go to the hospital, and why doctors aren’t telling everything.

If the doctors are telling everything, maybe there is nothing to tell. We all need to know our bodies, we need to know about medication or food allergies and reactions about everything, but from there to instantly become a doctor, I am sorry I don’t buy.

When you are hospitalized and later on admitted, you have to talk to the doctor and relate to them changes that happened in your routine. The simplest change can send your body into overdrive. I had a case that the client was a quadriplegic, and I want to address that issue. The thing is, the client was admitted because of pneumonia, not because the quadriplegic, been a quad advance everything but that at that point and time wasn’t the issue at hand. Being aware of your rights is also very important. However, not interfering with the diagnoses at hand and medical professionals’ work is also very important.

When a doctor came to a patient round and tell them(the patient) that he/she is very persuasive, and because that they gets everything they wants, (having me as a witnesses) is very disturbing, if you are a doctor and have been working in the hospital system for the last year you should known that be persuasive wont help when the institution hospital is short staff.

One, you have to count the holiday season, two you have to remember Coronavirus resurgence. Have a patient schedule physical or occupational therapies is just plain wrong. However if you recall well burnt out and short staffing and you pretentiously can to say you are very persistent you are also obnoxious to me.

The hospitals don’t necessary leaves on doctors, but they do live from the janitorial services, certify nurses aides, personal care aide’s, registered nurses, security guards, food industry services and last but not least doctors. So you may be the highest paid, but the lowest in the scale in the essential.
So have self control, and do have in mind about team work.

Our blog is designed to inform our readers, not only do we talk about several studies related to Alzheimer’s and other subjects as well as we talk about ageism in the workforce. To read another important input related to that head over https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/joblessness-has-ageist-edge-aarp-5148508/ Click the link to read more about the differences between losing jobs before 50 years old, and younger employees. While long-term unemployment among all Americans remains historically high(37.4%), it’s higher still for those aged 55 and over, at almost 50%.

Head over to our site Health Care Recruiting Company | Blog – Yonkers, NY | Health Care New York on April/2020our blog name is Aging. we already had written about, discrimination, how many of us feel on the daily basis. I go through that myself where I have to “redefine” my career because I am not young anymore. Is interesting to see how people react to explain why they need to have a younger person to take care of their aging loved one and what I tell them is a younger person is more likely to want to work in a medical facility, not with an older person.

I always recommended that if you want to divorce your spouse, you look for a lawyer, if you have either an adult child who is special needs or an ailing old adult, you need a professional non-skilled medical professional. The non-skilled means that they are there to escort, medication reminders, wake in the middle of the night, change diapers, assist with bathroom, bathing, and dressing your loved one. It does not mean we are stupid, and incapable to check vital signs, calling for 911, or a family member, one very important and often times discount as not important is notice sudden changes that can be rising to concern.
I consult, therefore when I speak with the family member soliciting my services, when a person tells me that their loved one wants to go out, and have a bit for eat and don’t disclose that the person receiving the care is a fall risk, has development disability, I won’t know he needs an expert. Full disclosure, the more skill the candidate is able to hone throughout their caregiver’s career the more expensive it will get.
There has to be a balance where you have a financial reward for the money you expended in learning the skills you need to stay afloat in the job market. I have resurfaced these subjects from an old blog.

If you follow our weekly blog, you will recall when on August/23/2020, I wrote how adult children are helping their parents downsize or age in place. We were talking about an Accessory Dwelling Unit, it is also a.k.a in-laws-suite or alley flats. These are the perfect and ultimate aging-in-place upgrade.

A.A.R.P. re-published on September/2021 an article that reviews the ADUs. To read our article go to our website Health Care Recruiting Company | Blog – Manhattan, NY | Health Care New York to read the A.A.R.P. article or to learn more, go to AARP’s Future of Housing ADU video library at aarp.org/futureofhousing to hear stories from ADUdwellers. For AARP ADU resources, go to aarp.org/ADU.

The kicker with the ADU is you are still living in the same neighborhood, close to transportation, healthy food, and interesting shops and parks. In other words, the physical space has changed, not your surroundings. ADU is being approved in several States since 2004.