Hospice, whose origination dates back centuries, is providing compassionate and humane care for individuals in the final throes of incurable diseases. It used to imply a place of rest or shelter (hospitality) for tired and sick travelers who had embarked on long journeys. Now it is more of a philosophy of care. It is defined by services and care provided in addition to the setting in which they are provided—your home or a selected hospice facility.

There are many options to consider before making a decision that will work best for your family. If home hospice care is chosen, someone will need to be available on a 24-hour basis. Obviously, this is an exhausting scenario. Relatives and close friends may supply some needed respite, but often additional help is needed to handle around-the-clock needs or possible crises. Home hospice generally costs less than hospital-based or long-term care facilities. Families often opt to keep their family member in a familiar setting. Often they seek help from in-home companion care companies like Barton Home Care. If you are faced with such a selection, you will find there are many considerations to be made before choosing home health care to offer assistance.

Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMO’s and the Department of Veterans Affairs will often pay for hospice care. Some services are provided at no charge to patients who are unable to pay for them. Medicare hospice benefits are available when a doctor and the hospice medical director, who is also a physician, determine that a patient has less than six months to live.

Gerri Tyber, Operations Manager
Barton Home Care

Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain malady, is the most common form of dementia. Normal aging causes memory decline in varying degrees in people who are otherwise healthy. Alzheimer’s kills brain neurons and appears to target a different spot in the brain’s memory center than regular aging does. Research shows that some seniors’ brains can actually work around the damage aging causes and build new pathways when old ones disintegrate.

Scientists like Dr. Denise Park, the director of the University of Illinois’ Center for Healthy Minds, see an emerging need to determine how to slow down cognitive aging since the population is living longer. One proven way to fight against time’s destruction is basic physical exercise, like walking. The brain and body both profit from exercise. According to RIchard Suzman of the National Institute of Aging, research suggests that interventions like controlling diabetes and hypertension may have positive ramifications on improving aging mental abilities. Cognitive training, ranging from brain-training games to crossword puzzles, may also have positive implications, but this has not yet been proven.

People with higher educations and challenging occupations have a cognitive reserve buildup. This seems to delay Alzheimer-related memory loss. Once the condition takes hold, however, better-educated people decline more rapidly than their counterparts. This study was recently published in the journal “Neurology.” Researchers at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that every year of education a person had achieved delayed the accelerated memory decline that precedes dememtia by about two and one-half months. The bad news is that once memory loss begins with these individuals, the rate of decline is faster for each year of education that they have. Based on these findings, an individual with 16 years of schooling might experience memory decline 50 percent faster than someone with only four years of eduation.

For more information, click on Alzheimer’s Care for the Denver Metro area

Gerri Tyber
Operations Manager, Barton Home Care

Caring for those with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia

Because of our aging population, some states have seen the need for a new system to help law enforcement agencies find elderly people who have wandered away. It is called the “Silver Alert” system. It is like the Amber Alert system which goes into action immediately when a child goes missing. If a senior citizen is reported missing and they are considered to have a serious health condition, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, law enforcement will enter their information into the system, and all media will be immediately notified. Generally with senior citizens the first 48 hours are the most important, because they often have serious health issues.

Every state has an Amber Alert program, while only five states currently have a silver alert program. Three more states are presently working on adopting silver alert legislation. Oddly enough, Florida has no such law and has the highest population in the country of people over 65. In late February of 2008, an elderly woman signed herself out of the home for seniors where she lived in Key Largo, Florida. She planned to do some shopping. She had suffered from bouts of dementia in the past, but according to her daughter she had shown recent improvement and had made other similar short trips in the last month. Unfortunately, her body was found about a week later in Clearwater, Florida. Authorities and divers are looking for her car in the water nearby. This tragedy could possibly have been averted.

The Alzheimer’s Association affirms that six out of ten people with dementia will wander at least once. It is predicted that tracking the elderly will become a full-grown industry when 78 million baby boomers reach old age.

Gerri Tyber

Operations Manager, Barton Home Care