Blog | Take My Hand At Home

‘We all need others in our lives’

August 7, 2019 By Take My Hand

[ Editor’s note: Originally published in the Lynden Tribune ]

Bernadette Millar, center, gets everyday help and also socializing with Heidi Sorensen and Sue Sorensen. Photo by Laura Place/Lynden Tribune.

For Lynden senior Bernadette Millar, meeting with her caretaker Heidi Sorensen each week not only helps her with her everyday tasks, but provides a sense of companionship. Sometimes the two go shopping together, or Heidi helps Bernadette with her bills and appointments.

Bernadette has been meeting regularly with Heidi for three years now, after being connected to the in-home care service of Take My Hand of Lynden following a visit from her son and daughter-in-law. Those relatives made the initial connection to Take My Hand, and owner Sue Sorensen (Heidi’s mother-in-law) reached out to Bernadette directly.

“I didn’t call her — she called me,” Bernadette recalled. “It came right at the right time.”

Bernadette stopped being able to drive herself around a few years ago after a bad fall that resulted in nerve damage. She said the loss of the ability to drive a vehicle was devastating, but now being able to go to the places she needs to go and get out of her condo every once in a while with Heidi gives her something to look forward to.

The care service offers assistance to seniors with various tasks based on their needs, such as taking medication, scheduling appointments and going on errands. Or, as in Bernadette’s case, the client and caretaker will just go and enjoy coffee together.

“We do everything, from companionship to end-of-life care,” Sue Sorensen said.

For Bernadette, it’s a gift to be able to get out of the house with Heidi and know all of her appointments and bills are organized. Just as important, Sue points out, is having someone to laugh with. Sitting in Woods Coffee at Bender Plaza on a Friday outing, Bernadette and Heidi laugh together about Bernadette’s favorite saying, “Can’t be bothered.”

“I thought it was ‘think positively’?” Heidi asks.

“I’m always positive!” Bernadette says back, smiling.

This companionship from a caretaker can help to combat some of the isolation and loneliness experienced by many senior citizens, making it one of the most important aspects of the service offered by Take My Hand, Sue Sorensen said. Even just going on outings a couple of times a week gives clients something to look forward to.

“It’s a big deal for them, to get out of the house,” Sorensen said of the clients who are assisted by Take My Hand. “We all want to be independent, but we all need others in our lives.”

Take My Hand At-Home Care can be reached at 360-543-5777 and online at takemyhandathome.com.

At any age, pursue your passions

July 3, 2019 By Take My Hand

An older woman and man hold hands while dancing in a park. Black and white photo.

Pursuing our passions is good for us.

A study of 115 people published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that when pursuing hobbies, participants’ moods were more positive, and they had lower stress and heart rates. That’s a pretty good result just for doing something you enjoy. The study’s conclusion? Leisure activities can improve a person’s health and well-being.

Our health is an important consideration throughout our lives, but as we age we start to pay even more attention to how to help our bodies and minds function as well as possible. Eating well, making friends and getting exercise are an important part of staying healthy in old age.

Read more: Five things to do now
for a happier, healthier future.

Pursuing passions also can play a big part in maintaining good health as we age. Studies have shown that pursuing our passions does wonders for the health of our brains. According to Total Brain Health, pursuing hobbies that we enjoy and that we’re good at can be a buffer against memory loss and can lead to improved neuroplasticity, our brain’s ability to form new connections. Pursuing passions also can help improve sleep quality, lower blood pressure, and lower our risks of heart disease, stress, anxiety and depression.

But what kind of leisure activities should you pursue? How do you find your passion?

For starters, try to remember a moment when you’ve lost track of time.

“Life just feels better when you have things in your hours that you want to do,” said productivity expert Laura Vanderkam in The New York Times. “There’s moments where time almost has no meaning because we’re so happy about what we’re doing. The more time you can spend in that zone, the better life feels.”

Is there anything you love to spend hours doing or that you have to be told to stop? That’s probably something you’re passionate about, something that could be developed into a hobby that lasts long into old age.

Consider the inspiring story of the ballet dancer who’s still going strong at age 77. Why? She loves what she does.

“Life is too short not to do what you want to do,” she says in a video produced by BBC One. “It’s never too late, so start doing what you love doing now.”

Other ways to identify your passions include taking an inventory your talents (what are you good at?) and thinking of what you liked to do as a kid. Those, too, might be hobbies worth pursuing that could lead to joy and contentment long into retirement years.

So, your parents have refused help. Now what?

June 5, 2019 By Take My Hand

As our parents and other elderly loved ones age, it’s common for us to increase in concern for their well-being. Perhaps we’re nervous about their ability to drive safely, or we’re careful to ensure that they attend all necessary appointments with their doctor.

Our concern is one of the biggest reasons we begin suggesting that our parents start thinking of assistance — we want to be sure they get needed at-home help with daily tasks, or we want them to live in a place where their needs are attended to on a regular basis.

But what can we do if they refuse help? It’s true that many of our elderly loved ones reject the idea of care, wanting to remain independent, to save on the cost of assistance, or for some other reason.

Here are a few tips that may help when you have “the talk” with your loved ones about care:

Listen and try to see things from their perspective. Aging can be scary. Having to rely on others can be frightening. Your loved one might be anxious about feeling helpless or guilty about being a burden to others. Take time to listen to their concerns and try to empathize with how they feel.

Patiently discuss what help around the home might look like. It may help to look at specific aspects of life with your loved one and discuss how things might be improved with good assistance. The elderly often don’t realize that they’re ready for assistance until they’re able to understand how at-home care can help them accomplish important daily or weekly tasks.

Gently suggest that your loved one might appreciate help doing the weekly shopping, picking up prescriptions, cleaning the house or getting out of the house for a walk now and then. People can reject having decisions made for them. Discuss the many options available to your parents — from occasional care in the comfort of home to full-time care in an assisted living center — and try to let them decide for themselves where in that range they might be.

Regarding at-home care, it’s good to remember that it can be adjusted to the needs of the individual, so it can be as involved (or not) as necessary. Say a loved one doesn’t want assistance because he or she feels it will be too restricting. At-home care can actually increase a person’s freedom by freeing them up to do what they love, and/or assist them in it.

Learn more: Is your mom or dad ready for care?

Share your concerns and discuss various healthcare options. Here is where you can share specific areas of concern that you have for your loved one. Often, hearing about this concern from a beloved child or friend can have a big impact. If you’ve been the primary caregiver but no longer have the time or energy you used to, mention that you would like to bring in other caregivers to help out.

This could be a good way to ease into the conversation about other types of care down the road, too. If you’re able to chat casually about future healthcare decisions before they’re imminent, you’ll all be much more ready to have that talk when it does come.

Learn more: The benefits of at-home care

Get advice from an outside expert. In our in-home consultations, we try to understand what’s best for each client, even if it means that caregivers from Take My Hand won’t be involved. If you’d like to learn more, please reach out. We would be happy to help explain the best next steps to your reluctant loved one.

Why work in at-home care?

May 2, 2019 By Take My Hand

The home care industry continues to see astounding growth. In 2016, there were roughly 2 million personal care attendants in the United States, and that figure is expected to grow by 40 percent over the next decade. This projection is attributable to the fact that a record 50 million people aged 65 and older currently live in the U.S., and by 2030 this number is expected to increase by 20 million.

Simply put, at-home care is in demand.

That’s not the only reason to consider a position in at-home caregiving, however. At-home care offers a wonderful opportunity for caregivers to truly make a difference in the lives of the elderly.

Let’s look in more detail at some reasons why people would work in at-home care:

A caregiver in a red jacket pushes an older woman in a wheelchair down a concrete ramp.

Build friendships and provide comfort to those who need it. Isolation can be hazardous to seniors’ health, and as many as one in six seniors faces the repercussions of loneliness in their daily lives. At-home care offers CNAs, licensed nurses and other caregivers an opportunity to combat elder loneliness by building meaningful friendships with seniors.

Work at a slower pace and with more flexible hours. Providing care in the home can be less demanding than working in an assisted-living facility or hospital. Hours are generally more flexible, and care is slower-paced. Supporting one person is a much different experience than rushing from bed to bed serving numerous patients each day. With the slower pace, caregivers also find that they have more time to get to know their clients through the sharing of stories and experiences. Clients are often full of wonderful life advice!

Help maximize health and wellness. At-home caregivers typically are involved in helping the elderly remember medications, providing good communication with doctors and assisting in such daily tasks as bathing, walking, cooking and shopping. Thus, caregivers play critical roles in the ongoing health of their clients. Plus, at-home care affords the opportunity to see all aspects of a person, not just their medical conditions or daily needs. In the comfort of home, caregivers can get to know clients on a deeper, more personal level.

A caregiver stands in a grassy field with her elderly client as they watch the sunset together.

Make a difference in someone’s life. Take My Hand At-Home Care often is mentioned in obituaries when a person passes. Why? Because our caregivers tend to make huge impressions in seniors’ lives, whether it’s through expert assistance, kind compassion or genuine friendship. We’re proud of our reputation for kind, compassionate care that makes an impression on the elderly and their loved ones.

Take My Hand At-Home Care has been providing personal, professional support for the elderly in Whatcom County since 2012. Our eldercare options include daily shifts and even 24-hour live-in assistance, which allows seniors to age-in-place instead of moving to a long-term care facility. We are fully licensed, bonded and insured. Our professional caregivers have been trained and certified to provide compassionate care to elders in Washington state.

When you’re healthy but your spouse isn’t, here’s how to cope

April 3, 2019 By Take My Hand

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 60 percent of Americans live with a chronic disease, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke or diabetes.

Given those percentages, there inevitably are a great many “well spouses” who are caring for a sick person daily.

When you’re the spouse who isn’t ill, how do you cope with the challenges while protecting your own health? Providing care for a spouse can be difficult, but it can be done, and done well. Here are some actions that can help:

Get educated. Caring for a sick spouse starts with making sure you know what you can about your loved one’s disease. “Well spouses cope better when they, like their partners, have accurate, firsthand information about their mate’s condition, treatment and needs,” says Johns Hopkins Medicine. A good place to start is the Northwest Regional Council, which through its Family Caregiver Support Program has many educational resources available, including a collection of loanable library resources and informational booklets on Alzheimer’s and dementia, depression and caring for the caregiver.

Get help. You don’t need to do it alone. Providing loving, compassionate care for a spouse 24/7 takes a lot out of you. Take time for yourself to do the things you enjoy: walking the dog, shopping, reading a book, relaxing. “If someone wants to be there for their loved one, it’s not selfish to ask for help,” says Lynette Whiteman, who runs a caregiver volunteer agency, in a story from A Place for Mom about caregiver health. “By getting help, they’re helping their loved one.” Options for support include reaching out to Northwest Regional Council’s Family Caregiver Support Program or hiring occasional help to care for your loved one, such as the services w e provide here at Take My Hand At-Home Care. From half-day respite shifts to 24-hour care, we provide family caregivers the support they need.

Take comfort from others. Next Avenue conducted a series of interviews with adults whose spouses have a chronic illness, and the advice those people shared is tender, touching and helpful. Consider this, from a man who took care of his wife for a dozen years while she was in a wheelchair: “I am grateful for the time we had and the help I had from all of the health care professionals over those years. I learned from her and from them how very precious life is.” Next Avenue’s report, titled “When One Spouse Is Healthy and the Other Isn’t,” is worth a read. You also might check out a local support group for caregivers or an online forum (such as this one at Caregiver Action Network) where you can vent your frustrations, ask for advice and learn from the experience of others.

If you’re in Whatcom County and caring for a sick spouse or loved one and would like to learn more about the benefits of having part-time care in the home, please reach out to us at Take My Hand At-Home Care here in Lynden. We provide support all over the region, from Blaine to Bellingham, and we’d love to talk about your needs.

‘We all need others in our lives’

So, your parents have refused help. Now what?

Why work in at-home care?

When you’re healthy but your spouse isn’t, here’s how to cope

Mindfulness meditation: What it is, and how it can help the elderly

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