Author: Nyonza Musinguzi

Caregiving can be overwhelming. You want to do everything you can for your loved ones, but there are many things to do and so little time. With infirmities and illnesses that come with the aging process, staying healthy and independent can be challenging for most people in need of in-home care.

In-home senior care is quite flexible with personalized options to meet your family’s needs. They are an affordable option for family members to stay involved while they can stay home.

Adult in-home caregiving is the best option for families who want to care for their loved ones without sacrificing the quality of life. This article aims to educate you about home caregiving so you can make an informed decision when opting for one.

What is Adult In-Home Care? 

As the name implies, these services come to your house. Adult in-home care refers to personal care services for adults. It allows recipients to be in familiar surroundings with loved ones nearby. 

The nature of adult in-home care helps them with day-to-day tasks and general moving around within the home.

Who Is Eligible for Adult In-Home Care? 

There are two main categories of eligible adults: 

1. Seniors 

These are the citizens who are 65 years or older living at home. Due to aging, their ability to tackle everyday tasks reduces. Some of them begin to suffer from age-related illnesses. 

Introducing senior in-home caregiving allows them to manage their day-to-day activities with ease.

1. Adults With Chronic Illness or Disability

Adults who are 18+ years that suffer from physical, mental illness or diseases such as diabetes or chronic hypertension that causes prolonged periods of inactivity can also benefit from adult in-home care. 

Adult care can also benefit someone whose physical health has declined due to depression or anxiety. 

Forms Of Home Care Services

You can tailor your in-home caregiving to fulfill the demand of your target market in need of;

• 24-hour care
• Overnight care
• Respite care, and so on.

Types of Home Care Services

1. General Housekeeping

Daily house chores demand a strong will. This service is for adults and seniors who are unable to handle housekeeping activities. It helps seniors retain their independence and quality of life.

Housekeeping tasks may include:

• Cleaning and vacuuming
• Laundry
• Meal preparation
• Mowing lawns and gardens
• Car washes
• Shopping

A general housekeeping team could consist of:

• A maid
• Gardener
• Groundskeeper
• Electrician 
• Plumber

Whatever the situation, from general cleaning and waste collection to a more specific home care service, these professionals can make keeping you and your family healthy a whole lot easier.

1. Personal Care

This service is for people who struggle to perform self-care tasks for themselves. These tasks involve personal grooming, body cleanliness, and essential grooming. A personal care aide can also help in managing your medications and routine health activities.

1. Short-Term Respite Care Services

This service is for full-time family caregivers. It offers short-term relief from their duties, allowing them to focus on their health. It also alleviates the guilt of being away. 

Respite care can be in the form of adult daycare. It is ideal when you are away for prolonged periods and a professional comes in to take care of your loved one’s needs.

1. Special Needs Support and Therapy

Special needs support provides 24-hour help by trained professionals. These caregivers can handle all aspects of caring for individuals in the most complex situations. Nurses are usually the best fit for this role. 

Their role involves:

• Assisting with the care of special needs individuals. 

• Providing life skills training and activities.

• Providing emotional and social support for individuals with chronic illnesses and physical impairments.

• Conducting physical therapy and massages.

This service is best done by people who have the essential medical training. 

Sources:

www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-respite-care

www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/home-and-community-services/services-help-adult-remain-home

Aging in place is becoming more popular by the year. Many seniors say they would prefer to remain at home for as long as they can. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are new environments away from the family, friends, and places that your loved one is familiar and comfortable with. Aging in place with in-home care is a fantastic alternative that allows them to feel independent at home while still providing all the benefits of assisted living. Here’s a quick overview of some of the things B’Zoe Home Caregiving Services can do for your loved one. 

Grooming Help

Our team of highly-trained caregivers will keep your loved one looking sharp! We can help to maintain their personal grooming habits including brushing and styling hair, trimming facial hair, and more. If a senior stops taking care of their personal grooming, they can lose self-esteem and begin to feel depressed. Our caregivers keep them in top shape so they always look and feel their best. We can also help apply makeup and skin care if necessary, and we’re happy to learn other aspects of your loved one’s usual grooming routine. 

Bathing And Personal Hygiene Assistance

As we age, completing simple tasks can become a challenge. We lose range of motion and our muscles weaken, both of which can make things dangerous for seniors to do by themselves. B’Zoe Home Caregiving Services can help with bathing and hygiene so that your elderly family member stays clean and healthy without putting themselves at risk of a fall or other injury. Bathing, showering, hair care, dental hygiene, and more are all taken care of by our trained caregivers. Seniors may forget or no longer be able to take care of their hygiene needs, so our staff will step in to help. As always, this service is personalized to best fit your family’s needs.

Dressing Aid

Have you ever had a day that you’re so tired or sore that putting on your shoes is a struggle? Seniors have to struggle with getting dressed often. They are not as flexible as they once were which can make bending down to get dressed hard, as well as maneuvering into shirts and jackets. Our caregivers will step in and assist as needed to make sure your loved one is looking great. If needed, we can even pick out outfits! Clients who have worsening eyesight can struggle to find outfits that match, so we’ll take the stress out of those decisions. Wearing a nice outfit can really boost your confidence, so we always want our clients to look their best!

Companionship And Support

Generally speaking, seniors who live at home are likely to feel isolated and lonely. Without social interactions, life can get monotonous and stuffy. Especially with the pandemic, many senior activities have been stopped for the safety of everyone involved. As we briefly mentioned, we make sure to match caregivers to clients based on lifestyle, needs, and personality. Your loved one’s caregiver will form a bond with them and provide them companionship and emotional support. Our staff love to sit down and talk with clients about anything and everything. It’s a nice change for your loved one and an opportunity to speak to someone outside of the immediate family. Having a friend and someone to talk to will keep your loved one’s spirits high, helping ward off depression and frustration. 

Dementia Care
Dementia patients often need a lot more care than healthy seniors do. Dementia can cause memory loss, leaving those with the disease feeling lost in their own home. Many of our clients suffer from dementia, and our caregivers are there to help them out. Early-stage dementia can be very frustrating to patients as they notice themselves forgetting things that used to be second nature. They may not be able to recall where things are stored, could forget how to operate kitchen appliances, or may frequently go to start a task only to forget what they were doing. Caregivers can help alleviate the frustration by keeping seniors on the right track with what they’re doing. Our staff is all trained in dementia care, so they know how to be patient when needed and they understand why living with the disease is so challenging. With our help, your loved one will feel as independent as ever.
B’Zoe Home Caregiving Services can help your senior in all kinds of non-medical ways. Other services include medication reminders, games and entertainment, walks and outdoor time, and more. Please fill out the form at https://bzoehomecare.com/contact/ or give us a call at (206) 953-4900 to get started! We’ll set you up with a free consultation to determine which services would be best for your loved one.

With modern medicine evolving as rapidly as it is, many diseases are being studied and cures are being researched. There’s an especially strong emphasis on treating and curing dementia, a life-changing disease that destroys the memory of the patient. Dementia is most common in seniors and older adults and can be hard to cope with. Today, we want to go into more detail about the disease to help you understand it a bit better. The B’Zoe Home Caregivers are trained in dementia care, and this is just a brief overview of the things they have to learn. 

What Is Dementia?

Dementia isn’t really a disease in itself but is rather a broader term to group together various memory loss diseases. Older adults and seniors with dementia loss memories, reasoning skills, and the ability to complete daily tasks. There are over 6 million Americans with dementia today. The large majority of these cases have Alzheimer’s Disease, an incurable form of dementia and by far the most common. There has been nonstop research on Alzheimer’s and dementia for decades, but the final breakthrough has yet to be made. Luckily, dementia can be identified much earlier than in the past, and there are some proven treatment methods that lessen the severity of the disease. Dementia usually affects people ages 65 and older, but there are cases of what’s called “early-onset dementia.” Over time, the person remembers less and less long-term things including how to care for themselves. There are different stages of severities of dementia, each affecting the senior differently. Sadly, dementia is a terminal disease that progresses to a point that can be fatal. In addition to memory loss, late-stage dementia and Alzheimer’s can lead to the patient losing control of their muscles, including those that regulate internal processes. 

What Are The Symptoms?

Some people are under the impression that dementia is a normal part of aging. It is a disease that is very common but by no means normal. Seniors do tend to become more forgetful with age, but not to the extent of a person with dementia. Here are some things that are common with old age:

• Forgetting recent events
• Misplacing items and finding them later
• Forgetting a word in conversation
• Not remembering the name of someone they recently met or someone they don’t know well

In contrast, here are some symptoms of dementia/Alzheimer’s Disease:

• Getting confused or lost in a setting that is familiar to them
• Forgetting words of common objects and replacing them with words that don’t make sense
• Forgetting the name of close family and friends
• Having a hard time recalling long-term memories
• Forgetting how to complete tasks they used to do regularly
• Frequently misplacing items, especially when they’re found somewhere that makes no sense (ie. keys in the fridge)

As you can see, dementia symptoms involve forgetfulness with more serious things. We all forget an appointment or a name now and then, but a person with Alzheimer’s will do so often. Communication may become hard for them, and they may lose their train of thought more than usual. If you notice any of these symptoms, be sure to set up an appointment with your senior’s PCP.

What Are The Treatment Options?

While dementia sadly does not have a cure at this time, work continues to find one. Treatment for dementia often includes medications and therapies that are proven to slow the progress of the disease. Along the way to finding a cure, several versions of treatments have been developed. Certain medications have been found to slow the disease while also boosting memory and brain activity. If caught early, many dementia patients can avoid severe symptoms for years when they take these medications regularly. Therapy can help seniors manage emotions as well as master simple tasks that are commonly forgotten with dementia. A therapist or professional caregiver cna help you make your home safer for seniors, and can teach you all ways to simplify tasks for them. Something as simple as modifying the home to remove clutter can make a world of difference. If you remove all the baking materials from the kitchen drawers, your senior won’t need to go hunting for the fork they need. The easier it is for them to get what they need, the faster they can do it, and the less likely they are to forget their task midway through. With combined treatments, many patients have seen improvements and maintenance of the disease. 

How In-Home Care Can Help.

If your loved one has recently been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s, or if you notice them getting worse, it’s time to start thinking about ways you can help. When daily tasks become too challenging for seniors to do on their own, you can look into care options. Aging in place with in-home care is the most popular choice because it allows your loved one to stay at home but still receive the attention they need. B’Zoe Home Caregiving Services has helped hundreds of seniors maintain their freedom through dementia. Our highly-trained caregivers travel to your senior’s home and will assist them as needed. We offer light housekeeping, companionship, meal prep, dressing assistance, and more! In-home care allows dementia patients to remain in an environment they are familiar with which can help keep the disease under control. Our caregivers will handle the tasks that are too much for your loved one, and they’ll play a major role in slowing the progress of the disease. Our caregivers are trained specifically for dementia care, and they are very comfortable with therapy practices, decluttering, and more. Most importantly, our in-home caregivers will ensure that any and all medication is taken on time every day so they can work as well as possible. 

If you’re looking for dementia care for your senior, call B’Zoe Home Caregiving Services. We are a woman-owned business that has helped hundreds of seniors stay comfortable and happy at home. We arrange consultations with you to determine which of our caregivers would be the best fit. Call us today to get started at (206) 953-4900. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

1760 | Poorhouses and Almshouses

Way back in the 1760s, “indigent elderly” who were not lucky enough to be cared for by rich children began to receive “outdoor relief” money from the government. This was also given out to the poor members of the community, similar to welfare. Eventually, spending got too great so the government decided it was more cost-efficient to switch to “indoor relief” money. Poorhouses, almshouses, poor farms, and other similar buildings were created to provide housing for the “paupers” of society. This included many elderly residents who could not afford their own place nor take care of themselves properly on their own. However, to prevent people from pretending to be poor in order to get free room and board, these almshouses and the like were made as unattractive as possible. Conditions were far from good and some even required uniforms to be worn to show that a person came from the poorhouse. Seniors didn’t have many options, so many had to deal with the unhealthy living conditions which often caused illness and even death. 

1900s | Churches Intervene

In the early 1900s, churches started to feel guilty that the elderly were spending their last days surrounded by paupers, criminals, mentally ill people, and “unsavory” individuals. Various religions decided to step in and create homes specifically to care for the elderly. As you might imagine, in order to be accepted into one of these homes, the senior had to be a member of the faith, preferably attending that church. Conditions here were far better than the almshouses, but we still had a long way to go. 

1920s | Almshouses House Mainly Elderly Residents

The 1920s saw a shift in almshouses. Other organizations opened care facilities for those with different conditions, meaning that the residents of almshouses were no longer from all edges of the community. During the 1902s, almshouses were filled mainly with destitute elderly people. Some reports estimate 70% of almshouse residents were elderly during this time. Still, these facilities bred illness and disease and were far from an ideal environment for frail elderly people.  

1935 | Social Security

The US Government saw the many issues with almshouses and wanted to change the system quickly. They passed the Social Security Act that would give funds to elderly people living in government-approved environments while giving nothing to those in almshouses. Unfortunately, monetary incentives were not enough because the seniors needed care. They couldn’t just move to an apartment on their own because they were unable to take care of themselves. The government started to offer the residents’ monthly pension to any private institution that could care for and house them. As a result, more institutions welcomed new senior clients, providing them with a healthier living environment and better care.  

1954 | Nursing Home Boom

Thanks to the implementation of new government grants, nursing homes started to spring up all over the country! The Hill-Burton Act that launched these grants required the facility to be built in conjunction with a hospital, resulting in clean, organized, and medically-proficient environments. It wasn’t until the late 1950s when nursing homes received grants without being connected to a hospital. 

1965 | Medicare and Medicaid

Medicare and Medicaid were created and signed into law in 1965. Under the new law, anyone over the age of 65, or under the age of 65 with a disability received health coverage from the government. This prevented private nursing homes from discriminating against lower-income seniors in need of care. It also protected those who were unable to work conventional jobs and earn benefits. Essentially, it placed all elderly people on a similar playing field in terms of insurance. 

1980s | Assisted Living Becomes Popular

Park Place in Portland, Oregon opened in 1981 and is considered the first modern assisted living facility as we know them today. Each resident had a private room with doors they could lock, but the facility also had a 24/7 care staff for emergencies. Seniors could mingle in social spaces to avoid feeling isolated and lonely. Assisted living took off because it gave seniors a safe place to live without stripping them of their privacy or independence. It’s still a popular option today!

2000s – Today | Aging in Place and In-Home Care

The only thing more popular than assisted living facilities is the new concept of aging in place. Elderly people are living longer and suffering from far fewer health problems. As such, they may struggle with some things but do not really need full-time care in a facility. In-home care has quickly become the top senior care option, allowing elderly loved ones to live in their own home (or with their family). Caregivers are hired by the family to visit the senior on a fixed schedule. 24-hour care is available through many agencies, but intermediate care is far more common. A caregiver can stop by for a few hours per day to help the elderly person get ready for the day, give them social interaction, take them on walks, and more. Your loved one can age in place in their own home where they are comfortable with their environment. This type of care is particularly popular for Alzheimer’s/dementia patients because staying in their home is comforting and familiar to them. 
B’Zoe Home Caregiving has been offering the best in-home care possible for many years. Our staff are highly trained in the best senior care techniques and we are proud to offer flexible services designed to meet your needs. Learn more about B’Zoe Home Care and what we can do for the senior in your life at https://bzoehomecare.com/. Call us at (206) 953-4900 to schedule a FREE consultation! We look forward to working with you.