If you come home to visit you parents and find their house dark and dreary during the festive holiday season, it could be a sign they are no longer up to the holiday decorating they once enjoyed. Encourage your parents to decorate by helping them add color and light to their homes for the holidays. Here are a few ideas to help make their season festive:

Help a senior find and unpack their decorations, or ask to do it on your own. Perhaps that’s a task that they dread tackling by themselves.

Ask your loved one which decorations are most significant to them, and how and where they should be displayed.

Maybe your senior would like to shop for one more decoration to add to his or her collection. You could add to a continuing tradition, such as a new angel ornament for the tree.

Offer to photograph this year’s holiday display, not only to hold a memory for weeks after the holidays, but to remember exactly where everything needs to go next year.

Decorations could tie in with a tradition of holiday foods. Perhaps it’s appropriate to prepare a special dish that’ll complement a table display. Share others’ recipes and stories from the Homemade Memories Cookbook at www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

If your parents need extra help to make the holidays special, Home Instead CAREGivers are easily available to make the holidays more enjoyable for loved ones. Call 617.557.4600 to learn more.

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at 617.557.4600.

Assessment Shows Health System Needs Improvement

Room for improvement – that’s the Commonwealth Fund’s assessment of the U.S. healthcare system. The National Scorecard on U.S. Health-System Performance, 2011 indicates sub-optimal performance in the following critical aging-related care areas:

Patient hospitalizations from nursing homes and hospital re-admissions of Medicare patients

The Scorecard compares U.S. average performance with benchmarks drawn from the top 10 percent of U.S. states, regions, health plans, and hospitals or other providers, as well as from the top-performing countries. The report provides further evidence that home care is important to older adults who are ill or recovering from surgery or poor health.

Performance compared with benchmarks improved on less than half of the indicators assessed since the first Scorecard. The 2011 Scorecard finds that the U.S. as a whole scores only 64, compared with 67 in 2006 and 65 in 2008 – well below the benchmark. National rates for three of five (58%) Scorecard indicators worsened or failed to substantially improve. As observed in the 2006 and 2008 National Scorecards, the bottom-performing group of hospitals, health plans, or geographic regions typically performs well below average, with as much as a fourfold spread between the top and bottom rates.

We hope that by sharing these results will help illustrate why home care is such a vital need in today’s health care climate. Please give us a call to learn how we can help your loved one rehabilitate from a hospital visit – (617)557.4600.

For more information about this study, visit http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Fund-Reports/2011/Oct/Why-Not-the-Best-2011.aspx?page=2.

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at (617)557.4600.

November we celebrate Family Caregiver Month because being a caregiver is a huge responsibility.  Aside from having to be available at all hours, caregivers usually make major personal sacrifices to be able to provide care to seniors.  Home Instead Senior Care in the San Francisco Bay area gives a big thank you to family caregivers.

Here are other ways to say thank you to the caregiver in your family:

• A heart felt thank-you note/card.

• Gift certificate to their favorite coffee shop.

• Fresh baking for their morning snack.

• Fresh cut flowers to brighten the caregiver’s day.

• Cook a meal so they don’t have to after a long day.

• Frame one of their favorite pictures.

• Share a plant or a plant clipping.

• Pick up some groceries and drop them off on your way home.

• Return a favor.

• Watch their elderly loved one or child for an afternoon to give them some time off.

• Give a hug. Yes it can be that simple.

• Tell them what you think they are particularly great at.

• Give a hand made gift. Winter is in full swing here, so how about a knitted scarf or mitts? Or a center piece for their table.

• Make a special day just for them. Plan a day for them around what they enjoy. Go with them if it’s appropriate.

Source: Read the full list 20 Simple Ways to Show Appreciation

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at 617.557.4600.

It’s no surprise that food often takes center stage at family gatherings. Perhaps it is Aunt Marie’s famous meatballs that have graced the family dinner table for 40 years. Or maybe Mom’s apple strudel recipe evokes wonderful memories.

For Laurie Lufkin, it was Grandma Mimi’s clam cakes. Lufkin is the grand prize winner of the Homemade Memories Recipe Contest, sponsored by Home Instead, Inc., the franchisor of the Home Instead Senior Care® network. Her story and recipe, along with 49 others who garnered the top votes in the Homemade Memories Recipe Contest, are featured in the recently released Homemade Memories Cookbook (Nov. 4, 2011, $29.95). In total, more than 240 recipes were submitted.

As her prize, Lufkin will receive a $500 Visa gift card that she can use toward making new “homemade memories” with her senior loved ones.

“I remember the smell of the cast iron pan full of oil and lard – yes, lard – bubbling on my Mimi’s big, white enamel gas stove, awaiting the arrival of those clam-filled balls of savory, salty dough,” Lufkin wrote. “My dad or one of his friends would dig a whole mess of clams, we would have steamers for dinner and then my Mimi would make the most fantastic little fried clam fritters with homemade tartar sauce the next day. It was heaven.”

Lufkin is accustomed to sharing her passion with others. The small business owner, who has a screen printing, promotional products and embroidery business, spends much of her free time devoted to cooking and baking. She writes a food blog and hosts a local cable access show that features the talents of other area cooks.

Her grandmother, who inspired the clam cakes recipe, has passed away. But Lufkin keeps family traditions alive, cooking with her 10-year-old daughter and preparing meals with her mother. She is proud to showcase Essex. Her hometown of about 3,500 people is situated along the Essex River, whose banks produce the “steamer” clams that inspired the winning family recipe. “I love to feed people – it shows that you love and care for them, and want to share with them,” she explained.

“The Homemade Memories Cookbook is unique in that each recipe features a family story much like Lufkin’s,” said President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Huber of Home Instead, Inc. “Companionship is such an important part of the dining experience for older adults. And these stories just enhance the experience.”

Other popular recipes included:

• Orange Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake, one of Jamie Jones’ first memories of her great-grandmother, who served it on Sunday afternoons after church.
• Lucy Orton’s Blueberry Pancakes, which helps her remember the wonderful breakfasts at her Aunt Janet’s house.
• Thomas Lanahan’s Albany “Hotstuff” Relish, a recipe handed down in his family since the 1800s.

The cookbook is available for the holiday gift-giving season. To order, go to www.mealsandcompanionship.com or https://www.facebook.com/CookingWithGrandma. Proceeds will go to the nonprofit Home Instead Senior Care Foundation to benefit U.S. and Canadian seniors. And to learn more about the value of companionship to older adults, go to www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at 617.557.4600.

Family caregivers and senior-care professionals can benefit from the Home for the Holidays webinar, which will help educate families about the warning signs that a senior loved one might need help at home.  Register for this free webinar on Nov. 15 or Dec. 5.

With the holidays just around the corner, many families will be hitting the road with loved ones. Or, perhaps, preparing older adults in their lives for a plane trip to be with family. To help ensure that your trip doesn’t turn into a National Lampoon’s Vacation movie script, consider the following tips:

• First, a family traveling with Dad will want to ask his family doctor about any special precautions that need to be taken for holiday travel plans.

• Plan a schedule. When does Dad take his medications? Is Mom on a restricted diet? How often do parents need bathroom breaks?

• Make sure Mom doesn’t forget to pack her medications. If flying, check out requirements for packing medications.

• Consider where they will be headed. Help a loved one pack for the weather conditions. Remember that seniors can easily become chilled.

• Plan for access to plenty of fluids to avoid seniors becoming dehydrated.

If a family caregiver isn’t close by, a Home Instead CAREGiver can help a senior prepare for a trip by assisting with packing, medication reminders and household chores. To help support your efforts, we offer a variety of resources for senior-care professionals. To learn more about how we can help you, contact us at 617.557.4600.

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at 617.557.4600.

FREE Home for the Holidays web conference

You’re excited to be going home for the holidays where Mom always has the house decked out and Dad makes his famous eggnog and tells stories about past celebrations. But your parents are getting older now. Maybe it’s time to tune into other things, like the signs they could need more help maintaining that big house. Or indicators they might benefit from grocery assistance.

That’s why you will want to register for the Home for the Holidays webinar. The webinar, moderated by a representative from the Home Instead Senior Care^® network, will help you recognize the warning signs that indicate your senior loved one might need additional help for things such as loss of appetite, unwanted weight fluctuations, spoiled food in the fridge or clutter.

The event is being hosted by the American Society on Aging (ASA), and co-sponsored by the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC).

Register and learn more about the webinar that will be offered at two different times: Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. ET, or Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. ET. Senior care experts will be on hand to provide valuable information about the warning indicators that an older adult may need extra help and what you can do for support.

Whether you’re a long-distance caregiver or just live down the street, the holidays are a good time to assess the situation with Mom and Dad, and help them come up with a solution if necessary.

Remember, your local Home Instead Senior Care office is here to help when you have an aging-related issue or question, not just during the holidays but throughout the year. If you would like more information about Home for the Holidays, or have any comments or questions, please call us at 617.557.4600.

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at 617.557.4600.

Any time caffeine is found to have a positive effect on health, it’s good news for senior citizens. That’s because coffee is by far the favorite drink of older Americans.

The latest research about coffee, this popular drink, comes from a large study that found coffee provides protection from basal cell carcinoma – the most common form of skin cancer. Given the nearly 1 million new cases of basal cell carcinoma diagnosed each year in the U.S., daily dietary factors with even small protective effects may have great public health impact, a researcher said. The study indicates that coffee consumption may be an important option to help prevent basal cell carcinoma.

Researchers reported that women who consumed more than three cups of coffee per day had a 20 percent reduction in risk for basal cell carcinoma, and men who consumed more than three cups per day had a 9 percent risk reduction compared with people who consumed less than one cup per month. The amount of coffee consumption was inversely associated with basal cell carcinoma risk. Those in the highest 20 percent of consumption had the lowest risk, with an 18 percent reduction for women and a 13 percent reduction for men. Animal studies have suggested an association between coffee intake and skin cancer risk, but epidemiologic studies have not conclusively shown the same results.

Another reminder for seniors to guard against cancer. You can also learn more about good nutrition at www.CaregiverStress.com and www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

Check out the study - Coffee Consumption Decreases Risk for Basal Cell Carcinoma.

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at 617.557.4600.

Be a Santa to a Senior®, the popular campaign that has delivered 1.5 million gifts to needy seniors throughout North America during the past seven years, is gearing up again this holiday, according to the Home Instead Senior Care® network, the world’s largest provider of non-medical, in-home care services for seniors.

The program relaunches during a time when already-nervous seniors faced the threat of Social Security payment delays as part of the debt-ceiling debate earlier this year.

Local offices of the Home Instead Senior Care network, the world’s largest provider of non-medical in-home care and companionship services for older adults, have joined their area senior care organizations and retailers to provide gifts and companionship to seniors who otherwise might not receive either this holiday season.

In most years, seniors receive a small increase in their Social Security checks, intended to help them keep up with the costs of inflation. But since 2000, the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) has increased just 31 percent, while typical senior expenses have jumped 73 percent, according to the survey.

In 2011, for the second consecutive year, seniors received no COLA. Before 2010, however, seniors had received a COLA every year since 1975, when the automatic COLA was introduced. Seniors can expect to receive only a very small COLA next year, the TSCL reported.

Be a Santa to a Senior isn’t just about gifts, though. It is designed to give back to those needy seniors as well as to help stimulate human contact and social interaction for older adults who are unlikely to have guests during the holidays.

Here’s how the program works: Before the holiday season, the participating nonprofit organizations in local communities throughout North America will identify needy and isolated seniors in the community and provide those names to local Home Instead Senior Care offices for this community service program. Christmas trees will go up in stores that feature ornaments with the first names only of the seniors and their respective gift requests.

Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy items on the list and return them unwrapped to the store, along with the ornament attached. The local Home Instead Senior Care office then enlists the volunteer help of its staff, senior-care business associates, nonprofit workers and others to collect, wrap and distribute the gifts. A community gift-wrapping event, when hundreds of the presents will be wrapped, is held in many communities.

Businesses are encouraged to contact their local Home Instead Senior Care office about adopting groups of seniors. For tree locations in your local area, or for more information about the program, visit www.beasantatoasenior.com.

Home Care Boston providing elderly services in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. Call us at 617.557.4600.