A few of my colleagues, owners of assisted living facilities, whom I talked to about the problems we are having with referral agencies have mentioned two other troublesome issues.  We all agreed that if there are ever to be some changes in the placement/referral business these issues should also be addressed.

Issue 1.  Very few agencies, if any, advise their customers that they get paid by the assisted living facility (let alone telling them how much they get paid). In fact, some of the agencies have in their contract some terms of non-disclosure, i.e. asking the facility not to mention or inform their clients about the amount of money the agency receives from the facility for the placement.

Issue 2. Very few facilities, if any, advise their customers that they are working only with facilities that signed a contract with them. Customers are led to believe that the facilities they are referred to are the best ones; customers and are not informed that there are other facilities that could be just as good or better, but not referred to because they have no contract.

As you can see, these two issues are closely related, both stemming from the fact that agencies want to More >

A recent posting in LinkedIn by Skip Frenzel entitled: Who’s Gonna Care for the Aging Boomers? Poor, Immigrant Women notes  that “the National Domestic Workers Alliance held what they called a Care Congress, an event where they introduced a campaign to “transform long-term care.”  Skip also mentions that  “Workers in California experienced a victory earlier this month when a key state senate approved the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, legislation that the NDWA says would extend “basic, humane labor protections to thousands of nannies, caregivers, and housecleaners and improves the quality of care for California’s families.” The law can also increase wages for workers—a mixed blessing, since so many elderly are on fixed incomes”

 

 

I applaud California’s initiative in legislating the rights of domestic workers. I also hope that with the rights, will also come some basic responsibilities, such as basic knowledge of English and caregiving (I am thinking mostly of those who will work not only as housekeepers but also as caregivers). These responsibilities would be very important in assuring an acceptable level of care and protection of the elderly.

 

When we are considering caregiving at home, we need to be cognizant of many factors. However, the most important one is the More >

In the first part of this blog I covered the predisposing factors include, unsteady gait and balance, weak muscles, poor vision, medications, and dementia. There are also some medical conditions such as low blood pressure, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, arthritis, vertigo, poorly controlled diabetes, poorly controlled epilepsy, brain disorders and thyroid problems. We have some control over some of the factors and very little control or non at all over others. However, as I pointed out in the first part of my blog, we can at least have a program that assesses the risk factors and designates the appropriate fall risk prevention intervention.

 

In Part 2, I would like to look at other factors that can trigger falls, both in one’s home as well as in a facility, and see what the experts recommend we can do to eliminate them and thus preventing some of the falls.

In an article written by Donna V. Scaglione and published in Newsmax on April 7, 2011 entitled  Step Carefully: 5 Ways to Prevent Falls the author mentions the following 5 steps we can take to minimize our risk of falling.

1. Consider your medication

Tell your healthcare provider if you fall, including details of the circumstances and how you More >

For the first time in 27 years, there are new criteria and guidelines for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Developed  by three expert workgroups spearheaded by the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) this is a significant step towards achieving the “goal of eventually detecting and treating Alzheimer’s before people experience the disease’s devastating symptoms”.

 

In an article entitled Guidelines Allow Earlier Definition of Alzheimer’s, published April 19, 2011, Pam Belluck points out that “the most striking addition to the guidelines concerns methods that assess brain changes involved in Alzheimer’s, including brain scans and tests of cerebral spinal fluid. Such methods measure what are called biomarkers, physiological indicators that someone is likely to develop dementia eventually, just as cholesterol and blood pressure are biomarkers of impending heart disease.”

However, scientists caution against putting the Alzheimer’s biomarkers to widespread use because scientists cannot yet standardize the results of the tests. Another problem is the lack of a medication that would stop or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. So even if the test reveals the likelihood of getting Alzheimer’s, the individual cannot do anything about it.

Nevertheless, as the author writes,…” the guidelines reflect a sense in the medical community More >