Senior volunteers are making a difference each day in local churches, community organizations, neighborhoods, senior centers and health care organizations. In total, these unsung heroes are making a bigger impact than ever as local budgets evaporate and community needs escalate. For many of these seniors, helping others defines who they are in their retirement years.

In response, Home Instead Senior Care has announced the launch of Salute to Senior Service(SM) program (www.SalutetoSeniorService.com) to honor the many volunteer contributions that older adults make to this nation. This program, which launched on January 15, 2012, includes a search for the country’s most outstanding Senior Hero(SM) in each state and culminates with the selection of a national Salute to Senior Service winner during Older Americans Month in May. State Senior Hero(SM) winners will receive plaques and their stories on the www.SalutetoSeniorService.com site. In addition, $5,000 will be donated to the national winner’s nonprofit charity of choice.

Between January 15 and March 12, 2012, entries can be submitted to nominate seniors 65 and older who volunteer at least 15 hours a month, making a positive impact on their communities through volunteerism. Stories can be submitted online at www.SalutetoSeniorService.com.

“Not only are senior volunteers changing their communities, but they are also changing the face of aging,” said Jeff Huber, President and Chief Operating Officer of Home Instead Senior Care. “Volunteer opportunities for older adults should not diminish because of age and, by all accounts, don’t. Home Instead is thrilled to be able to take this opportunity to recognize and showcase their important contributions.”

About half of U.S. seniors (52 percent) volunteer their time through unpaid community service, according to research conducted by the Home Instead Senior Care network. Nearly 20 percent (one in five) of senior volunteers surveyed started volunteering when they reached the traditional age of retirement – 65 or older. Furthermore, 20 percent of seniors who volunteer say that their community service is the most important thing they do. Seniors who volunteer give an average of 15 hours a month in unpaid service.

Seven in 10 seniors (70 percent) who volunteer indicate they plan on volunteering “forever.” This percentage is slightly higher for senior volunteers who suffer from chronic health problems. In fact, managing chronic conditions and maintaining health are important motivations. Three-fourths of senior volunteers surveyed (75 percent) who have chronic conditions say that staying active through volunteering helps them manage these conditions. But the benefits go much deeper. According to Home Instead Senior Care network research, 95 percent of senior volunteers feel that seniors who volunteer are healthier and happier than seniors who do not. Volunteering enables seniors to develop and maintain important social connections, learn more skills, and pursue new interests.

“We know from our work with seniors that the more active an individual the more likely that he or she will continue to remain independent while aging. Those who find a way to give back, even if they have their own aches and pains and need help, realize many benefits,” shared Huber.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

Nearly all senior volunteers surveyed (98 percent) gain a sense of purpose, stay active and feel better physically, mentally and emotionally as a result of their service. Nearly three-fourths are able to overcome feeling isolated (74 percent) and feeling depressed (70 percent).

What’s the secret to keeping older adults from whiling away their days in a rocker? That’s the million dollar question for any senior care professional who has encouraged, cajoled and begged a senior to keep moving.

Inactivity, as many of those who work with seniors know, is one of the biggest obstacles to healthy aging. It appears, though, that a significant motivation to get older adults up and at ’em may come from an unlikely source: helping others.

Other benefits that the senior volunteer survey respondents identified include:

I want to help others — 99 percent

I want to make a difference in my community — 99 percent

I want to provide assistance to causes I care about — 99 percent

I feel like my volunteer contributions are appreciated — 98 percent

I enjoy volunteering with my friends — 93 percent

I want to socialize and meet new people — 92 percent

I want to share my talents, skills and experience — 90 percent

I enjoy learning new skills — 89 percent

I have more time now — 86 percent

I want to occupy my free time — 84 percent

Pasadena CA CAREGivers are available to help your senior loved ones continue to pursue their passions by providing non-medical assistance at home – call us for more information 626-486-0800.

Learn more about how one volunteer is making a difference in his community: Salute to Seniors.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

Home Instead Senior Care® network research reveals that volunteering is a magic bullet of sorts to keep seniors mentally and physically engaged in the world around them, making a difference in the lives of others as well as benefiting their own Salute to Senior Service.

Other benefits that the senior volunteer survey respondents identified include:

I want to help others – 99 percent

I want to make a difference in my community – 99 percent

I want to provide assistance to causes I care about – 99 percent

I feel like my volunteer contributions are appreciated – 98 percent

I enjoy volunteering with my friends – 93 percent I want to socialize and meet new people – 92 percent

I want to share my talents, skills and experience – 90 percent

I enjoy learning new skills – 89 percent I have more time now – 86 percent I want to occupy my free time – 84 percent

Home Instead CAREGivers in Pasadena CA are available to help your senior loved ones continue to pursue their passions by providing non-medical assistance at home – call us for more information 626-486-0800.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

There are nearly 100,000 emergency hospitalizations each year for adverse drug events that involve U.S. senior citizens, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Of the thousands of medications available to patients, a small group of blood thinners and diabetes medications caused two-thirds of the emergency hospitalizations, the report said.

Four medications, used alone or together, accounted for two-thirds of the emergency hospitalizations:

33 percent, or 33,171 emergency hospitalizations, involved warfarin, a medication used to prevent blood clots.

14 percent involved insulins. Insulin injections are used to control blood sugar in people who have diabetes.

13 percent involved antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin or clopidogrel, which prevent platelets, or pieces of blood cells from clumping together to start a clot.

11 percent involved diabetes medications that are taken by mouth, called oral hypoglycemic agents.

Our CAREGivers at Home Instead Senior Care in the Pasadena CA area can serve as a second set of eyes and ears for your senior loved one(s) while providing non-medical services that can help track medications and doctors’ appointments. Contact us at 626-486-0800.

For more information about how to prepare for an emergency – refer to www.SeniorEmergencyKit.com.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

Roles that senior volunteers play have evolved over the years, according to Dr. Erwin Tan, director of Senior Corps, who serves as the expert U.S. source for the Home Instead Senior Care® network’s Salute to Senior Service program. The program, which kicked off in January 2012, includes a search for the most outstanding senior volunteer in each state and Canadian province (except Quebec) and culminates with the selection of a national Salute to Senior Service winner in May in the U.S. and in June in Canada.

• As seniors’ lifestyles and longevity have evolved over time so, too, is the desire for new kinds of volunteer activities, Dr. Tan said. In a highly technological world, the “new senior” has different interests than those of the past. Seniors are being encouraged to volunteer for a cause or an activity in which they are interested or for which they feel passionate.

• According to Home Instead Senior Care network research, 95 percent of senior volunteers feel that seniors who volunteer are healthier and happier than those seniors who do not.

• Check out more benefits from volunteering opportunities as well as information about how to make a deserving senior 65 and older who volunteers at least 15 hours a month a Senior Hero – SalutetoSeniorService.com.

• State and Canadian provincial (except Quebec) winners will receive plaques and their story on the SalutetoSeniorService.com website. A gift of $5,000 will be donated to the national winner’s favorite nonprofit charity.

Help us recognize outstanding senior volunteers who make a difference in their community. Nominees have a chance to win $5,000 for their favorite volunteer organization. Please share volunteer stories from your community and nominate a senior for Salute to Senior Service.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

Early detection of Parkinson’s disease is important because treatments can slow the disease progression. Continuing research, including a recent Penn State study offers hope for additional early detection techniques.

People with Parkinson’s disease swing their arms asymmetrically – one arm swings less than the other – when walking. This unusual movement is easily detected early.

No cure for Parkinson’s disease exists. But, if taken early, certain drugs can improve some of the disease’s symptoms and even reduce the likelihood of death, making early diagnosis important. Some people also believe that changes in nutrition and other lifestyle factors can modify the progression of the disease.

To diagnose patients with Parkinson’s disease early, some doctors and scientists have proposed the use of a smell test because people with the disease lose their ability to distinguish odors.

The Penn State team’s method of evaluating arm swing can be applied quickly and inexpensively by primary care physicians in their own offices when the smell test is inconclusive and before the application of an expensive brain scan.

The scientists plan to further investigate whether the arm swing evaluation in combination with a smell test can enhance early diagnosis even more. They also plan to further develop their technique so that the accelerometers give immediate readings, which, they said, would save the extra step of downloading the data to a computer and analyzing it, thereby making the arm swing assessments of Parkinson’s disease even easier.

Our CAREGivers at Home Instead Senior Care in Pasadena CA can help alert family to possible problems with an older adult and assist that senior in a goal of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Call us today at 626-486-0800 to find out how.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

People who have had a stroke have an increased risk of another stroke, especially during the first year after the original stroke. The risk of another stroke goes up with older age, high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, having had a transient ischemic attack (TIA), heart disease, cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol use, and drug abuse.

While some risk factors for stroke (such as age) cannot be changed, the risk factors for the others can be reduced through use of medicines or changes in lifestyle.

Patients and families should ask for guidance from their doctor or nurse about preventing another stroke. They need to work together to make healthy changes in the patient’s lifestyle.

Patients and families should also learn the warning signs of a TIA (such as weakness on one side of the body and slurred speech) and see a doctor immediately if these happen.

Stroke survivors and family members may find the hospital experience confusing. Hospital staff are there to help, and it is important to ask questions and talk about concerns.

• Make sure the patient’s condition is caused by a stroke and not by some other medical problem.

• Determine the type and location of the stroke and how serious it is.

• Prevent or treat complications such as bowel or bladder problems or pressure ulcers (bed sores).

• Prevent another stroke.

• Encourage the patient to move and perform self-care tasks, such as eating and getting out of bed, as early as medically possible. This is the first step in rehabilitation.

Get more information on Strokes.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

Q: My parents live far away and my mother has Alzheimer’s. I want to help but I have a young son and we’re struggling in this economy. I feel guilty and depressed. Please help!

My parents are 87 and 84. After my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, my father moved them downstate. I already lived thousands of miles away. None of the family there seems to want to help. I have never been very close to my father who is an alcoholic, but was very close to my mother. I feel I am in a state of constant grief and it’s getting worse. No alcohol, no medication, nothing helps. I feel guilty because I have a one year old son, I have a husband, and we are in debt ourselves with this economy. I just don’t know what to do.  I don’t have any family who want to help. I hate calling my parents as all I hear is how my mother is failing and my father refuses to put her in a stimulating safe facility which at this point the doctors have recommended. I feel helpless and deeply depressed. I would like to enjoy life and enjoy my baby but I can’t because I feel selfish. What do I do? I have collected dozens of elder care lawyers, home help, etc. from their new area but to be honest I am clueless to it. And there are no Geriatric Care managers for 100 miles. Please help me.

Dr. Amy:  You are in a difficult situation. I strongly recommend that you seek professional counseling and/or a caregiver support group. You need support for the grief and the stress that you are feeling and a counsellor and/or a caregiver support group can help you through this very hard time.  I also suggest that you call the Alzheimer’s Association and talk to them about the options that are open to your mother and father. They should also be able to lead you to a caregiver support group in your area. They will be able to make sense of your parent’s situation and help you figure out what you can do.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

When a senior reaches the point of needing additional assistance at home, there are two avenues that can be traveled. The senior will either receive at home care or go into a nursing home. Each has its own benefits, but it is important to consider what will help the senior in the best way. Nursing homes are generally for those that cannot take care of themselves while at home care is for those who can still function at home and have the help of a spouse or family members. This is a tough decision to make and the information below helps to point out the differences between at home care and nursing homes.

1.  Home care can consist of different services. Some seniors will only require one while other may need a combination of services. The most common at home care services include home health aides, physical therapy, speech therapy, nursing care and occupational therapy.

2.  While these same services are available in a nursing home, seniors who are in a nursing home will lose their independence. This is an important thing to consider when making a decision regarding the right form of car for a senior loved one.

3.  The services offered at many nursing homes, aside from the senior being watched around the clock, include wellness programs, meals, assisted living and activities.

4.  While it may seem a nursing home is the easier choice, it does depend on the functioning of the senior. If they are able to care for themselves and just need some additional assistance, there is really no need to place them in a nursing home.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.

Over the holidays when families are preparing for all of the hustle and bustle of the season, often the fact that not everyone is having a good time can go unnoticed. Seniors might find themselves left out of the activities, or feeling lonely even when surrounded by people because loss has taken important people out of their holiday celebration.  Families need to recognize that the holidays can be hard for seniors and take steps to prevent holiday depression:

1. Allow memories and past rituals to live on – don’t discourage seniors from reliving those important memories of holidays past, thinking that it will prevent depression. Share memories of family members no longer with you, look at photos, and keep old family traditions alive.

2. Make sure visiting seniors are comfortable – to help reduce the stress of seniors coming into your home over the holidays, make sure that your home is senior-friendly, with safety being the primary concern.

3. Avoid impulsive holiday activities – to ensure that seniors can be involved with all holiday activities, avoid being impulsive that way seniors can be well-rested for more excitement.

4. Focus on the joy – while it’s okay to reminisces, over the holidays make sure that all memories discussed focus on the positive.

5. Create new traditions – while you can focus on incorporating old rituals into the holidays, create new ones as well that give the whole family, including seniors, new things to look forward to doing together. Holiday activities can’t just focus on the past.

Home Care Pasadena provides home care for the elderly, aging, and seniors in Pasadena, Altadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Eagle Rock, La Canada, South Pasadena, Los Angeles area. Call us today at 626-486-0800.