Tag Archive for: chronic disease

ALS care - home health care ogden utah

ALS Care Tips for Utah Family Caregivers

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ALS care - home health care ogden utah

These ALS care tips can help family caregivers provide more effective care.

As a degenerating neurological disease, ALS (sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease) can cause a wide variety of physical obstacles that can result in clinical depression. For individuals providing ALS care for a loved one, it’s difficult not to feel overwhelmed and unsure about how to help the person live life to the fullest and remain optimistic.  

When providing ALS care in the home, it is important for family caregivers to understand the struggles that the disease produces in order to offer the absolute best care.  

Harmony Home Health & Hospice, the top providers of home health care in Ogden, Utah, has developed the following advice to help ensure the best care for individuals diagnosed with ALS: 

  • People with muscle diseases such as ALS are proficient thinkers, even if they are generally unable to communicate clearly. Examine choices openly while making joint decisions about the individual’s ALS care. 
  • Ask if the person wants assistance before helping. Do not take over tasks that still can be performed if the person is provided with adaptive products and time. 
  • Patience is vital. Although it may often seem faster and more efficient to take over certain tasks, show patience and allow your loved one to accomplish the tasks that he/she can.  
  • Set up a computer and internet access. Computers, along with other assistive systems, offer entertainment and social interaction and make it possible for the person with muscle disease to help with tasks like paying bills, tracking down information, hiring services, and shopping. 
  • Use adaptive devices. The utilization of adaptive equipment like wheelchairs is a move in the direction of self-sufficiency, not away from it. Adaptive tools are obtainable for assorted everyday tasks, such as eating, opening jars and doors, buttoning or zipping up clothing, writing, and taking a shower. 

For people with Lou Gehrig’s disease, self-reliance and exceptional ALS care are essential. The Ogden, Utah home health care experts at Harmony Home Health & Hospice are fully trained and experienced to provide the care and assistance needed to ensure people with ALS live their best lives. If you would like more information on our expert ALS care, contact us any time at 1-877-I-NEED-CARE (1-877-463-3322) and learn about our top-rated services in your area.

ALS symptoms - home hospice in Salt Lake City

ALS Symptoms and Stages: Important Information for Salt Lake City Family Caregivers

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ALS symptoms - home hospice in Salt Lake City

Understanding ALS symptoms and stages helps family caregivers provide exceptional care.

Being given a diagnosis of ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) can bring about plenty of questions and concerns, both for the individual diagnosed and his or her family members. What’s the cause for ALS? What are the ALS symptoms which may be experienced now, and exactly how will they change in the coming years? Where am I able to find the necessary support?

Upwards of 30,000 Americans are currently diagnosed as having ALS, and nearly 5,600 new patients are diagnosed with the illness annually. And while the specific cause is not clear, some scientific studies point to complicated risk factors, such as a doubled risk of ALS in those who served during the Gulf War.   

Although each individual can be impacted by ALS differently from others, the progression for the disease does seem to follow specific phases. Learning about these stages can help individuals diagnosed with ALS and those who care for them put into action the most appropriate plan of care. Harmony Home Health & Hospice, top providers of the home health and hospice care services Salt Lake City families need, shares details below: 

First Stages 

  • ALS symptoms may be detected in only one single area of the body  
  • However, milder symptoms may affect significantly more than this one region  
  • For some people, the initial impacted muscles are those used for speaking, swallowing or breathing 

Possible Symptoms:  

  • Poor balance 
  • Fatigue  
  • Slurring of speech  
  • Weakened grip  
  • Stumbling when walking  

Middle Stages 

  • Some specific muscles may be paralyzed, while some are weaker or totally unaffected  
  • Indicators of ALS are now more extensive  
  • Twitching could be noticeable  

 Possible Symptoms:  

  • Difficulties standing without assistance  
  • Challenges with eating and swallowing, which can result in choking  
  • Difficulty breathing, particularly when lying down  
  • Possible uncontrolled and inappropriate laughing or crying, known as the pseudobulbar affect (PBA)  

Late Stages  

  • The individual with ALS needs full assistance to care for his/her needs  
  • Speaking may no longer be possible  
  • The individual can no longer drink or eat by mouth  

Possible Symptoms: 

  • Paralysis in the majority of voluntary muscles 
  • Breathing is greatly affected, causing fatigue, unclear thinking, headaches and susceptibility to pneumonia  
  • Mobility is significantly impacted 

Obtaining care from a professional home health caregiver, such as Harmony Home Health & Hospice, can increase the quality of life for people impacted by ALS symptoms. Our skilled and knowledgeable caregivers work with families to customize an individualized plan of care, allowing those experiencing symptoms of ALS to maintain dignity and the greatest levels of independence at all times. Providing the professional home health care and home hospice Salt Lake City families trust, we invite you to contact us at 1-877-I-NEED-CARE (1-877-463-3322) to learn more about our top-rated services in your area.  

Living With a Chronic Illness

Finding Joy When Living With a Chronic Illness

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Living With a Chronic Illness

Living with a chronic illness doesn’t mean that life lacks joy and purpose.

Have you ever started your day and figured, “It’s probably going to be one of those days!” Maybe your alarm didn’t go off, the hot water heater opted to stop working, and the dog chewed up one of your favorite shoes overnight. Then imagine if every day were “one of those days!” For someone living with a chronic illness (and that is much of the senior population), daily struggles and challenges may be a given.

Yet there are numerous steps that older adults can take to realize and maintain a life of joy, even throughout the face of chronic illness. For instance:

  • Follow passions. Finding purpose and meaning in each day is essential – and attainable. Many older adults find happiness in assisting and supporting other people. Others thrive on being lifelong learners. For some it can mean recording the past for the following generation. Brainstorm ideas until you arrive at one that ignites passion, and then make it a reality.
  • Practice positivity. One good way to produce a more positive outlook on life is through journaling. Encourage your elder family members to begin every day by writing a summary of everything they’re grateful for that morning, including the relatively ordinary: the smell of fresh coffee brewing, a dog curled up in a sunbeam, an upcoming lunch date with a relative. At the end of each week, sit together and read back through the earlier entries for a quick and practical pick-me-up.
  • Avoid negativity. Adding in a measure of positivity as mentioned above can naturally lead to reduced negativity, but there are further strategies that may be taken as well. For instance, allow for breaks from activities that induce irritation, providing needed time to de-stress. Put the focus on dealing with tasks which can be accomplished successfully, and find an alternative solution for those that are too challenging, such as assigning those tasks to another family member or friend, or engaging the services of a specialist.
  • Get out of the house. Preserving as active a lifestyle as possible outside of the home is often so refreshing for seniors. Help your elder loved ones go out for hair appointments, shopping trips, visits with relatives, and other fun outings, as much as they are comfortable. Even simply going outdoors and relaxing on the front porch when weather allows can substantially boost someone’s frame of mind and outlook.

As the top providers of support for home hospice in Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and the surrounding areas, Harmony Home Health & Hospice aims to help older adults attain the best possible quality of life at all times. Our professionally trained and knowledgeable care team offers a wide variety of customized home health care solutions to ensure your loved one is safe, comfortable and healthy. Call us at 1-877-I-NEED-CARE (1-877-463-3322) and discover the difference our in-home health care services can make for your loved one!

Chronic Disease Management

Combining Health Care Goals with Chronic Disease Management for Seniors

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Chronic Disease Management

Chronic disease management should include identifying health care goals for seniors.

On the subject of chronic diseases, older adults are often the experts, hands down, with up to three out of four seniors affected by multiple conditions that are ongoing, call for long-term medical attention, and place limitations on activities. With the never-ending barrage of bloodwork and other medical tests, physicians’ appointments and procedures and medications, chronic disease management often takes both a physical and emotional toll, and may very quickly become overwhelming.

Dr. Mary Tinetti, chief of geriatrics and internist at Yale School of Medicine, said, “Once you get three, four, or five and six diseases, several things happen: Number one, almost guaranteed, trying to get one of these diseases under control is going to make one of the other diseases worse. Number two: The more we ask people to do, the more overwhelmed they get and the less they are likely to do.”

For these reasons, Dr. Tinetti has developed the Patient Priorities Care approach, with the objective to decrease the burden of treatment by empowering patients to communicate their personal health care goals – identifying what truly matters most to them. A plan of care will then be created to successfully meet those goals. For example, one person’s goal could possibly be to enhance quality of life during the short-term, whereas another individual may seek to improve longevity of life. Furthermore, it takes under consideration activities the individual enjoys and how to find the easiest way for him or her to continue to take part in them.

The Patient Priorities Care method builds upon the Minimally Disruptive Medicine strategy developed a decade ago, which also strives to help remedy the stress of chronic condition treatment, but which did not contain the key facet of incorporating feedback from patients to understand what means the most to them.

Ultimately, what many seniors discover is that they prefer to lessen “unwanted care,” which they understand requires significantly more personal energy than the benefit they are going to receive, such as diagnostic tests and procedures. To that end, aging adults and their loved ones can make the most of these beneficial resources to get more successful, self-directed care, such as a conversation guide, overview of health priorities, and much more.

As the most trusted provider of home nursing care in Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas, Harmony Home Health & Hospice is completely dedicated to understanding what is most essential to the older adults in our care, and to offering the degree of care which helps them to flourish and attain their goals. It is why our care is fully personalized, and always starts with learning as much as possible about each individual and what his or her goals encompass – and then developing a plan of care to help reach those goals. Call us at 1-877-I-NEED-CARE (1-877-463-3322) to learn more.