Family Tree In Home Care

Senior Citizen Politics

FamilyTree — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:00:49 +0000

Source: http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Politics/2012/20121214-Increasing_Medicare_Age.htm

Senior Citizen Politics:

Increasing Medicare Age of Eligibility May Not Be Off Table but Chances of Approval Look Dim

White House does not support statement by Sen. Durbin that issue is not on the table

Dec. 14, 2012 – Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that increasing the eligibility age for Medicare was no longer part of the budget negotiations with Republicans. This good news for older Americans not yet age 65 did not hold up, however, as McClatchy Newspapers report today that the White House will not confirm the measure is off the table in talks aimed at avoiding the fiscal cliff.

“Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday that the Obama administration had assured him that the eligibility age ‘is no longer one of the items being considered by the White House,’” wrote McClatchy reporter Tony Pugh.

“But White House spokesman Jay Carney walked back Durbin’s comments, saying, “We’re not going to engage in hypotheticals about what a package would look like tomorrow on the spending cut side, negotiated with the Republicans.”

He also reported that in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters that will be broadcast Friday night, Obama said it wasn’t clear that a higher eligibility age “saves a lot of money. But what I’ve said is, let’s look at every avenue.”

Sen. Durbin said he did not get the information directly from the president or the White House. But he is regularly apprised of the status of negotiations, reports the AP. (AP story by Andrew Taylor)

Increasing the Medicare age for eligibility has long been a favorite issue for many Republicans. It was also included in the budget proposal last year that was presented by House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, who became the GOP vice presidential nominee.

The move, however, may not be as helpful to the budget as many assume, say Democrats.

“The Congressional Budget Office estimates that slowly hiking Medicare’s eligibility age by two months a year – from age 65 in 2014 to age 67 in 2027 – would cut program spending by $148 billion over the next decade. But it also would lead non-Medicare health expenditures to increase, lowering the overall federal savings to $113 billion, the CBO found,” according to McClatchy’s Pugh.

The Democrats also point to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation that says that if the eligibility age went from 65 to 67 in a year, costs to states and the private sector would be nearly twice as large as the federal savings: $11.4 billion versus $5.7 billion.

House Democrats, too, are lining up behind Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) against increasing Medicare’s eligibility age as part of a year-end tax-and-spending package, according to a report yesterday in The Hill.

Pelosi rejected raising Medicare’s eligibility age in an op-ed published Tuesday in USA Today, then doubled down on that position Wednesday. “We want what happens to be fair,” she said in an interview on CBS’s “This Morning” program. “And one of the things that we object to is raising the Medicare age” (Lillis, 12/12).

So, the topic may not be “off the table,” yet, but it is looking increasingly less likely that it is an idea that many Democrats will support.

More about Alzheimer’s

FamilyTree — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:00:13 +0000

We all forget things from time to time, the name of a new acquaintance, where we left our keys, the occasional appointment, etc. It’s perfectly normal. As we age, the frequency of such memory lapses tends to increase. In some cases, this increase may indicate the onset of a more debilitating condition like Alzheimer’s or Dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of Dementia, affecting approximately 5.3 million Americans and is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, by the year 2030 as many as 7.7 million Americans will be living with Alzheimer’s disease if no effective prevention strategy or cure is found. By 2050 the number is projected to skyrocket to between 11 million and 16 million. Ten million baby boomers are expected to develop the disease.

It slowly destroys brain cells, causing memory loss and problems with thinking and behavior severe enough to affect your work, lifelong hobbies and social life. Currently, there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s, making it the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.

Early detection is critical to increase the chances of benefitting from treatment. It also provides you and your loved ones more time to plan for the future and make choices that can maximize your independence and quality of life.

Alzheimer’s disease can happen to anyone – your loved one, your neighbor – even you. Don’t let it stop you from living the life you want! Learn how to create a safe and comfortable environment and to make tasks of daily living more manageable.

Complex care needs: Especially as symptoms progress, the needs of your loved one may be too much for you to manage alone. Many individuals with Alzheimer’s require 24-hour observation and care, keep unusual or reversed schedules, and become completely dependent on physical support. If you find that you are awake and caregiving at all hours of the day, have difficulty with physical tasks such as transferring, or feel unequipped to respond to behavioral changes, our professional caregivers can be an invaluable resource.

Overwhelming demands on your time: You may be balancing family, career, and social responsibilities on top of caregiving. Often, personal time is de-prioritized to the detriment of your physical, emotional, and mental health

Increased personal anxiety and stress: If you begin to feel regular anxiety, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, and other symptoms of stress or depression, you may require respite. In fact, over half of family caregivers report clinically significant symptoms of depression. A caregiver can ensure safety for your loved one and give you time to recuperate and address personal needs.

Complete Flexibility: Many clients have a caregiver only during the night, on weekends, or for transportation to medical appointments. Family Tree In-Home Care is totally flexible and happy to provide care whenever and wherever needed.

Click here to learn more and a professional care manger will get back with you within the hour.

More About Dementia

FamilyTree — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:00:22 +0000

Dementia is a general term that refers to a progressive decline in intellectual ability characterized by memory loss, impaired judgment, deterioration of abstract thinking and language, and personality changes. Symptoms appear gradually so that it may take months or even years before a diagnosis is made.

Dementia should not be confused with age-associated memory impairment, which is a clinical term that refers to the normal forgetfulness that is expected with age (for example, having difficulty recalling a name). Dementia, by contrast, involves problems in multiple areas of cognition (thinking) and results in serious impairment.

Dementia can be irreversible or reversible, but most cases of Dementia are irreversible. The most common cause of irreversible Dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which is responsible for about 65 percent of Dementia cases. Vascular disease is also a primary cause of irreversible Dementia.

Reversible Dementia is caused by a number of potentially treatable conditions, which include depression, alcohol abuse, vitamin B12 deficiency, thyroid disease, and side effects of medication. However, despite its label, reversible memory loss is often only partially restored.

Symptoms of Dementia

Memory Loss

Language Impairments

Difficulty with learning and retaining new information

Difficulty handling complex tasks

Impaired judgement

Getting lost or distorted in familiar places

Personality changes, such as becoming more irritable or less responsive than usual

What causes Dementia?

* Reduced blood flow to the brain, often resulting from a series of tiny strokes (known as infarcts), causes vascular dementia; other causes include chronic high blood pressure, diabetes, or coronary heart disease

*Another irreversible dementia (dementia with Lewey bodies) is caused by abnormal structures within nerve cells that are distributed throughout the brain

*Pick’s disease is the main cause of frontotemporal dementia, in which patients display personality changes and compulsive behaviors

*Irreversible dementia may also be caused by other diseases, which include Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

*Reversible dementias have a number of causes, including alcohol abuse, infections, such as AIDS or neurosyphilis, brain tumors, and reactions to certain medications.

Complex care needs

Especially as symptoms progress, the needs of your loved one may be too much for you to manage alone. Many individuals with Alzheimer’s require 24-hour observation and care, keep unusual or reversed schedules, and become completely dependent on physical support. If you find that you are awake and caregiving at all hours of the day, have difficulty with physical tasks such as transferring, or feel unequipped to respond to behavioral changes, our professional caregivers can be an invaluable resource.

Overwhelming demands on your time

You may be balancing family, career, and social responsibilities on top of caregiving. Often, personal time is de-prioritized to the detriment of your physical, emotional, and mental health.

Increased personal anxiety and stress

If you begin to feel regular anxiety, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, and other symptoms of stress or depression, you may require respite. In fact, over half of family caregivers report clinically significant symptoms of depression. A caregiver can ensure safety for your loved one and give you time to recuperate and address personal needs.

Complete Flexibility

Many clients have a caregiver only during the night, on weekends, or for transportation to medical appointments. Family Tree In-Home Care is totally flexible and happy to provide care whenever and wherever needed.

Click here to learn more and a professional care manger will get back with you within the hour.

Common Diseases

FamilyTree — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 08:00:23 +0000

Fortunately, most diseases are easy to treat and others may only require medication. But when it is time for your aging parents to receive in-home care? Your parents’ doctors can assist you with this dilemma, but there are several diseases that will most likely result in the need for in-home caretakers.

Alzheimer’s and Dementia are the most common illnesses that will require extra care as the disease progresses. Alzheimer’s disease attacks the brain and causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. It usually affects people over the age of 60, but how fast the disease will progress will vary.

As our parents and loved ones begin to age, they become more susceptible to diseases and disorders from person to person. Most live about 8-10 years after diagnosis. It begins with simple memory problems, then leads to confusion, problems doing simple tasks, forgetting who people are, and problems with speech and writing.

The disease can be treated but not cured. It will only be a matter of time before your loved one needs an In-Home caregiver to help him/her with daily tasks.

Click here to contact us and a professional care manger will get back with you within the hour.

Welcome!

FamilyTree — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:27:14 +0000

Family Tree In-Home Care is excited to announce the launch of our brand new website at www.familytreeinhomecare.com! We have spent time asking you how we can be most effective online and as a result, we believe we designed a site that portrays our commitment and dedication to providing the highest quality of care. We hope our site gives you everything you need to get you started. If you have any feedback or would like to see anything that you can’t see now, please email us at info@familytreeinhomecare.com.