A medical directive
Also known as a living will or advance health care directive, this document sets out what kind of care your parents want to receive if and when they become ill or incapacitated.

A durable power of attorney for healthcare and HIPAA release
A durable power of attorney for healthcare allows you to make healthcare decisions for your parents. A HIPAA release gives you access to your parents’ health records and physicians.

A durable power of attorney for finances
A durable power of attorney for finances allows you to manage your parents’ financial affairs, pay bills, sell property, and so on.

A revocable living trust
It allows your parents to retain control over their estate while making transfers of assets to beneficiaries. Your parents designate what property (home, investments, jewelry, and so on) goes into the trust and to whom it will be granted. During their lifetimes, your parents act as executors of their own living trust. A revocable living trust has an important advantage: it allows their estate to avoid probate at the time of their deaths.

A will
A will makes clear who will receive your parents’ assets and personal property. A properly written will helps to avoid disagreements over your parents’ estate after their deaths.

- By Susan Kostal, Caring.com

News / Latest Updates

73 ( ) – Accessible Home Health Care Announces East Dallas Texas Franchise Of The Second Quarter 2010

Coral Springs, FL (July 13, 2010) — Accessible Home Health Care today announced East Dallas, TX as its Franchise of the Quarter for the second quarter of 2010.

Mirella Salem, President of Accessible, said, ““Selecting the East Dallas team for this prestigious award was a difficult decision indeed, as there are many very deserving franchises in our system. Through their team of Caregivers, they consistently provide their patients Compassionate Care from the Heart, a core value of our organization that sets us apart. By properly executing the Accessible Home Health Care business model, they provide all types of care throughout their East Dallas territory. We are honored to have this dedicated group as part of our organization.”

Accessible Home Health Care of Dallas – 214.987.2100
www.accessibledallas.com
www.facebook.com/accessibledallas

The benefits of the law fall into two categories – provisions which help the care recipient through Medicare and other public programs and those that help the caregiver through expanded health insurance coverage and better consumer protections. The biggest advantages to care recipients come through better coverage under the Medicare prescription drug program and through expanded health insurance options for pre-Medicare retirees.

Family caregivers will see their biggest benefits come from the fact that health insurance will begin to be de-coupled from employment starting in 2014. Many family caregivers face the difficult choice of whether to stay employed and hire professional caregivers to look after their loved ones or to leave their jobs and care for them full time. This decision is made more difficult by the fact that people who leave their jobs risk losing the health insurance benefits that go with them. By providing new health coverage options and subsidies to help pay for them, family caregivers will have one less thing to worry about when making these difficult choices.

Below is an outline of the key provisions of the healthcare reform law and how they are likely to impact family caregivers.

What Goes Into Effect during 2010 and 2011

The expansion of coverage provided by the new healthcare reform law will not be available until 2014 but there are many portions of the law which will go into effect during 2010 and 2011.

Improvements to Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage – The bill provides a $250 “bonus” to all people in a Medicare Prescription drug program in 2010 that hit the “doughnut hole,” the coverage gap that currently begins at $2,830. It also begins closing the “doughnut hole” in 2011 and completely eliminates it by 2020.

Helping Sandwich Generation Caregivers – The bill helps sandwich generation caregivers, those caring for sick parents or relatives and their own children, by:

Eliminating pre-existing conditions for children thereby ensuring sick children can get insurance coverage.
Permitting children up to age 26 to stay on their parents insurance policies regardless of whether or not they are full-time students. Most insurers currently cover dependents not in school only up to age 19 and those in school up to age 23.
Prohibiting lifetime benefits caps on health insurance.
Temporary Early Retiree Program – The law creates a temporary voluntary reinsurance program for employers to help cover early retirees within 90 days of enactment. This should help pre-Medicare retirees find affordable coverage. The program ends in 2014 when the expanded coverage provisions come online.

Medicare Advantage Changes – The law changes the way that Medicare Advantage plans are paid by bringing payments into line with the costs of the regular Medicare program. These payment changes may impact the benefits provided under these plans so review plans carefully at renewal time.

2011 and Beyond

The bulk of the new benefits and subsidies for health insurance will begin in 2014. The lead time is necessary to accumulate funds to pay for the cost of the new coverage.

Expanded Health Insurance Coverage – Starting in 2014, expanded health insurance options will be available for individuals and small business through Health Insurance Exchanges. These are state-based marketplaces that are modeled on the Massachusetts Health Connector system where individuals and small businesses are able to purchase health insurance. The goal is to provide individuals and small businesses with transparency in benefits and pricing so they can compare health insurance and purchase the coverage that best fits their needs.

Health Insurance Subsidies. In order to help families afford the mandatory insurance premiums, starting in 2014 subsidies will be available on a sliding scale, up to a level of $88,000 per year for a family of four. The amount of the subsidies will also be on a sliding scale, meaning that people with lower incomes will receive larger benefits.

Individual Mandate – Almost all Americans will be required to get insurance coverage or face fines—a system similar to the one that’s already in place in Massachusetts. The fines start small at $95 in 2014, but rise rapidly to $695 in 2016. Low-income individuals are exempted from the mandate but most of them will be eligible for coverage through Medicaid or other subsidies.

Consumer Protections – The law has a number of consumer protections including:

Elimination of pre-existing conditions.
Prohibition on recissions, a procedure where insurance companies retroactively cancel coverage.
Expanded appeals for denial of medical services including the ability to appeal decisions to an external review board.

Long Term Care. The bill includes the CLASS Act, which provides a public, voluntary long term care program that working people can purchase. The program would cover home care, respite care, home modifications, transportation, and assistive technologies.

What’s Next

The lesson of social insurance programs is that they always remain works-in-progress. Social Security and Medicare have been modified and expanded a great deal since they were first enacted.

It is likely that there will be expansion and changes to the new healthcare reform law in the coming years. With the aging of the population and people living longer, some of those changes may include additional assistance for the cost of long term care and family caregivers.

Source: eCare Diary blog

“Alzheimer’s is continuing to be on the rise,” says Maria Carrillo, PhD, the Alzheimer’s Association’s senior director of medical and scientific relations. “So many people are affected by it across the country, but we are rallying to highlight the disparities that exist in populations.”

Much of Alzheimer’s escalation is attributed to increasing high blood pressure and diabetes among older adults, which raise the odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease in all populations. “African Americans and Hispanics are particularly vulnerable, because the proportion of these two risk factors is higher even still,” Carrillo says. “We can actually do something about this increased risk with better management of the conditions.”

Not only are there more cases of Alzheimer’s, but more families are shouldering the burden of the disease, Carrillo says. This is particularly true for minority families who may have less access to outside care. “There are 5.3 million Americans with Alzheimer’s,” notes Robert J. Egge, the association’s vice president of public policy and advocacy. “And for each of those people there are many others whose lives are consumed with caring for those Alzheimer’s patients.” That totals some 11 million Americans, he adds.

In 2009, these unpaid caregivers provided 12.5 billion hours of care “valued at $144 billion, more than the federal government spends on Medicare and Medicaid combined for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias,” according to the report.

Part of the problem is that Alzheimer’s isn’t recognized until it is in a late stage, Egge says. “So there isn’t adequate care planning and other kinds of support structures, especially in communities with socioeconomic disadvantages,” he says.

Another reason behind Alzheimer’s grim surge is that people are living longer, escaping illnesses such as heart disease and cancer that might have killed them before developing Alzheimer’s. “We are managing many diseases that do allow us to live longer,” Carrillo says. “With age being the greatest risk factor, we are just skewing our population towards the Alzheimer’s arena.”

“We have some pretty effective solutions for a lifetime of cardiovascular disease risk, but your bypass and stent may just give you time to dement,” says Greg M. Cole, PhD, a neuroscientist at the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System and associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.

Often it all adds up to many years of needed care. And since it often takes a long time to die from Alzheimer’s, “you may have lost touch with your loved ones for 10 years, sometimes even 20,” Carrillo says.

Research dollars remain key to turning the numbers around, she says. “We really need to focus on Alzheimer’s. We need more of an investment in Alzheimer’s disease.”

The report found that payments for health and long-term care services for people with Alzheimer’s will total $172 billion this year. In addition, Medicare costs for Alzheimer’s patients are almost three times higher than for other older people, and Medicaid costs are almost nine times higher. Many people with Alzheimer’s also have one or more other medical conditions, such as diabetes or coronary heart disease, making their care even more expensive.

Yet far less is spent on Alzheimer’s research than on other diseases. “For every $25,000 the government spends on care for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, it spends only $100 for Alzheimer research,” the report says. According to Cole, “This new report details how the long-predicted ‘epidemic’ rise in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia is already upon us.”

The report also sounds the alarm that the situation may get worse before it gets better. “We hope to have better treatments, but cures are unlikely,” Cole says. “The only cost-effective answer we can realistically try to achieve is an effective prevention program.”

— Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dance therapy improves seniors' gait, balance, researcher finds

For seniors, dancing isn't just for fun; it also can be therapeutic. Two recent studies conducted by University of Missouri researchers found that participation in dance-based therapy can improve balance and gait in older adults. Improved functionality among seniors can decrease their risk of falling and reduce costly injuries.

• Fasting < 70-126mg/dl
• 2 hours after the meal < 140-180 mg/dl
• A1C < 6.5-7

Our goal is to keep above target numbers in the range to prevent diabetes and to avoid eyes, kidney, and feet problems related to diabetes.

 10 Tips to Prevent and Control Diabetes

1. Be Consistent with Portion size at meals.
2. Stick with 1-2 servings of carbohydrates (grains, dairy, beans, and fruits) at every meal. Don’t combine all of these foods at one meal.
3. Include serving of lean meat, soy, nuts and seeds at most meals and snacks.
4. Aim to get at least 30 minutes of serious physical activity for 5-6 days a week.
5. Check your blood sugar weekly to maintain your A1C.
6. Check your weight daily or at least weekly to control weight gain.
7. Drink minimum 8 cups x 8 oz of water. Have your water with you wherever you go.
8. Get 25-30 grams of fibers from whole grain, fruits, vegetables, and beans.
9. Eat every 4 hours.
10. Have Realistic expectations with yourself to manage and prevent diabetes for lifelong.

 BAYLOR INSTITUTE FOR REHABILITATION – 909 N. Washington (ph: 214-820-8854)]

Water Therapy – Wednesday…11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

DALLAS YOGA CENTER – 4525 Lemmon Ave., 3rd Floor

Yoga for Parkinson’s – Friday…11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

LAKESIDE BAPTIST CHURCH – 9150 Garland Rd.

Speech Therapy – Wednesday…10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.

Group Exercise – Wednesday…9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Partners-in-Care Group – 2nd Wed….10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

PRESTON HOLLOW UNITED METHODIST CHURCH – 6315 Walnut Hill Lane

Speech Therapy – Tuesday…11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Group Exercise
Tuesday…10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Thursday…10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Friday…10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Partners-in-Care Group – Tuesday…10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

SKILLMAN CHURCH OF CHRIST – 3120 Skillman St., FLC Building (Class in the gym)      

Group Exercise - Monday…9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

ST. LUKE COMMUNITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH – 5710 East R.L. Thornton Freeway

Group Exercise – Monday…10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
OTHER CITIES

ST. ANDREWS CHRISTIAN CHURCH – 3945 N. Josey Lane

Group Exercise – Wednesday…9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

Speech Therapy – Wednesday…10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH – 1302 S. Clark Rd.

Group Exercise – Monday…6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

SOUTH GARLAND BAPTIST CHURCH – 1330 E. Centerville Rd.

Speech Therapy – Thursday…9:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

Group Exercise
Monday…10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Thursday…10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Discussion Group – Monday…9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Partners-in-Care Group – Thursday…10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH – 211 W. Third St.

Group Exercise – Tuesday…9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

CUSTER ROAD METHODIST CHURCH – 6601 Custer Road

Speech Therapy – Thursday…11:00 a.m. to 11:45 p.m.

Group Exercise
Monday…9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
Thursday…9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

Partners-In-Care Group – Monday…9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

ARAPAHO UNITED METHODIST CHURCH – 1400 W. Arapaho at Coit

Group Exercise
Monday…10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Wednesday…10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Friday…10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Partners-In-Care Group – 1st Wednesday of each month…10:00 a.m. to 11:00a.m.

Information updated and maintained by:

Accessible Home Health Care (Home Care for Dallas Seniors) – 214.987.2100

www.accessibledallas.com

 Tags: Parkinsons care in dallas, Home care for parkinsons patients, Free Parkinsons therapy in Dallas, Parkinsons Therapy, Dallas Parkinsons, www.accessibledallas.com, www.homecarefordallasseniors.com

Here are several options that you can explore.

1. Private Pay

2. Long Term Care Insurance

3. Reverse Mortgage

4. State Funded Medicaid Programs (Home & Community Based Waiver Programs)

5. Veterans Aid (VA Pensions including VA Aid & Attendance)

6. Charity Care

The most common misconception is that Medicare & Health Insurance will pay for Long Term Care.  Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people 65and older, certain people with disabilities, and ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease). It pays for much of your health care, but not all of it. There are some costs you will have to pay yourself.

There are other kinds of health insurance that may help pay the costs that Medicare does not. Medicare Supplements (Medi-gap Policies) and Long-Term Care Insurance will pick up some of the costs that Medicare will not pay for.Medicare was implemented in 1965. How many times has Medicare been over-hauled since 1965?NEVER. It was not designed to pay for care related to diseases or conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, or MS.

The average life expectancy was much lower in 1965 because medical technology was not as advanced. Medicare was designed for SHORT-TERM acute care, and short-term rehabilitative stays in a rehab or long-term care facility. Although Medicare Part D was added in 2004/2005 to help with the costs of prescription drugs, Medicare still does not pay for long-term care. (www.medicare.gov)

 By Accessible Home Health Care of East Dallas

Tel: 214.987.2100

• Gammaglobulin Alzheimer’s Partnership (GAP) Study – The Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study has begun recruiting participants for a passive immunization trial of intravenous immunoglobulin (IGIv) for reducing brain amyloid. IGIv is a well-known treatment with an established safety record, approved for use for other indications for more than 25 years. Forty sites are expected to participate through a partnership with Baxter Pharmaceuticals, recruiting 360 individuals between the ages of 50 to 89 with probable AD. Most sites will use home-health nurses to administer the IGIv bi-weekly for 72 weeks. Sign up for the IGIV Email Alert to receive updates on this study and the addition of new sites.

• RI (RAGE Inhibitor) Study — The Alzhiemer’s Disease Cooperative Study and Pfizer are now recruiting participants for a trial of a new drug developed as an inhibitor of the Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endpoints (RAGE) protein. The study will recruit nearly 400 volunteers at 40 U.S. Research sites. Click here for more information on the trial.

• Home-Based Assessment for Alzheimer Disease Prevention (HBA) is now recruiting participants.

• Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Study seeks families with 2 or more siblings with AD.

AD Genetics Study Brochure (PDF, 196K) 

Source: NIH Website

For home care services for your loved one in Dallas, TX contact – Accessible Home Health Care at 214.987.2100

www.accessibleeastdallas.com

MASON CITY—Providing care for loved ones especially during the holidays whether it is full-time or occasionally, can expend a caregiver’s energy and well-being.

It is estimated that more than 60 percent of the adult population will serve as a caregiver during their lifetime. The overwhelming majority of caregivers are concerned spouses and adult children, who often must juggle the demands of home, work and caring for others.

“Caregivers make valuable contributions in caring for their loved ones every day throughout Iowa and the entire country,” says Lahoma Counts, executive director of Elderbridge Agency on Aging. According to a 2008 report by AARP, family caregivers represent $375 billion annually in economic value in the United States.

“Caregiving involves sacrifice and a significant investment of a person’s time and energy,” said Counts. “Because of the long-term and constant nature of care, family caregivers must take steps to care for themselves in addition to the devoted care they give to others, particularly during the busy holiday season.”

Because extended caregiving can cause emotional burn-out, Elderbridge provides caregiver assistance and support with federal funding through the National Family Caregiver Support Program.

Some dedicated family caregivers devote 24 hours a day, seven days a week to care for and improve the lives of those who are frail, chronically ill or disabled. Others give care on an intermittent, part-time basis. Family caregivers assist their loved ones and others with daily living activities such as bathing, banking, shopping, food preparation and health care to help meet their social, emotional, financial, homemaking and health needs.

Iowa Family Caregiver Program Executive Director Mark Hanson said, “One of the most important attributes of being an advocate for your loved one during the holiday season is the willingness to seek assistance from others while protecting not only the health and safety of your loved ones but of yourself as well.”

Caregivers should consider practicing the following tips:

Understand the caregiver’s energy level and the loved one’s limitations.

Identify significant others who can share responsibilities.

Slowing down to spend time one-on-one or in a small group with a loved one can prove particularly rewarding.

Travel, especially around the holidays, can be a lot harder for the loved one and for the caregiver. Remember to include important documents and any medication the person may need.

Try to stick to the normal routine. Even minor changes in routine can be stressful to everyone involved.

Involve your loved one in the holiday activities, but not so much to overwhelm them. Keep the guest list to a minimum and do familiar things your loved one will enjoy.

Have a potluck meal. Family and friends will probably be excited to contribute to the holiday meal, and it can reduce the caregiver’s stress.

Let gifts contribute to caregiving. If someone asks what kind of gift to bring, suggest something practical, such as frozen foods, gift certificates, or even “I owe you’s” for running errands or shopping.

Eat the right food for the right reasons. Keep a balanced diet during the holidays to improve energy and state of mind.

Most of all, look for humor and take a quiet moment to be thankful. Think about the blessings in life; find the place that brings great joy, and stay for a moment.

Caregiving can create stress and prevent caregivers from enjoying the holiday season. Hanson stated, “It is important to keep holiday traditions alive. Try to find a tradition you enjoy that will be memorable to you this holiday season.”

Accessible Home Health Care – Call 214.987.2100 (Dallas)

Source: http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2009/11/26/news/latest/doc4b0ed39988650096513294.txt#vmix_media_id=7555811