Springhill Care Group

http://springhillcaregroup.net/archives/273 We are used to a tradition of flooding of food during holidays, eggnog on Christmas, stuffing on Thanksgiving, or latkes on Hanukkah. A get together without food, that won't do. The holidays are traditionally a time for big meals with predictable main courses and side dishes, but for those with dietary restrictions, each meal brings a challenge. Sofie McConnaughay owner of a skin care studio that caters to people with allergies and sensitivities in Boise, Idaho said, "There is an old family dinner roll recipe that is completely out of the question for me." And she added, "It's sad, because they're my favorite part of the holiday meal experience!" Many people are on strict diet and among these is Ms. McConnaughay who must stick with a gltuen-free, nut-free, dairy-free, and more-even during this festive time of year. "Special diets can really effect people over the holidays," said Christie Korth, a holistic nutritionist and Founder and CEO of Happy and Healthy Wellness, Inc. She is also the author of "The IBD (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) Healing Plan and Recipe Book" (IBD is an acronym for). Mashed potatoes, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, or steamed vegetables with butter, these food may sound safe but Ms. Korth pointed out that these can be no-no's for many special diets. "The way around it is to make sure you bring yummy dishes to your family celebration and enjoy your own food," she said. "What I have found is in many families while there may be some resistance to a special diet in the beginning, over time there are family members that are very accommodating to dietary restrictions." Ms. McConnaughay's solution so that the family wouldn't miss out on something they love to eat yearly, she has been to keep making the dinner rolls she loves for everyone to eat and enjoy. "I also bring fresh, homemade butter

Springhill Home Care Group: Mid-life stress 'precedes dementia' http://springhillcaregroup.net/archives/269 Current evidence suggest the best ways to reduce the risk of dementia are to eat a balanced diet, take regular exercise, not smoke, and keep blood pressure and cholesterol in check" - Dr Simon Ridley Alzheimer's Research UK According to the latest research, women who suffer from a lot of stress in middle age may increase their risk of developing dementia in later life. Furthermore the study says that mid-life stress may increase a woman's risk of developing dementia. Eight hundred women were subjected to study and they have found out that those who had to cope with events such as divorce or bereavement were more likely to get Alzheimer's decades later. BMJ Open reports says, the more stressful events there were, the higher the dementia risk became. According to the study authors, stress hormones may be to blame, triggering harmful alterations in the brain. Many changes in the body is caused by stressed hormones, it can also affect many things like blood pressure and blood sugar control. And they can remain at high levels many years after experiencing a traumatic event, Dr Lena Johansson and colleagues explain. However they also claim that they need more work to verify their findings and determine whether the same stress and dementia link might also occur in men. The study went like this, the women underwent a battery of tests and examinations when they were in either their late 30s, mid-40s or 50s, and then again at regular intervals over the next four decades. One in four women said at some part in the start of the study that they had experienced at least one stressful event, such as widowhood or unemployment. A comparable proportion had suffered at least two stressful events, whereas one in five had experienced at least three. The remaining women had either experienced more than this or none. Four hundred twenty five of the women died and 153

Springhill Care Group | South Korean hospital won't transfer American home until $40K bill is paid http://springhillcaregroup.net/archives/264 Sean Jones family ask for donations for the young English teacher who has the rare brain disease anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, can continue treatment in the United States. According to the reports, the American teacher Sean Jones was treated for a rare brain disease in South Korea is unable to return home until his nearly-$40,000 hospital bill is paid The family of an American man stuck in a South Korean hospital is requesting for donations to bring him home. Since May, the young teacher Sean Jones from Oklahoma City, has been hospitalized with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes swelling in the brain. Reports says that Yonsei University Severance Hospital in Seoul refuses to release him after his bill of nearly $40,000 is paid while Jones' family wants him transferred to an American hospital for continued treatment Friends and family have set up a Facebook page and a Giveforward.com account to raise money for medical costs. So far they have raised about three-quarters of the goal, Sean's mother, LaTanya Dodd, told The Korea Herald. "I really don't know if they can legally hold him here. If they can't legally do so, he will be going," said Dodd, who came to South Korea in July to care for her son, to the paper. "They won't care for him anymore, and that's what I'm worried about. Is that going to affect the whole outcome - just sitting here waiting?" Family members said Jones was moved to a group room and suffers from bedsores due to a lack of care. The fresh college grad, portrayed as outgoing and passionate about education, had been teaching English in Hwajung for almost a year when he started experiencing headaches and hallucinations. He was prescribed by the doctor, antidepressants and was advised to rest but his conditioned worsened. He was admitted t

A new study published this week in the Sleep journal has discovered that sleep problem decreases with age; basically contradicting the common belief that sleep problem comes with age. A group of researchers from Center for Sleep of Pennsylvania University along with other organizations conducted a survey of 155,877 people from all ages who has previously reported sleep disturbances. Their study aims to find the answer on how sleep complaints alter as a person age. The study was conducted by asking participants how often within the past 2 weeks they had problems staying or falling asleep as well as the number of days they have felt tired. Their telephone survey has resulted in the conclusion that sleep quality, in fact, gets better as you get older. They found a general decline in sleep tiredness across higher age groups. Actually, women and men older than 80 are the least likely among the age groups to complain of sleep problems. According to the study, poor overall health conditions and depression are both connected with sleep problems as those who have mild depression appear more twice as likely to report sleep disorders. Basically, it shows that once you have control of mood and health, people dont necessarily have more sleep problems. Experts seem to be disputing the results of the study as the method of data collection done is generally subjective (participants were only asked about their physical symptoms) as opposed to previous researches done through objective data gathering (e.g. monitoring patients' sleep patterns in laboratory room) which could be the reason for the result difference. A single study cannot hope to change the health care implementation. But considering that the sample size of the study is large, it will be hard to discount the results. Besides, the question given was so general that it captures the entirety of sleep disorders. The results of this study is essentially contrad

Patients with sickle cell disease move from pediatric to adult health care because they now depend more on the emergency room, says researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Reported at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting in Atlanta, more than 3,200 patients with sickle cell disease demonstrates that emergency room visits tripled from age 15 to age 24 this is according to the study of Medicaid data. According to hematologist Morey A. Blinder, MD, associate professor of medicine, "There seems to be a breakdown in medical care during the transition from childhood to adulthood. Not only emergency department usage, but hospitalizations go up during this time as well." Blinder further added that one possible explanation for the increased reliance on emergency care is the relative lack of adult health care providers with experience caring for sickle cell patients. Alarming similar issues are arising for other pediatric diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia. The said illnesses were previously fatal. What is more sad about the problem is over the past few decades the number of children and teenagers are living into adulthood with these conditions increased. What makes the matters worse is there often aren't enough primary care physicians who can provide care for these adult patients. Many are not familiar to the understanding of the sickle cell disease. It refers to a number of inherited genetic conditions the "sickle" shape red blood cells aren't normal, they are suppose to be normally round, disk-like red blood cells. The problems with these malformed red blood cells are prone to clogging smaller blood vessels and they do not carry oxygen to the body as well as healthy cells. The condition often causes pain in places the cells block blood flow that sometimes causes more severe complications include blindness, strokes and pneumonia. Medical patients from five states including Florida, New Jersey

Springhill Home Care Group Korea Reviews Seoul Employs Elderly to Tackle Phone Waste http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/07/25/seoul-employs-elderly-to-tackle-phone-waste/ South Koreans are among the world's most frequent phone upgraders, buying about 15 million new mobile phones each year, according to a recent report by market research firm DigiEco. One of the problems that creates is the handling of all the discarded older phones. To tackle the issue of electronics waste, or e-waste, the Seoul city government started a program called Eco City in 2009 to collect used electronics. It runs a waste handling facility called Seoul Resource Center in the northeast of the capital and employs elderly or low-income people to break them down and process the parts. Eco City is unique in that it is an entirely government-funded and directed operation. In Tokyo, the municipal government invited private companies to set up recycling facilities, while China has struggled to deal with large amounts of e-waste both produced domestically and imported. Seoul's Eco City says each discarded mobile phone has between 2,500 won and 4,000 won (about US$2.23-$3.50) worth of metals in it, including rare earth metals such as neodymium. At intervals of six months or a year, companies can bid to purchase the waste that has been gathered and sorted by Eco City. Whatever can't be sold or reused is incinerated. http://springhillcaregroup.net/ http://news.springhillcaregroup.net/

Springhill Care Group Labor Group fights for better pay for Home Care Workers Americans live longer base from the statistics, thus making the population age and as it ages the need for home care workers will grow significantly. According to the Bureau of Labor Standards, the Home Care Workforce will grow from 1.7 Million to 2.6 million in 2018, but the people caring for seniors in their homes earn on average less than 10 dollars an hour and many do not get benefits. A number of those workers assembled at the Food and Medicine Headquarters in Brewer Thursday to encourage their Senators to make it a priority to improve pay, benefits and training for this growing workforce. Helen Hanson stood at a podium from her huddling under the tent and shared her financial struggles during her work as a home care worker. "My bills are paid but when the oil tank is down do I pay the mortgage or do I spend 350 dollars to put 100 gallons in the oil tank," she said. Although Hanson loves going into peoples' homes to care for them she couldn't make the ends meet. So instead, she went to work at a rehab facility as a certified nurse and she got better pay and benefits. This kind of problem is one example of a nationwide concern. "We have 3 million direct care health workers in the country right now and we're projecting 27 million seniors by 2050," Pointed out Reverend Mark Doty, one of those gathered at the Food and Medicine Rally. The pro workers group had a stage demonstration where they showed how hard their work is. The demonstration is even complete with a juggler to show how complicated it is for home care workers to juggle their responsibilities. Everything is happening while caring for a growing number of seniors and finding an easy solution may be a juggling act too. The issue becomes how to pay for a better wage for them after all agree that home care workers should be paid well. Source: http://news.springhillcaregroup.net/2013/05/14/labor-gr

Getting older could sometimes be a bit frustrating that is why socialization is very important to have socialization for seniors. As much as it is important to everyone it is as important twofold for the elderly. These may come a bit hard to do when we were younger as we were too busy bringing home the bacon and at the same time taking care of the family. As we get older, as life is slowly taking paces as if everything is slowing down including time literally, seniors now has all the time to socialize but the thing now is there is no much of someone to socialize with. As this point in time many friends may have been lost along the way and are no longer part of your long-term friendships. It will be great if you have friends from the past that you still have contact with and remained friends up to the golden age. It will be best for both sides to keep in touch, calling once in a while is a good idea and meeting at least once a month will do great on both parts too. It will also help if you invite new people, it will be more exciting still having to meet new friends and don't worry if you think that you have nothing to do. There will always be lots to do, such as going to a museum, to a park, movies perhaps or stay home eat and talk about books you have read, share stories and experiences. Do not frustrate yourself because possibilities are endless and new relationships as well. If unfortunately this cannot be done anymore, don't worry, there are senior centers that offer socialization. Bingo may sound old and actually a traditional game to play but still fun and popular up to this day. Everyone can still enjoy it. Like earlier there are endless of possibilities, everyone at any age can still enjoy shopping maybe do it once in a while. To add excitement and feel like young again, maybe you can try to choose to make it a girls' night out or a boys' night out so you can plan an afternoon at your favorite restaurant, then shopping afterwards. M

http://springhillcaregroup.net/archives/251 Yoga is very much popular nowadays and we all know it benefits while others think that it is hard to do and much more to elderly. The question is; can seniors, above 65, do yoga asanas? And the answer is of course, it is actually can do good for them as much as it can do well for any age. All ages and from all walks of life to utilize the techniques of yoga for creating a harmonious and joyful existence.Older people can do asanas. Union of the various aspects of our existence like body, breath, mind etc is the basic premise in yoga. The word yoga comes from a Sanskrit root 'Yuj meaning 'to unite'. But they can only do so provided they keep some guidelines in mind. The kind of asanas one should do as age progresses are the following: * Substitute warm-ups with brisk walking and joint movements. * Standing Yoga Poses Triangle Pose (konasana series) and Standing Spinal Twist (Kati chakrasanas) * Sitting Yoga Poses Butterfly Pose, Cradling (if possible), body rotation, Cat stretch and Child pose (Shishu Asana). * Yoga Poses lying on the back or stomach Focus on repetitions rather than holding any posture such as the Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana), the Locust Pose (Shalabhasana) or the Knee to Chin Press (Pawanmuktasana). * Yoga nidra is by far the most essential part of any yoga practice, and as age progresses, it becomes even more essential to help assimilate the effect of the asana practice into our system. There is also some easier exercise for seniors like, Sukshma Yoga. This can be practiced independently or in a group to be a part of a larger yoga plan. All ages can do the exercise and can receive its benefits for only within 20-30 minutes. It consists of simple and gentle exercises for the eyes, tongue and jaws, neck, hands, feet, knees, ankles and hips. Seniors should practice yoga asanas by following some guidelines. The Patanjali Yoga Sutras identify asana as "sthira sukham asanam" that define as st

http://news.springhillcaregroup.net/2013/05/02/patient-outcomes-improve-under-single-home-health-aides/ According to a recent study by SAGE Publications, individuals receiving home health services stand to experience better outcomes if cared for by the same aide day in and day out. According to the study Continuity in the Provider of Home Health Aide Services and the Likelihood of Patient Improvement in Activities of Daily Living, patients who see the same home health aide across a series of visits have a higher likelihood of improving in various activities of daily living (ADLs) compared to patients whose care is provided by multiple aides. Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) is a large, urban, non-profit Medicare certified home health agency. Base from their studies, they found that individuals who were cared for continuously by the same aide had a 93% chance of improving their ADLs. Those who experienced low-continuity of care were roughly 14%-15% hardly to recover their ADLs involving home health admission and discharge than persons who were constantly visited by the similar aide. Those who experienced low-continuity of care is implying to care was spread out among a variety of aides over the course of a home health service period. Furthermore of note in the report, cases where patients had moderate-continuity did not considerably fluctuate from higher permanence cases in their likelihood of ADL development. Researchers note that the odds of improvement among cases with high continuity are greater than those for low continuity even if a greater part of cases in the study's populace enhanced in the figure and severity of ADLs between admission and discharge. "Ideally, patients should receive services from a single aide over the entire period of home care," writes the study's lead author David Russell, Ph.D, Center for Home Care Policy & Research at VNSNY. "However, a number of staffing constraints and operational obstacles often presen

http://springhillcaregroup.net/archives/255 According to a new study from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, seniors work hard to keep their marriages alive and well, even after one spouse falls ill and goes into a long-term care facility. Community-dwelling spouses were greatly drawn in the lives of their partners who are inside the institution, and that a lot of the couples remained active together may it be inside or outside the nursing home Researcher Robin Stadnyk was surprised to discover about this. Stadnyk is a post-doctoral researcher in the University of Alberta's Department of Human Ecology. She reviewed data from a qualitative study of 52 community-dwelling spouses in three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, for her PhD research. According to her research, the participants were heavily involved in their spouses' lives, not only through caretaking duties like doing laundry and helping with personal hygiene, but also through nurturing activities that brought them closer together. "Most participants described close relationships with their spouses before the placement in a long-term care home. They simply found ways they could continue that closeness within the institutional walls," Stadnyk noted. Marriage-sustaining activities included watching TV together, studying travel brochures and reviewing diaries to relive old memories, even taking painting lessons together. For regular weekly and even daily visits, some spouses do is they bring their partners home. A loving story of an 82-year-old man in the study took weight-training just so he could lift his wife in and out of the car for the weekly trip home. "The findings defy the common assumption that the partnership of marriage effectively ends when one spouse enters a care facility," Stadnyk said. Changing roles as give-and take-partners to compassionate caretakers, husbands and wives of partners with dementia carry on with nurturing their marriages. One of the thi

http://news.springhillcaregroup.net/2013/05/14/labor-group-fights-for-better-pay-for-home-care-workers/ Americans live longer base from the statistics, thus making the population age and as it ages the need for home care workers will grow significantly. According to the Bureau of Labor Standards, the Home Care Workforce will grow from 1.7 Million to 2.6 million in 2018, but the people caring for seniors in their homes earn on average less than 10 dollars an hour and many do not get benefits. A number of those workers assembled at the Food and Medicine Headquarters in Brewer Thursday to encourage their Senators to make it a priority to improve pay, benefits and training for this growing workforce. Helen Hanson stood at a podium from her huddling under the tent and shared her financial struggles during her work as a home care worker. "My bills are paid but when the oil tank is down do I pay the mortgage or do I spend 350 dollars to put 100 gallons in the oil tank," she said. Although Hanson loves going into peoples' homes to care for them she couldn't make the ends meet. So instead, she went to work at a rehab facility as a certified nurse and she got better pay and benefits. This kind of problem is one example of a nationwide concern. "We have 3 million direct care health workers in the country right now and we're projecting 27 million seniors by 2050," Pointed out Reverend Mark Doty, one of those gathered at the Food and Medicine Rally. The pro workers group had a stage demonstration where they showed how hard their work is. The demonstration is even complete with a juggler to show how complicated it is for home care workers to juggle their responsibilities. Everything is happening while caring for a growing number of seniors and finding an easy solution may be a juggling act too. The issue becomes how to pay for a better wage for them after all agree that home care workers should be paid well. Vickie Purgavie, executive director of the Home Care a

According to Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, a man who lives in Orange, Ohio admitted to overbilling Medicaid and Medicare by more than $2.5 million. Thirty-nine year old, Divyesh "David" C. Patel, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to having been involved to health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud. Patel is anticipated to be sentenced later on this year. Dettelbach said, "This defendant enriched himself and his company by flouting rules designed to protect the public." "Mr. Patel defrauded the tax payers by scamming Medicaid and Medicare," said Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Cleveland Field Office. "Waste, fraud, and abuse take critical resources out of our health care system and contribute to the rising cost of health care for all Americans." According to court documents, Patel was the owner and president of Alpine Nursing Care Inc., located at 4753 Northfield Road, Suite 5, North Randall, Ohio, and employed Belita Mable Bush as the office manager and director of provider services from June 1, 2006 through October 18, 2009. An additional info according to court documents is Patel and Alpine employed Bush to prepare and submit the billings to Medicaid and Medicare for reimbursement for services provided by Alpine as a home health care provider, even though Patel knew that Bush had been previously convicted of a health care-related felony that excluded Bush from being involved in any way with Alpine's Medicaid and Medicare billings. In addition to the fact that Bush was excluded from handling Alpine's medical billings, Patel was aware that Bush falsified documents related to health care services allegedly provided to home health patients where the services were never provided or were provided by home health aide that had previous criminal convictions that excluded them from providing health services in people's houses, a

Getting older could sometimes be a bit frustrating that is why socialization is very important to have socialization for seniors. As much as it is important to everyone it is as important twofold for the elderly. These may come a bit hard to do when we were younger as we were too busy bringing home the bacon and at the same time taking care of the family. As we get older, as life is slowly taking paces as if everything is slowing down including time literally, seniors now has all the time to socialize but the thing now is there is no much of someone to socialize with. As this point in time many friends may have been lost along the way and are no longer part of your long-term friendships. It will be great if you have friends from the past that you still have contact with and remained friends up to the golden age. It will be best for both sides to keep in touch, calling once in a while is a good idea and meeting at least once a month will do great on both parts too. It will also help if you invite new people, it will be more exciting still having to meet new friends and don't worry if you think that you have nothing to do. There will always be lots to do, such as going to a museum, to a park, movies perhaps or stay home eat and talk about books you have read, share stories and experiences. Do not frustrate yourself because possibilities are endless and new relationships as well. If unfortunately this cannot be done anymore, don't worry, there are senior centers that offer socialization. Bingo may sound old and actually a traditional game to play but still fun and popular up to this day. Everyone can still enjoy it. Like earlier there are endless of possibilities, everyone at any age can still enjoy shopping maybe do it once in a while. To add excitement and feel like young again, maybe you can try to choose to make it a girls' night out or a boys' night out so you can plan an afternoon at your favorite restaurant, then shopping afterwards. Maybe

We all hear this often, laughter is the best medicine. Despite the fact that this may be an old saying, it still holds as true up to present. Laughter grants a lot of health benefits. And what makes it a lot better, best of all, it is free and easy. Laughter helps to unite people going through difficult times this is according to HelpGuide.org. It can be able to also mend feelings of defeat and resentment, make anger softer, and generally help people become resilient or even losing someone. The therapeutic effortlessness of a soft smile or a hearty belly laugh has more of benefits than what was mentioned. It is much like of an exercise, there are many benefits plus the physical benefits of laughter can last for hours. These helpful gains may aid to: * Brighten mental clarity * Reduce blood pressure * Spark the immune system * Relax muscles and ease digestion * Release endorphins to dampen pain * Boost oxygen levels to the brain and circulatory system As a universal lingo, laughter is capable of also building social ties and dispersing anxiety. It smooths the progress of relationship and permits attachments while dropping social fear factors. Steve Wilson, Director of National Humor Month and Founder of The World Laughter Tour, started an international happiness epidemic in laughter clubs and outreach programs led by Certified Laughter Leaders. His methodology "utilizes a systematic activity approach that is based on a foundation of both ancient practices and modern medical science," and it supports primary treatment as an adjunctive therapeutic modality. Group laughter can also save you away from pain and depression through natural release even though anger and crying has long been conventional vehicles for catharsis and release in psychotherapy. Its consequence can be in impulsiveness of thinking and make the horrifying more reachable. This constructs a height of consciousness where one can move a bit further and w

Nursing home is a home combined with skilled nursing care, rehabilitative care, medical services, personal care, and recreation in a supervised and environment. Letting your love ones stay in the nursing home may be hardest decision but choosing the right home will be next hardest. Entering the nursing home doesn't mean that the family involvement ends, instead it is their responsibility to make sure that the home care provides good care. Remember the following when choosing the best home care: * Have a discussion with the loved one who will be living there. This will aid in adjusting to the major life change about to occur. * Work together with other family members and inquire for help in finding the best nursing home. * Be in touch with doctors, nurses, or any other health professionals or social workers who care for your loved one. * Chat with some nursing home employees, especially assistants since they give most of the care. * Solicit a pastor or rabbi for guidance. * Contact the long-term care ombudsman. People often think that home care is expensive and yes nursing home care can be expensive. It can differ widely depending on where you live but often the average cost is more than $50,000 a year and rising. Sadly, employee health insurance does not pay for nursing home care. A great number of nursing home residents, about a third of its population, pay all of their nursing home expenses from their own funds. Long stay in a home care can consume all your or your loved one's savings fast. There are many who exhaust their finances after just six months. And about a five percent of them buys long-term care insurance, which covers the cost of a nursing home or other extended care. Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older persons and some younger ones with disabilities, pays for short-term nursing home stays but the rest, about two-thirds, are from the Medicaid. The greatest share of the residents to pay

http://news.springhillcaregroup.net/2013/03/20/news-springhill-care-group-effective-communication-with-the-elderly/ It is quite a challenge sometimes to talk or to communicate to elderly because you may need to consider and deal with differences in ages, ideals, priorities and perhaps even hearing or mental cognition issues on top. Don't close your mind and take it for consideration that your elderly friend or loved one may have been raised differently. Generation gap is another issue why it can be hard to communicate with the elderly but once understood, you will find many wonderful things to learn from one another if you just take the time to listen. http://news.springhillcaregroup.net/