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Senior Skin Care Tips from Home & Hearth Caregivers

As we grow older, our skin turns drier and more delicate. According to Medscape, as many as 75% of the elderly deal with dry, flaky skin, which is not only easily injured (cut, scratched, or bruised), but also commonly includes uncomfortable itchiness. The most common places for dry skin in older adults are the forearms, lower legs, and elbows. For seniors who are less mobile than they used to be, dry skin could also play a role in the development of pressure sores from staying in one position too long in either a bed or chair. Dry skin can be...

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How to Manage This Type of Dementia Confusion: Alternate Reality

Dementia confusion, a common occurrence in Alzheimer's, can result in recent memories being forgotten or distorted, while those from the more remote past often stay intact. This may cause prior times to make more sense to an older adult with dementia than the present. A person’s alternate reality could be his or her way of making sense of the present through past experiences. Individuals with Alzheimer's disease frequently have problems expressing themselves, and at times their alternate reality has more to do with a requirement or a specific feeling they are attempting to express than it has to do with...

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Help for These Dementia Signs and Symptoms: Hallucinations, Illusions, and Suspicions

For individuals providing care for a senior displaying dementia signs and symptoms, careful, compassionate management is a must; but potentially the most overwhelming behaviors include suspicions, hallucinations, and illusions that others are out to cause harm. Incorrect impressions such as these manifest typically in the more advanced stages of progressive dementia due to changes within the brain. It’s vital to first understand the reasoning behind these emotions and behaviors, and to manage the root cause. Home & Hearth’s home health caregivers in Chicago, experienced in Alzheimer’s and dementia care, offer the following advice. Hallucinations/Illusions Underlying factors for hallucinations may perhaps...

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Homesickness in Dementia and Alzheimer’s: Tips to Help

Like they say, there’s no place like home; but what do you do when a senior with dementia insists on going home – when he/she currently IS home? Regrettably, when caring for an elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, this is an all too common dilemma. And the confusion and plaintive yearning being expressed are simply heartbreaking – and, if we are truthful, aggravating. At Home & Hearth Caregivers, our specially trained dementia care Illinois team helps family members handle challenging scenarios such as this, and we encourage trying the following to help restore peace to...

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Strategies for Each Stage of Alzheimer’s Disease Care

Providing care for an individual with Alzheimer’s disease can seem like attempting to solve a continuously changing puzzle. As soon as you determine the solution to one area, you learn that the picture has changed, and you need to rethink your plan. Figuring out the puzzle of Alzheimer’s disease care demands ongoing learning and a group effort, which includes professionally trained dementia caregivers who understand the numerous facets of Alzheimer’s support. Home & Hearth Caregivers offers the following tips, courtesy of the Alzheimer’s Association, to aid families in establishing care strategies through the progressive phases of Alzheimer’s: Beginning Stages: Family...

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What’s Next? Planning for Care After a Mesothelioma Diagnosis

Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer caused almost exclusively by prolonged exposure to asbestos. A diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma is usually unexpected, and can be devastating to the patient and his or her family. Responding quickly and definitively to that diagnosis is imperative to attaining the best possible outcome. Unlike more common cancers such as prostate, breast and lung, mesothelioma remains a mystery to much of the medical profession, including some oncologists who rarely see or treat it. Answers to questions can be hard to find. There are 200,000 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed each year in the...

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Serving Suburbs
and Chicagoland

The Best Home Care for Seniors
in the Chicago, IL Area

At Home & Hearth Caregivers, we are proud to offer compassionate, family-like in-home care, respite care, and Alzheimer’s and dementia care services to seniors and families throughout Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake, McHenry Counties, including the following cities and towns:

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