Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Caring for an elderly parent can be overwhelming. Discussing options with your parents and siblings ahead of time can save a lot of stress down the road. Be sure when dividing the responsibility everyone is happy with the end result.

1.    Be honest if taking the bulk of the responsibility is becoming overwhelming. Let your siblings know the things they can do to help.

2.    Plan ahead for your parent’s wishes. Decide ahead of time how you will divide responsibilities amongst your siblings.

3.    Be flexible when it comes to the needs of your parents and siblings. Consider schedules, skills and interests when it comes to dividing the responsibility.

4.    Research options to determine the type of care that your parent needs and look for organizations and resources that can meet your needs.

5.    Talk and listen to your parent because their independence is important to them. It is best to talk to your family before caregiving starts.

Following these tips can help avoid conflict down the road. It is also helpful to ease everyone into situations like these by discussing them ahead of time. Splitting up duties between siblings can even help bring families closer together in the long run.

Please join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”. To save a seat, please RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

46% of family caregivers in the U.S.; 40% in Canada who said their relationships with their siblings have deteriorated blame unwillingness on the part of siblings to help.

What do you do if you and your brother have just discovered a pile of overdue bills, spoiled food in the refrigerator and magazines stacked ceiling high at your parents’ house. Your brother loses his cool and practically demands that they move to a nursing home. Your parents are visibly upset. You want the continued help and support of your brother.

Approach your parents and brother with a sense of working together to find a solution rather than telling them what to do. Is the problem that your parents don’t have the money? Or are they just unable to manage the bill-paying anymore? Speak to your parents about the issues that are relevant to avoid family conflict.

Learn more by joining us for the upcoming seminar:

RSVP to save your seat and join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”, helping siblings overcome family conflict while caring for aging parents. RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Please join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”. To save a seat, please RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

Based on research and experience, the Home Instead Senior Care® network recommends that siblings make every effort to work with their parents to make decisions about important family matters such as caring for a parent, family inheritance, finances, and end-of-life issues such as estate planning.

The stakes are high – sibling relationships and the quality of their parents’ care are at risk. But with new approaches and a focus on building better family relationships, caregiving can make families stronger than ever.

Remind your siblings of the impact that the current economic situation has had on seniors like your parents. Older U.S. adults have lost almost one quarter of their buying power since 2000, according to the Annual Survey of Senior Costs released in 2010 by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a senior advocacy group.

In Canada, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada, the share of insolvent consumers for people 55 and up has more than quadrupled in the past decade, hitting 20.6% last year. This was the steepest increase for all age groups. The office compiled the findings based on annual numbers between 1989 and 2009.

Family caregiving can be stressful under any circumstances. But certain situations are hot-button triggers. These events can make the life of caregiving siblings more difficult and lead to family conflict. The 50-50 Rule public education program, developed by the Home Instead Senior Care® network, can help address these hot-button topics.

RSVP to save your seat and join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”, helping siblings overcome family conflict while caring for aging parents. RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Canadian Elder Care in the Eyes of a Caregiver

Caregivers can benefit from reading a Journal kept by another caregiver regarding the family dynamics that are involved when being a caregiver. The journal is entitled Living and Dying with Dignity and was written by a caregiver providing care to her aging parents. The journal will give caregivers a sense of what others in the same position are feeling and dealing with when they are in the role of a caregiver while trying to maintain their own family.

1.    The journal was written by Jennifer A. Jilks, a caregiver to two aging parents.

2.    One parent has cancer and the other is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

3.    The journal explores how the Canadian health care system works for aging individuals and compares it to the health care systems in America.

4.    In Canada, those in need of a caregiver are entitled to receive that help. This is not the case in America.

5.    To learn about this different form of health care that actually supports the needs of aging individuals; the journal will open caregiver’s eyes to how things are managed in Canada.

MindingOurEldersBlog.com

Please join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”. To save a seat, please RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

Family caregiving can be stressful under any circumstances. But certain situations are hot-button triggers. These events can make the life of caregiving siblings more difficult and lead to family conflict. The 50-50 RuleSM public education program, developed by the Home Instead Senior Care® network, can help address these hot-button topics.

1. Illness: A senior loved one who becomes ill or faces declining health can leave a family facing all sorts of potentially difficult issues.

2. Money: Money matters often complicate life for seniors as well as their adult children.

3. Inheritance: While some families contend with a lack of funds to provide care for their loved ones, others have the temptation of a family inheritance influencing their decisions.

4. Distance: While absence may make the heart grow fonder, it certainly doesn’t make life easier for a long-distance family caregiver.

5. Stress: Life is stressful and family caregiving oftentimes makes it more so. Adult caregivers who have started a new job, are raising children or caring for their own spouse can soon become overwhelmed when elderly family members need help. Often the primary family caregiver wants or needs more help from siblings, but isn’t getting it.

RSVP to save your seat and join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”, helping siblings overcome family conflict while caring for aging parents. RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Home Instead is the world’s largest non-medical home care company, including 29 franchises in Canada. Greg Bechard owns the Mississauga, Ont., franchise. Mr. Bechard provides in-home caregivers to families who need help providing care to their aging relatives. Home Instead contracts out care-giving services to the family members which may be the difference between parents staying at home or moving to retirement or nursing homes. Then instead of being responsible for mundane tasks like cleaning or shopping, grown children can have more quality time with their parents, dining together or simply talking.

When helping family caregivers, it is rare to find siblings actually sharing elder care responsibilities right down the line, says Toronto-based wills and estates lawyer Les Kotzer, co-author of The Family Fight and Where There’s an Inheritance. “Some kids live far away, so not everyone lives next door to mum. Some have no kids of their own, others have five.” But that doesn’t mean the issue shouldn’t be faced squarely. “It needs discussion. There can be real bitterness and relationships can be destroyed if one person bears all the care-giving burden and the others didn’t.”

If there’s one thing that can cause dissent among siblings, it’s the topic of caregiving for ailing elderly parents. Whether because of geographic proximity or competing family or career obligations, often one particular child becomes the main caregiver.

This can lead to trouble down the road when parents die and the primary caregiver is “rewarded” with a more generous share of the inheritance or even the entire family home.

The time to discuss caregiving expectations is now, before the trouble starts, typically when the kids (and prospective heirs) are age 50. The Home Instead Senior Care network has a guideline it calls the 50-50 Rule. That refers to the average age most siblings begin caring for parents, and the need to equitably share care responsibilities 50/50.

Home Instead believes that people want to stay home. We let them do that.

Read the full article on Sibling Battles Brew Over Parental Care

Please join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”. To save a seat, please RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

At the core of the 50-50 Rule public education program is a family relationship and communication guide of real-life situations that features practical advice from sibling relationships expert Dr. Ingrid Arnet Connidis from the University of Western Ontario. The issues in this guide will help RPNs relate to the many challenges that family caregivers face and will help them to provide families resources that can make a difference.

To maintain harmony among siblings, it’s ideal if they all have the same information about their parents’ situation and needs. An awareness of their parents’ financial arrangements is also critical. Be sensitive to the fact that parents may feel that they are giving up their independence and privacy when they divulge such information. Extensive health care has significant financial ramifications for families. Are these and other issues addressed in a will? A plan needs to be in place to be prepared for important life events.

The program is for family caregivers dealing with sibling rivalry when caring for aging relatives and addresses their inability to effectively work together. This sibling rivalry often leads to one sibling becoming responsible for the bulk of caregiving (true in 41% of families) which can contribute to a deterioration of sibling relationships.

RSVP to save your seat and join Greg Bechard on March 26 at The Palisades, On the Glen, at 2pm to hear Home Instead Senior Care educational program called “The 50-50 Rule”, helping siblings overcome family conflict while caring for aging parents. RSVP by calling 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga knows the stress that our public home care system is under and we can provide the professional care that our aging seniors need. Please call 905- 276-2273.

We all know that losing a few pounds can be a huge challenge. It may be even more difficult for seniors because of their nutritional needs. However, it is important for seniors to realize there are safe and effective ways to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. The following tips can help seniors get on the right track to healthy weight management.

1.    There is not a single diet that is right for every senior. When going on a diet, make sure to discuss this with a doctor and a nutritionist to make sure that diet is right for you.

2.    Be reasonable about weight loss. Many seniors will try to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. This is not safe and most seniors who do this do not successfully keep the weight off.

3.    Keep a journal of foods that are eaten and when they are eaten. This will help seniors decide if there are any waysthey can cut back on calorie intakes and make healthier eating choices.

4.    Never skip meals to lose weight. This can change the body’s metabolism and end up working against you.

5.    Read labels before buying foods and choose those with low amounts of calories and fat.

6.    Stay as physically active as possible on a daily basis.

EatRightOntario.ca