There are only a few days left to enter the I Will Remember for You contest. All entries must be submitted by Tuesday, January 31st, by 11:59pm EST.

Capturing and preserving memories for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias can happen in a number of ways. It might entail turning on a favorite 1940s big band hit, spreading photos out on the coffee table, intentionally creating a list of questions to ask, and sitting down in the living room together to record the thoughts your loved one shares. Or, reminiscing might occur more spontaneously during a family gathering—make sure you have a notepad or video camera handy!

To accommodate your family member’s cognitive ability level and make sharing memories in any situation a positive, meaningful experience, keep the following considerations in mind:

Do involve other family members; Don’t put the person with Alzheimer’s on the spot.

Do share your own thoughts as they relate to the memories your loved one shares; Don’t monopolize the conversation.

Do ask specific, personal questions; Don’t interrogate.

Do focus on general memories and emotions; Don’t focus on exact facts and details.

For more Alzheimer’s Conversation Tips

The goal is to give your family member with dementia the opportunity to share cherished memories with the people he or she loves. You don’t need to record a precise journalistic account of the person’s life.

Activities to capture and preserve memories with your family member living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias should focus on what that person can and wants to remember. You can help to minimize frustration by paying attention to your loved one’s limitations and adapting opportunities for reminiscing accordingly.

Story Starters for a Winning Entry

How has Alzheimer’s impacted you?

How do you and your family cope with Alzheimer’s?

Why are memories important to your family?

Why do you deserve to win this family reunion?

Enter to win at Help for Alzheimer’s Families

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Canadian adults who find themselves providing care to an aging parent, can become overwhelmed. Having children of your own and caring for aging parents, is very stressful. Here are some things to consider when feeling overwhelmed with the care responsibilities.

1. A recent survey has revealed that 69% of Canadians between the ages of 43 and 63 have a living parent and one third of these people are providing care to them.
2. While having multiple responsibilities may seem overwhelming, there are ways for caregivers to effectively manage their responsibilities. Identifying how others can help with care and assigning different responsibilities to other family members can be helpful.
3. Social service support is also available. This will help the caregiver and will allow them to have more time to spend with their own children while still ensuring the well being of the aging parent.
4. When the caregiving is done in your own home, things can get overwhelming, however, having other family members in the home can be beneficial because they can also help with the care, even the children can be involved in caring for Grandma.

Please Call Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga, if you need extra elder care help at home. Call 905-276.2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Please call 905- 276-2273.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, an estimated 5.1 million people 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease. They likely will lose one of their most treasured possessions: memories. The “I Will Remember for You Family Reunion Giveaway” contest recently launched by the Home Instead Senor Care® network can help those families keep their memories alive.

Submit a story in either written or video format about your experience with a family member living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias for a chance to win a family reunion – go to Remember for Alzheimer’s.

Essays and videos need to:

Share how Alzheimer’s has impacted your life.

Talk about the role that memories and remembering have played in your family, especially with regard to your family member who now has or had Alzheimer’s.

Share specific stories or examples of how you and your family members cope or coped with challenges of Alzheimer’s disease.

Tell why you deserve to win this family reunion.

Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. EST Jan. 31, 2012. Three finalists will be notified by a judge’s panel by Feb. 15, 2012. Online voting to select the grand prize winner will occur from March 28 through June 30, 2012.

The Mississauga local Home Instead Senior Care office can provide valuable information about Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, and support to seniors – call us at 905- 276-2273.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Rehabilitation After Stroke

Some people do not need rehabilitation after a stroke because the stroke was mild or they have fully recovered. Others may be too disabled to participate. However, many patients can be helped by rehabilitation. Hospital staff will help the patient and family decide about rehabilitation and choose the right services or program.

There are several kinds of rehabilitation programs:

Home Instead Senior Care can provide supplemental CAREGiver services that help stroke patients recover quickly. Our CAREGivers can assist patients in the following programs located in Mississauga ON. We can be reached at 905- 276-2273.

Hospital programs – These programs can be provided by special rehabilitation hospitals or by rehabilitation units in acute care hospitals. Complete rehabilitation services are available. The patient stays in the hospital during rehabilitation. An organized team of specially trained professionals provides the therapy. Hospital programs are usually more intense than other programs and require more effort from the patient.

Nursing facility (nursing home) programs – As in hospital programs, the person stays at the facility during rehabilitation. Nursing facility programs are very different from each other, so it is important to get specific information about each one. Some provide a complete range of rehabilitation services; others provide only limited services.

Outpatient programs – Allow a patient who lives at home to get a full range of services by visiting a hospital outpatient department, outpatient rehabilitation facility, or day hospital program.

Home-based programs – The patient can live at home and receive rehabilitation services from visiting professionals. An important advantage of home programs is that patients learn skills in the same place where they will use them.

Learn more about Choosing Best Stroke Program.

***If you are seeking home care services for loved ones who have had a slight stroke call 905- 276-2273.

Get Your Free Stroke Information Guide.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Please call 905- 276-2273.

A stroke is a type of brain injury. Symptoms depend on the part of the brain that is affected. People who survive a stroke often have weakness on one side of the body or trouble with moving, talking, or thinking.

Most strokes are ischemic (is-KEE-mic) strokes. These are caused by reduced blood flow to the brain when blood vessels are blocked by a clot or become too narrow for blood to get through. Brain cells in the area die from lack of oxygen. In another type of stroke, called hemorrhagic (hem-or-AJ-ic) stroke, the blood vessel isn’t blocked; it bursts, and blood leaks into the brain, causing damage.

Strokes are more common in older people. Almost three-fourths of all strokes occur in people 65 years of age or over. However, a person of any age can have a stroke.

Recovering From Stroke

The process of recovering from a stroke usually includes treatment, spontaneous recovery, rehabilitation, and the return to community living. Because stroke survivors often have complex rehabilitation needs, progress and recovery are different for each person.

Treatment for stroke begins in a hospital with “acute care.” This first step includes helping the patient survive, preventing another stroke, and taking care of any other medical problems.

Spontaneous recovery happens naturally to most people. Soon after the stroke, some
abilities that have been lost usually start to come back. This process is quickest during the first few weeks, but it sometimes continues for a long time.

Rehabilitation is another part of treatment. It helps the person keep abilities and gain back lost abilities to become more independent. It usually begins while the patient is still in acute care. For many patients, it continues afterward, either as a formal rehabilitation program or as individual rehabilitation services. Many decisions about rehabilitation are made by the patient,
family, and hospital staff before discharge from acute care.

The last stage in stroke recovery begins with the person’s return to community living after acute care or rehabilitation. This stage can last for a lifetime as the stroke survivor and family learn to live with the effects of the stroke. This may include doing common tasks in new ways or making up for damage to or limits of one part of the body by greater activity of another.

Read more on Strokes: How Stroke Affects People

Get a Free Copy of Recovering After a Stroke: A Patient and Family Guide – courtesy of The StrokeCenter.org.

Home Care Mississauga helping older adults and elderly live independently and safely at home. Please call 905- 276-2273.

Every family has a story. Gathering together to share and preserve that story helps to keep the memories alive, especially for families touched by Alzheimer’s disease. Tell us your story for a chance to win a family reunion!

Submit a story in either written or video format about your experience with a family member living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Essays and videos need to:

• Share how Alzheimer’s has impacted your life
• Talk about the role that memories and remembering have played in your family, especially with regard to your family member who now has or had Alzheimer’s
• Share with us specific stories or examples of how you and your family members cope or coped with challenges of Alzheimer’s disease
• Tell us why you deserve to win this family reunion

While not required, feel free to also submit a photograph along with your written essay or include it in your video as demonstrated in the sample entry below. So, Enter Now!

Criteria for judging include the overall level of engagement with your entry from family and friends and how compelling of a story you tell. Written essays and video submissions will receive equal consideration. All entries must be submitted by January 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EDT in order to qualify for the family reunion giveaway.

See contest terms and conditions for complete entry details.

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.

Your Home Instead Senior Care in Mississauga possess a heartfelt desire to work with seniors in the Mississauga area including Streetsville, Clarkson, Port Credit & Applewood. It’s the reason why they were chosen to serve seniors and their families.

Award-Winning Program

The American Society on Aging has recognized Home Instead, Inc. as the Small Business of the Year for it’s exclusive CAREGiver training program designed by the world-renowned experts of The George G. Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Center. This program and other professionally developed and recognized Alzheimer’s care training programs provide CAREGivers with the latest in Alzheimer’s education and dementia care techniques, so you can be assured your loved one is with a trusted professional.

Home Instead Senior Care® has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association. The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. Their mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health.

Alzheimer’s disease is fast becoming one of the greatest medical challenges facing Americans today. The Alzheimer’s Association Early Detection Alliance (AEDA) spread’s awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. Their goal is to educate everyone about the warning signs of Alzheimer’s, the importance of early detection, and the resources available to help them.

If you’d like more information about our Alzheimer’s program, please call us at 905-276-2273. You may also wish to visit the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada at www.alzheimer.ca or log onto the Alzheimer’s Foundation for Caregiving in Canada website at www.alzfdn.ca/ for additional information and resources

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.

The services provided through the Mississauga Home Instead Senior Care office and our award-winning Alzheimer’s Care program, are an invaluable solution to help your loved one cope with the challenges of Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia.

Although Alzheimer’s disease currently has no known deterrent or cure, specific methods of care can help manage the symptoms of dementia. For example, maintaining routines and simplifying tasks may reduce fear and confusion. WebMD also suggests that a caregiver adapt activities and a routine to allow the person with Alzheimer’s to participate as much as possible.

As the stages of dementia progress, the person affected will require increasing amounts of care. In the early stages, according to Caring.com, people with Alzheimer’s typically have both “good” days when you don’t notice unusual behavior, and “bad” days when they forget they have a pie in the oven, or call you in a panic because they have been driving around for an hour unable to find the local grocery store. It’s important to watch out for “bad day” situations like these as they will only become more frequent and dangerous, clearly indicating a need for more supervision. Web MD suggests you should take steps to remove things that could endanger your loved one, such as hiding the car keys and matches. In advanced stages, people with Alzheimer’s may begin to wander, or they may become hostile and violent at times, posing a danger to themselves and others. A caregiver can create a safer environment and help minimize their source of frustration to reduce wandering or hostile behavior.

Visit our Alzheimer’s and dementia resource center for additional insight on caring for individuals suffering from this disease.

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.

Close to six million individuals in Canada and the United States alone have Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia — a number that is expected to reach nearly 20 million in the next five decades. To some these are just statistics, but to us, they represent millions of families with loved ones who require special senior care, both at home and in assisted living facilities.

It’s one of the most devastating illnesses of our time to impact seniors and their loved ones. Alzheimer’s disease can rob older adults of their pasts and futures. But help and hope are available for seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s disease as well as their family caregivers.

Here are other recommendations from the Alzheimer’s Association:

• Stay mentally healthy, since mentally stimulating activities strengthen brain cells and the connections between them, and may even create new nerve cells.
• Stay physically active, as physical exercise is essential for maintaining good blood flow to the brain. It also can significantly reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes, and thereby help to protect against those risk factors for Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Studies show the best place for a person with memory loss is in familiar surroundings. Our approach of encouragement and assistance helps family members cope with the challenges of dementia. Since 1994, families like yours have trusted Home Instead Senior Care to provide one-on-one Alzheimer’s care and dementia care for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The services provided by Home Instead Senior Care are a valuable, trusted solution to help your loved one maintain a regular routine, thus enhancing his or her quality of life.

If you’d like more information about our Alzheimer’s program, please call us – 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.