Leslie Newlife

5 Things to Consider with a Hearing Test

Despite how important hearing tests are, they’re not particularly integrated into our lives. If you were headed in for a hearing test, you might not know what the process has in store. That’s why we’ve made a shortlist of five things to keep in mind during a hearing test.

  1. The process of a hearing test

The average hearing test takes about 10 minutes – a pretty quick ordeal for such an important procedure. It will usually start like any other doctor’s appointment, with the hearing specialist asking you a couple of questions.

Afterwards, they’ll take you into the examination room, and you’ll undergo a few procedures. These can vary based on your answers to the specialist’s questions, as well as the resources they have on hand.

 

  1. Are there different kinds of hearing tests?

The most common procedures are an audiogram (listening to noises and responding), an otoscopy (peering into the ear with a concentrated flashlight), and a tympanometry (a probe being inserted into the ear canal).

A tympanometry is the most intrusive of these procedures, and even then, it won’t hurt or feel as bad as it sounds. Depending on the course of the appointment, you may have to go through any combination of these, but like we said, it will never take too much time out of your day.

  1. How much do they cost?

Maybe this is the real reason you or your loved one haven’t considered a hearing test. You might be noticing hearing loss, but you can still hear almost everything, so why spend the money on a hearing test?

Well, this is because hearing loss can be a precursor to (or a symptom of) a larger issue. Even if it isn’t, if left untreated, hearing loss can lead to some serious physical and mental health concerns.

A hearing test can cost up to $250 dollars without insurance. If you have insurance, then hearing tests are usually covered, but it’s always worth checking with your provider.

  1. Are they different for the elderly?

When testing the hearing of the elderly, the process is largely the same as what we listed above. However, in patients with cognitive impairments – like dementia – they may need to be re-instructed on the rules of the test.

If they’re having a lot of difficulty, the audiologist may change the response needed to one that engages the patient more. This could be getting them to raise their hand or saying “yes” out loud when they hear the sound being played in the headphones. This may make the test a bit more hands-on than regular tests, but the mechanics are the same.

  1. Are online hearing tests a good substitute?

While looking around, you may have found a multitude of online hearing tests and thought “why would I go in to get a hearing test when I can just get one online?”

Well, that’s a fair thought, since it could save you the trip, but is it really a fitting substitute for an in-person hearing test? Well, no, not really. It can serve as an adequate check to see if your stereoscopy (hearing the same volume in both ears) is at a good level.

In reality, it’s not even close to a real hearing test. Real-life hearing tests are standardized, and don’t rely on your headphone or computer quality to gauge your hearing level. Nothing beats the real thing!

3 Tips for New Home Caregivers

Becoming a caregiver is often a sudden reality for children. They’re tasked with stepping up and meeting their parents’ needs when their health starts to deteriorate. If you find yourself in this position and don’t know how to take on your new role, read through these tips for new home caregivers.

Keep a Daily Journal

To cut down on the overwhelming nature of daily life, keep a journal of what they do every day. A notebook or online record proves beneficial as you compile all their medication information, exercise logs, doctor’s appointment notes, and more. Particularly when your parents’ memory isn’t strong, a journal is a helpful tool for concretely recording what they’ve done so you can check later.

Be Thoughtful of Senior-Specific Hazards

Memory-Loss Complications

One very important tip for new caregivers is to keep in mind little-known hazards that seniors encounter. For example, if your mother or father usually cooks for themselves but their memory is going, it’s more likely they will accidentally leave on a stove-top burner or other appliances. You can check them afterward or install automatic shut-off mechanisms to prevent a fire or other issues.

Technological Complications

Another aspect you should think about is their technology use. In a technologically connected world, it’s easier than ever to deceive an elderly person over the phone or internet into giving away money or information. Keep tabs on their device use and be active about blocking phone numbers that seem like scams. Also, electromagnetic interference poses its own dangers. Be aware that EMI from cell phones and other electrical devices sometimes disrupts seniors’ sensitive and necessary medical equipment, such as their pacemakers.

Learn How to Effectively Communicate Their Needs

Your most important role apart from sustaining your parents is your advocacy for their needs. Make sure to keep careful records of their medical history, use your journal of daily activities to provide details to the doctor during appointments, and characterize your parents accurately. Though your days may be frustrating as you care for them, be intentional about your objectivity—health-care providers depend on you to know how to treat your mother or father. It’s also important to communicate well so other family members can get a good picture of how your parents are doing. Always remember that there is help. Rather it’s in-home care for a few hours to some social time at an adult day care center, to a short-term respite stay at a community, you deserve a break sometimes and these things are there to help.

Important Retirement Dates to Know

Planning for retirement is too often something Americans do way too late. This causes many people financial distress in their later years. Ideally, financial planning for retirement would begin when a person lands their first full-time job. This happens in the late teens or early 20’s for most people. Unfortunately, at that young age, retirement seems like a problem in the distant future, so many people don’t assess their retirement needs until late into their adult years. When you approach your 50’s, you should start looking into your options, needs, and important deadlines for getting into programs you may be eligible to participate in. This guide will take you through the most important retirement dates to know—although retirement is a personal decision, it depends significantly on governmental regulations and rules.

First important retirement milestone: Age 59 and a half

Your first major retirement milestone comes on your half-birthday when you’re 59. At 59 and a half, you can start withdrawing from your retirement accounts without a penalty. You are technically allowed to take money from your accounts prior to age 59 and a half, but there is a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty for doing so. This year is the first one where you won’t be penalized for removing funds.

Tip: Hold off on taking from your retirement accounts for as long as possible. The longer the money remains in the fund, the more it will grow, and your retirement fund will last longer.

Don’t miss the Social Security sign up: Age 62

When you turn 62, you can sign up for Social Security and start receiving payments. You will not receive full payments until you turn 67, but until that point, you can opt to receive payments at 70 percent of your full retirement amount.

Tip: You don’t have to sign up to receive Social Security at age 62. If possible, wait until your full retirement age to sign up so your checks are at their full amount and last longer.

Enrollment eligibility for Medicare begins: Age 65

Medicare is tricky, as it has deadlines to sign up by to avoid penalty fees, ineligibility, and additional costs. Many people who retire assume they’ll automatically enroll in Medicare, but that is one of many common misconceptions about Medicare that people hold. If you miss your enrollment deadline, you’ll suffer the penalty of 10 percent of your monthly premium—regardless of if you missed the enrollment period by a month or a year.

Full retirement kicks in: Age 67

For everyone born after 1960, the full retirement age is 67. This is when your full eligibility kicks in for Social Security benefits. This means you’ll begin to receive payments that are 100 percent of your Social Security benefit.

Make sure you take full advantage of these programs and other that will help you pay for your retirement living and care in your senior years.

How to Plan the Perfect Senior Living Menu

Menu planning is an important task for professionals working in the senior living industry. In a senior living home, careful attention must be paid to the kind of food that is being served to the residents. It is important for the management staff to make sure that all residents consume their minimum daily nutrition requirements. However, planning a menu is much easier said than done. There are a variety of factors that need to be taken into account during this process. Here are some key factors that should be taken into consideration:

Costs

The preparation and serving of food is a large cost for most facilities. A monthly budget and menu planning are key to staying on track financially. Using tools such as shopping lists and production sheets are excellent ways to cut back on waste and excess spending. It is possible to create a balanced and healthy menu, but only if limits are set and planning is done beforehand.

Variety

Variety is another key factor to take into consideration while meal planning for residents. The majority of people will grow tired of foods that are repeatedly offered, which could potentially lead to decreased meal satisfaction and eating altogether. Therefore, a menu for a senior living facility should be diverse while still incorporating resident favorites. Different types of food, cooking methods and seasonal options are great ways to increase variety.

Main Food Groups

Understanding the five main food groups is important before planning the perfect senior living menu. Incorporating a variety of different types of food may add balance to a meal. The five main food groups are:

  • Dairy products
  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Grains
  • Protein foods

One may argue that there is a sixth food group: sweets and fatty foods. While these types of foods are recommended in moderation, it is important to add these items to the menu on occasion to maintain resident satisfaction. By incorporating a variety of food groups, it will be easier to ensure that residents are consuming adequate nutrients to provide the energy that they need.

Incorporate the Residents

If circumstances permit, it may be a fun idea to incorporate residents on menu planning decisions. Collecting ideas of favorite meals, things they would like to try and things that they absolutely will not eat can give guidance and assistance to those that may find themselves in a rut while creating a menu. Also, seniors may feel more inclined to eat if they know that they have a voice with what happens in the kitchen.

Seasonal Rotating Menus

Weekly rotating menus are a great way to simplify while still having enough variety to keep the menu interesting for residents. For example, Grove Menus runs on a 5 week rotating schedule. Another option Grove Menus offers is to update menus according to season. While most facilities choose to have two cycles per year (spring/summer and fall/winter), it is also possible to update to four cycles per year (a new menu for each individual season).

 

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586549/

https://www.grovemenus.com/menus-for-assisted-living-facilities

How Seniors Can Do More to Protect Their Health and Well Being

Being concerned about your well-being isn’t just something you do in your early years of life. Rather, it’s more important than ever to protect your health and well-being going into your senior years as your body takes longer to rebound from illnesses. Here are five different suggestions that you can implement to protect your health in your golden years and beyond.

Discover Suitable Exercise Programs

Exercise programs will change with your physical abilities over time. While you may have enjoyed a rigorous exercise program while you were in your 20’s and 30’s, you may need to opt for a less strenuous program that’s easier on the joints. Physical fitness activities that are more suitable for seniors include water aerobics, Pilates, yoga, and resistance band workouts. These types of programs tend to take it much easier on your joints and muscles.

DNA Testing For Disease Predisposition

As DNA testing is becoming more widely utilized in average medical practices, it’s something you should consider an advantage to your well-being. By using DNA testing to uncover genetic health risks, you can better ensure that you get regular testing for conditions that you are more at risk for. You should talk with your doctor about getting DNA testing and follow up with what your test results show. This way, you can get the right exams scheduled to ensure that you stay healthy.

Make Regular Plans For Socialization

After retirement, you can find yourself at home with not a lot of tasks to accomplish. Getting out and scheduling social interactions is a must for your well-being. You want to ensure that you make regular meetups throughout the week so that you’re accountable for going somewhere. It will make such a large difference in your life when you have other people that you can talk with regularly instead of just sticking to being at home alone.

Be Mindful Of The Weather

There’s a reason that seniors will opt for staying home on those cold winter days. The weather can wreak havoc on your body and avoiding extreme temperature changes is a great idea to ensure your overall well-being. Older adults should be mindful of the risks of cold weather and properly prepare. Whether that means rescheduling appointments when extremely cold weather is to hit or simply wearing adequate clothing to ensure you stay warm, be mindful of the weather to ensure your good health stays around.

Schedule Regular Exams

As you’ve learned above, your health becomes more precious as you get older. Your body can’t react to heal itself as quickly as it once did when you were in your prime. Therefore, it’s important that you schedule regular health exams to ensure that you’re staying on top of issues before they get out of control and hard to fight. This includes not only physical health exams by your family physician but also eye exams, hearing exams, dental exams, and so forth. Preventative care is the key to ensuring that you stay healthy way into the future.

In your senior years, you need to be more mindful of your overall health. You can’t bounce back from diseases and conditions as quickly as you could when you were younger. The above five tactics are great suggestions to help ensure that you stay at the top of your physical health for years to come. Protecting your well-being should be number one on your list of priorities as a senior citizen.

3 Tips for Staying Active After Retirement

Retirement is full of opportunities. There are new people to meet, hobbies to try, and life to live. A healthy, active lifestyle can help you make the most out of every day. Establishing an exercise routine can be daunting no matter where you are in life, but the payoff is more than worth it. From walking every day to joining groups in your retirement community, here are three tips for staying active after retirement.

A Little Bit Goes a Long Way

An active lifestyle doesn’t have to mean hitting the gym every day. Even just a bit of light activity every day can improve your health. Walking and stretching daily helps get your blood flowing and boost your energy. When you add a little bit of activity to your routine, you build your strength and endurance, making it easier to do more intense exercises down the road. Most importantly, though, you’ll have the energy to pursue your interests and fill your retirement with the things you enjoy.

Take Care of Yourself

No matter how you exercise, you must take care of your health every step of the way. Staying hydrated is key, drink plenty of water and other healthy drinks. If you exercise outside, wear sunscreen or layers when appropriate. You know how important it is to wear skin protection against the sun when you’re young. Now it is all the more important. Always put on broad-spectrum physical sunscreen before you go out. And carry a travel-friendly bottle everywhere with you so you can reapply outside anytime. The moisture, sweat, and wiping your face gradually strip off the sunscreen on the skin, so you need to slather it again to have a full-time sun shield. Invest in quality workout gear, like a durable pair of shoes or compression gear to provide support and comfort as you work out. You should also work a few rest days into your routine, especially if you’re doing more intense exercises like cardio or strength training.

Make it Social

One of the best tips for staying active after retirement is to do activities you enjoy with people you like. Don’t be afraid to try something new if it interests you. Look for yoga groups, dance classes, or sports teams in your retirement community. Find people with similar interests and try working out with them a couple times a week. By making your workouts a social activity, you help maintain your mental and emotional wellbeing—as well as your physical health.

What to Do Before an Estate Sale

It’s tough to watch your parents get older. Role reversals can happen in the blink of an eye. For example, you may need to start taking care of your parents when you’re used to them taking care of you. One thing that can make the transition a little easier is moving your parents out of their home. Consider moving them into a nursing home if needed, or perhaps they could even live with you. Before you decide on either option, you must first move your parents out of their home. It’s a good idea to have an estate sale before this, because they’ll most likely need to get rid of a lot of stuff. This guide will tell you what to do before an estate sale so the process is less overwhelming.

Get Appraisals Beforehand

Everyone should get their items appraised before an estate sale. You need to have professionals look at your parents’ stuff before you decide if you want to sell it. For example, take all your mother’s antique jewelry to a professional jeweler. They can determine the value of the antique pieces. From there, you can decide whether you want to sell it to the experts, put it up for sale at the estate sale, or if you want to keep it yourself. It’s crucial to get things appraised, so you know how much everything is worth before the big day.

Set Minimum Prices

It’s essential to set minimum prices for every item at your estate sale. You need to be firm with your pricing. If you don’t, people will capitalize on your kindness and try to rip you off. Make sure every piece that’s up for sale is clearly marked. Also, ensure that all attendees know you have a minimum price in mind. Sure, it’s okay to negotiate. However, you can’t let items go for much less than they’re worth. Then, you won’t make any money—and it’s so important to have extra cash as your parents get older.

Advertise Your Estate Sale

You need people to show up to your estate sale. If no one comes, the whole thing is for nothing. For people to show up, you must advertise as much as possible. Post about the estate sale on social media. Ask your nieces and nephews to spread the word on their profiles, too. Also, make fliers to place around areas in the neighborhood. Hang them in your local libraries and tiny cafes. The more vocal you are about your estate sale, the more money you’ll make when it’s all said and done.

It’s hard to realize your parents need help. However, there comes a point when you must admit that it’s necessary. Holding an estate sale will help you finance the next point in their lives. You’ll need additional funds to help pay for care. So please, talk with your parents and see which of their items they will part with. Then, organize an estate sale so you all can begin to plan for this newest chapter in your lives.

Steps to Keep Walking as You Age

Aging presents a number of challenges, both physical and mental. However, there are a host of actions you can take to prevent loss of mobility and stay independent. Here are some steps that will keep you up and walking with confidence.

Perform Stretches

One of the common effects of aging is loss of flexibility in the feet. Often, elderly people experience impaired dorsiflexion. This means that their toes cannot bend upward, making walking difficult. The positioning and stiffness of the toes may also result in a great deal of pain. By stretching the area with the aid of hands or picking up marbles with your toes, you can strengthen them so that they can move more normally once again. If you live in an assisted living community, you can most likely receive help in performing these stretches from the staff there.

Exercise Your Legs

You may find that your legs themselves are also weaker or unbalanced as time goes on. This is where exercises are helpful. As an example, you can improve your leg strength and balance by leaning on one leg, then raising the other leg up sideways and attempting to balance in that position for several seconds. Besides your legs, your core plays a fundamental role in your balance while walking, so you should do exercises to build it up as well. At a basic level, you may twist your torso from side to side or lean on each side by lowering one shoulder and holding the position before switching. As your core becomes sturdier, you may move up to bridges and crunches.

Get a Form of Support

After much time spent stretching and exercising your legs, walking may still not seem as easy as it once was. Because of this, you should look to a form of external support to aid you as you walk. This will allow you to adjust to differences in your body and provide an extra measure of safety and security. Learn how to safely use your cane or walker, then with the image of the proper movements in your head, walk a short distance indoors. Slowly increase your time and distance until you can walk with more ease. Walking is an excellent way to stay limber and vibrant, retaining independence no matter what your age.

If you find yourself or a loved one struggling with walking, balance, and other mobility, consider physical therapy or rehab. services.

Estate Planning Advice for Seniors (and Caretakers)

For a large part of your adult life, you have been working to acquire things like money, cars, houses, and businesses. Not all, but most adults do this not only to be able to enjoy their lives in the present, but to secure their futures and to leave behind a legacy for those they care about. The hope is that after you’ve passed away, your family is able to benefit from your hard work by inheriting things you’ve left to them. 

What many adults aren’t aware of, however, is that if you have not effectively planned your estate while you’re alive and well, when you’re ill or have passed on, the problems only get worse for you and your loved ones. 

What is an Estate? 

It’s a large misconception that an estate is something that only the rich and famous have to worry about. However, the reality is that everyone has an estate no matter what your tax bracket is. An estate is any property you own (homes, rental properties, timeshares, etc), your financial assets (bank accounts, stocks, retirement accounts, shares, etc.), any businesses you own, and other personal property (clothes, shoes, jewelry, art collections, etc.). 

Essentially, individuals are to work with an estate or trust attorneys to create a plan for their estate. This is the legal process of ensuring that all of their assets are allocated to their loved ones in the event that they become seriously ill or pass away. With an iron-clad plan in place, it prevents the legal system from getting involved in your estate and causing an unnecessary amount of emotional and financial stress for your loved ones. 

Elements of Estate Planning

Depending on how large and complex your estate is, there may be various elements that are required to protect your legacy and your loved ones. Below are the four basic elements to consider and a brief description of what each is: 

Wills

Most seniors and caretakers are aware of what a will is. A will is a person’s last wishes documented for their assets and personal belongings. It is the most common and most basic form of planning an estate. In a will, you can list any assets you have and write in detail who they should go to and how they should be managed after you’ve passed on. When drafting a will, it is often recommended that you also determine who will be your administrator or executor of the estate to ensure that all listed assets are distributed in a legal and timely fashion. 

Trusts

Similar to a will but a lot more iron-clad are trusts. A trust is a legal document that holds assets for designated beneficiaries until the time of your death. With a trust, you designate a trustee to manage the assets until it is time to be distributed. The great thing about a trust is that they keep your loved ones out of the probate process. Meaning, your loved ones do not have to wait for a court to decide who gets what, nor do they have to pay for all the associated costs. 

Living Wills

Though the prayer is that you will live out your senior years in good health, as you age your health starts to decline. In the event that you end up sick or in the hospital, you want to make sure that your wishes for treatment are carried out. For example, should you stop breathing, do you want to be resuscitated? If you cannot breathe on your own do you want to be kept on a ventilator by any means necessary? Are you for or against feeding tubes? These are questions hospital and emergency staff will have for you that you may not be able to answer at the time. That is why having a living will in place is recommended. 

Power of Attorney

Last but not least when planning an estate it is important to choose a power of attorney. This is someone who will make decisions in various aspects of your life in the event that you can’t do so. A power of attorney can make decisions on things ranging from home repairs and real estate or property management to medical care and financial accounts. You can choose one person to make all of these decisions on your behalf or choose several people to handle various certain aspects. 

The older you get, the more you start to think about things like protecting your legacy and the loved ones you’re leaving it to when you’re gone. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to start working with an attorney to get your affairs in order. It will save you and your loved ones a lot of time and money and provide you with peace of mind in knowing your wishes are being carried out as you’d hoped.

Six Key Lessons in Starting a Home Care Agency

A considerable number of people need constant care and nurturing. These are elderly people, disabled people, and seriously sick patients. Due to employment or remote residence, relatives cannot take on all the worries and concerns. For this reason, they apply to special services whose duty is to provide professional care for their patients. This business is promising, as public health facilities cannot provide long-term care during the recovery period, and private clinics are way too expensive. So, how do you open a homecare agency, and what steps do you have to take? Compiling a business plan is not as easy as writing a college essay. Today, we are going to share with you some useful pieces of advice.

source:unsplash.com

Explore the territories

What should you start with? First of all, you need to evaluate the market potential of your city. To do this, divide the number of residents by four. That’s how we get an approximate number of families. After that, we divide it by 30 and get the number of families living in the city that have relatives who need assistance. Finally, we divide it by four again. At least a quarter of these people have thought about paying for these services and have money to cover the expenses. Even with all these calculations, the number is going to be huge. In the meanwhile, you will need to have at least fifty long-standing clients for business to be successful in the first year after its launch. Fifty people are a drop in the ocean for a large city. While assessing the market, you should also examine your competitors if there are any. Try to find their strengths and weaknesses, analyze their approach, and try to offer something extra that will make your agency different.

Create a strategy

Either you open everything from scratch or use franchising, coming up with a business strategy is a vital component that holds everything in order. Make sure this document includes agency start-up costs, initial staff costs, marketing, operational strategy, taxes, and advertising campaigns. It is beneficial to have your business plan reviewed by a qualified finance professional to avoid errors and delinquencies. Do not hesitate to add even the tiniest expenses into the budget. It is also essential to create a business development path: set the desired material goals and ways of achieving them. Make sure you prepare agreements both for your employees and future customers. It is best to seek assistance from a local lawyer so that these documents take into account all legal requirements. Make sure you understand each wording to avoid problems in the future. In other words, you have to take care of all the paperwork and make sure you are ready to start your entrepreneurial adventure.

Seed funding

In theory, you can start your own business in social services without a penny in your pocket. The only couple of things you need are a computer with Internet access, the employer ID number, business entity, and registration. In the beginning, it is possible to work without an office, from home, with a minimum (1-2 people) number of full-time employees. In the future, of course, you will need an office (maybe 2-3 offices, if we are talking about a large city). Why would you need an office? That’s the place where your future clients will come to sign contracts, where you train your future employees.

In practice, it is better to start with at least 40 thousand dollars. If you have a more substantial amount, you can open two or three offices at once. The advantage of this business model is that it adapts to a variety of formats.

High income, however, should not be expected, especially in the first couple of months. But in any case, most likely, you will not lose what you have invested: the investment will return to you in about a year. As we have already mentioned, you will need at least 50 regular service agreements for this business to be profitable. In the future, you can consider selling franchise yourself.

Look for the right people

You can have several models of recruitment. You can either cooperate with independent caregivers and pay an hourly rate or employ people full-time. However, you have to make sure you will have enough customers to cover their wages. In addition to checking the background and experience of your future workers, you have to make sure they suit your agency’s requirements in terms of personal traits of character. It’s vital to check the criminal record of the people you interview. The geographical availability of the staff is also an important factor. Your agency must have an extensive database of qualified people who are willing and able to provide social care services. Then, when an order comes in, you always have the opportunity to find someone who lives nearby.

Keep it under control

As you can see, it’s quite easy to start this kind of business. But as the number of customers and employees grows, the administrative tasks become more complicated. Consider purchasing special software or automated systems that allow keeping accurate records, simplify the work with agreements, and store everything in one space.

Establish partnerships

It’s vital to establish excellent relations with local clinics, hospitals, and private doctors as they may recommend you to your potential customers. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing instruments in this sphere. Make sure you work on your reputation and maintain a good relationship with your partners.