Senior Living Advisor

Kris helps people/families who are looking to make the move into Independent Living, Assisted Living/Personal Care, or Memory Care, to find the right options and fit for their needs, budget, and location.

This experience can be very overwhelming, she understands this and is there to help guide families through the whole process.

For Families with aging parents

Are you concerned about safety?
Perhaps Mom recently fell and broke a hip. Maybe Dad is having trouble sticking to his doctor’s recommendations. Does your loved one seem to be isolated? Losing weight? Having difficulty with remembering important activities or events?

Your parents want to stay at home.
Most older adults prefer the home setting they have lived in for years. You, however, may be worried that their living situation is not as safe as it needs to be. And your family member may require more assistance than you can realistically provide.

We’re here to help.

Working as a team
We can assist your family. We can provide you and your loved one with the support needed to stay at home, and suggest alternatives, as needed, to make sure your parent is safe and comfortable.

How we contribute
The benefits of working with an Aging Well Professional include:

• Peace of mind for everyone involved.
  As a family member, you want to be sure your loved one has a credible plan in place. Our collaborative approach makes life easier for you. You can spend more time being a son or daughter and less worrying if your parent is safe.
• An objective assessment.
  As licensed Aging Well Care Managers, we give you expert advice outlining the current situation and making recommendations for needed support services now, and in the foreseeable future.
• Preventing and managing crises.
  Of course, we prefer to be brought in before there’s a crisis. But if one occurs—a fall, a hospitalization, a stroke, a wandering incident—we can jump in and handle the medical issues. We can also support you, and your relative if changes in living situation are required.
• Serving as an advocate in the health care system.
  It’s a complicated labyrinth. Without a knowledgeable advocate, the patient’s voice is frequently drowned out. Let us help your loved one determine his or her goals of care, and then work with the medical system to make sure treatment decisions are made that support those goals.
• Preserving your relative’s independence.
  One of the primary challenges of those needing care is retaining as much control as is appropriate, and then learning to let go. Everyone deserves the “dignity of risk,” thus we support autonomy and self-determination for as long as it’s realistically possible.
• Recommending appropriate resources.
  Based on your family’s preferences and financial situation, we can make recommendations for support services that are the best fit. We all want your loved one to be satisfied with the decisions made. Put our experience to work for you so the odds favor a successful transition.
• Helping to ease family conflict.
  The elder care years, especially, generate many difficult dynamics. We are intimately familiar with the ways that family systems can flare when the parents start to need help. Part of our training and expertise involves knowing how to quell those fires and turn everyone’s attention to the best interests of the elder. We are the experts in respecting the needs of all family members and helping them to overcome their differences and find common ground.

Getting help

Even if the memory loss condition is not curable, there are things you can do to make daily life more pleasant for all of you.

People with dementia need support and access to others who know what it’s like. Joining a group with others who have similar cognitive impairments, can help them socially and help them feel a sense of belonging all while engaging in meaningful and therapeutic recreational activities in a group 

Diagnosing Dementia 

Depending on the cause, dementia symptoms can include

• loss of ability to remember new information or recent events. Your family member may ask the same question over and over. He or she may repeat the same story 10 minutes after telling it.
• confusion and loss of logical thinking. Inability to remember also affects the reasoning part of the brain. This is where we track that “a” leads to “b” which leads to “c.” For instance, dealing with numbers and calculations, such as adding and subtracting, frequently becomes a problem with dementia. This type of muddy thinking is also common with depression.
• bad judgment and loss of wisdom or “common sense.” Weighing the pros and cons of a situation is mentally taxing. Your family member may have trouble zeroing in on a decision. For instance, ordering at a restaurant may become frustrating. You may find that your parent purchases unnecessary or unusual goods. Poor judgment may also make your family member vulnerable to scams and con artists.
• Difficulty with multistep activities. Complex activities are especially hard when you can’t remember what you’ve just done. Early signs of dementia may include problems making a meal or balancing the checkbook.
• Getting lost or disoriented. Your relative may get lost in familiar places. He or she may not be able to follow directions easily.
• Reduced verbal skills. Difficulty finding words is a sign of dementia. We all have trouble with this now and then. But persons with dementia frequently substitute odd or unrelated words when they can’t find the one they want.
• Loss of interest in usual activities/hobbies. This is also a sign of depression. Depression and memory loss frequently occur together. (It’s depressing to be losing your mental abilities!) And the muddy thinking of depression, especially in an older adult, can seem at first glance to be dementia.

Treatable dementia

Some memory loss conditions can be treated and cured. The most common causes of temporary dementia include

• drug reactions. Confused thinking may be a side effect of medication. Or it may result from a combination of drugs. Even over-the-counter and herbal remedies can cloud one’s ability to think logically.
• medical conditions. Diseases of the kidneys or liver, for instance, can cause memory problems. People with especially high or low thyroid levels show symptoms of dementia. As the medical conditions are treated and cured, the dementia also goes away.
• infection. A high fever can cause confusion. This is especially true of infections in the brain. Cure the infection and you’ve eliminated the dementia.
• nutritional deficiency or dehydration. Lack of B vitamins, particularly B12 and thiamin, can result in confused thinking. So can insufficient fluid intake.
• long-standing alcoholism. This form of dementia is treatable if caught early. Once the damage is done, however, the dementia symptoms can continue even if the person quits drinking altogether.
• emotional distress. Anxiety and depression can affect thinking as well as mood. Fortunately, these conditions can be treated.

Other dementias are not curable
While there may not be a cure with these conditions, the worsening of the symptoms can be slowed down with medication. For instance, there are medications that can help with Alzheimer’s disease. Drugs that lower blood pressure and prevent blood clots can reduce the frequency of strokes, which are the cause of vascular dementia. Some people have more than one memory loss condition. As an example, it is not unusual for older adults to have both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

Getting tested

If your loved one’s doctor reports “symptoms of dementia,” request further testing and a full diagnosis. Ideally, get a referral to a neurologist. A thorough work up includes special tests of thinking, blood tests, and a brain scan (CT or MRI). Getting a diagnosis is an elaborate procedure. An Aging Well Professional can guide your family through the process.

Once you know the cause, you can then take action to cure the condition or at least slow down the decline in memory. The sooner you find out, the better.

We’re so thankful for our previous clients and their happy thoughts 

“She is truly an exemplary leader, caregiver, role model and extended family member to each patient she works with. She is a treasure and invaluable asset to any setting involving elderly individuals and dementia patients.“

Our Associations

We pride ourselves in our commitment to stay abreast of the ever-changing landscape of senior services and aging research. To this end,  I am a member of the following professional organizations:

Still, have some questions? Let’s schedule a time to talk.

Our Services for Family and Caregivers.

Making each day matter.

Senior Living Advisor

Kris helps people/families who are looking to make the move into Independent Living, Assisted Living/Personal Care, or Memory Care, to find the right options and fit for their needs, budget, and location.

This experience can be very overwhelming, she understands this and is there to help guide families through the whole process.

We’re so thankful for our previous clients and their happy thoughts 

“She is truly an exemplary leader, caregiver, role model and extended family member to each patient she works with. She is a treasure and invaluable asset to any setting involving elderly individuals and dementia patients.“

Our Associations

We pride ourselves in our commitment to stay abreast of the ever-changing landscape of senior services and aging research. To this end,  I am a member of the following professional organizations:

Still, have some questions? Let’s schedule a time to talk.