There is no doubt that the home environment is much less stressful and more comfortable to elderly people than the unfamiliar confines of a nursing home or rehabilitation facility, but sometimes the care required to keep seniors healthy is a little too much for family members to handle on their own.

The onset of symptoms of dementia, Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis can require some very special measures of attention that can only be properly tended to by professionals – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that seniors suffering from these conditions need to be relegated to an institutional environment.

Specialty Care Services has RNs and LPNs on staff that are well trained to handle the special attention needed of these conditions in the home environment.  In addition to being able to capably handle the aforementioned condition’s care, the staff of Specialty Care Services is also trained to handle follow up care after surgery, wound care, tube feeding and injections.

You can set up services as you need it for your particular situation because Specialty Care Services offers options for both hourly and live in care.  This give you the opportunity to keep your elderly loved ones at home where they are most comfortable without compromising the quality of attention that they receive.  The best possible service provided in the most comfortable environment is a key to ensuring that our loved ones are as happy and healthy as possible, regardless of their special care needs.

Chances of developing and suffering from some form of dementia increase as you age, where less than ten percent of individuals around the age of sixty five display symptoms of some forms of dementia, it’s estimated that approximately half of all people over the age of eighty are affected.

There are quite a few different possible causes of dementia, some of which are treatable, but one of the most common causes, Alzheimer’s disease, is yet to have a cure or effective method of treatment.  This leaves thousands and thousands of Americans with loved ones to care for at home the difficult task of coping with the very special needs of a person suffering from dementia.

Providing full time attention for an elderly loved one can be difficult and stressful in just about any situation, but trying to provide care for someone with specialized needs, both the difficulty and stress are greatly magnified.

Specialty Care Services has a well staff that is well trained in providing care for patients with Alzheimer’s and a wide variety of other special needs disorders and diseases.  If providing care has begun to make you feel overwhelmed, it may be time to get some help.  Specialty Care Services offers options to suit the needs of any home, with all services offered on either an hourly or live in basis – your loved ones can get the type care that they need whenever you need it.

As much as you may want to handle every aspect of the care of an elderly loved one, the process can become too much to handle for one individual – especially if there are extenuating circumstances involved.  When an elderly loved one is suffering from multiple conditions that all required specialized treatments to keep in check, the care can become overwhelming for even the most well meaning family members to handle.

Dementia, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, congestive heart failure, Multiple Sclerosis and mental illness may all require special medications and specialized treatment that could be tough to provide for an untrained individual.  Rather than assuming more responsibility than you can physically handle with all of your other life responsibilities and setting yourself up for a stress related illness of your own – you could consider an hourly or live in home health aide option.

The staff of RNs and LPNs at Specialty Care Services is well trained in all facets of home health care, including specialty treatments for all of the above referenced conditions plus post operative care, nutrition therapy, medication/injections and tube feeding.  With the level of care that Specialty Care Services can provide, you can focus on spending quality time with your loved ones rather than worrying and fretting over all of the nuances of care.

With competitive pricing and paid coverage under most long term health care policies, the top notch care provided by Specialty Care Services is a wise choice for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed with providing care for a loved one.

Healthy aging requires the right mix of a lot of components; the right nutrition, the right supplementation, the right amount of rest and the right amount of movement.  Contrary to popular belief, you are never too old to get some exercise – in fact, when compared to a more sedentary lifestyle, people who get regular amounts of vigorous exercise are far less affected by many of the negatives associated with getting older.

This means that by adding exercise into your daily life along with a healthy diet, you can help to seriously reduce your chance of developing a number of negative characteristics, including obesity, diabetes, heart problems, high cholesterol and osteoporosis.

You don’t necessarily have to take up body building or marathoning to truly reap the benefits of exercise, by getting your heart rate up along with some resistance training will greatly improve your quality of life.  Choosing to ignore your body’s need for exercise could result in limited movement and increased chance of injury, which could ultimately lead to the need for a stay in a rehabilitation center or regular visits from an RN for treatment.

Getting mobile now gives you a much better chance of staying mobile longer – this means that you will most likely be able to live healthier for longer, which in the golden years may mean the difference between being independent and comfortable with home health aide care or residing in a nursing home.

As people age, even if they have few of their original teeth remaining, it’s important to continue with proper oral care practices and to have regular visits to the dentist to ensure a healthy mouth, teeth and gums.  Proper oral hygiene greatly contributes to overall health, so in order to ensure the healthiest life possible for seniors we need to do whatever it takes to see that they get the oral care that they need whether the care gets self administered or comes via the help of a home health aid or home nurse.

There are several things that come with age that may put us at greater risk for tooth decay and other dental problems:  receding gums can expose more of the tooth and lead to the possibility of decay around the root if proper cleaning isn’t performed; an unbalanced diet can lead to issues with the strength of remaining teeth and the health of the gums; some medications seniors take regularly can contribute to the possibility of tooth decay and conditions like arthritis that are common among seniors can affect the ability to properly brush and floss.

Getting the right nutrients from the proper diet is crucial to your oral health, but the biggest part of the equation may be the ability to effectively clean the teeth and gums.  Many seniors have physical constraints that prevent them from comfortably performing the tasks that younger people take for granted like daily brushing and flossing.

There are a number of ways that we can manipulate a toothbrush to make it have a heftier or longer grip so that it is easier for a senior to hold onto and there are a number of battery powered or electric toothbrushes and flossing aids available that reduce the strain associated with daily cleaning.  For seniors who are under the care of a home health aid and are becoming incapable of performing daily cleanings and flossing, assistance with oral hygiene is generally available to ensure the best possible health.

As people age they are more susceptible to serious injuries stemming from falls around the home – where a thirty year old may come out of a slip or trip and fall with a few bruises and some soreness, an elderly person may suffer a broken wrist and hip that requires them to spend the next several weeks in a hospital followed by regular visits from a home health aid for special care.

Due to the fact that the results of falls are more serious to seniors, it’s important that we do everything we can to minimize the occurrences.  There are a number of things that are easily changed that can greatly reduce the chance of a senior falling and becoming injured – here are a few of the easiest to address:

Doing things like installing a hand-rail in the shower, tightening railings of all staircases and clearing the floor of clutter are three of the best ways to ensure a safer environment for seniors.  As people age, they aren’t quite as quick and nimble as they were during their younger years and that, coupled with degenerating vision makes the normal clutter that a young person deals with in their home or apartment very dangerous to a senior; and falls on staircases and in bathrooms can result in very serious injuries.

Make sure that there is enough light in a home inhabited by a senior and that the things that they use on a regular basis are easily accessible to avoid excessive reaching and climbing that could lead to a fall.

Many falls could have been avoided if the proper precautions had been taken, when it comes to a senior’s safety the time to act is before a potential injury occurs, not after six weeks of in home treatment for injury rehabilitation.

Dear Specialty Care Services, thank you again for your kind, caring home care nursing assistance your home care aides gave to mom over the many years.

Thank you also for the lovely floral tribute! It was very much appreciated – Karen and Family, College Park MD.

It is with utmost warmth that I wish to thank you for the outstanding nursing aide services provided over the last week for my father, A. McDonald, who passed away peacefully at home this morning.

In particular, I want to commend the nursing services of Nadine Milton, Nursing Assistant, who assisted my father and our family during this most trying time. Nadine was here for eight hours during most nights providing highly professional, but extremely sensitive and tender care for my father. We simply could not have made it through this week without her support. Nadine followed the guidelines of the hospice nurse and home care staff, but also used her own good judgment and experience in how to proceed as my dad’s situation changed during the night time hours. The hospice home care nurse in charge of my father’s care was very impressed with the meticulous information regarding medications and nurses’ notes on my father’s condition provided by Nadine each day before she left.

Please know that the care my father received made it easier for him and for us to make it through the final days of his life in as much comfort as possible – W. McDonald, Rockville MD

On short notice, Adwoa Wilson was assigned to provide live in nursing assistant care for my father during the final year of his life. It was a difficult assignment as my father had limited mobility and significant health issues. Adwoa provided this live-in, nursing assistant care in-home on a 24/7 basis.

Ms. Wilson demonstrated in short order that she could assume full and competent responsibility for daily patient planning needs including overseeing the administration of medications, ensuring meals were prepared and scheduled appropriately, and undertaking bathing and hygiene and all other activities of daily living requirements. She cheerfully and ably assumed all her home care nursing duties and as a self-starter consistently sought to seek more ways to improve upon the physical environment to provide greater home care for her patient.

Ms. Wilson is an extraordinary individual and my family was fortunate to have such a person of high performance standards and we appreciate her willingness to extend herself to not only support my father’s needs but for those of the entire family. She is a person who exudes personal integrity and who really cares for the patient in her care. She is an outstanding nurse who is a treasure for those fortunate enough to have her as their caregiver. Without hesitation, I highly recommend Specialty Care Services and their staff and I am confident that they will be an important and contributing member of any household with similar nursing care needs. I assure you that Ms. Wilson will be greatly missed by my family – D. Johnson. Arlington, VA

The potential benefits of supplementing human growth hormone are widely advertised: increased bone density, increased muscle mass and lower percentages of body fat are just a few of the possible positives, but are these advertisements just a ploy by drug companies to get otherwise healthy seniors hard earned money?

Human growth hormone is naturally produced in our bodies and it is responsible for many of the wonderful things that we associate with being youthful and healthy, as we age the production naturally decreases and with decreased production we experience more difficulty in maintaining the same healthy body and feeling of vibrancy that we enjoyed in out earlier years.

Though this would seem like a logical equation – simply supplementing HGH when we can no longer produce it at the same level can cause just as many health concerns as it can benefits.  Supplementing unnecessarily with HGH has been associated with swelling in the arms and legs, pain in both joints and muscles and possible gynecomastia (male breast tissue enlargement) and studies have shown that the increase in muscle doesn’t necessarily lead to an increase in strength – which would be a much more useful benefit for someone trying to age healthily.

For someone who has real difficulty producing human growth hormone, supplementation may be a necessity for good health, but for individuals who just have a reduced production due to age there may be far less expensive, safer and more effective methods to achieve the very same results.

Healthy aging often comes down to making the right choices: proper diet, proper supplementation, the right amount of activity and the proper care and rehabilitation following an illness or injury are all huge components of healthy aging.  If you or a loved one need help with care at home or in an assisted living community regain movement after surgery or speed recovery following an illness, the very experienced staff of Specialty Care Services will work with you to provide the best solution – and that’s much more valuable than the promise of a fountain of youth or magic potion any day.