Senior Care Trend Watch: Opportunties, Penalties and Profits

Home care is the next big thing. Nursing homes are fading from view, boosting the popularity and availability of assisted living and Alzheimer’s care options. Consumers are spending the most for care at the end of life.

The Center for Medicare Services (CMS) goes after hospitals with high re-admission rates; patients who are most often readmitted are largely seniors with multiple health issues. The government allocates nearly one billion in grant funding for care innovations.

Great opportunity for growth in the senior care industry still exists, whether it’s technology related or not. Though difficult to calculate in exact terms, longevity is on the rise: people are living longer and (mostly) better.

These are the six major trends Laurie Orlov of Aging in Place Technology Watch breaks down in a recent post entitled, “Six trends that signal change in all things aging and health.”

Find the rest of this article: Here.

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7 Tips to Stay Awake on Night Shifts

Many nurses and other professionals have difficulty staying awake on a night shift. This is completely understandable, and quite honestly, by mother nature’s design. Your body releases chemicals based upon the time of day that encourage you to go to sleep. So if you find you’re having trouble staying awake at night, it’s just because you’re human.

While you can’t re-engineer how your body is designed, you may be able to change your practices to make night shift a little easier. There are some tips and tricks you can use that will help you stay alert and useful during a night shift. Without further delay, the following are helpful ways to keep you awake during a night shift.

1. Drink Plenty of Water. 
Drinking water is helpful for multiple reasons. First and foremost, it’s difficult to get too sleepy if you have to go to bathroom. So staying very hydrated will let your bladder serve as your personal sleep deterrent. Also, drinking water can help increase the oxygenation of your blood level which can help to increases alertness and help you stay awake more easily during a long night shift.

To Read the Rest of the Article.
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High-carb Diet is Linked to Alzheimer's

Older people who load up their plates with carbohydrates have nearly four times the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, a study out last Tuesday finds.

Sugars also played a role in the development of MCI, often a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease, according to the report in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Eating more proteins and fats offer some protection from MCI.

Mayo Clinic researchers tracked 1,230 people ages 70 to 89 and asked them to provide information on what they ate the previous year. Among that group only the 940 people who showed no signs of cognitive impairment were asked to return for 15-month follow-ups. By the study’s fourth year, 200 of the 940 were beginning to show mild cognitive impairment, problems with memory, language, thinking and judgment.

Not everyone with MCI goes on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, but many do, says lead author Rosebud Roberts,, a professor in the department of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Alzheimer’s affects 5.2 million adults in the nation, numbers that are expected to triple by 2050 as the Baby Boomers age.

 To Read the Rest of the Article.

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Why the Economy Might be Good for Assisted Living

An article from AssistedLivingFacilities.org suggests that the slowly recovering economy has helped fuel growth in assisted living.

Per the piece, a report from earlier this year showed a decrease in profits and an increase in the number of closings or buy-outs for most assisted living communities. However, recent economic growth, minimal as it may be, has seeped into the assisted living sector in the form of increased profits, more state and federal grants, and an uptick in other types of support (such as an increase in approved Medicare and Medicaid  claims for assisted living costs).

Other benefits of expansion in assisted living include job growth, as each new and currently operating facility must recruit and maintain a large staff complement, and a boost in the local economy thanks to the trend towards “green” construction. According to the article, “green building helps the local environment, and the government subsidizes green efforts. These subsidies are often spent on local workers or goods, which, again help the economy.”

To read more of the Seniors for Living article.  Looking for a career in the health industry working with seniors? Check out We Care Online's classes: http://wecareonlineclasses.com/

Coming Soon at We Care Online

We are excited to announce the upcoming launch of our new registration and database system!

Be watching for this change coming in November. This system will make the registration process a lot easier for students and facilities.

Some changes will include:

• All registrations on the new system will be available to students and facilities. 
• You can look up your account, print receipts, print list of classes, etc.
• And so much more!  

All the past and current students and facilities using our website will be getting an email outlining the changes and asking them to create an account at some point.

We are excited to have this change make it so much easier for you here at We Care Online!

We Care Online Staff Highlight - Lynn Cline

This month you get to meet Lynn Cline. 

Lynn has worked in the healthcare field for 30 years. As a child and growing up, she always enjoyed being a caregiver and knew that being a nurse is what she wanted to do for her career. Lynn began working LTC as a teenager, worked for a period of time as a CNA, then continued her education and became an RN.

The majority of Lynn’s work in the healthcare field has been in acute care, working as a Registered Nurse. She has also worked as Director of Nursing in LTC and in Home Care. Lynn is a certified Risk Manager and certified CQI manager for both acute and LTC.  Lynn has a KDADS approval to teach the following courses:   Certified Nurse Aide, Social Service Designee, Activity Director,  Home Health Aide,  Medication Aide and also teaches continuing education for these positions. Lynn’s specialty is in adult education for health care workers in LTC.

Lynn is married and lives with her husband in Tucson, AZ.  The Clines have 2 adult children and 5 grandchildren.  Lynn also has a miniature Border Collie, named Baby Girl that she loves to spoil.

When she is not working Lynn loves to travel every chance she gets. She loves to just get out, drive and find beautiful new places.  She enjoys taking walks with her dog.  She also admits that she is a closet NCIS fan.

Lynn has learned that working in healthcare is a lot of hard work, sadness, and joy but states, “the work satisfaction you get is worth it all.” Lynn notes that there have been many, many changes over her years in the healthcare profession.  In spite of these changes, Lynn states one goal has remained a constant.  That goal is one of being an advocate for patients and the desire to give them the best care physically, mentally and spiritually possible.

Everyone at WeCareOnline plays an important role in helping students have the best online learning experience possible.   Lynn is the founder and owner of WeCareOnline.  She loves teaching and teaches several WCO classes. Since WeCareOnline is an online company, Lynn knows that people don’t get to see her face to face or to see her workspace.  She says that you would see her with a coffee cup in her hand and  seated in her recliner with laptop in hand talking to staff and students. Lynn states:  “It's a blast working from home!”

"Fall" into Healthy Foods

Autumn once again has come around with all the splendor of the changing leaves, the cooler sleeping nights, and the unique smells of dry leaves and fall flowers. Of course, not without the price tag of shorter days, frosts and the end of the light summer veggies and fruits. In this series of eating seasonally, what should we be looking for as the days get shorter and cooler, and the growing season slows? 

Leafy greens once again color the farm lands, as well as a few of the brassica vegetables - cabbage and broccoli, for example. The nightshade vegetables are closing out their stay in the garden as well; this is the family of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Carrots are popping up with the beets, the garlic and onions have dried and cured, and the fresh herbs are seeing their last days too. How do our bodies use these foods in relationship to the coming cooler weather, and how do we hang on to the foods before the scarcity of winter? As always, the answer lies in “nature will provide” and “you are what you eat.”

As the temperatures slowly inch their way downward, our bodies - through instinct - notice that it is time to prepare to hibernate. Think that humans don’t hibernate? Guess again! We stay inside more, exercise less, eat more, and begin to 'nest'. All of these instincts lead us into a behavior of storing our food. Have you found yourself shopping for items that are on sale and stock piling a bit more? How does this work with the garden? With our bodies?

To read the rest of this article: Nursetogether.com
Interested in a career in healthcare? Why not start an online class this fall?
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Budgeting - Starting from Scratch

As soon as you start spending your own money, it’s time to start tracking your spending so that you can create and follow a personal budget. 

Tracking your spending, while sometimes tedious, is the best way to find out exactly where your money is going.

The simplest way to track your spending, especially your cash, is the low-tech way, with a notebook and a pen. By carrying around the notebook with you, you can track exactly where every dollar is going–from a small coffee on your way to work to a spending splurge at the mall.

If you’d prefer, on a daily or weekly basis, you can transfer your handwritten notes to a computer spreadsheet.

Once you have collected information for about a month, you’ll have a good baseline of information to use to create your personal budget.

Some major categories that you’ll want to include are housing, utilities, insurance, food (groceries and dining out), gasoline, clothing, entertainment, and “other".

Using a spreadsheet program (such as Excel), online service, or other personal finance program, add up the expenses that you’ve been tracking, and then calculate what you’d like to budget for each category. Keep in mind that you’ll need to budget for some items, like gifts and automobile repairs, which will be necessary but won’t occur every month.


To read the rest of this money management article.

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Alzheimer's - Finding New Ways to Communicate

Different types of dementia, Alzheimer's, a stroke, a brain injury: these all have an impact on a person’s ability to communicate, making conversation with others extremely difficult. 

As time is often limited for assisted living staff who provide care, this obstacle is particularly upsetting and challenging. 

Visiting family members and friends may also find that the limited communication with their loved ones is frustrating and at times painful.

You cannot change what happened to cause the impaired communication, but you can change how you approach it. Here are a few ideas to help you bridge the gaps:

1. Talking isn’t always necessary. You can enjoy each other’s company and don’t have to talk at all. Non-verbal communication is just as important to a relationship as verbal communication. Hold your mother’s hand. Put your arm around your grandfather’s shoulders. Maintain eye contact. Smile. Cry together. Laugh together.


To read the rest of this article Click Here. 
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