5 Tips for Talking with a Person with Alzheimer's

Yesterday afternoon, I walked into Mary's spacious room. Mary is a woman who has few visitors and whom I've volunteered to spend a little time with every week. I greeted her, complimented her on her beautiful turquoise sweater and shook her hand.

Then I sat down at her little table that was overflowing with books, photographs, the newspaper and other items she wants to keep close at hand. I started off by picking up a small framed photo of Mary with her husband and three children -- two sons and a daughter.

"Tell me about your daughter," I said, using an open-ended question because they have no right or wrong answers. That's a tip I picked up from The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care by Virginia Bell and David Troxell.

"Oh, her name is Connie," she told me. "She has four children -- two boys and two girls."
She continued by giving me several details about Connie and her family.


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We Care Online Has TWO New Courses To Help You Be Better Equipped For Your Position!

At We Care Online, we want you to be the best you can be at your job.  So we are adding new courses to help you be just that. We have added the following to our course offerings. These courses are Open Enrollment courses.  You can pay and join when you are ready - no set class times!

Medical Terminology II

Build on the Medical Terminology you already know. The course is perfect for professionals who want to learn more detailed medical terminology.  Knowledge of basic medical terminology is required to perform successfully in a medical field setting. Key areas of concentration include medical terminology and basic anatomy physiology related to the body systems.  Diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions will also be included as they are fundamental to the clinical medical setting. Accepted medical abbreviations, suffixes, combining forms and essential prefixes will be reviewed based on the current guidelines from The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly known as the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT).

If you still need a beginning Medical Terminology course, try this one: Medical Terminology

Microsoft Word For Medical Professionals

This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of MS Word processing software as it applies to document creation in a medical setting. Knowledge of word processing software is essential to perform successfully as a medical transcriptionist-scribe, unit coordinator and many other positions in a clinical setting. Most electronic medical record (EMR) software interfaces with MS Word, and most EMR systems have pre-programmed documents utilizing Word formats. Key areas of concentration include creating documents with Word 2013; editing, formatting and creating documents, as well as building forms. 

Your education is an important part of your future. You have an outstanding opportunity to increase your level of knowledge and in turn, increase your personal value in the business world. 

Tax Time Tips for Caregivers and Single Moms

Many single moms don’t realize they can use the Head of Household filing status instead of Single status.

Head of Household standard deduction and tax rate schedule are the second lowest after Married Filing Jointly and Qualifying Widow.  Higher standard deduction amount means less income is subject to taxes, and a lower tax rate means less taxes.  Lower taxes equals a higher refund.

Daycare is expensive and as a single parent one of your highest priorities.  There is a tax break for all or part of your taxes though.  First, use your company’s daycare flex spending account.  This account allows you to use up to $5,000 a year of your income before taxes to pay for your daycare.  Then you can use any remaining expense, up to $6,000 total spent, for a tax credit when you have more than two children in daycare.  This is a total win-win when it comes to reducing your taxes and taking care of your most precious commodity.

Let’s not forget the Child Tax Credits. 

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Healthy Lunches Forever: Do Lunch Right

Maximize Your Meal

Lunch is the Jan Brady of meals: stuck in the middle, usually boring and sometimes ignored altogether. But it's time to stop giving breakfast and dinner all the attention, especially if you want to lose weight. Recent research shows that lunch—including where, when, and what you eat—is a big part of the pound-shedding equation. "Getting the right type of fuel at lunch can help you stay focused for a productive second half of the day," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, a FITNESS advisory board member and the author of The Flexitarian Diet. "However, too much food or the wrong type can have the opposite effect and lead to an energy crash through the afternoon and evening." We asked the experts for their best advice to help you get the most out of your midday meal. Read on for their top tips.

Change things up. Turkey on whole wheat again? Brown-bagging the same old stuff could backfire on the scale.

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How to Get Your Weight in the Healthy Zone with National Healthy Weight Week

Diets don't work—healthy lifelong habits are what will get you weight loss, weight maintenance, and good health. Celebrate National Healthy Weight Week (January 19 to 25) by dropping the diet and picking up a few healthy habits instead.

The concept behind Healthy Weight Week is that dieting is harmful to your self-esteem. You diet because you view yourself as overweight. Then the punishment, deprivation, restricting calories, and avoiding happy hour starts. But if you are always hungry or feel deprived and view yourself as "fat,” then packing on the pounds is easy.

So what exactly is a “healthy” weight? Uncontrollable elements that affect weight are height, bone density, body type (endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph), and body composition (the innate ratio of body muscle to fat). Muscle & Strength explains the different body types (shown below) and variations in exercise routine for body type.

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Returning to the Gym Benefits New Moms

Has the new year also brought along a new bundle of joy? New moms may be finding that their 2015 resolution to get their body back post-baby is more difficult than they originally calculated.
According to Minerals Sports Club Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor Barbara Matchett, an average woman gains approximately 30 pounds during pregnancy. She admits it's difficult “having patience and realizing that it took nine months for your body to gain the weight and it will be a process. I think the hardest part is probably fitting it in your schedule. You have a new baby that requires all of your attention, but remember it's important to find time for you, too. If you have a good support system at home, don't be afraid to leave the baby for an hour or try to find a gym that has child care. Your health is crucial so you're there to take care of your baby.”

“I think it's a challenge,” Minerals Fitness Director Betty Tobin said. “You see celebrities on TV get their bodies back in 20 days after having a baby,” she said with a laugh, saying the time frame is slightly unrealistic.

Tobin said several new moms have returned to the gym recently to work on their new physique, one only days after giving birth.

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Take Time to Recognize Activity Professionals

1/18-24/2015 is National Activity Professionals Week.

What if you already are an Activity Professional?

Sure, it's nice to go out to lunch and get presents - but in many cases, this does not happen. Rather than sit back and wait for the "royal treatment", use this week as an excuse to "toot your own horn". Consider the following ideas to recognize and promote the value of therapeutic activities:

1.Conduct an inservice, but create a celebratory atmosphere. Serve refreshments, decorate festively, and have door prizes. Provide information regarding the benefits of activities and create displays with materials and photographs. Give out promotional items related to NAPW.

2. Use some of the poems and writings about activities, listed on the "Poems and Silly Stuff" Page. My favorites are "The Activity Pest" and "Activities are...". Display them in common areas, send them to the families or read them at activity groups.

3. Create a video emphasizing the benefits of each activity. Set the video up in the lobby, play it continuously with a poster, tri-board or printed materials explaining NAPW.

4. Plan an "Activity Open House". Send out invitations and have display areas set up in your recreation room which emphasize the value of therapeutic activities. 

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Best Jobs for 2015

As the country comes out of a recession, jobs are becoming increasingly common, though getting them can be a challenge. As time goes on, CNN Money notes that retraining seems to be the key.

This means that for many people, there is nothing more positive and promising than returning to school or getting increased training for jobs that they already have. What are some of the important facts that are going to be shaping the job market in 2015?

For example, the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is indicates that most of the professions that are going to experience the most growth are related to the health and wellness field. For example, the growth rate for personal care aids is listed at an impressive 49% percent over the next ten years, while home health care aides are set to grow nearly as much. Occupational therapists are also set to grow at a similar rate.

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WeCareOnline January Staff Highlight: Cindy Cline-Gray

This month we learn about Cindy Cline-Gray.

Cindy lives in Tucson, Arizona. She has been married to a handsome hunk of a guy, Mike, for over 22 years now. Mike works at a church and also has a business as a social marketing consultant. The Gray’s have two children. Their daughter, Danny, and son, Kacey. The Gray family also has two dogs, Chopper and Sassy.

When Cindy is not working, she volunteers at her church, reads, decorates and teaches her dogs to do crazy tricks like walking on the treadmill.  Cindy explains her logic: “It's too hot to take them for a walk in the desert!”

Cindy has worked in the healthcare field for 14 years. She has spent most of her professional life working in sales, management, and consulting. Her specialties include organization, planning, and leading.  Her concern in leading others towards success is evident in her attitude:  “I think I just like to make things work in a way that everyone has a good time doing their job.”
 

Since WeCareOnline is an online company, Cindy knows that people don’t get to see her face to face or to see her workspace. Cindy has created a wonderful spot to work and states:  “I love my office. My desk sits in front of a huge picture window. I can look outside and see the birds eating the food I put out, baby lizards running up and down the trees and the occasional javelina rooting around my flowers. My dogs are always underfoot. They always have to be in the same room as me. I have 2 giant computer monitors that my husband insisted I need (and I have to admit they really do help me get more work done). The monitors almost always have a picture of my children when they were 3-5 years old. They were so cute! Now they are still cute, but they are all grown up.”

Everyone at WeCareOnline plays an important role in helping students have the best online learning experience possible. Cindy oversees all operations in the company; accounting, human resources, database operations, website development, course creation and much more. Cindy is very grateful and states:  “I'm very fortunate to have an awesome team of employees to help me keep WeCareOnline up and running!”

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