Free and Unbiased Information Blog Focused on Helping The Aging

Lack of awareness and choosing to remain in denial are the main reasons why mental health issues in youth are allowed to linger without any intervention. The social stigma attached to mental health issues and the lingering hope that things will sort themselves out as the child grows up leads to an aggravation of issues to a point of no return. According to WHO reports one in every seven adolescents suffers from mental health issues . Unfortunately, 75 percent of young people who have mental health problems do not receive the necessary treatment. Focus on mental health is as important as the attention given to food and physical health in children. It is essential that the emotional well-being of adolescents is handled with care by parents. You might need a combination of patience and love to handle their concerns with care and help them grow up to be well-balanced adults who can deal with the curve balls life is ready to throw at them. What can help adolescents stay mentally healthy...

While May is officially designated as National Walking Month, taking a walk on any given day in any week and month of the year is the key to maintaining good health as we age. In fact, the more we walk, the better our chances are of improved mobility, adequate cardiovascular exercise, and reaching and staying at a healthy weight. What’s more, walking’s many benefits also include lowering the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. A walking workout helps promote balance and coordination, strengthens bones, and can prevent osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Some sources posit that regular walking may even halve the number of people over age 45 who suffer a hip fracture . If you use a cane or walker, building up to as many minutes a day of walking as possible may take a little more time. However, health professionals believe it’s an achievable goal with results that are known to improve quality of life and even extend one’s lifetime. Social Benefits Go Hand-in-Hand with Walking Bene...

Psychiatric illnesses are believed to be caused by a variety of factors. The biopsychosocial model of illness focuses on three main factors- biological, psychological and social. It emphasizes that psychiatric illness is a result of the interplay among these factors. Let us understand how social factors contribute towards mental illness. Man is a social animal and cannot exist in isolation. Consequently, mental health and mental illness are also influenced by external factors like the social environment, attitudes and beliefs of people around. Expressed Emotion (EE) is a concept that emerged in the 1960s and has changed the way the role of family factors is viewed in mental illness. The term expressed emotion refers to the feelings that relatives display about a psychiatric client. In a series of studies conducted around the 1960s in London, researchers found that patients were more likely to experience a relapse of symptoms of schizophrenia if they returned to live with parents o...

Caring for a family member can be an overwhelming and sometimes daunting task that can cause stress to the caregiver. Taking care of one’s own health to prevent a nervous breakdown becomes imperative under such circumstances. A caregiver’s role is a full-time responsibility and managing your own health and stress levels is important to do justice to the job. Caregiving Stress is real Caregiver fatigue can take a toll on your overall health. It is extremely rewarding but can be pretty stressful as well. When you are shifting between roles, it can be a pretty demanding and exhausting job.  The feelings of stress, frustration, anger and fatigue set in leaving the caregiver feeling emotionally drained and exhausted. Factors that lead to Caregiver Stress Caregiver stress could be the result of the accumulation of multiple factors including lack of resources and self-care. The focus on an ailing person’s needs may lead to neglect of your own. Lack of sleep, forgetting to have meal...

Statistics tell us that each year more Americans are diagnosed with osteoporosis , a disease that decreases bone density, causing weak and brittle bones and often leading to a break. Reasons for the increase vary and may in part be attributed to the aging baby boomer demographic. Research points to 50% of women and 25% of men over 50 are likely to have the disease, and stars like Meredith Viera, Sally Field and Blythe Danner are among sufferers helping to raise awareness by sharing their diagnosis stories. According to the Mayo Clinic , if bones are fragile enough, even coughing or bending over can cause a fracture, with injuries most commonly occurring in the hip, wrist, or spine. What’s more, hip fractures in 25 percent of older Americans are known to cause a decline in overall mobility and health, and in the most severe cases eventually leading to death. The end result of osteoporosis for both women and men is a higher risk of needing long-term health care, notes consumer resource...

When she retired from her job at age 75, Alice Shockley* looked forward to spending a few leisurely mornings each week on the internet with her cup of coffee. She even took courses to improve her skills, but little did she know as she casually surfed the web she’d fall victim to cybercrime. Because she clicked on a pop-up message with a link saying her computer had been compromised, the perpetrators locked it up, holding her up for thousands of dollars in ransom money allegedly to fix it. She was unable to pay, and all her data was lost—in fact, she had to buy a new laptop and start over. Unfortunately, regardless of age, these kinds of crimes are increasingly commonplace. But they are a special problem for the elderly, targeted because they are particularly vulnerable—known to err on the side of courtesy and politeness, and less adept than younger generations at technology or identifying potential cyber traps. The Cost of Senior Fraud The FBI estimates each year seniors lose more t...

This month is dedicated to raising awareness about mental and behavioral health disorders and reducing the stigma that many people face. At Samvedna we are pioneering new approaches to reduce detection gaps and treat mental illness , by integrating physical and social health care and forming community collaborations on mental health assessment . This article outlines ten effective and easy methods to raise mental health awareness in the workplace, de-stigmatize the issue, and motivate employees to seek assistance if they need it. These methods increase the value of medical care by improving patient outcomes, treatment quality, and overall costs. #1 Organize a workshop on reducing stress Stress hormones activate a fight or flight reaction in our body, leading to long-term physical and mental problems if not addressed. Stress may cause various health problems, including headaches, heartburn, sleeplessness, and a bad temper. This mental health awareness month , ask your benefits dire...

National Nurses Week starts today , a commemoration that ends on Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12 th . As a nation, we have been showing our appreciation to nurses, caregivers and other frontline workers since the pandemic started. From food and treat drop-offs to balloons, thank-you cards and personalized message signs, we’ve been reaching out in various ways to honor our incredible nurses and caregivers for their commitment and dedication. Clearly, we cannot thank nurses and caregivers enough. We continue to salute and appreciate them as modern superheroes caring for Covid patients and helping seniors minimize their risk of exposure. While nurses and caregivers have long held the public’s trust, we are reminded during this global pandemic of just how crucial a role they play in healthcare and in society. In celebrating nurses and caregivers during National Nurses Week, we want to share the thoughts and inspirations of Amada Senior Care franchise owners and managers who are ...

Samvedna Senior Care conducted a webinar titled “ Journey towards becoming an empowered caregiver ”.  Professor Claudia Cooper, Professor of Psychiatry for Older Age University of London, UK   and Ms. Rima Pandey, Caregiver & Author of “His Voice” were invited to discuss the topic. In the webinar, our experts answered questions that the audience had asked related to dementia and the challenges experienced by caregivers during the process of caregiving. Taking care of an aging senior, parent, or spouse can be a powerful and rewarding experience. However, it can also present serious challenges to overcome. Professor Claudia shared her experience by mentioning that “ a famous researcher once said that if you have met one person with dementia you have only met one person with dementia, in other words the dementia illness is unique and there is so much variety in how people present the difficulties they face and therefore there’s so much variety in the caregiving experience...