Recent Caregiving Books

Do you care for an elderly relative or friend? Do you need information to help you with your caregiving? Pasco County Public Library System has the following recently published books for caregivers: 

                            Caregiver's Handbook

                         An Unintended Journey

                        Dr Ruth's Guide for Alzheimers

                         Life's Little Emergencies

                         No One Has to Die Alone

                     The Caregiving Wife's Handbook

                            The Good Caregiver

                     Loving Someone Who Has Dementia

                    Healing Your Grieving Heart

September is World Alzheimer's Month

The theme for World Alzheimer's Month 2013 is "Dementia: a journey of caring".  This event is a way to increase awareness of Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 35.6 million people have dementia worldwide and 5 million Americans aged 65 years or older have Alzheimer's disease. The number of Alzheimer's cases in the United States is predicted to nearly triple in the future. In addition, Alzheimer's disease is currently the 6th leading cause of death among adults aged 18 years or older. The CDC reports that the direct and indirect costs of dementia among those aged 70 and over totaled an estimated $159 billion to $215 billion in 2010.

Do you know the signs of Alzheimer's disease? It can be hard to separate normal age-related change from the symptoms of Alzheimer's. The Alzheimer's Association lists 10 warning signs for this disease here. If you would like to get involved in raising awareness about Alzheimer's disease, you can see a list of events here.

Taking Care - a PBS Long-Term Care Series

PBS NewsHour has launched “Taking Care” - a series of six reports on the challenges of long-term care. The first one aired on May 30th and the video is provided below. It is a video profile of Mary Wyant. You can find supplemental information about the broadcast and links to Alzheimer resources here.


 

 

Watch A Mother and Daughter Portrait Of Long-Term Care on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

"How to Keep a Healthy Brain" Workshops

HPH Hospice will be providing two free workshops in Pasco County about how to maintain a healthy brain. TaWanna Noel, a program specialist for the Alzheimer’s Association will facilitate these workshops for Baby Boomers and Seniors.  The program will be presented on February 22nd in New Port Richey and on February 28th in Dade City (see below). Registration is required.  Please contact Jan Double, HPH Hospice community relations coordinator, at (727) 705-0107 to register.

                  Wednesday, February 22nd 
                  1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m
                  South Pasco HPH Hospice Team Office
                  6807 Rowan Road, New Port Richey, FL
             
                  Tuesday, February 28th      
                  1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
                  East Pasco HPH Hospice team office
                  37445 Clinton Avenue, Dade City, FL

Alzheimers Caregiving Talk at New River Library

Gwen O'Leary will be speaking about her experience caring for her mother with Alzheimer's. She wrote a book about her experiences and will discuss the book and have a Q & A session.

Tuesday      March 8     @      1:00pm

New River Library
34043 State Road 54
Zephyrhills, FL
813-788-6375

New Website to help Alzheimer's Caregivers

Weill Cornell Medical College has created an interactive, multimedia website to help people who care for individuals who have Alzheimer's or dementia. This website is called "This Caring Home" and it has a virtual home tour that provides solutions for home safety and daily care issues.  Home safety issues include stove safety, bathroom safety, and lighting to prevent falls.  Daily care issues include wandering, advice about meals, suggestions about how to deal with agitated behavior, dementia-friendly activities, and memory aids.  In addition, they have information about home safety products, such as shower chairs, lift chairs, bed handles, safety burners, and wandering monitors.

Here is one of the videos from the website:
Oliver Sacks talks about Alzheimer's and the power of music

National Family Caregivers Month

President Obama proclaimed November as National Family Caregiver's Month. The National Family Caregivers Association defines family caregiving as "... the act of assisting someone you care about who is chronically ill or disabled and who is no longer able to care for themselves."   President Obama stated that:

"Currently, a variety of programs and services offer help and encouragement to family caregivers. The National Family Caregiver Support Program and the Lifespan Respite Care Act include important resources for caregivers of children and adults, with opportunities to receive much-needed assistance and take part in support programs with other families."

 Here is a list of excellent websites that provide caregiving information:

• Caregiver's Resources from USA.gov 
  
• Family Caregiving 101
• AXA Foundation Family Care Resource Clearinghouse - caregiving resources are listed by topic or by keyword and each one is rated using a four star system.
• Medicare Basics for Caregivers
• Family Caregiver Alliance
• National Clearinghouse for Long-term Care Information
• Caregiver Support Information from Healthfinder.gov
• Planning Checklists for Caregivers
• Alzheimer's Association

These websites help you to search for residential care facilities or respite help:

• National Respite Locator Service
• Assisted Living Information from MedlinePlus
  
• Nursing Home Search 

  These websites help you to find government benefits:

• Benefits Checkup
• Gov Benefits

The Area Agency on Aging of Pasco-Pinellas is a local agency which provides:

• a caregiver handbook
• respite care
• caregiver counseling
• chore services
• medical supplies, such as nutritional supplements
• a senior helpline (1-800-963-5337 for local calls or 1-727-217-8111 for out of area)   
  

National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month

November is National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month. The Alzheimer's Association provides facts and figures about this disease:

• Approximately 5.3 million people have Alzheimer's disease in the United States.
• Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.
• Alzheimer's and Dementia triple healthcare costs for Americans age 65 and older.

Here are two good websites about Alzheimers disease:

• Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's information
• National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Fact Sheet

 The Alzheimer's Foundation of America sponsors the "National Memory Screening Day" each year and this year's date is November 17th, 2009.  On this date, qualified healthcare professionals offer free, confidential memory screenings. You can click here to search for local screening sites. 

Do you care for an individual who has Alzheimer's disease? The National Institute on Aging provides a free 146 page publication called "Caring for a Person with Alzheimer's Disease: Your Easy-to-Use guide from the National Institute on Aging":

Hudson Regional Library will be hosting two programs about Alzheimer's disease this month:

• an "Alzheimer's Disease Overview" presented by a representative of the Alzheimer's Association on Wednesday, November 4th at 11:00am.
• The "Long way home: a journey through Alzheimers" presented by Marian Ritchie on Tuesday, November 17th, at 6:30pm.

Hudson Regional Library
8012 Library Road
Hudson, FL 34667
phone: (727)861-3040