Today the Obama Administration announced the release of the National Alzheimer’s Plan. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius reaffirmed our nation’s commitment to conquering Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, with a specific goal of finding effective ways to prevent and treat the disease by 2025.
For more information about the plan and to watch a short video from Maine’s own Dr Coleman, Click Here!
Archive for the ‘Home Support’ Category
Dementia Care Workshop for Caregivers; Bay Square at Yarmouth and Advantage Home Care Team Up
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Dementia Care workshop.
Bay Square at Yarmouth and Advantage Home Care team up to provide caregiver training for those caring for someone with Dementia. Looks like a great program. Make sure you register to attend.
Mother’s Day Gift Ideas: Buying for Seniors
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012Mother’s Day is next Sunday, May 13. Traditionally the second Sunday in May, Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914. Mother’s Day gift ideas often center around spring and it’s an especially fun holiday to celebrate and shop for.
Here are a few Mother’s Day gift ideas that might inspire you!
- The traditional Mother’s Day brunch or lunch, with a nice card
- Flowers or a blooming plant
- Seeds or plants for the garden, and a gift certificate for some planting help
- Blossom-scented soaps and lotions
- A pretty spring-colored cardigan
- Flower-themed cards or stationery, and stamps
- a gift in her name to a favorite non-profit or organization
- Alter flowers in her honor at church
- a basket of favorite foods
- a card filled with gift certificates for help around the house or yard or road trips to favorite place
- movie gift cards, or perhaps a NetFlix subscription
- Tickets to a concert or summer theater or trip to the Maine Botanic Gardens
- an appointment for a multi-generational family portrait
Experiences and time count for alot, but it you’re far away, helping your mom enjoy something that’s special to her is one of the great Mother’s Day gift ideas. Does she finally have time for painting lessons? Has she always longed to learn how to hook rugs, play the piano or learn French? Italian or Chinese cooking classes? An exercise program?
One of the best Mother’s Day gift ideas is simply to write a long letter, detailing a few favorite memories, and thanking mom for the time she spent raising you.
Alzheimer’s Care: New Study Reports 1 in 7 People with Alzheimer’s Live Alone
Monday, May 7th, 2012One in seven people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in the US live alone, and many don’t have designated caregivers or near by family members to help them judge situations as their disease progresses. That’s 800,000 Americans who will eventually need more support with Alzheimer’s care.
Screenings of older adults to catch Alzheimer’s earlier is part of the first National Alzheimer’s Plan, due to be finalized this month. The plan also urges doctors to help patients plan ahead for their future care needs while they still can, a critical component to continued independence and control. Alzheimer’s care often consumes families who are called on later in the process.
This article from the Boston Herald newspaper quotes Maine Medical Center’s Dr. Laurel Coleman, geriatrician, as she talks about Alzheimer’s care needed for patients who struggle both with a dementia diagnosis and a lack of support.
Hospice Care in Maine: When to Call for Hospice
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012The Dear Abby column today had a question from a reader that tugged heartstrings. When to call for hospice? If you think you or a loved one may need hospice care in Maine, when to call for hospice becomes the all-important question.
When to call for hospice has to be a question answered after discussion with your doctors and with your local hospice care provider. Hospice care in Maine is often covered by Medicare when recommended by your physician (often because the patient has a terminal diagnosis and six months left in life.) but when to call for hospice is also about comfort, both for the patient and the caregivers. Hospice workers are experienced and skillful, as well as patient and respectful. They can help the patient feel more in control and better about their last days, and help the family understand the process and give their loved one attention as family members, not caregivers.
Hospice care in Maine is provided by many health care organizations, including Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice, Hospice of Southern Maine, Chans Home Health Care at Mid Coast Health and other groups. Hospice care can be provided at home, and also in several dedicated hospice homes around the state, including Lewiston and Scarborough.
It’s never too eearly for hospice discussions when someone is facing a life-threatening illness or is nearing the end of life. Hospice can be arranged quite quickly. It’s much, much better to have the hope and help provided by hospice early enough to give the patient support and the family some assistance and relief. The whole point of hospice carein Maine is to give the patient some help and clarity about their life as it ends, and sometimes that gets increasingly difficult as aging progresses or disease take their toll.
Coastal Rehab Cape Elizabeth, ME hosts Open House at new location: Ocean View, Falmouth
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
National Drug Take Back Campaign Maine Locations including Maine Medical Center
Friday, April 27th, 2012
A nationwide effort to collect unused and unwanted medications for safe disposal takes place Sat. April 28. Both prescription and over-the-counter medications will be collected across the state with no questions asked and no requests for identification.
Maine Medical Center will have two collection sites – one in Portland and one in Scarborough – on Friday April 27 and Sat. April 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. People can turn in unused or expired medication at the hospital’s parking lot on 141 Chadwick Street near the hospital’s South Entrance or at the parking lot of its Scarborough Campus, 100 Campus Drive, just off Route 1.
Senior Drug Take Back Program
Click here to find a drug take back site near to you.
Hunger in Maine: Stamp Out Hunger via the Mailman
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012Help AARP Stamp Out Hunger in Maine. On Saturday, May 12, 2012 you can make a difference to hungry people in your community. Plan your shopping now to include an item or two every week, so you can donate a bagful to Stamp Out Hunger.
For the 2nd year, AARP Maine and the AARP Foundation will sponsor Stamp Out Hunger, the nation’s largest single-day food drive, under their Drive to End Hunger program. This is the 20th year of this effort, which is hosted by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the U.S. Postal Service.
What should you put in the bag? Canned meats and fish, canned soup, juice, pasta and pasta sauce, canned vegetables, cereal and rice are good choices. Make sure peanut butter is in plastic, not glass. Consider canned or dried formula, too. Check expiration dates in you’re raiding your own cupboard, and DO NOT include glass containers. You can help stamp out hunger in other ways, too. This is also a great chance to volunteer at your local food pantry to help off load, sort or organize incoming food. 
Here’s how it works: On May 12, letter carriers across the country will collect non-perishable food donations from their postal customers at the same time as they deliver the mail. They – in some cases with the help of volunteers – will then deliver these donations to a local food bank or pantry. Households nationwide will be alerted to the opportunity to participate in this food drive through a postcard or bag delivered to their home. Go to http://www.drivetoendhunger.org/fillthebag for more information and to enter a sweepstakes to win a year of free groceries!
If you want to know more about food insecurity in Maine, here’s a great article from the Lewiston Sun Journal that really puts a face on families who struggle weekly to put enough food on the table.
Just over 15 percent of Maine households weren’t able to put adequate food on the table at times during the past year, according to the latest survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s up from about 9 percent a decade ago. The number of food supplement — formerly known as food stamps — cases has more than doubled in the past 10 years, from about 53,000 in August 2001 to more than 132,000 in August 2011.
Stamp Out Hunger: Food Insecurity Grows in Maine
Art and Alzheimers: new program fosters creativity
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012Studies have shown that art therapy might be particularly beneficial for people with Alzheimer’s disease because though they gradually lose the ability to express themselves with words, other parts of their brain that deal with colors and composition can still be used and developed. Even people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease can continue to create art.
Cape Memory Care in Cape Elizabeth recently started art classes in the Art is 4 Every1® method, developed by Elaine Griffith of Massachusetts during the nearly 25 years she taught at nursing homes, senior centers, kids camps and in her studio. It is a method that breaks the painting process into small steps, as tiny and as simplified as is needed according to the ability and experience of the student.
| Pat Moshimer, Maine’s only certified Art is 4 Every1 instructor, brings her program into Cape Memory Care in Cape Elizabeth every week. As Cape Memory Care residents, right, participate in the weekly Art is 4 Every1® class, they practice small motor control, visualization and perspective just as artists without memory impairment do. Pat has been a scribe and illustrator for 30 years in the Kennebunk/Kennebunkport area. |  |
Pat’s students remain remarkably creative and the painting program gives them an outlet for communication in a different and often very vibrant way. Is there an art show in the works? Will there be plein air classes as the weather improves? To find out more about this program, please call Olga Gross-Balzano or Bri Johnston at Cape Memory Care, 207-553-9616 or e-mail olgagross@woodlandsalf.com.
Maine Senior FarmShare Program: fresh produce for Maine seniors
Monday, March 19th, 2012March is sign-up time for low-income seniors who want to participate in the Maine Senior FarmShare Program. You can receive $50 worth of fresh produce throughout the season from a participating farm. (Farmers often have trucks at area farmer’s markets, and you can pick up your produce there.) To qualify, seniors must be 60 years or age or older (55 for native Americans), be a Maine resident, and not live in the household or be an immediate family member of the farmer.
Income criteria in 2012 are: Live alone and have an income below $20,036.00 or have a combined incomed (with a spouse) below $26,955. (Both can have a share, but each must sign up.)
The Senior FarmShare program is very popular, and seniors must sign up each year, even if they were with a farmer last year. You can only sign up with one farmer each year.
Here’s more information, including a list of participating FarmShare farmers.