Dr. Mauk’s Boomer Blog
Each week, Dr. Kristen Mauk shares thoughts relevant to Baby Boomers that are aimed to educate and amuse.
Dr. Kristen L. Mauk, PhD, DNP, RN, CRRN, GCNS-BC, GNP-BC, FAAN
Guest Blog: Adult day programs giving a new life to the adults
Those who had enjoyed a considerable amount of independence in their youth, the time has come
when they need help from others as they were migrated to old age. Life is never static, and it
keeps on changing from time to time because change is the integral and inherent part of life.
Once you cross the fancy days of your youth and step into adulthood, life becomes more
challenging than ever. It took a big leap when you get older and started calling by the people as
elderly.
The adult day care homes came up as a hope for many adults who are living a lonely and concise
life. They have given them many reasons to enjoy their adulthood, keeping aside all their worries
and tensions of life. Many daycare homes in the USA have gone to the extent of providing a
friendly and composite environment that even doesn’t get in their homes. The adult day
programs in Atlanta offer a welcoming environment to the adults by connecting them back to
mainstream society and expanding their outreach. They provide support and a needed break for
someone who cares for a loved one who is no longer independent.
Every adult is welcomed in an adult day care home.
The adult day care homes take care of every adult regardless of their religion, race, and ethnicity.
Caregivers in the Atlanta adult day care homes are not the ordinary people infect they are the one
who is not doing this just as a job but it’s is their passion and nature to help elders and share their
pain and joy. All the adults staying in the adult day care homes spent their day with loads of fun
and doing meaningful activities.
It is not that adult daycare homes only provide emotional or medical support to the adults; they
also facilitate adults by organizing musical events and taking them to cultural festivals. Some of
them hold weekly performances by local musicians and local entertainers. They also give them
the opportunity for interactions with pets and children, cooking projects, take them to nature
walks, games, parties, and yoga classes.
Who joins adult day care homes?
Adults in their 50s – 90s with some physical or cognitive behavioral problems.
Older adults who don’t wish to stay home alone all through the day.
Older adults can benefit from social interaction and a structured environment.
Adults who are abandoned by their family and they are forced to live alone.
Adults whose children are not living with them because either for work or study, they
have to live outside the town or country.
Loads of Surprises
It is not that the adults living in the Adult Daycare homes are entirely cut off from their families
and friends. This is not the case with every adult day care home because many Adult daycare
homes provide surprise adults’ by suddenly calling their family members and close friends for a
quick meet up or gathering.
As much as adults miss their family members, their family members also miss them equivalently.
Learn and earn schemes
Money adult Daycare homes also provide learning and earn schemes to the adults who want to
do something big in their life. It doesn’t mean that if you are elder or older, your professional life
is over. Many adults are still willing to work after their retirement from their professional life.
The adult Daycare homes provide equal opportunities for adults.
Guest Blog: 4 Legal Documents Every Senior Needs
Before your loved one has a health scare, it’s important to have these legal documents ready to protect them and your family. Start the conversation early about your loved one’s healthcare wishes and end-of-life care. Learn what legal documents every senior needs by reading on!
1. Last Will and Testament
Having a will ensures your loved one’s wishes for their estate are properly carried out after their death. If a person doesn’t have a will, state law determines what happens to their assets. It’s recommended that your loved one update their will every five years to keep up with changing circumstances in day-to-day life.
2. Advanced Directive
If your loved one is ever unable to make decisions for themselves due to memory loss or a serious health condition, the family is left to make decisions for them which could lead to disagreements about your loved one’s wishes. An advanced directive, also know as a living will, is a document used to specify your loved one’s health care decisions ahead of time. They can accept or refuse certain types of care (e.g. feeding tube, oxygen administration, life support, etc.) depending on what their wishes are.
3. Power of Attorney
By granting power of attorney to a trusted and responsible family member (proxy), this allows them to make decisions on your loved one’s behalf in case they are unable to. A standard power of attorney allows the family member to pay bills and write checks—while a durable power of attorney for medical care can make healthcare decisions for your loved one.
4. Do-Not-Resuscitate Order
A do-not-resuscitate (DNR) is a legal document that instructs health care providers not to provide life sustaining treatment if a patient’s heart stops or they stop breathing. If your loved one is nearing end-of-life care or terminally ill, they may not want to be resuscitated in a medical emergency. Only the patient or their health care proxy can sign a DNR order.
You can download a free starter kit from The Conversation Project to help guide the conversation with your loved one about their end-of-life care. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
About the Author: Peter Kang is a writer for eCaregivers. He is inspired by his caregiver experience with his late grandfather and role model, a Korean War veteran, to help families find affordable care for their loved ones. Follow Peter on Facebook and Twitter.
Guest Blog: Fraud, Scams, and Other Challenges Elders Face
Elder fraud is an enormous problem that involves massive financial loss and elder abuse. The misappropriation of finances and financial control is known as elder financial abuse or financial exploitation. Elders report losing approximately $1.17 billion each year, but the AARP estimates a more accurate number is probably closer to $40 billion.
Scams and Challenges Faced by Seniors
Elders face losing their independence, neglect and abuse, diminished physical ability, and age discrimination. Even healthy elderly individuals may fall prey to schemes at the hands of criminals or family.
Elderly individuals who require daily assistance may suffer abuse and neglect from caregivers and family members. Being left dirty and unbathed is one of the many signs of neglect that point to elderly abuse. Be on the alert for fraud and abuse perpetrated towards seniors.
What is Elderly Fraud?
Elder fraud is a scam operation that targets seniors. The scammer may be a family member or friend, or a stranger. The most common way for seniors to be targeted is over the Internet or email through phishing techniques, such as:
- Internet offers or emails advertising discount prescriptions and low-cost health coverage
- Internet offers that advertise financial support through home-equity loans or retirement savings
- Friendships evolving through email communications, phone calls, and social media
Telemarketing Frauds and Common Schemes
An FBI sting in 1980 involving specialized AARP members led to 1200 arrests and hundreds of convictions for fraudulent telemarketers selling water purifiers, vacations, sweepstakes, and environmental packages. Telemarketing fraud is still a large concern for seniors. Other typical elderly fraud schemes include:
Romance: Criminals seek to capitalize on elderly victims who desire to find a companion using dating websites and social media.
Grandparent: Criminals contact an elderly individual claiming to be a child or grandchild and needing immediate financial assistance.
Technical support: Criminals contact the elderly individual and offer to fix nonexistent technical issues to gain access to their devices and obtain sensitive information.
Sweepstakes or lottery scams: Criminals contact the elderly victim and claim they won a lottery or sweepstakes for which they require a fee.
Government impersonation: Criminals pose as government employees and threaten to arrest or prosecute elderly individuals unless they provide payments.
Home repair: Criminals appear in person at the elderly individual’s property to offer home-improvement services that they never provide.
Family or caregivers: Relatives and acquaintances of elderly individuals may seek to take advantage of them to obtain money or property.
TV/radio: Criminals seek to target potential victims using false advertisements for services such as reverse mortgages and credit repair.
COVID-19 Elderly Scams
During the COVID-19 pandemic, elderly fraud substantially grew as elders were separated from their close family and friends to avoid the virus. Some COVID-19 scams involved selling counterfeit products like air filters, vaccines, and testing, as well as contact tracing schemes designed to trick elders out of money and gain pertinent personal information.
Multiple scams continue to target the elderly concerning COVID-19, including Social Security Administration (SSA) scams and charity requests. One study estimated that one in 10 seniors fell victim to elderly fraud in 2018, and this number increased during the pandemic as elders faced:
Similar Concerns
Seniors tend to share similar concerns, including high medication costs, a need for healthcare coverage, dwindling retirement funds and plans to provide for their loved ones. Phishing emails on these specific topics grab personal information.
Isolated or Alone
Seniors are uniformly isolated and spend much of their daily lives alone. In many cases of elderly fraud, if the victim had spoken to a family member or a friend, the scam would not have happened.
Naïve and Trusting
While most individuals over the age of 30 do not have any memories without the Internet, most seniors have lived their lives without using email or the Internet and have misappropriated trust. They are unaware of the complexities behind a seemingly safe email.
Diminished Decision-Making Skills
Most seniors experience some diminished mental capacity, and this affects their decision-making abilities.
Elderly Schemes Based on Personal Info
Some schemes are more targeted and involve emails and phone calls using personal information to target the individual. These targeted attacks use information gleaned through general phishing attacks to draw the individual into a scam.
Elderly fraud has resulted in devastating losses for victims, and the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has found that victims suffer an average loss of $34,200 through such scams. The FBI elder fraud department is focused entirely on elderly scams.
Guest Blog: How to Find a Profitable Side Gig as a Senior Caregiver
Working as a senior caregiver is a rewarding career choice. However, many caregivers find that their role doesn’t pay as much as they would like. Whether you want to save for retirement or supplement your earnings to improve your quality of life, a side gig can offer an additional source of income. A side gig can also provide a sense of personal fulfillment that may be lacking from a job that’s often associated with stress and burnout. As a result, you’ll enjoy a welcome change of pace from your day job and achieve a better overall work-life balance. The trick is finding a side gig that not only pays well but is also enjoyable.
Consider Running an Ecommerce Business
Launching an ecommerce business can be a great side gig for senior caregivers. As a caregiver, you might not have the luxury of a consistent work schedule, but you can run an ecommerce business from anywhere at any time. This will make it easier to balance your caregiving responsibilities with your side business.
Take advantage of online tools to get your business up and running as efficiently as possible. By setting up your business on an ecommerce platform, you’ll be able to build website pages, track analytics, manage inventory, and even process payments from one intuitive dashboard.
Offer and Market Online Freelance Services
Freelancing online is another option. There are a variety of services you could sell to clients remotely, from writing and consulting to web design and development. Freelancing will allow you to work in a field where you have expertise and experience, using your skills to earn extra money on the side of your full-time job. Additionally, compared with launching an ecommerce business, freelancing has lower startup costs which can make it more accessible if you don’t have a lot of money to invest in a side gig.
Creating brochures to advertise your freelancing skills is a great way to help generate more clients and can serve as an excellent supplement to your social media marketing, as well. If you aren’t sure how to get started, there are plenty of free templates that you can customize as needed; click here to know more.
You should also look into content marketing to really expand your customer base. By producing more targeted and exciting content, you can build a reputation for professionalism and expertise in your field. That leads to deeper trust with your customers – and of course, greater sales! In today’s extra-competitive market, freelancers in particular need every advantage they can get.
Provide Local Home Services
Not interested in working online? Selling Revolution suggests offering local home services to people in your community. For example, you could work as a cleaner, lawn care professional, handyperson, pet sitter, dog walker, painter, personal cook, personal shopper, or home organizer. Since you have experience caring for seniors, you could also offer in-home childcare or senior care services.
Pick something that aligns with your skills and interests so your side gig feels more like an enjoyable pastime than another job. You don’t necessarily need professional experience in your field of choice. As long as you’re confident in your skills and can produce great results for your clients, you’ll be successful!
Consider Your Legal Obligations
Whether you decide to start an online business, try freelancing, or offer local home services, make sure you cover your legal bases. One of the first things you’ll need to do is register your business. Pick a business structure, such as a sole proprietorship or LLC, and register with your state. Forming an LLC is generally a good idea as it will limit your personal liability and offer tax advantages. Keep in mind that you can use an online formation service to file your articles of organization if you’d rather not spend money on a lawyer.
If you work as a senior caregiver and you’re looking for ways to bring in extra income, try building a side business! You could start an ecommerce business, freelance online, or start a local home services company in your own city. Pay attention to your legal responsibilities and pick a side gig that’s compatible with your skills and interests to give yourself the best shot at success!
What are Macronutrients and why are they important for Health?
The human body needs some foods and ingredients to grow properly. Without those essential products, a person can’t feel healthy and strong.
Macronutrients are one of those ingredients that you need to take in a higher quantity. Due to their high demand by the human body, these are termed as Macro which means large.
Every nutritionist will direct you to maintain the amount of these ingredients for getting better health.
No matter, either you are looking to gain weight or lose weight, you must think about these ingredients first. Without regulating them, you can’t complete any task regarding your health.
Types of Macronutrients
There are three main types of macronutrients that a human being includes in his meal on daily basis.
The main reason why we take these ingredients is that they will fulfill our body’s energy requirements.
A person who takes foods with an appropriate quantity of macronutrients will be healthy for a longer time.
You should keep a view on what kind of macronutrient you should take for proper health.
- Proteins
- Carbohydrates
- Fats
All these macronutrients have a specific number of calories. It purely depends on your body conditions that which of them you should eat and in which quantity.
Let’s have a look at the process with which you can estimate how much nutrients you should include in your daily meal.
How many macronutrients should we eat?
Many people have this question because they want to maintain their health and body growth.
There are two main ways through which you can calculate the required quantity of macronutrients.
First of all, you can contact any expert nutritionist who will examine your health and give you a proper diet plan.
In this process, you may have to visit the person various times to adjust that plan.
Secondly, you can use a macronutrient calculator available on the internet. With this method, you don’t have to do much work but put some values in the given box according to your health.
For example, you may have to write your weight, height, and few other values. The tool will get an idea about your health and give you a perfect plan of diet to follow.
You can make as many plans as you want just by changing the values according to your growth after few weeks.
In this way, you will be able to keep your health on track properly.
What happens if we take unnecessary macronutrients?
As we have mentioned above that macronutrients are essential for human health. Its deficiency or excessiveness will harm the body badly.
In case, you get lower macronutrients, your body will not be able to make enough energy to work. Also, your bones will be affected badly and you often feel pain in your bones and joints.
On the other side, if you take macronutrients in excessive quantity, your body will convert them into useless materials.
Keep in mind that our body makes energy and blood from different ingredients available in our food. The excessive ingredients will be converted into unwanted fats that are not necessary for the body.
In this way, you will start gaining weight that will lead you towards different diseases. So according to the above discussion, it is very necessary to calculate macros of ingredients that you are going to eat. This will help you to balance your diet and maintain your body and energy level.
Final Note
You should keep track of your body’s growth and adjust the macronutrient quantity with time. It will enable you to keep your health on the right path.
Without macronutrients, your body won’t be able to make enough energy to work properly. That is why you should keep checking this factor by calculating its quantity.