A recent Harvard School of Public Health study published in The American Journal of Public Health suggests that strong social ties, through friends, family and community groups can preserve our brain health as we age, and that social isolation may be an important risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly. The study also indicated that those elderly engaged in many social contacts had the slowest rate of memory decline.For elderly persons living alone, maintaining that social contact becomes extremely difficult.  Remaining in ones home always seems like a wonderful goal, but it can bring unintended consequences, the most common one being isolation.  The less able one is to get out and around (or drive), the more they stay at home, alone and out of touch, the fewer activities they are involved in, and the more they withdraw into themselves.  This hastens decline, both physically and mentally, which keeps them home even more a vicious downward spiral.Using in-home care services is one way to introduce people into their daily lives and offer the possibility of connections and relationships.  Our caregivers often establish strong bonds with their clients, bonds that enrich both of their lives.  Although the caregiver starts out as a support and helper for the client, it is not unusual for the relationship to evolve into one where the caregiver is learning from the life stories of the client, where they both share laughs or worries about life, where the client can offer advice and wisdom.  The social contact becomes as important as the caregiving tasks that are getting completed.  The hours the caregivers spend in the house bring energy, connection, the outside world.  Caregivers help ward off the social isolation and the decline that comes with it.

No one ever intends to fall.  I hear it from my clients all the time: Im careful or Im not going to fall even though I think they are really trying to tell me that they are worried about falling.  However, that level of fear doesnt always translate into taking specific measures to avoid a fall or learning what they can do to prevent falling.  Without proper prevention and safety measures, falls happen. When people fall, the response is usually, It was an accident, I wont fall again.One of my clients is the poster child for this attitude.  She has fallen multiple times but isnt able to relate any of her falls to the other times she has fallen.  While were working on that end of things, in the meantime we needed some tips on getting up after falls.My favorite find is this video on how to get up.  The main point is to be creative about what you have within reach or crawling distance to be able to get yourself (or someone else) up off the floor. Also, make sure to evaluate yourself for possible injuries, pain, range of motion issues, and/or bleeding before trying to get up. Another thing they discuss is the importance of lifeline devices such as Life Alert. If help is immediately available at the push of a button, you wont even need to worry about how to get up with possible injuries or finding a way to get help.