Music Therapy for the Elderly

According to the American Music Therapy Association, Music Therapy is defined as the following:

“Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.”

Music is something that isn’t always thought of in a clinical sense, but the benefits of music therapy can be incredible. Music therapy can be especially helpful in the senior citizen population.

For the elderly, music therapy can help in numerous ways. In 2012 a YouTube video of an elderly man named Henry went viral on YouTube. At the beginning of the video, he was unresponsive, but with the aid of a set of headphones and some music he became animated and responsive. This served as a reminder that music therapy is an incredible tool when working with the elderly.

Here are some of the things that music therapy can do:

• Listening to music will help to ease anxiety in older patients.

• Lyric writing and singing can help with the expression of different emotions and feelings.

• Music can help strengthen the immune system.

• Listening to music releases dopamine, which is associated with pleasure.

• It is incredibly helpful for individuals who are non-verbal. Music crosses all communication barriers, so it can be especially helpful with individuals who have suffered a stroke or are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

• For older patients, music is linked with memories, so it can stimulate memories, increase awareness and initiate emotional responses.

If you know of an elderly individual who may benefit from music therapy, you can reach out to a local music therapist. Additionally, you could sit with your elderly loved one and make a playlist of different songs they enjoy. You can spend time listening to the music with your elderly loved one and both reap the benefits of music!

For more information on music therapy, you can visit these websites:

CNN Health: When patients have ‘music emergencies’ 

NPR: For Elders With Dementia, Musical Awakenings 

American Music Therapy Association

Pet Therapy for the Elderly

It’s universally accepted that pets bring joy to everyone. For the elderly, they can be an incredible resource for healing, and there is scientific evidence to support that they can have a direct impact on quality of life. Whether it is a Bernese Mountain dog or a small rabbit, these furry creatures each bring their own unique health benefits to individuals.

Here are some ways in which pets can help seniors:

• Pet therapy has been shown to increase mood and decrease feelings of depression in elderly patients.

• Petting an animal has been associated with decreased blood pressure and lowered cholesterol levels.

• Pet owners are less likely to die of heart related illness than individuals who don’t own a pet.

• Regular interaction with an animal will also help to decrease feelings of loneliness in the elderly.

• Elderly will take better care of themselves when they have a pet that is dependent upon them.

• Working with animals provides an opportunity for increased physical activity. For example, taking a dog on a short stroll will increase cardiovascular activity and contribute to overall well-being.

• The act of petting an animal will help to increase mobility and dexterity.

• For individuals with Alzheimer’s and dementia, it has been shown that interaction with animals helps to decrease agitation.

The list of benefits goes on and on, but it is clear that interaction with animals can bring a lot to elderly individuals. If you know of a senior who you think will benefit from a pet, bring it up to them or their family. If it doesn’t seem that they would be able to care for a pet, you can look to your community for pet therapy programs.

For more information on the benefits of pet therapy, you can visit the following websites:

Everyday Health: How Animal Therapy Helps Dementia Patients 

Love to Know Senior Citizens: Pet Therapy

Elder Health Update: Celiac Awareness Month

Did you know that October is Celiac Awareness month? More importantly, did you know that Celiac Disease can be a serious problem in older adults?  In a study published by Annals of Medicine researchers found that there was a change in gluten tolerance with age. They found that people in their 60s and 70s were being diagnosed with Celiac Disease, even though they had been consuming gluten without any complications their entire life.

For the elderly, Celiac Disease can pose a serious problem. When an individual with Celiac Disease or gluten sensitivity consumes gluten, a protein found in wheat barley and rye, their body has an autoimmune response to the protein. This autoimmune response causes a wide variety of symptoms, some of which include gastrointestinal distress. For the elderly, this can be especially troubling because some of the symptoms such as joint pain can be misdiagnosed.

Fortunately, a gluten free diet will help to alleviate the symptoms brought on by Celiac Disease. You can read more about the study by clicking here.

LTS Caregivers and Their Stories

Here at Long Term Solutions, we support caregivers and we are caregivers. Many LTS employees are the primary caregivers for an ailing or aging loved one. They have first-hand experience with caregiving, and know what about the different emotions involved with caregiving.They've experienced the joys that come with caregiving, and they've also endured the hardships. Meet four of our employees below. Click on their names to read their full stories.

Click here to meet Brenda.
"What I really love about working on the administrative side of Long Term Solutions is that at the end of the day I know the work we do is helping someone," explained Brenda. "At the other end of the phone or on the other end of the assessment is someone who we’re helping. There’s a person behind every claim number." Caregiving is something Brenda has been doing full-time since 2000, and, because of this, she is really able to relate to the adult caregivers she talks to on the phone every day.'"

Click here to meet Karen.
"The greatest joy is watching him smile, when he smiles," said Karen about her father-in-law. "I tell my husband – I just live for that."

Laughter is one thing about caregiving that brings joy to Karen. Another is taking her father-in-law out to eat fried clams at Red Wing Diner just down the street from her house. The third is having conversations with him.

Click here to meet Debbie.
 "Where’s the nurse?" demanded a young and visibly stressed doctor. Debbie was in a hospital room with her mother and two other nurses. Her mother had developed the flu and pneumonia simultaneously, and they were at the ER for the second time.

"No, where’s the nurse? The family member who is a nurse," he insisted.

 The nurses looked at each other, confused. Debbie was the nurse he was referring to, but she remained silent.

Click here to meet Nancy.
"She was just sobbing. She walked down the hall of her nursing home and told every nurse and patient ‘my husband has died… did you know my husband died?'" remembers Nancy. Nancy and her brother had just told their mother that their father and her husband had died. Nancy's mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease five years ago, and her husband had been the primary caregiver for almost four years. But in September 2011 he fell ill and within four months Nancy lost him to renal failure.

Choosing Hospice

Carol R. Anderson, RN, BSN is the Director of Quality Improvement & Staff Development at Long Term Solutions. She frequently writes information for our Provider Knowledge Center, a resource for our field clinicians. Here is a post she wrote about hospice care.

"In our careers, most of us have cared for someone who is terminally ill and facing his/her end of life. With the exception of accidents and homicides, dying is a process. It is a journey. Many things affect how the dying and their loved ones work through this process: culture, age, religion, family position, the illness itself, and formal and informal support systems are just some of them. There are many considerations, all of which need to be addressed.

Presenting hospice as an alternative can be difficult, depending on the disposition of the client and their loved ones. One way to think of hospice is as an alternative to traditional care. Hospice is appropriate for the clients who wants to spend his or her final time at home, with the goal of the hospice care being improving the quality of this time with comfort and dignity. It can be provided to a client in a wide variety of settings. It could be in their private home and in a facility, and many hospitals have hospice beds.

Hospice care is provided by specially trained teams. Hospice teams are multidisciplinary with a variety of trained professionals able to provide a unique type of care. They plan the care to address the bio-psychosocial needs of the client and family. Not only will the team address the symptoms of the disease, with focused attention on pain, but they will help to guide the client and family through the social, emotional and spiritual impact of the end of life process.

Understanding Hospice -- Facts and Fiction

Fiction: People are typically referred to Hospice when life expectancy is six months or less. 

This is not to say that this is always the case, but a client can remain on hospice for longer than six months with physician certification.

Fact: A client can choose to decline or discontinue hospice at any time, or they can change hospice agencies if the hospice team doesn't feel like the right fit for the family.

Fact: Life is not prolonged with hospice care, and it is not hastened.

Fact: Bereavement and counseling services are available before and after the client passes.

Fact: Hospice has coverage 24/7, but does not provide 24/7 care. Additional resources may be needed to provide additional client care.

Fact: When Hospice is called in, they connect with the client’s physician and meet with the client and his/her family or loved ones.

Who constitutes the Hospice Team?

As we noted before, the hospice teams are multidisciplinary. A typical hospice team can include physicians, nurses, home health aides, chaplains, social workers, nutritionists, and trained volunteers. If necessary, specialty clinicians can be brought in, such as wound and ostomy nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists.

Who pays for Hospice?

Hospice is a covered benefit under Medicare, and most states offer hospice under Medicaid or Public Aid. Furthermore, many private insurance companies have hospice benefits"

Stroke Awareness

According to the National Stroke Association, strokes are the fourth leading cause of death in America. They are also a leading cause of debility among older adults. Fortunately, 80% of strokes are preventable.

What is a stroke? A stroke is when a blood clot blocks an artery or a blood vessel, and this blockage cuts off blood supply and oxygen to the affected area. As a result, the tissue and organs in the area die. There are two types of strokes: ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. Ischemic strokes occur when arteries are blocked by plaque or a blood clot. Hemorrhagic strokes occur when a blood vessel in the brain breaks and blood is leaked onto the brain, causing serious damage.

Fortunately, knowing how to recognize a stroke in a victim can literally be a lifesaver. Use FAST as a tool to remember the four warning signs of a stroke.

F – Face: Is one of side of their face drooping? Have the individual smile and look for any differences.
A –Arms: Ask the individual to raise both of their arms. Are they able to keep both up? Does one arm start to drift downward? 
S – Speech: Is their speech hard to understand? Are they slurring words? 
T – Time to Call 911: If they are exhibiting any of the above symptoms, call 911 and seek medical attention immediately. 

According to the American Heart Association, there are some other symptoms that you can look for such as sudden numbness or weakness in the legs, an onset of confusion and difficulty understanding, trouble seeing, increased inability to walk or maintain balance and coordination, and severe headaches.

Mental Health in the Elderly

This past week, the New York Times wrote a piece on mental health in the elderly titled “How Therapy Can Help in the Golden Years.” It’s a great piece because it serves as a reminder of how important mental health is in the elderly, and how it’s even more important to receive treatment for any mental health issues that develop. As the elderly age, they can experience things such as depression, anxiety and feelings of loneliness. There is a lot of change that happens, and it’s incredibly difficult to watch many of your friends and family pass away or become ill. However, that is why it’s so important for the elderly to receive treatment for any possible issues.

For caregivers, paying attention to the mental health of your aging loved one is very important. Here are some things that may signal a change in the mental health of your loved one:

- Sadness
- Fatigue
- Anxiety
- Difficulty with sleeping
- A general loss of interest

If you see these symptoms in your elderly loved one, it may be a good idea to consider talking about therapy with them. Therapy can be incredibly beneficial to the elderly and it can help them to adjust to the different changes that are going on in their life. You can find the New York Times article here. It’s a wonderful piece that details how several elderly individuals lives were markedly improved by psychiatric treatment.

 Lastly, the most important thing is to consult your physician immediately if you notice any changes in your elderly loved ones.

Creating Your Elderly Loved One's Legacy

There is a new trend beginning in the elderly population, and it is focused on leaving a part of the elderly person’s life and wisdom behind after they pass. It’s a hard thing to face, but your elderly loved ones will not be around forever. However, it can be easy to get caught up in the minutia of daily life, and to forget the amount of wisdom and knowledge that your elderly loved ones have. Chances are they’ve lived through war, they’ve seen huge changes in societal values, vast leaps in technologies, and they’ve interacted with hundreds of individuals within their lifetimes. All of this experience translates into a vast amount of wisdom. It’s important to not let all of this wisdom go without attention; so many individuals are creating legacies with their elderly loved ones.

What is a legacy? It is a record of an individual’s memories, experiences, advice, personality, and life. It is their history, and it’s recorded in some form so that their families, friends and future relatives can learn from it.

How can you start a legacy with your elderly loved one? Here are some guidelines for starting the legacy:

First, develop your goals. What do you and your elderly loved one want to achieve by doing this? Is the goal to help guide and advise any future grandchildren? Is it simply to leave an impression about who your elderly loved one is, as an individual?

Secondly, create interview questions and a plan to guide and develop the legacy. One of the most basic things you can do is to write down some questions about their life. What was their first memory? What was it like growing up in that decade? What is their most vivid memory? Here is a list of questions from Answers4Families.org that is a great starting point for developing your own interview with your senior loved one.

Once you’ve developed the questions, you can begin to decide which medium you would like to record this on. For example, you can videotape your elderly loved one answering the questions or telling a story. You can have them handwrite a letter to their families. You can record them and pair it with the writing. There are so many different things you can do, so you can be creative in determining this.

Lastly, decide what they would like to do with the legacy. Would they like to show it to the family now? Would they like to wait until after they pass?

These are just some basic suggestions that are meant to be a starting point for you and your elderly loved one. Here are some web resources to use:

The Legacy Project

Here are a collection of essays and wisdom that the Cornell School of Human Ecology has collected. There is some great wisdom here and a lot of inspiration for your own legacy work!

ParentGiving

Here is some more information about what a legacy is, and how to begin one within your own family.

Answers4Families: Creating a Family Legacy

Here is some more information about what a legacy is.

Happy Thanksgiving, from Long Term Solutions

With Thanksgiving just a day away, we would like to take some time to express our gratitude and appreciation for all of the incredible healthcare professionals that we work with, our amazing administrative and clinical staff, and all of the families and caregivers who we are able help through their eldercare process. At Long Term Solutions, we’re passionate about elder care, and we’re thankful that we have been able to help so many families in the process of graceful aging.

Furthermore, we would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the 65.7 million caregivers who care for ailing or aging loved ones. Sadly, caregiving is usually a silent issue, so many of these caregivers don’t receive the praise and recognition that they deserve. It’s incredibly difficult to care for someone who is continuing to get worse and worse, but these caregivers continue to selflessly provide care and support through all of these emotional ups and downs. Caregivers are amazing and deserve thanks and praise for the amazing care they continue to provide. This year, remember to express your thanks and appreciation to any caregivers that you know.

With that said, we would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving!