93 frail elderly and adults with disabilities are enrolled in our Adult Day Care Center with between 75 and 80 coming each day now.  We provide nursing care, activities, nutritious food, transportation.  We currently serve breakfast lunch and a snack in the afternoon.

In Guardianship, we serve 320 people.  (We are appointed by the courts to serve as guardians in 39 counties in Texas when the judges determine that individuals don’t have capacity to make decisions for themselves and when there is no family member qualified and willing to serve.  We serve 261 people as Guardian of Person, 3 people as Guardian of Estate and 56 as Guardian of Person and Estate.)

442 are helped through our Money Management Program where we provide information, referral to other agencies, assistance with accessing services in addition to helping some make sure bills are paid, utilities remain on, etc.  Since those who need help with money management often need help with many other things, we work to make sure that they have the help they need.

We have 870 in our Independent Living Programs (We recruit, screen, train and organize volunteers to help people age in place.  They can stay in their own homes as long as possible.  With a little help through our Minor Household Repairs Program, Telephone Reassurance, Companion to the Doctor, and help changing light bulbs and mowing lawns, and other programs, many end up able to live out their lives at home.  And, these programs make it possible for us to build bridges between us and them so that when they have a problem like electricity being turned off or running out of medicine, they may call us and we can fix the problem while it is a small problem – before it becomes life threatening.)

This year we are reaching out to approximately 2,090 in our Quality of Life Programs (With programs like Adopt a Grandparent, Friendly Visiting, Pen Pals, Friends for Thanksgiving, and many more, we are helping lonely elderly and people with disabilities know they are loved.  Our Gifts for Grannies & Grandpas, too program reaches out to more than this, but it also provides gifts for people in our other programs who are alone and have no one to remember them on their birthdays and holidays.

While family caregivers and senior care professionals might recognize that an older adult needs help, seniors often don’t want it, potentially putting their health and safety at risk. Family caregivers may lack the communication skills needed to talk with their aging loved ones about this sensitive subject and the practical knowledge of the options and services that are available.

“Reassuring a senior loved one that you have the same goal in mind will help,” said family caregiving consultant Dr. Amy D’Aprix, author of From Surviving to Thriving: Transforming Your Caregiving Experience (www.DrAmyCaregiving.com). “Start with: ‘My goal for you is to be independent, too. You know I can’t be here all the time.  A little extra assistance will help you stay home.’”

Consider these tips, from the Home Instead Senior Care^® family caregiver support series Caring for Your Parents: Education for the Family Caregiver:

1. Be mindful of your approach and speaking methods.
2. Move toward solutions that provide the maximum amount of independence for the older person.
3. Look for answers that optimize strengths and desires.
4. Remember that you are talking to an adult, not a child.
5. Not everything needs to be solved right away.

Other tips that can help families address sensitive situations such as money troubles, dating or driving are available at www.4070talk.com.

For more information about family caregiving and communicating with a senior loved one, go to www.CaregiverStress.com.

I could barely hear her one day when she called.  I knew she needed help.  All I could really make out was ‘hot’.  She was close to ninety.  She had advanced osteoporosis.  She had been in the hospital and she had taken a cab home.  Her electricity had been turned off while she was gone and in July it is really hot in Texas.  It was over a hundred degrees in her house.  On the little table by her chair in the living room was an envelope.  It was her electric bill.  She had forgotten to mail it.  We called the electric company and they turned on her electricity immediately.

This precious widow called us almost daily because she was legally blind and wanted us to read the Bible to her.  One day she called and said, “I am so hungry for peach cobbler.”  We took her some and she called later and said happily, “do I sound like I’m full of peach cobbler?”

A volunteer that is willing to help with little things, like changing a light bulb, can make a big difference.