The new year is almost here and people everywhere are making resolutions to improve their lives. Those with terminally ill loved ones should take this opportunity to make resolutions to not only improve their own quality of life, but also their loved one’s quality of life. Here are a few easy ways you can commit to improving the care you give your loved one.

Just Talk

One of the easiest ways you can have a big impact on a terminally ill patient is just talking with them. It might seem hard to talk with your loved one, especially if they have a weakening voice or dementia, but verbal interaction can lift spirits and improve mental health.

Aim Small

Caring for a terminally ill patient can be exhausting and it’s easy for little things to go unnoticed. However, taking care of minor issues can make a world of difference for the patient. A minor issue that goes unnoticed all too often is hydration. Ensuring your loved one is drinking enough water can improve the effectiveness of treatments across the board.

Be Adaptive

One of the most important parts of end of life care is allowing the patient to still do the activities they enjoy. Due to the limitations of their illness, you’ll most likely have to get creative and adapt their favorite activities. For example, if your loved one loves going to baseball games, but can’t make it to the stadium anymore, watch the game on TV and make it feel like the stadium. Get everyone to wear hats and jerseys, grill hot dogs, take a seventh-inning stretch, and heckle the opposing batters.

As you can see, hospice care new year’s resolutions don’t have to involve a lot of effort or time to achieve. It’s really just about being aware of how little changes can add up to a big difference. What resolutions are you setting this year? 

More than 54 million Americans over the age of 50 have been diagnosed with osteoporosis. This disease causes the bones to be brittle and fragile as a result of low mass and tissue. In a healthy body, the bone tissue is constantly being broken down (a process called resorbed) and then reformed. This process happens so frequently that healthy bodies actually replace their entire skeleton every 10 years.

As our bodies grow during our childhood, our bones reform faster than they resorb. However, this imbalance switches when osteoporosis hits later in life. This disease occurs most frequently in older women, causing one in two women to break a bone as a result of osteoporosis.

Risk Factors

The National Osteoporosis Foundation has identified several key lifestyle factors that can increase the chances of developing osteoporosis. Two of the biggest risk factors are lack of exercise and calcium in your daily diet.

Our bones become stronger in response to strength training like lifting weights. Those who do not engage in regular exercise and lead sedimentary lifestyles can increase their chances of an osteoporosis diagnosis. Our bones also need a steady supply of calcium to support the reforming process. Regularly eating calcium-rich foods like yogurt, almonds, and milk can be a great defense against osteoporosis. Other risk factors include smoking, having one or more alcoholic beverage a day, and consuming more than 30oz of coffee a day.

Prevention

As with most diseases, the best way to prevent osteoporosis is as simple as a healthy diet and regular exercise. As stated above, weight training and a calcium-rich diet are the best way to curb the effects of osteoporosis. It’s never too early to start thinking about osteoporosis prevention, especially for young women. Taking steps at a young age to prevent osteoporosis is much easier than trying to treat the symptoms after the disease has set in. 

Writing an obituary for a friend or family member isn’t as easy as some may think. While you likely know this person extremely well, summing up an entire life in a few paragraphs can seem daunting. There’s an underlying pressure to get it just right and do right by the deceased to ensure every reader fully understands who they were and how special they are.

This pressure is the first hurdle to overcome. It’s important to understand that not even Hemingway could adequately describe the full grandeur of a person’s life, so don’t put that burden on yourself. The purpose of an obituary is simply to inform the public of the passing, and to briefly tell their story.

The boilerplate information is often a good place to get started. Age, the cause of death, job, education, family, hometown, and places they’ve lived can serve as low hanging fruit to start writing. From there you can get more detailed by talking about any military service, hobbies, education, interests, anything they were particularly passionate about, community involvement, and church membership.

Now that the basics are out of the way, you can move on to describing personality traits and discussing who the person really was. To do this, it can be helpful to talk with other friends and family members to see how they described the deceased. Look for trends with words used in the multiple descriptions, and use these trends in the obituary. Once you’ve identified the right words to use, try to find a story that exemplifies these characteristics.

An obituary doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but you can make it as intricate as you feel the deceased would have wanted. It can be helpful to try to write the obituary as they would have written it. If they would have cracked a few jokes, then crack a few jokes, but if they were more reserved and dry, keep it simple. Whichever way you go, just remember to tell the basics and then move onto the details. 

As the Christmas season approaches, families with a loved one in hospice care might be struggling to make holiday plans. If you find yourself in this situation this season, know that this year will be different than years past, but you can still enjoy the holidays with a little planning. Whether your loved one is receiving home hospice or in an assisted care facility, here are a few things you can do to make Christmas special for the entire family.

Home Hospice

Spending Christmas with a loved one in-home hospice care is a balancing act between maintaining traditions and not overstimulating. It’s important to continue traditions and let everyone, including those getting hospice care, enjoy the traditions that are important to your family. However, overstimulating hospice patients with lots of people, sounds, and activity can cause your loved one to tire quickly and feel uncomfortable.

 Assisted Living Facility

Although your loved one might not be celebrating Christmas in their home, that doesn’t mean you can’t make it feel like home. Bring some decorations over for them and add some holiday touches to their living space. If there are special decorations like an angel tree topper or snow globe collection, make sure to bring those over. For the morning of festivities, it might be best to limit the number of people who come over or plan shifts so you don’t overwhelm them. Their living space might not be able to handle a big group of people and large groups can also overstimulate the patient.

If different family members are coming in shifts, this can be a great opportunity for each group to cook a favorite dish and bring it with them. This lets everyone still have a meal with your loved one and lets them maintain a consistent nap schedule.

It might not seem like Christmas and hospice mix, and this might still be an emotionally difficult year, but you can still make this Christmas special. Whatever you plan on doing, check with your hospice medical team to make sure it won’t interfere with treatment. Your hospice team might also be able to help you with a few things, so it never hurts to check. 

As our loved ones get older, falls become more and more of a hazard. The National Institute on Health reports that falls cause more trauma-related hospital admissions, fractures, loss of independence and injuries for older adults. Numbers like these make you realize just how susceptible seniors are to falls and how serious of an issue falls are. Thankfully, there are ways to recognize fall risks and take appropriate action.

Aging

One of the biggest, and possibly most obvious, factors that can lead to falls is aging. As we get older our reflexes get slower and our sense of balance diminishes. This combination can turn a small slip into a big fall. Another aging factor is weak leg muscles. This can happen as seniors become less mobile and the muscle strength in their legs gets worse.

Medication

Studies have shown that the more medication a senior takes, the more likely they are to experience a fall. This happens because a lot of medications commonly prescribed to seniors have side effects like dizziness, confusion, and impaired brain circulation.

Preventing Falls

The best way to prevent falls is to identify the most likely causes and act appropriately. If falls are being caused by balance and reflex issues, exercise classes that focus on improving these functions can be a huge help. A geriatrician can also review all medications to help curb the negative effects of medications.

One of the best ways to help seniors avoid falls is to buy a cane or walker. This allows them to retain mobile and maintain their muscle strength, but also gives them more sure footing in case of a slip or momentary loss of balance.

Falls are common among seniors, but they don’t have to be. By being proactive and spotting the early signs you can help your aging loved one avoid falls and stay out of the hospital.