The FirstLight Care Corner

How To Find The Right Caregiver

From our Care Blog

A caregiver is an important companion for your parent and can support them with everything from bathing and light housekeeping, to meal preparation, prescription pick-ups and transportation to and from doctor’s appointments. If you have determined that having additional outside support to help you care for your parents, you might struggle with where to start to find an outside service and even one you can trust. Following are some important considerations to get the process started. Caregivers can be found through personal referrals, but oftentimes it is easier to go through a reliable referring service that handles the background checks...

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Baby Boomer Trends

From our Care Blog

The Baby Boomer generation are pretty cool. There are 40 million Americans age 65 and older and they make up 13 percent of the population. By 2030, when all the baby boomers will have passed age 65, this group will represent over 20 percent of the population. What’s fascinating is that they continue to make a difference in our world. Here are some trends that show just how Baby Boomers are making an impact! 1. Helping Young People: Baby Boomers are going back to the classroom to support local schools. With funding reduced in area schools, many Boomers are joining...

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Top Five Exercises for Baby Boomers

From our Care Blog

If you’re over 50, you need to read this. Exercise is important but not all in one day…every day. Exercise helps promote a healthier and longer life. It improves your mood and it helps you to stay active. Benefits of exercise can also reduce the likelihood of cancer and heart disease. Here are some basic workouts for Baby Boomers. Cardio: Get your heart pumping every day for 30 minutes. Cardio exercises that are great for Baby Boomers include brisk walks, running, swimming and biking. We love swimming because of the low impact on our joints. We also love brisk walks...

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Sanity Check: Why Family Caregivers Need Respite Care

From our Care Blog

Caring for a parent, family members or loved one day in and day out can take its toll on the caregiver. It’s a tough job and sometimes caregivers need a sanity break and take time for themselves and to rejuvenate their own body, mind and soul. At FirstLight Home Care, we are caregivers and we know what caregivers go through. We support these family members and over the years we have found these 4 tips to be very helpful in keeping your sanity in check. 1. Have a Life: Yes caregiving can be a 24/7 job but you need to...

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A Travel Companion For Seniors Is Great!

From our Care Blog

Are you a senior who wants to go on vacation but not sure you can handle the trip? Don’t want to have to worry about carrying heavy bags and the hassle of getting through airport security? Or are you trying to attend your grandaughter’s graduation or visit a new grandbaby? These are important events you don’t want to miss! Don’t let your age or physical limitations hold you back, because we can help! FirstLight Home Care has the perfect solution with our Travel Companion program. Traveling can be daunting under the best circumstances, but for seniors, elderly, those with disabilities,...

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Home Automation and Its Many Benefits

From our Care Blog

Every home, regardless of its location, is at risk for vandalism and burglary. The only person who can combat that risk is the homeowner. It is the homeowner's responsibility, if they feel unsafe, to choose a suitable security system to keep his or her home protected. When the resident of the home in question is someone as vulnerable as a senior citizen, the need for a reliable system is only that much greater. Sounding the Alarm One of the most basic but important features any senior home security system should have is an alarm. Alarms, when functioning, will go off...

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Aging Parents: Ask Nurse Gina

From our Care Blog

Wouldn’t it be great to have a resource to call upon when you have a question or a concern about the changes you are seeing in your parents as they get older? Well you do. Nurse Gina is our resident care leader. She is a professional geriatric care manager and RN who has been working with seniors for more than 35 years. She has provided individuals and their families with information and resources on conditions, senior care, home healthcare, mediation, restorative plans and move management. We turn to Nurse Gina for all of our parent-care questions. Her experience spans from...

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Aging Gracefully: The Power of Walking as you Get Older.

From our Care Blog

Every now and then we have to admit that we can’t do all of the physical exercise that we did when we were younger. Thankfully, walking is one form of exercise that most of us can do throughout our life. Not only will walking help you to slow down the aging process, but you will help you feel more energetic and better about yourself. So lace up your walking shoes and check out the health and aging benefits of walking: Walking can reduce your stroke risks: According to University of South Carolina researchers, walking briskly for just 30 minutes, five...

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Heatwave: Keeping Seniors Cool

From our Care Blog

Because we are in the middle of summer and the temperature is rising, this could be deadly for the elderly in our local communities. We did some homework and found some pretty simple tips to help keep everyone in your family cool this summer: Stay hydrated: Drink cool drinks, preferably water. Stay indoors during the hottest parts of the day, which is typically 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. To keep your rooms cool, close your blinds. Only open windows when it’s cool enough to do so. Head downstairs. Hot air rises. A lower floor or basement can be a cool...

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7 Secrets For A Longer Life

From our Care Blog

Living longer can happen if you stop and take a look at your life and well, follow these secrets we found on WebMD’s website. The health focused folks over at WebMD put together a great slideshow on 18 secrets for a Longer Life (which we guess really aren’t that much of a secret since they have it on their website that millions of people view each month). We went through the slideshow and picked out some of our favorites that we’ve started to try (we can already feel the years being added on to our lives). Eat Like an Okinawan:...

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