Home Health Care News

Hiring Event Tuesday May 2, 2017 10a-6p

Home Instead Senior Care is hosting a Hiring Event for people interested in becoming a part time CAREGiver for Seniors throughout Horry and Georgetown Counties. We provide non medical in home care, no license is needed. Stop by our office for our informational / on the spot interviews: anytime between 10:00AM and 6:00PM on Tuesday May 2, 2017

Home Instead Senior Care
11746 Highway 17 Bypass
Suite B
Murrells Inlet, SC 29526

Uncategorized

St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Seniors

Although seniors usually aren’t looking for the same kind of rough and rowdy time that 20-some year olds want, that doesn’t mean that they still don’t want to have a little fun. So what kind of St. Patty’s Day activities would a senior be interested in?

1. Crafting: Some good craft making ideas that are associated with St. Patrick’s Day are rainbows with pots of gold, Leprechaun items, and four leaf clovers. You can pretty much be sure to find whatever idea your heart desires on Pinterest.
2. Games: You can pretty much have your pick of games and just tweak for things specifically involving St. Patrick’s Day. Trivia, Pictionary, and LUCKY (instead of BINGO) are all good choices that people are relatively familiar with.
3. Food: You can choose to either host a dinner with Irish items or, if you want to make it a community thing, you can plan a progressive dinner. In other words, do a home/apartment crawl (similar to a bar crawl) where each host prepares an Irish themed course. Some examples of Irish foods are Banger and Mash, Corned Beef Cabbage, and Irish Brown Bread. Green Jell-O for dessert and Irish coffee to end the night. If you aren’t into green beer, adding a few drops of green food coloring to some sprite should do the trick!
4. Get out: If you are able to be mobile, most cities have some kind of parade or festival to participate in.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to wear green so you don’t get pinched! Also, go ahead and set a little festive background music to whatever activity you choose, to get you in the spirit, whether it’s some bagpipes or Celtic tunes. We hope you enjoy these wholesome St. Patrick’s Day activities and that we have given you some inspiration as to how to liven up the upcoming holiday!

Home Instead Senior Care, Seniors At Home, Uncategorized

A Valentine’s Day Your Senior Won’t Forget!

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be a holiday reserved for couples. We would do well to remember our elders this time of year. For them, Valentine’s Day may be harder than ordinary days, especially if they are facing the loss of a loved one. The best thing to do is to try and set aside some time for them. Here are some ideas:

1. Plan an outing. If your beloved senior is physically able enough to get out of the house, taking them to dinner and/or a movie is a nice idea.

2. Make something. If you decide staying in sounds like a better idea, you could always plan to bake cookies or another type of sweet treat. If baking or cooking isn’t your forte, making a craft together is another nice idea. Then, they will have something to keep around that will remind them of you and how much they are loved.

3. Take the easy route. Order in pizza or grab some other type of carryout on your way over, and just spend time. Whether it’s just turning on the TV or a movie, or sitting around chatting, your senior will appreciate the time spent.

If you do not live close by but still want to do something special, ordering a nice floral or edible arrangement is one way to go. If neither of those are in the budget, you could always plan a time to Skype or FaceTime but, if your senior is not very technologically savvy, sending an old-fashioned card or letter might be the way to go. One way or another, your beloved senior will appreciate the extra attention this Valentine’s Day!

Home Instead Senior Care, Hospice, Seniors At Home, Uncategorized

Happy New Year!

With New Years just barely behind us, we are used to the customs in the United States like the dropping of the ball in Times Square, champagne toasts, a kiss at midnight, New Year’s Day parade, etc. But, it is also fun to learn about New Years customs in other parts of the world!

New Years France

The French typically celebrate New Year’s with a feast and a champagne toast, marking the first moments of New Year’s Day with kisses under the mistletoe, which most other cultures associate with Christmas celebrations. The French also consider the day’s weather as a forecast for the upcoming year’s harvest, taking into account aspects like wind direction to predict the fruitfulness of crops and fishing.

New Years Philippines

In the Philippines, celebrations are very loud, believing that the noise will scare away evil beings. There is often a midnight feast featuring twelve different round fruits to symbolize good luck for the twelve months of the year. Other traditional foods include sticky rice and noodles, but not chicken or fish because these animals are food foragers, which can be seen as bad luck for the next year’s food supply.

Greece

Greeks celebrate New Year’s Day with card games and feasting. At midnight, the lights are turned off, followed by the Basil’s Pie, which contains a coin. Whoever gets the piece of pie containing the coin wins luck for the next year.

New Years Soviet Union

The Soviet Union’s New Year’s Day celebrations have been greatly affected by the Union’s history. As religion was suppressed and Christmas celebrations were banned, New Year’s, or Novi God celebrations often include Christmas traditions such as decorated trees, which were reconsidered as New Year Fir Trees. As the suppression left, these traditions stayed part of the New Year’s Day celebration. The holiday is also celebrated with feasts, champagne, and wishes.

New Years Spain

Spaniards celebrate New Year’s Day with the custom of eating twelve grapes, each eaten at a clock-stroke at midnight.

Cold-water plunges

In colder countries close to water, such as Canada, parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, it is customary to organize cold-water plunges. These plunges and races, sometimes called a Polar Bear Plunge, often raise money for charity or awareness for a cause.

For thousands of years, New Year’s has been a festival of rebirth and reflection, allowing people all over the world to celebrate another great year.

New Year’s Song

The song, “Auld Lang Syne,” is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700’s, it was first published in 1796 after Burns’ death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scottish tune, “Auld Lang Syne” literally means “old long ago,” or simply, “the good old days.”

We hope you enjoyed this article and are now informed a little about what the rest of the world does for New Years!

*Source: Wilstar.com

Uncategorized

Thank You Santas!

There are so many ways we can make a difference in someone’s life, young or old. At Christmas the spirit of giving is alive and well more so than any other time of the year. Every year, Home Instead Senior Care puts on our annual “Be a Santa to a Senior” event. The caregivers put a few items that each individual senior wants or needs on a paper ornament and places it on a tree. A participant selects one of the ornaments, gets the things that are listed, and then brings the unwrapped items to the Home Instead facility where they proceed to have a wrapping party for everyone to get together and wrap all of the gifts.

This year’s event was a success! Home Instead Senior Care would like to extend a big “Thank You” to everyone who participated! If you didn’t get a chance to participate this year, please keep this in mind for next year! Our goal is to continue to grow this event and make sure all of our seniors get to experience lots of Christmas cheer this time of the year!

Santa To Seniors

Be a Santa to a Senior!

Home Instead Senior Care will be having our annual Be A Santa To A Senior Program!

If you would like to help a senior citizen in need this Christmas… Please take an ornament, purchase the items listed on the ornament, and bring the gifts to where you picked the ornament. You may also drop off the gifts at the Home Instead Office in Murrells Inlet. (Please securely attach the ornament to the bag.)

 

Deadline to drop off gifts is December 7th, 2016
(Please don’t wrap the gifts!)

Annual Wrapping Party
Inlet Square Mall
Hwy. 17 Bypass, Murrells Inlet, SC

Monday, December 12th, 2016
11am – 3pm

 

Sponsored by:
Home Instead Senior Care
11746 Hwy 17 Bypass, Murrells Inlet, SC 29576
(843-357-9777)

(Wrapping Party is NOT held at the Home Instead Office)

Community News, Home Instead Senior Care, Myrtle Beach Events

Happy Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, it’s a time of reflection. And, what better way to reflect than reading the history of the original Thanksgiving!

THANKSGIVING AT PLYMOUTH

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

 

Source: History.com

Community News

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Article written by Lucy M. Riojas, RT(R)(M)

As you peruse the aisles of your favorite department store, you start to notice a trend: pink scarves, pink socks, pink shirts, and pink coffee mugs. Then pink blenders, pink vacuums, and is that a pink microwave?!? Ahh yes, the pink explosion is everywhere, and that can only mean one thing: October is upon us, and everyone is preparing for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is a reminder that there is a gruesome disease that is out to get second base. These sweet, pink pastels are there to nudge us, saying “hey, don’t forget to examine your breasts, get your doctor to check them out too, and schedule your mammogram.” After all, about 1 in 8 U.S. women, and 1 in 1000 U.S. men will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetime, and being proactive in this fight is crucial.

There are some guidelines, though. Breast self-exams are to be done monthly, and the best time to do them is about 10 days after the onset of your menstrual cycle. Breasts can be capricious, and they will change texture over the course of the monthly cycle, so sticking to one time of the month is best. If you no longer menstruate, then choose a day of the month and do it that same day from then on. If your breasts are generally lumpy and you don’t know what is normal and what isn’t, the best strategy is to simply become familiar with them. Become so familiar with each ridge and curve that if something was to change, you’d notice it right away. Also, look in the mirror. Look for dimpling, swelling, or redness by standing with your hands on your hips, then with your hands in the air, standing straight, then leaning forward. You can dance if you want to, just make sure the door is locked because if someone walked in, it’d be really awkward for everyone involved.

The second guideline is to have your doctor examine your breasts. Find a doctor that you’re comfortable with, because he or she will be squeezing your breasts and looking at them rather closely every year. A lot of people would rather do it themselves, but if you were to find an abnormality, you’ll need your doctor’s help in getting the proper tests done to determine what is wrong. Only your doctor can provide an order (prescription) for a breast sonogram or diagnostic mammogram.

The last guideline is to get a mammogram. This only applies to certain people: women over 40 (or mid to late thirties if breast cancer runs in the family because a woman’s risk of breast cancer approximately doubles if she has a first-degree relative who has had breast cancer), and patients with an abnormality in the breast. It is not generally recommended to get a mammogram before the age of 35. If a patient younger than 35 finds a lump, the first exam ordered will likely be a sonogram because it does not utilize radiation. And you know what? A mammogram really isn’t that bad. It is only a few seconds of pressure on each breast, and that’s it. The discomfort is worth it when it helps detect cancer in its earliest stages when it is most easily treated. Doctors are so confident that they can treat stage I breast cancer that they give patients a near 100% five-year survival rate.

So there you have it, folks: monthly breast self-exams, annual doctor’s exam, and a mammogram. These three things are your best bet for catching breast cancer in its earliest stages. Trust your judgment when it comes to your body. Don’t ever feel like you are overreacting if you “think” you feel something in your breast. If it doesn’t feel right, have it checked out. The worst (or best) thing that can happen is that you get checked and it turns out to be nothing.

For more info visit: http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-awareness-month

 

Community News

2016 Walk To End Alzheimer’s – Team Home Instead

This year we are participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s on November 5, 2016 at Market Common. Our team name is; Home Instead Senior Care Murrells Inlet. Our goal is to raise at least $1000.00 to donate for the cause.

We are having a Raffle; 1st Prize “Dinner for 2 for a Week”. The cost is $30.00 per ticket and will include the following restaurants: RIOZ, THE LIBRARY, P.F.CHANGS, YAMATOS, BRENTWOOD HOUSE, TUPELO HONEY AND SCATORIS. 2nd Prize to be drawn is a Dinner Cruise for 2 aboard the Barefoot Princess in Barefoot Landing. The raffle will be drawn on 11/5/2016

Where do the funds go? 
All funds raised through Walk to End Alzheimer’s further the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. The Alzheimer’s Association is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. All donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

We hope you will partner with us and purchase a raffle ticket for this fundraising event.

Event information can be found here: Walk To End Alzheimer’s »

Please contact Home Instead Senior Care at 843-357-9777 to purchase a raffle ticket or come by the office Monday – Friday between 9a-5p, we are located at:

11746 Highway 17 Bypass
Murrells Inlet, S.C. 29576

Community News

The Senior Care “Reality Check”

  • Perception: 37% of the population believes that they will need senior care.
  • Reality: 69% of the population actually will need senior care.

Senior Care includes more than nursing homes….

  • 61% will use home health care.
  • 86% will use an informal caregiver.
  • 51% will use nursing homes.
  • 19% will use assisted living.

Why is there a drastic difference in people’s perception vs. reality?

  • People are in denial over aging and what comes along with it.
  • Consumers are optimistic in our youth-oriented culture. Why worry now anyway?
  • People equate aging and long-term care with death and defeat.
  • The reality of aging is not a powerful enough motivator until it hits close to home.
  • Care has been driven by crisis management versus proactive and preventative care.
  • There is not enough discussion on what long term care is. It’s not just “nursing homes”.

What are the consequences for not being prepared?

  • If you are prepared, you can choose the care you receive. If you are unprepared, care is chosen for you.
  • Without proper preparation, the financial and emotional stress on the family to be the caregiver can be devastating.
  • For the unprepared, the need for long term care can result in a complete depletion of assets and/or bankruptcy.
  • Proper planning gives consumers control of their care options and also eases the burden of family members.
  • Most people falsely believe Medicare will cover the costs of long term care services they will need.
  • Most people don’t have enough money to pay for long-term care out-of-pocket, but have too much to qualify for Medicaid.

How would you close the discrepancy gap?

  • The best long-term care education comes from experience – when people have loved ones living the experience.
  • Society, starting at a young age, needs to remove stigmas associated with aging. It’s okay to admit natural aging.
  • Long-term care needs to get more mainstream media attention, and not just the risks, but the consequences of aging.
  • Build more public awareness about aging and long-term care through real life examples of people receiving and giving care.
  • Human resource departments should address the need for long term care planning in addition to retirement planning.
  • Consumers need to understand chronic diseases and make lifestyle changes to reduce the associated health risks.

What advice do you have for consumers about their future care needs?

  • Become your own advocate. Put together a plan that includes the proper legal and financial planning paperwork.
  • Have consistent talks with your family about your long-term care plan and maintain the ongoing dialogue.
  • Build your team of trusted advisors that includes family members, financial planner, estate planning attorney, etc.
  • Include long term care as part of your retirement planning. Begin saving and preparing for those needs.
  • Knowledge is power. Seek input and advice from those with both positive and negative long-term care experiences.
  • Take care of yourself while you can. Make healthy choices to reduce risks and maximize your health.

*Source: www.seniorcare.com

Home Instead Senior Care

Home Instead Senior Care is an in-home health care provider located in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina serving individuals and families in the Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand area for over 11 years! We offer assistance to those in need for companionship, home help, personal care, short-term recovery, Alzheimer’s care, Respite care and many other services to make your life easier.

© Home Instead Myrtle Beach
p) 843. 357. 9777
f) 843. 357. 9779
11746 Hwy 17 Bypass, Suite B
Murrells Inlet, SC 29576