Senior Citizens Resources

Alabama Department Of Senior Services Article

Thumbnail example

This is a selection made from among articles on Alabama Department Of Senior Services. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.

A Variety Of Senior Care Services

from: Kyle Besser

Everyone remembers an aging parent or grandparent who might have required special senior care services. Not all seniors require health care immediately. Some may need other types of senior care services just to help them get around or stay active and involved in their community. It is good to be aware of the best ways to serve the needs of a beloved senior while maintaining a degree of dignity for them and reducing potential costs.

Senior Centers For Fun And Recreation

One of the priorities to keep seniors engaged with life is to provide them a place for community interaction. Senior centers often sponsor events and outings for seniors or help teach them skills. Some are even centers for networking seniors as mentors for younger members of the community.

Transportation Services

Some seniors may lose their mobility before they require any kind of health care services. The loss may be due to poor eyesight or coordination skills. In such cases, senior shuttle services may be available to allow an elderly person to maintain some degree of independence without depending on family or relatives too much. Senior care services can be pinpointed to a specific need, and some seniors only require monthly bus passes to get around.

Home Health Aides

If a senior is generally in good health or an easy medical routine, a home health aide can be brought into the home to help with hygiene issues and to monitor the senior's vital signs. Home health aides usually make visits on a regular basis and can be trained to do simple medical procedures. They tend to the patient's environment, often cleaning or making sure the senior has the supplies they need to take proper care of themselves.

Assisted Living Communities

When seniors begin to lose mental or physical function, they may require more round-the-clock intervention to keep them from harming themselves or others unintentionally. The simple routines like locking a door or turning off a gas stove may escape seniors with Alzheimer's, and these types of conditions need senior care services that will monitor them full-time.

Hospice

When seniors become ill with a terminal disease and begin to degenerate to the point where death may be imminent, they can receive hospice treatment. Hospice is typically for terminal patients and can occur within the senior's own residence instead of assisted living. However, there are hospice centers and some hospice is given in nursing homes as well. Hospice treatment is aimed at relieving pain and disease symptoms, and the patient understands that hospice is not meant to cure them. It is one of the senior care services to relieve suffering at the last stage of life. Should a patient's disease or condition go into remission, hospice is terminated and home health aides are assigned for less frequent monitoring. In addition to helping seniors at the end of life, hospice provides networking for bereavement support groups for survivors.

Senior-Citizen-Services Online News

Senior White House officials hear from Hispanic community at Tampa summit

By Shelley Rossetter, Times Staff Writer Friday, February 3, 2012 Maria Avalos of Tampa waits in line to speak during the White House Hispanic Community Action Summit at the University of Tampa. It’s the 13th summit held by the White House in the past year. TAMPA — More than a dozen senior White House officials and policy makers met Friday with Hispanic leaders and community members in Tampa to ...

Signal gets $15.9 million dredge repair job

MOBILE, Alabama -- Signal International Inc. announced Thursday that it won a $15.9 million contract to repair a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopper dredge.

NJ to poll for illness in Pompton Lake residents living above toxic plume

Residents who live above a plume of groundwater contaminated with cancer-causing solvents are being asked by the state health department to participate in a survey to determine if the pollution has caused elevated rates of chronic illnesses.

Sun Spots

The Southeast Alabama Beekeepers Association will hold its monthly meeting at 7 p.m., Feb. 2, at the Coffee County Farm Center. Dr. Jim Tew will be the guest speaker. Tew retired from the Ohio State U