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Children Who Need Respite Care

There are many children who are cared for by family members because of chronic illness, injury or disability. These families have many challenges and can use respite care to avoid burnout of the primary caregiver.

Families who have a child with disabilities or chronic illnesses require a lot of time to care for the child such as feeding, and health care needs.

Respite care has been around for a long time. It started in the 1960's when the deinstitutionalization movement occurred. Children with special needs were at last kept at home instead of being institutionalized. However, this puts a strain on families due to amount of care involved and the time commitment.

The primary caregiver is typically the mum or dad, and although they love the child the demands of caring for the child 24/7 can be overwhelming and can lead to burnout if respite care is not found and utilized. The intense level of dedication involved can take an emotional and mental toll on both the primary caregiver and every family member. The entire family is in need of individualized respite care.

Organizations such as the United Cerebral Palsy Association, Inc (UCPA) has resources for respite care for families who have children with cerebral palsy. Respite care for families who have children with cerebral palsy is generally temporary relief that can be from one hour up to 3 months, depending on the needs of the family. Respite care can be on an "as-needed" basis or it can be a regularly scheduled respite program. Respite care helps to prevent burnout and family disintegration and is geared for the specific needs of each family member.

Caring for a disabled or chronically ill child affects every family member including parents, siblings, grandparents and other extended family members. This is a major lifestyle change that can impact all family members. Respite care will change over the years, as the child's needs change. Just like a normally developing child has different needs as they grow so does a child with disabilities or who is chronically ill. This is why it is important to have a respite care plan that is assessed and modified on a regular basis.

There are many advantages of benefits of respite care that include relaxation opportunities for the entire family, time to pursue favorite pastimes and new activities, stability to deal with daily responsibilities in times of crisis, involvement in community affairs that take time to nurture, time off to rest and recharge both emotionally and mentally from the strain of 24/7 care. Another important role of respite care is to give individual family members the chance to establish unique identities and to enrich their own growth potential outside of the nurturing and caring of the child.

Respite care is how the caregiver is taken care of when they give so much to the child in need.

Respite care when a child is involved can take place in the child's home, or the child can attend a day care center, or receive volunteer respite care from a friend or neighbor in their home.

For more advice on choosing respite care to cover for your child, see my Ebook, Holistic Doctor Online Guide to Respite Care

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Dr Alison Grimston is a holistic doctor who works with complementary therapies and nutritional supplements. She only recommends the best, pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements, such as those on www.holisticdoctor.usana.com.

Disclaimer: The content of our website is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.

Being Fit is all to do with Your State of Mind

Have you ever wondered who has the responsibility for you being fit? Is it your parents, your doctor, your boss?

Nope, only you are responsible for whether or not you are fit.

When we were kids we may have had little control over what foods appeared on the table. We did however control what we put into our mouths. Even as babies we spit out what we did not like, much to the chagrin of our parents.

As kids we loved to play, and exercise came naturally to us as we ran outside, played with skipping ropes or rode our bikes. We exercised because it was fun.

As we age, exercise becomes more of a chore, or at least difficult to fit into our busy lifestyles. Our food choices are numerous, but many of them are not healthy for us, often again because of our “busy-ness”. As we age and become more capable of making food and exercise choices of our own, the choices we make determine how fit we are.

Did you ever stop and wonder how we make those choices? Are we fit or unhealthy because of where we live, who our friends are, or where we work? Do we make poor choices because we believe commercials on TV or the radio? Our minds are a wonderful piece of machinery that influences the outcome of our lives. We make decisions every day that may have either a negative or positive impact on our life.

What kind of choices do you make that influence your state of fitness? Do you choose to eat a Big Mac at lunch versus a fruit salad and skinless chicken sandwich without the mayo? How about making your own sandwich at home, so that you know exactly what went into it? Do you choose to drink 3 or 4 cups of coffee instead of drinking any water?

What choices do you make when it comes to exercise? When entering the building do you head for the elevator or the stairs? Do you park near the entrance of a building or do you park far away so you have to walk to the entrance? Do you walk to the corner store or do you drive your car?

We make choices every day that have an impact on our health, on whether or not we gain weight or lose it, and that influence our potential for heart disease, diabetes and other diseases.

Do you have the mindset for a healthy body, one that is fit, trim and fully functioning? Do you instead have a mindset that brings junk food and a sedentary lifestyle into your daily routine?

Being fit is a state of mind because how we think about nutrition and exercise influences what choices we make regarding the foods we eat and the types and amounts of exercise we get each day. Every day we have another chance to make healthy lifestyle choices concerning to smoke or not, to drink alcoholic beverages or not and to eat candy, high sugar and fat content foods or not. We choose whether we drink fizzy drinks and coffee or water and milk.

We are influenced in our choices by what we see, hear and witness throughout our life. We were influenced in our eating habits and the foods we grew accustomed to by the foods and eating habits of our parents. Those habits can be replaced with other habits either healthier ones or ones that are unhealthy. Being fit is a choice we make and an action we take based on what our mind says is good or bad.

Make the decision now to make a difference in the choices you make – it is your life, and your future! Live a healthy life!

Make a start today – increase your exercise levels, smarten up your eating habits, or add in pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements! See how soon you feel the difference.

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Dr Alison Grimston is a holistic doctor who works with complementary therapies and nutritional supplements. She only recommends the best, pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements, such as those on www.holisticdoctor.usana.com.

Disclaimer: The content of our website is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.

Adult Respite Care

Caregivers in families are often called upon to care for other adults in the family when an ongoing injury or illness affects a family member. The primary caregiver is often called upon to give continuous care, and needs temporary relief, often on a regular basis, to avoid burnout, anxiety, depression and emotional or mental stress. Respite services can help to keep families intact during these stressful times.

Respite services may be available for companionship, to assist in daily exercises, meal preparation, personal care, light housework, and some personal hygiene needs. Respite care usually does not cover any type of skilled nursing or administration of medications.

The frequency needed for respite care is based on the individual situation. If there is a social worker or other social services agency worker involved, a care plan can be drawn up and will often make suggestions.

Sometimes respite care is recommended for clients who would otherwise need to be placed into residential care, if they can no longer live independently. Where skilled nursing care is needed, nursing care rather than “respite” care would be more appropriate, and can be arranged at a nursing home or with home based nursing staff.

The primary caregiver of the adult in need is typically the one who assesses the available respite care services and decides what would be appropriate for their particular situation.

Respite care can occur in the individual's home, at the respite care provider's home, or in a community services center, such as an adult day service center.

Funding may be arranged through Adult Services and Aging Specialist in your community. The Department of Human Services, Division of Developmental Disabilities in your community can assist you in locating appropriate adult respite care.

Each community may differ in the type of adult respite care that they have available. This is also obviously country - specific. Senior Centers are usually a good resource for finding what your community has to offer, and Age Concern in the U.K. can be a really helpful source of information. Your doctor’s suirgery may also be able to point you in the right direction for available adult respite care in your location. There are also organizations regarding certain illnesses that may also offer services for respite care such as Alzheimer’s Organizations in your area.

Many communities have adult day care programs that can provide family caregivers with a source of relief.

Respite care can significantly lower the cost of alternatives such as foster care, hospitalization, or nursing home care. Respite care also reduces the occurrences of abuse and neglect including elderly abuse.

For help choosing which type of respite care is right for you & your family, see my new Ebook - Holistic Doctor Online Guide to Respite Care

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Dr Alison Grimston is a holistic doctor who works with complementary therapies and nutritional supplements. She only recommends the best, pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements, such as those on www.holisticdoctor.usana.com.

 

Disclaimer: The content of our website is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.

Fitness Myths versus Fitness Truths

As in most things in life there are myths and truths about fitness. Can you tell the difference between what is myth and what is truth when it comes to fitness?

Fitness and exercise leads to much speculation. When it comes to exercise there is a lot of "water cooler talk" about exercise such as our myth number 1: if you do specific exercises you can take the weight off a specific body part. Sorry folks but this is myth. You can't do a certain exercise and expect that it is going to work some magic on your hips, or on your buttocks. In exercise jargon this is referred to "spot training" and it is just not possible to predetermine how your body will use the exercise you just did. An example is that when you run, you are burning fat all over your body not just the fat contained on your legs. You can however choose to cross train making sure you choose weight training because you know that it will help to tone muscles. Doing sit-ups will strengthen your abs because it works those muscles.

Another popular myth is that if you are female and choose to lift weights, then you will bulk up like a body builder. The truth is that women do not have enough testosterone in their bloodstreams to build large muscles. The truth is that women tend to lose inches when they strength train. There are, however, many physical benefits for women who weight train including an increased metabolism, a decreased risk for osteoporosis, and increased strength; you will also lose weight; but sorry, you will not build bulky muscles.

Most individuals feel that for exercise to really show a benefit you have to exercise hard and often. That simply isn't true. There are many health benefits to doing moderate exercise activity including reducing your risk of heart disease and stroke. Even very busy individuals who can't seem to find a spare 30 minutes a day to exercise can find 10 minutes here or 10 minutes there to do something whether it is climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or doing some push-ups or crunches during your lunch break. Many office workers are turning to taking a brisk walk around the building at lunchtime. Any exercise, no matter how or when you can fit it into your business routine, is better than no exercise.

There is no magic pill or one exercise that will flatten your stomach. You can't get a flat stomach by doing abdominal exercises. You can slowly strip away the fat from your stomach by doing a combination of cardiovascular/aerobic exercise and strength training along with eating a healthy well-balanced diet to achieve the results you want. Abdominal exercises can achieve muscle mass in your abdominal area, but you won't be able to see muscle definition unless you strip away the fat that has gathered there by increasing your metabolism and burning calories. For this you will need a combination of aerobic exercises and strength training.

It is important that, if you want to burn fat, you watch the total number of calories burned during exercise and not just the percentage of fat calories burned. If you walk, bike or swim fast, you will burn more calories per minute of exercise, therefore burning more total calories over the entire time that you are exercising. It is not necessarily how many fat calories you burn during your workout but how many total calories your burn that will allow you to lose weight.

Perhaps one of the biggest myths in the exercise area is that of "no pain, no gain". You should not be feeling pain while exercising. Pain is your body's communication to you that something is wrong. Exercising does not need to be painful for you to expect a good result. You can breathe hard and sweat a lot especially at the height of your workout, and you may feel a slight discomfort during exercise and stretches, but you should not be in pain. There is a difference between muscle fatigue (feeling the burn) and muscle or joint pain which is a sharp and very uncomfortable pain experienced during movement. You need to listen to your body if it is giving you pain signals, as you need to stop what you are doing and rest so that you can heal.

What do you believe when it comes to fitness? Are you believing in fitness myth or fitness truth?

For optimal fitness I recommend regular exercise, good quality, low GI foods, adequate rest and relaxation, and a pharmaceutical-grade, broad spectrum antioxidant and chelated mineral supplement, with added Omega 3 fatty acid (again of pharmaceutical quality).

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Dr Alison Grimston is a holistic doctor who works with complementary therapies and nutritional supplements. She only recommends the best, pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements, such as those on www.holisticdoctor.usana.com.

 

Disclaimer: The content of our website is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor relating to any medical condition.