We recently met with Natasha Heimrath of Caregiver Homes, a community-based model of care for frail seniors and disabled people 16 and older to be cared for at home and in their community. The state-funded program pays caregivers – typically, but not always, a family member – who provide full-time care at home, and it supports each client and caregiver with a case management team. In some instances, this stipend allows families to bring an outside caregiver into the home for respite (relief) for the main caregiver.

Our experience suggests that many families are eligible for this program and don't realize it. We  encourage our clients to make use of this program, and have contacted those who we think may be eligible to put them in touch with Natasha.  We are happy to facilitate this relationship and will work cooperatively with Caregiver Homes any time we serve clients concurrently.

To be covered by the Caregiver Homes program, clients must be eligible for Medicare/MassHealth or be eligible for a "Frail Elder Waiver" (which has a higher income allowance than does Medicare). The caregiver to receive the stipend may not be a legal guardian or spouse, and does not need to be related to the client.

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Essentials to Good Planning:

A Health and Legal Perspective to Helping Our Loved One Age Well

GOODNOW LIBRARY,
21 Concord Road, Sudbury, MA (map here.)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 -- 7-9 PM

Get the facts from Stuart Hamilton, an Elder Law Attorney (www.StuartHamiltonLaw.com), Linda Smith, a Certified Professional Geriatric Care Manager and Independent Registered Nurse (www.mweldercare.com), and Deborah Bier, PhD, director of a local home care agency (www.CaringCompanion.Net).

They will educate and answer questions about the many legal, safety, activity, housing, caregiver support and care options available as people age.

One of the treasured resources serving our communities is Meals on Wheels (MOW), which is operated in MetroWest Boston through Minuteman Senior Services.  They bring nutritious hot meals to seniors all over state and around the nation.  This Sunday, June 13, MOW will sponsor their 2nd annual Meals on Wheels 5K Fund-raiser.  We hope many of you will consider supporting it - and if you are a bit of an athlete, maybe even participating!

Meals on Wheels offers not only meals, but vital social interaction that stimulates and engages many seniors for whom such contact plays a crucial role in keeping them engaged and independent in their own homes.

On a personal note, I am proud that several members of my family have been strong MOW supporters: my sister and her husband own American Home Companions, Florida's largest private duty elder care agency, and they recently supported Meals on Wheels via their 5000 Reasons to Celebrate, to celebrate their inclusions in the Inc 5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies.  Additionally, my mother has been a MOW volunteer in her home community in Tampa, Florida.  I am happy that CCC supports Meals on Wheels here in our Massachusetts office and I can attest to the important role I have seen them play in the lives of our clients.

Please consider supporting this important service to our community.

From Meg Gaudet, Concord Park's Social Program Director:

Please join Concord Park as we help those in need. Concord is a very generous community, especially during the traditional holiday season, yet the hardship of the less fortunate can be significant in the summer months Please join us as we organize a new initiative, Christmas in June.

We need your help as we collect dry and canned goods and assorted personal toiletries for various charities in Massachusetts such as Volunteers of Americas' "Stand Down," a program to help homeless veterans "combat" life on the streets.

We will be collecting contributions until June 22, 2010. So please before you pack for vacation or when you grocery shop think of this, come by and drop off your donations. Concord Park Assisted Living is located in the heart of West Concord at 68 Commonwealth Avenue near the train station. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at (978) 369-4728

Presented by Michele Hughes, RPT
Pro-Active Eldercare
Wednesday, June 9, 20106:30 – 8:00 pm

The workshop will include:

• Identifying specific fall hazards in each participant’s home environment
• Tangible solutions and management techniques for home safety
• The opportunity for participants to learn and practice safe guarding techniques
• Information on community resources

Hosted by Cooperative Elder Services, Inc., 7 Chamberlin Drive, Concord, MA (map here). This program is free of charge and light refreshments will be served. Pre-register with Pat Oliphant at 978-318-0046 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Walk-ins  are welcome. Parking is available at Cooperative Elder Services and Newbury Court. This event is funded by The Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Inc.

The class entitled "Aging, Disability & New Technologies: Real Hype or Real Help?" to be held in Concord on May 13 will be reschedule -- future date to be announced!

In the meantime, if you'd like to have us present this course for your organization, please contact us. This is a lecture we give at no cost as a community service.

May 6, 2010, 11 am-12:30 pm at the Bedford Council on Aging
May 13, 2010, 7-8:30 pm at Concord-Carlisle Cable TV Studio, Concord-Carlisle High School

Safety alert technology. Online communication services. Remote medical sensors. There are so many devices to help us monitor our health and communicate.   And new ones on the way.

Are you confused about the new technologies to help senior citizens, the disabled and their caregivers? Some are truly beneficial to elders, the disabled, their families and caregivers, while others are mere gadgets or toys that aren’t a good value. We will help you separate the real hype from the real help, allowing wiser choices in this bewildering, rapidly expanding marketplace. We will review some of the high tech tools on the market, highlighting ones we think have the ability to help you stay connected, happy, safe and healthy. Included will be remote medical monitoring devices, safety alert technology, and consumer technology customized for seniors and the disabled. You will come away better able to assess new technologies for yourself.

To Register for Concord: Call 978-318-1540 or register online for Course Number #4321 at www.ace.colonial.net. Fee: $10 donation. Location: 500 Walden Street, Concord (enter the front left door where glowing Adult Education sign can be seen). Bedford Class: no charge, no registration through the Bedford Council on Aging, 12 Mudge Way, Bedford.

Presenters: Jim Reynolds has been a National Practice Leader for IBM in the area of mobile and wireless technology. His family has owned and run the largest private-pay home care agencies in Florida and Kansas since 1992. Continuing the family business, he is the owner of Caring Companion Connections in Concord.

Deborah Bier, PhD, has been a health care educator, author, and wellness coach for 20 years. She holds a doctorate in counseling and has helped hundreds of individuals and families to live better with chronic illness and disability. She is the director of the Concord office of Caring Companion Connections.

The event in Bedford is sponsored by the Bedford Council on Aging

The event in Concord is sponsored by Concord-Carlisle Adult & Community Education
and will be recorded for future broadcast. CCC’s speaker fee will be donated to the
MinuteMan Senior Services Meals-On-Wheels program.

Caring Companion Connections will present this talk on Thursday, May 13, 2010 from 7-8:30 PM at the Concord Carlisle-Cable TV Studio at Concord-Carlisle High School. It will be recorded for future broadcast.  Hope you can be there! (Our speaker's fee will be donated to the MinuteMan Senior Services Meals-On-Wheels program).

Aging, Disability & New Technologies: Real Hype or Real Help?

Safety alert technology. Online communication services. Remote medical sensors. There are so many devices to help us monitor our health and communicate. And new ones on the way.

Are you confused about the new technologies to help senior citizens, the disabled and their caregivers? Some are truly beneficial to elders, the disabled, their families and caregivers, while others are mere gadgets or toys that aren't a good value. We will help you separate the real hype from the real help, allowing wiser choices in this bewildering, rapidly expanding marketplace. We will review some of the high tech tools on the market, highlighting ones we think have the ability to help you stay connected, happy, safe and healthy. Included will be remote medical monitoring devices, safety alert technology, and consumer technology customized for seniors and the disabled. You will come away better able to assess new technologies for yourself.

To Register: Call 978-318-1540 or register online for Course Number #4321 here: http://www.ace.colonial.net. Fee: $10 donation. Location: 500 Walden Street, Concord (enter the front left door where glowing Adult Education sign is showing).  This event is sponsored by Concord-Carlisle Adult & Community Education.

Presenters: Jim Reynolds has been a National Practice Leader for IBM in the area of mobile and wireless technology. His family has owned and run the largest private-pay home care agencies in Florida and Kansas since 1992. Continuing the family business, he is the owner of Caring Companion Connections in Concord.

Deborah Bier, PhD, has been a health care educator, author, and wellness coach for 20 years. She holds a doctorate in counseling and has helped hundreds of individuals and families to live better with chronic illness and disability. She is the director of the Concord office of Caring Companion Connections.

Friends of Lincoln (MA) Council on Aging  are hosting a 2010 Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon. The Lincoln COA conducts many helpful programs for seniors and is active in this area.

CCC recently gave a talk there on ways that technology can part of the solution to keeping people safe and comfortable in their own home's longer and we found the audience attentive, knowledgeable, and engaged. And the staff is first rate.

The luncheon is April 29 at noon in Bemis Hall in Lincoln, MA.  We are looking forward to attending!

At a recent meeting with discharge planners, a nurse from Emerson Hospital in Concord emphasized the importance of an immediate response when she has a patient heading home and in need of care.

Caring Companion Connections is always staffed for immediate response, because we maintain additional staff capacity to meet immediate unanticipated needs in any given shift (for example, a caregiver who cannot work a shift due to a child's illness). So we can provide the response that discharge planners need within 24 hours, often less.

To allow time to make the best possible match of personality, temperament, skills, and client needs, our communications with families typically discuss a three-day response time.  However, when the  immediate need is a skilled, trained, well-managed caregiver to support client safety, meals, and ADL support, we can meet a discharge planner's requirements quickly, and then can begin to work with the family to seek the perfect match once the patient has returned to the home.

In short, whether you need an immediate response to keep a patient safe and secure at home, or a longer term match for a caring companion for a loved one, Caring Companion Connections will provide the quality service your patients and loved ones deserve.

(Caring Companion Connections  is a member of the Liberty Alzheimer's Partnership and we will be there Wednesday!  Please come introduce yourself to us if you attend.)

The Liberty Alzheimer’s Partnership presents a program on care options for seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease and related disorders.   “Navigating the Journey”  will be presented on April 7, 2010 at the Concord Council on Aging, 1276 Main Street in West Concord.  Registration and a light supper will begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by the presentation at 6:00 p.m.

Robert Larkin will be the keynote speaker for the event.  Mr. Larkin is President and founder of Senior Living Residences, one of New England’s first assisted living management and development companies.  Senior Living Residences specializes in service enriched assisted living and innovative Alzheimer’s care.  Additionally, Mr. Larkin will bring his own unique family perspective, having navigated this journey of dementia care in his personal life.

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We publish a periodic newsletter (available via snailmail and/or email) with articles about the work we do, aging in place technology, enhancing your or your loved ones' care at home, helping caregivers, hands-on caregiving, and all the other topics we talk about more extensively on this blog.  Download the current copy in Acrobat (PDF) format here, or click on the image at right.

Would you like to receive a copy via snailmail? Or send a copy to someone who prefers paper? Send the name and address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or phone us at 800 869-6418.

So often we hear from elders that food just doesn't taste as good as it did when they were younger.  And it's fairly well accepted now that as we age, we lose some of our sense of taste of food. Food tastes less sharp and bright, and  -- especially if we shun foods with excessive salt and sweeteners -- meals just don't taste like much.  This helps to contribute to nutritional deficiencies as food becomes less and less interesting to consume.

But is diminished ability to taste really the entire cause of food losing its savor for many of our older population?  Or is it that our customary food supply lacks flavor? I think it's probably some of both.

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