Ambulation and Preventing Falls

Ambulation

Ambulation (to walk about or move from place to place) helps to maintain muscle tone, muscle strength and range of motion. Range of motion requires energy and results in increased circulation and overall health so it's important to keep moving. Aging or living with a disease may decrease your ambulation and put you at greater risk of falling when you do decide to get up and move around. Falls often end in cuts, scrapes and bruises, but can sometimes be much more severe. It's important to understand the contributing factors to losing your balance and strategies on how to prevent falling in the first place.

Preventing Falls

Most serious falls occur in and around the home, but some simple precautions can help reduce your risk of falling.  For instance, make sure that handrails in stairways are securely fastened and that all rugs are secured to the floor with tacks, nonskid pads or double-sided tape.

Falling can lead to life-changing injuries and could result in having to give up some independence, but a brochure called “Preventing Falls at Home” can help. It offers these additional tips:

• Be sure that you can move safely in the bathroom area, and in and out of the tub or shower.

• Keep frequently used kitchen items, such as dishes and food, within easy reach.

• Place night-lights in hallways, bedrooms, bathrooms and stairways.

APFC Home Care is a team of highly educated experts devoted to providing our customers with the most comprehensive care possible. We offer free in-home assessments designed to discover the best possible plan of care for our clients that ensures family security and peace of mind. APFC Home Care is not a staffing agency or simply a referral service. We offer premium home health and personal care better than anyone because we consider our customers to be part of our family.

Also, you can contact the Eldercare Locator at (800) 677-1116 or visit http://www.eldercare.gov to order the “Preventing Falls at Home” brochure. The Eldercare Locator is a free, public service of the U.S. Administration on Aging and is administered by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a).

Technology Makes Caregiving Easier

Assistive Technology Devices

There are so many cool and unique ways for people to stay in contact with each other these days. The number of new devices and solutions that can help keep your loved ones safe and secure continues to grow. For instance, now families can use discrete wireless sensors in the home to track someone's daily routine and be alerted by phone, email or text message if there are any disruptions or the person being monitored leaves the home.  There are also several management systems on the market that can help keep track of and dispense medications at the appropriate times and dosages. The system can also alert a caregiver (wherever he/she may be) if the appropriate medication isn't being taken. These solutions (and many others we haven't mentioned) enables the elderly and disabled to remain independent through the incorporation of universal principles, telecare and other assistive technologies. Call us at APFC Home Care at +1.855.523.APFC if you're interested in learning more about assistive technologies and how we can help.

Using High-Tech Communication

There’s good news for older adults who want to learn more about e-mailing, using social media and text messaging. There’s a resource that can help introduce them to these technologies. A new brochure—“Staying Connected: Technology Options for Older Adults”—is available from the Eldercare Locator.

It is designed to help older adults learn about new methods for staying connected with family and friends. The brochure includes tips on using these communication tools, getting started as well as privacy and safety information. The Internet, cell phones and other new technologies enable people of all ages to communicate more quickly than ever before. While younger people are often seen as the “experts” with these new tools, many older adults utilize e-mail, social media and cell phones to communicate as well.

To receive a free copy of the brochure, call the Eldercare Locator at (800) 677-1116. A copy of the brochure can also be downloaded from the Resources section of http://www.eldercare.gov/ELDERCARE.NET/Public/Resources/Brochures/Index.aspx

APFC Home Care services the following New Jersey towns in Burlington and Camden Counties: Burlington, Chatsworth, Delran, Eastampton, Evesham, Hainesport, Lumberton, Maple Shade, Marlton, Mount Holly, Mount Laurel, Medford, Medford Lakes, Moorestown-Lenola, Pemberton, Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle, Westampton, Willingboro, Woodland,
Barrington, Berlin, Cherry Hill, Clementon, Gibbsboro, Haddonfield, Haddon Township, Laurel Springs, Lawnside, Lindenwold, Pine Hill, Somerdale, Stratford, Voorhees and Waterford.

Patient Safety Awareness Week - We Missed it!

It's not too late though..

Patient Safety Awareness Week is an annual education and awareness campaign for health care safety led by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). 

You can visit them at http://www.npsf.org/.

You can download educational resources for patients, families, and staff on their website by going to: http://www.npsf.org/?page=psaweduresources


You can also view the twiter archive on patient and family engagement by going to: http://www.npsf.org/?psawchat

A Perfect Family Circle, LLC - About Us

Hello, my name is Brett Summerville. I live in Medford Lakes with my wife Jen and our two children. If you've never been to our town before you are missing out because it's one of the best communities in the entire country! 

After working for large corporations in the IT industry for over two decades my wife and I decided that we would make a change that would lead us down a path of doing something that really matters to us. We are thankful every day that we chose to make that change and start a Home Health and Personal Care Services firm. It's been the most challenging thing we've ever done, but certainly the most rewarding.

For us there really is no greater endeavor in life than helping people when they can't help themselves. I'm not talking about luxury services. I'm talking about critical services that help people live a more dignified life like being able to live independently in their home without having to go into a nursing home or an assisted living facility.

We started A Perfect Family Circle, LLC (APFC) in response to the increasing need for dependable, high quality, comprehensive programs of care and services for the elderly and people with disabilities. Our company is owned and managed by us. Our mission since the beginning has been very simple. We provide the kind of care that we would give to our own family members. In order to do that, we first needed to build a family of caregivers that feel the same way we do. We don't provide typical personnel staffing services like others in our industry whose only concern is to match a caregiver with a client and receive a referral fee. As the owners of the business, we are active participants in every aspect of a client’s plan of care and take every step necessary to ensure that our clients are happy, safe and secure.

Please visit us at www.aperfectfamilycircle.com or call us at +1.855.523.APFC to learn more about our services. 

We hope that you will ultimately become part of the APFC family and it's our promise that you will never regret it!

Sincerely,

Jen and Brett Summerville

APFC Home Care is Open for Business!

Please visit us at www.aperfectfamilycircle.com or call us at +1.855.523.APFC to learn more!



We'll be posting to this blog page regularly so please don't forget to check us out. We'll be providing you with everything you need to know about home care services and living a more healthy lifestyle.