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August 2021

Aug 30
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A caregiver holds an elderly woman's hand

Ten Warning Signs Your Older Family Member May Need Help

By Featured News, Help-at-Home, Meals-on-Wheels, SixtyPLUS

Changes in physical and mental abilities that may occur with age can be difficult to detect — for older adults and their family members, friends, and caregivers too. Certain behaviors may indicate the need for loved ones to take action. Here are 10 warning signs that your loved one who is an older adult may need some help with living independently:

  • Your loved one has changed eating habits, resulting in losing weight, having no appetite, or missing meals.
  • They have neglected personal hygiene, including wearing dirty clothes and having body odor, bad breath, neglected nails and teeth, or sores on the skin.
  • They have neglected their home, with a noticeable change in cleanliness and sanitation.
  • They are unusually loud, quiet, paranoid, or agitated, or making phone calls at all hours.
  • Relationship patterns have changed, causing friends and neighbors to express concerns.
  • Physical problems, such as burns or injury marks that may result from general weakness, forgetfulness, or misuse of alcohol or prescribed medications.
  • Decreased or reduced participation in activities that were once important to them, such as bridge or a book club, dining with friends, or attending religious services.
  • Forgetfulness, resulting in unopened mail, piling of newspapers, not filling their prescriptions, or missing appointments.
  • Mishandling finances, such as not paying bills, losing money, paying bills twice or more, or hiding money.
  • They have been making unusual purchases, such as buying more than one subscription to the same magazine, entering an unusually large number of contests, or increasing purchases from television advertisements.

If the signs above are raising red flags, resources such as the Administration for Community Living’s Eldercare Locator may be of assistance. For more information about ACL, visit www.acl.gov.

LifeCare Alliance’s wellness, nutrition, and support programs may also help. To make a referral, click here and a member of our team can reach your loved one about services we can offer.

— Content provided by the Administration for Community Living

Aug 23
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A LifeCare Alliance employee loads a donated fan into a car at a Beat the Heat Fan Campaign distribution.

LifeCare Alliance a Community Resource During Central Ohio Summer Heat Wave

By Fan Campaign, Meals-on-Wheels, Press Releases

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Aug. 23, 2021) — With temperatures soaring into the 90s this week, LifeCare Alliance staff and volunteers are out in full force helping central Ohioans beat the heat.

FREE FAN DISTRIBUTION

LifeCare Alliance will be distributing free box fans on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021, at 670 Harmon Ave., Columbus, OH 43223, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. while supplies last. This service, which is powered by community donations of box fans all summer, is open to anyone who needs assistance cooling their homes.

Those interested in receiving a fan should bring their identification or proof of residency. The drive-through fan distribution is designed to meet social distancing recommendations for reduced risk of COVID-19 exposure.

For more information on LifeCare Alliance’s Beat the Heat Fan Campaign, please visit www.lifecarealliance.org/fans or call the Fan Hotline at 614-437-2870.

MEAL DELIVERIES DURING EXTREME HEAT

LifeCare Alliance serves Meals-on-Wheels in Franklin, Madison, Marion, Champaign, and Logan counties in Ohio. Volunteers and staff will be delivering meals in each of these areas during the hottest days of 2021.

“The dedication of our volunteers and staff is remarkable,” said Charles W. Gehring, President and CEO of LifeCare Alliance. “Especially during extreme heat or extreme cold, it is vital that we ensure our clients receive a nutritious meal each day. Our staff and volunteers help make sure that we are meeting the needs of some of the most vulnerable members of our community.”

Meals-on-Wheels deliveries are an essential part of LifeCare Alliance’s wellness, nutrition, and support services for seniors and people with medical challenges and disabilities. LifeCare Alliance is the largest Meals-on-Wheels provider in the Midwest, and the agency serves all who qualify with no waiting list. During this extreme heat, that can save lives.

ADVICE FOR FAMILY, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS

LifeCare Alliance urges central Ohioans to check in on their vulnerable loved ones during this time of extreme heat. Older adults and people with medical challenges are more susceptible to heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

Concerned about someone during this heat wave? You may be able to help by referring them to LifeCare Alliance’s customer service department. Please visit www.lifecarealliance.org/referral to begin the signup process or call 614-278-3130. A representative will reach out to them and assess their needs and eligibility for services. Concerned family members and neighbors may also serve as a proxy for homebound people needing a box fan. The person in need would send their proxy with their identification or proof of residency to pick up a fan for them. A fan can increase air flow and lower the temperature in a room by as much as 10 degrees.

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For more information:

Contact: Anthony Clemente
E-mail: aclemente@lifecarealliance.org

Aug 05
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Representatives from Marion Police Department and LifeCare Alliance

SixtyPLUS Update – Summer 2021

By Featured News, SixtyPLUS

Welcome, New Partners

The Marion Police Department is one of LifeCare Alliance’s newest partners in the SixtyPlus program! We’d like to welcome them and thank them for joining forces with our Agency to address important needs for seniors and people with medical challenges or disabilities in Marion.

Here’s what Officer BJ Gruber said about the new partnership:

“Marion PD chose to partner with LifeCare Alliance because the officers come into contact every day with people who have a host of different needs. In order to be more efficient it is important that they have partner like LifeCare Alliance throughout the community that they can connect with.”

Referral Training

As we continue in our efforts to increase partner referrals, we have developed a partner referral training!  Please email Fannisha Page at Fpage@lifecarealliance.org to register your department for the referral training. This can be done in person or via zoom!

Thank you, London Fire Department, for being the first to attend this training!

Let’s get Referring

Starting in August we are asking our current partners to send over data for any runs made on seniors 60 and older. We will take care of the rest!

Frailty Scale Data: What’s New

Since June 2020, LifeCare Alliance staff members have been administering the Home Care Frailty Scale (HCFS) to all new clients over the age of 60. The HCFS is a 30-point instrument used to evaluate the following six domains: function (e.g., ability to perform housework), movement, cognition and communication, social interaction, nutrition, and clinical diagnoses. The purpose of administering the HCFS is to collect data from clients that represent their current levels of frailty and their specific health needs. LifeCare Alliance staff members complete the HCFS with clients every three months in order to routinely monitor frailty levels and determine the extent to which LifeCare Alliance services help minimize the risk of worsening frailty.

Preliminary analyses (see figure below) of HCFS data have indicated that LifeCare Alliance services may play a key role in helping older adults maintain and/or improve their frailty levels over a three-month time period. HCFS data will continue to be routinely collected from clients and analyzed by the LifeCare Alliance team to examine trends in frailty levels among older clientele.

A full description of the HCFS can be found here.

Dr. Juckett will be presenting frailty data at the Gerontological Society of America conference in Phoenix this November. She has also submitted an abstract depicting LifeCare Alliance’s efforts implementing the Home Care Frailty Scale to the 2021 AcademyHealth Virtual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health.

Headshot of Dr. Lisa Juckett

Dr. Lisa Juckett

New to the team

Dr. Govind Hariharan will be serving as our health economist and will estimate the cost savings of LifeCare’s programs for local community agencies and the greater healthcare system.

Dr. Govind Hariharan specializes in the field of health economics and has multiple decades of experience as an award winning researcher, teacher and consultant. He is also the founder of NEO Advisory LLC, a policy and strategic and economic advisory firm.

Dr. Hariharan is often sought after as an advisor for his keen insights and has provided strategic advice on health care, technology, investments and global expansion to companies and governments. He serves or has served on many advisory boards including the American Diabetes Association, WellStar Institute for Better Health, as well as various health care related task forces in Georgia and New York. He has consulted for numerous organizations such as the World Bank, Council for Quality Growth, University of Texas- San Antonio and Life University.

Dr. Hariharan’s research is extensively cited, especially in the areas of health care, public policy and technology of older adults. He has taught or lectured around the world including major U.S., Chinese, Indian and Singaporean Universities. He has been interviewed or quoted in many media outlets including the Financial Times, Investors Daily, O Globo, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Money Talks and National Public Radio.

Dr. Govind Hariharan

This project was supported, in part by grant number 90INNU0016, from the Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.