Senior centers have been created and developed to specifically cater to the unique needs of aging individuals. It is important to find out the background and current programs offered to determine if they provide the right activities for seniors that will truly lead to long term benefits. Find a center that encourages independence for overall sense of well-being.

About the Senior Center

A senior center functions to aid aging individuals cope with their daily needs, as well as provide activities, entertainment and counseling for a renewed sense of well-being. There are several centers located throughout the United States. The first step to locating these would be to search your local phone book. There is a special section with pages for the community that includes all resources for senior citizens. Senior centers are most likely found in this section.

View the county or city web site for the community where you belong to. Several web sites include a specific section for aging individuals, complete with information regarding local resources. Find the regional and local area agency on aging. These groups contain a lot of information and helpful resources for seniors. Request for a complete list of centers found in your area or community.

Searching for the Place

Once you’ve receive the full list, you can hone down everything into 2 to 4 sources. Select these for further review and assessment. You can call the agency and arrange for a tour with the directors of the senior center. These individuals can present you all the facilities, physical properties and other equipments and events available to give seniors complete wellness. The directors and facilitators can provide you full details regarding the events and programs given for residents.

It is recommended that you consider location as a factor in choosing the right senior center. If you plan to leave your parent or grandparent there, it will be to your convenience if you live nearby. This way, you can pick up or visit the elderly more frequently.

Assessing the Available Services

Check the different programs available and compare the physical appearance of the choices you are considering. It is important that the place has all the right amenities that the senior citizen personally prefers. Ask the person to be confined about special requests and options that can help you narrow down your search. Also talk to some other people who are undergoing programs and services and allow them to list down the strengths and weaknesses. You can also talk to the directors and coordinators regarding your concerns, so they can immediately see if their objectives are at par with yours.

Reviewing

You can visit the official web site of the senior center to know more about the background, thrusts and patient testimonials. If they have a customer service support section, that is a good sign, as well as having an FAQ section. Review all the choices you have before finalizing. You may even ask the senior citizen to take a couple of sessions to help assess and decide.

If the elderly is suffering from a disease or disability, make sure that the center knows. They should have medical and health professionals ready to cater to every need, at any time. Accidents and emergencies should be attended to immediately through a prepared backup plan and ready-to-use equipment.

It will start with some small incident like forgetting the birthday of a colleague. Then you will start to forget the birthdays of people close to you. After that, it will be the turn of the directions to your favorite restaurant and then god forbid, you will forget your own keys inside your home. We all suffer from moments of forgetfulness but sometimes, things go worse that you find ways to make your memory better.

Although we are not all blessed with a photographic memory, there are ways to at least improve what we are given and make us a little less forgetful. This is especially true with people who are already growing older. As we age, the neurons in our brains also age. Some die while others perform slower than usual. This is why people who are older have faultier memories than their much younger counterparts.

But hey, as mentioned, there are ways to improve memory. Here are some of them:

1. Use visuals or sounds
Depending on what kind of learner you are, people can either use visuals and sounds to remember something. For instance, if you are trying to remember a to-do list, all you need to do is stare at the paper and you will be able to see in your mind the list. There are people however who need to hear the list of their to-dos before they can remember everything that they have to do. To find out which technique will work for you, try remembering how you memorize in school. Do you read the words silently or read them out loud?

2. Use associations
Our brains also need help when it comes to remembering things. The easier we make the remembering task for the brain, the better it will be able to remember the information. This is where associations come in. Associating information with things that we already know or things that we can see is a technique that has been utilized in improving memory. For instance, have you heard of mnemonics? When memorizing a set of words, we often take the first letter of that word and then form a sentence or words from those letters. Associating the word that we are trying to memorize with the first letter makes it easier for our brain.

3. Visualize it
Do you ever wonder why photographic memory is the term use for people with really excellent memory? This is because people who really memorize well or have great memories do not see one item or one information when committing them to memory. They see a picture of the words in group. For instance, a person with a grocery list will usually memorize the items one by one but people who learned to improve their memories will memorize it as a whole. They will look at the list and visualize it as a whole until they can see the list in their mind’s eye.

4. Eat right
Another important way to improve memory is to check what you eat. Your diet will factor a lot in your ability to memorize things. Eating nutritious foods will help your brain perform better and faster. This is especially true when eating known brain foods like tofu, milk and fish.

There are many ways to make your memory better but the most important thing is to commit to the task and promise to improve it no matter what.

Identifying Communication Problems

Lack of proper communication is one of the biggest hurdles in elderly care. It can lead to frustration in both the elder person and their caregiver. There are several reasons why communication become less effective with older people, but most of them are due to their reduced hearing capacity or inability to express their thoughts clearly. Since communication involves a clear exchange of information involving two parties, a gap exists when one of either parties fail to function.

Reduced communication skills are one of the results of aging, which is something that is beyond your control. However, your ability to identify the source of the problem will consequently determine the steps you need to take in order to resolve them. Solutions can be as simple as finding alternative means to communicate outside of verbal signals, or as intricate as medical treatment.

Cause of Communication Problems

There are various reasons why aging people lose their ability to communicate properly. Here are some of the most common reasons for them:

• Failing hearing – When people age, they undergo anatomical changes. Reduced hearing capacity is a natural effect involved with the natural aging process. When an elder lacks proper hearing capacity, they do not recognize when someone is talking nor understand clearly the information being relayed. There are hearing aids available nowadays to produce sharper sense of hearing for older people.

• Vision problems or failing eyesight – Another natural effect of again is failing eyesight. Therefore, older person have difficulty reading written communication. The effects of a failing eyesight can be reduced though using alternative communication devices such as eyeglasses.

• Effect of medications – This cause for communication problems is reversible. Taking medicines often produce adverse effects on the elders such that they become easily fatigued or confused. Therefore, they find it difficult to understand communicative patterns.

• Structural or neurological damage – This condition is often caused by other diseases such as brain lesions, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or strokes. Most of these conditions produce permanent results, there are a few coping mechanisms and strategies provided for patient so that they are able to communicate effectively.

Dealing with Proper Communication

If you are faced with communication problems involved in caring for the elderly, then it is important to figure out the proper method of dealing with such communication lapses. Below are a few principles you can apply:

• Understand the two-way process of communication. An effective communication involves a clear exchange of information between the speaker and hearer, therefore both have to cooperate in seeing results. It is both individual’s responsibility, not just one.

• Make some communication adjustments. When you notice that problems exist or that you are not communicating properly, take action. Adjust your communication pattern by first identifying where the source of problem is.

Non-Verbal Communication and Aids

Once you have determined the source of the communication problem, you can minimize their effects by enlisting the help of some devices and aids designed specifically to cater to better communication. Here are a few you can try if you’re having problems communicating when caring for an elderly:

• Eyeglasses and hearing aids: Is recommended for elders who are suffering from failing hearing and eyesight.

• Using writings or pictures instead of spoken communication: Doing this will help prevent create frustration on both parties, since the elderly person will be able to comprehend what you are trying to communicate without having to repeat yourself.

When To Get Help?

If you have done all the procedures indicated above and you are still having communication problems with elderly care, then it might be time to seek professional help. Asking for professional help must be done during the following circumstances:

• When an elderly person have difficulty speaking, understanding, or communicating as a whole.
• When an elderly person exhibits unusual sound of voice that is neither caused by cold nor flu.
• When their speech becomes incomprehensible.
• When they fail to respond clearly.