Resources For Families

• Community Resources
• Mobility (exercise, balance, driving and managing pain)
• Home Safety and Organization
• Personal Care (Dressing, hygiene)
• Perceptual Motor Skills
• Brain Function and Fitness
• Hope and Empowerment Skills
• Caregivers
• Additional Websites
• Resources Related to Specific Disabilities and Issues

Community Resources:

Santa Clara County Council on Aging: 1800-510-2020
http://santaclara.networkofcare.org/aging

San Mateo County Ties Line: 1800-675-8437
www.sanmateo.networkofcare.org/aging

Santa Cruz County:

• Senior Network Services 831-462-1433
• Senior Council of Santa Cruz 831-688-0400
• Network of care for all counties in California:

Therapy In Your Home (Contact us),

Pediatric clients: Also see resources above under Pediatric Services and Your Child

(All information current as of 2008. Please let email us if you find one of these resources is out of date)

Mobility (exercise, balance, driving and managing pain)

Thoughts:

• Those who think they have no time for exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness" -Edward Stanley
• Objects at rest tend to stay at rest - Newton's Law

• Barriers to pain management
• Borg Perceived exertion Scale
• How to improve my balance?
• Driving (see resources)
• Physical Exercise: What kind and how much?
• Falls Manual from Alameda County

Home Safety and Organization Resources

Your environment can work with you or against you. Find what you need to adapt your home.
Call Therapy In Your Home for ideas at 408-358-0201.

Adaptive equipment Resources:

• www.Abedata.com 800-227-0216 (calling can be more useful)
• www.ablepeoplefoundation.org local organization for used adaptive equipment
• www.ATNET.org (focused on assistive technology)
• www.Alimed.com
• http://www.ncmedical.com/ (in Gilroy)
• www.sammonspreston.com
• http://www.healthcraftproducts.com/bathsafety.htm
• Disability Resource Directory - Assistive and Adaptive Technology:
  http://www.disability-resource.com/assistive-technology.html
• http://www.agingtech.org/ The Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) is leading the charge to expedite the development, evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies that can improve the aging experience.
• Adapted Telephones: http://www.ddtp.org/CTAP/services_and_equipment/products.asp

Home Modification Ideas:

• Speaking with a remodeling expert
• Universal Design Concepts outlined
• Concrete Change http://www.concretechange.org/
• Environmental Geriatrics http://www.environmentalgeriatrics.org/

Organization & Clutter Management

• http://www.childrenofhoarders.com/bindex.php
• National organization of professional organizers: http://www.napo.net/ and find one with this specialty

Personal Care (Dressing, hygiene)

• Adapted clothing: do a web search or call Therapy In Your Home for items such as backless pants, side open pants, velcro shirts and bibs that look like vests.

Perceptual Motor Skills Resources

• Assessment of visual problems (in students, applies to adults too)

Brain Function & Fitness

• Brain Health – notes from Dr. Cohen's book
• Remember Better – Article from Wired Magazine

Hope and Empowerment Skills

Empowerment in your health care and life:

• TALK to and LISTEN to the people you care about until you are comfortable with the issues and ideas expressed below. They may have to make a decision for you if you can't speak for yourself. And you may have to speak for them! (Resources to help you are below)
• Speak up when your doctor offers you a procedure or a medication and talk about the benefits and burdens it may cause. (Communication and your Health Care Team)

• Books to read:
  • My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing by Dennis McCullough
  • Jane Brodys Guide to the Great Beyond, Jane Brody
  • Handbook for Mortals by Dianne Lynn (available online for free)
  • Take This Book to the Hospital With You by Charles B. Inlander, Ed Weiner
• Websites:
  • CodaAlliance.org has many resources for helping individuals and their families plan and prepare for the concluding passages of life. See the list of resources.
  • GoWish.org is an interactive online card game to facilitate communication about goals of care. You can save and change your answers.
• Forms & Lists:
  • POLST (Physician's orders for Life Sustaining Treatment) can help direct emergency medical services and other providers to follow your wishes. For more information or to download information go to http://www.finalchoices.calhealth.org/polst-consumers.html
  • Choosing an Agent to speak for you if you can't
  • "Listening Questions" to help you get started on a difficult conversation

Empowerment in working with the medical system

• Medicarerights.org, MRC, is the largest independent source of healthcare information and assistance in the United States for people with Medicare. MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable healthcare.
• Resources for picking a hospital and getting prepared to go
• Hospital Compare website: calhospitalcompare.org
• Preparation Checklist: http://www.calhospitalcompare.org/Resources-and-Tools/Your-Hospital-Stay/Preparation-Checklist.aspx
• Tips for Picking a Hospital & Resources for working with nursing homes
  • http://www.edenalt.org/ : The Eden Alternative is seeking to remake the experience of aging around the world. The bulk of their work to date has been in de-institutionalizing the culture and environment of today's nursing homes and other long term care institutions.
  • http://www.growcoalition.org/talking.html: Grow Coalition stands for "Getting Residents Out of Wheelchairs. Please see
    A) Wheel chair Assessment Form and
    B) Flow chart of events when someone is admitted to a skilled nursing facility. http://www.nccnhr.org/: National consumer voice for quality long term care.

Empowerment in keeping a positive attitude, maintaining hope, staying balanced...

• Ways to meet the religious needs of a person who is homebound
• Caregiver's Quiz
• Maintaining a positive attitude

Caregivers (family and privately hired)

• See the resources above which may apply to you too.
• Family Caregiving 101 has many useful suggestions: http://www.familycaregiving101.org/
• Work Family Balance Guidelines from EEOC (reprinted from an online magazine)
• Caregiver assessment questionnaire: How are you holding up?
• Training Videos for caregivers: http://www.videocaregiving.org/
• Hiring help at home
  • www.privatedutyhomecare.org for information about hiring people at home. See the pages "Position Paper on Consumer Risks."
  • FamilyCaregiverAlliance.org is the page for Family Caregiver Alliance (caregiver.org), fact sheet on hiring in home help.
• http://www.helpguide.org/life/exercise.htm
• http://www.helpguide.org/life/senior_fitness_sports.htm

Communicating with people who can't communicate well

• See ideas under "Empowerment in Making Health Care and Life Planning Decisions," above
• 40 Things I Needed the Most (Jill Bolte Taylor's comments after her stroke)
• Tips for working with people with memory deficits: see Alzhiemers Association Website

Staying in touch with others when you can't get out:

• Senior Center Without Walls is a telephone program designed for you:
  http://www.seniorcenterwithoutwalls.org/
• Paula Span's Blog: http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/

Additional Websites

• http://DisabilityInfo.gov has information on a range of services and philosophies: click on community living, employment, transportation, recreation etc. Enter specific words in the search box.

• http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/ot/connect/index.asp. This is a page put together by OT students and as of 2008 was very comprehensive with a focus on a) limitations and impairments and b) participation and activities.

• http://www.medal.org/visitor/login.aspx: This page lists many tests available. Check for balance, vision, cognition, etc. You will need to be a member.

Resources Related to Specific Disabilities and Issues

Stroke:

• Assessment of visual problems (in students, applies to adults too)
• 40 Things I Needed the Most (Jill Bolte Taylor's comments after her stroke)
• Video of Jill Bolte Taylor speaking (neurologist who had a stroke)

Alzheimer and Dementia

• A free webcast to help with Dementia behaviors.: http://www.poststat.net/rightathome/pub.59/issue.927/article.3850/
• Training video for caregivers: http://www.videocaregiving.org/

Safe Driving

Safe Driving information.

• From the American Medical Association: Start at American Medical Association, type into the search box "Counseling the older driver" and you will find a wealth of information on specific diagnoises and medications and more. This link may get your directly there:
  http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/10791.html .
• Roadwise Review is a CD from the AAA. You can test your driving skills from your own computer. Go to http://www.aaapublicaffairs.com/Main/Default.asp?SectionID=&SubCategoryID=38&CategoryID=3&ContentID=315& or do a search for Roadwise Review.
• Other websites: AAA, AARP, Alzheimers Association.