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Travel tips for adults with special needs

From our Care Blog

We're in the dog days of summer, and while school starts soon in some locations, others plan to vacation in August due to lower rates at certain resorts and locales. In any case, traveling is a challenge whether you or your loved ones have physical, mental or other special needs. FirstLight Home Care offers needed solutions to your travel concerns. If someone you care for has special needs, mobility or other travel obstacles to overcome, FirstLight Home Care offers assistance with an option called the Travel Companion Services Program. A FirstLight Travel Companion can be engaged to help with almost...

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Benefits of Walking: Walk Your Way To a Better You

From our Care Blog

I have long ago passed the point in my life where I can jog. Two ACL surgeries have left my arthritic knees unable to take the impact. I don’t live anywhere near a swimming pool and I am too hyperactive to do yoga. Spin classes give me a headache just thinking about it. And because I am a work-a-holic who works out of my house, I need to get out and about for my own sanity and the sanity of my family. I have a million excuses NOT to exercise. “I’m too busy” is my favorite. “It’s too hot outside”...

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Family: Traveling with your Aging Parents

From our Care Blog

Summer travel is in full swing. If you are like any families across the United States, your traveling and your trip mate might include traveling with a senior. They may not be as mobile without a wheelchair, or they may have a specific health condition such as Alzheimer’s disease or heart problems that may require you take the lead, not only as the tour guide, but as the caregiver. This may make your vacation much more complex, regardless of whether you’re traveling by plane, cruise ship or your own family car. We spoke with Nurse Gina and she put together...

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How Dogs Can Positively Impact The Elderly

From our Care Blog

When my Mom turned 60-years-old, I asked her what she wanted for this special birthday. I figured maybe she would want a trip or have all the kids and grandkids fly home. Her answer floored me: a dog. My Mom and Dad had dogs when they were children, but I was allergic to pets.  It had been 40 years since my parents had a dog, and I was a little afraid whether it would be too overwhelming for them. After all, dogs require a lot of attention, love and training. Would my Dad really want to get up and walk...

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It Takes a Village

From our Care Blog

Molly Rowe – Owner, FirstLight Home Care of Salem, MA Guilt, I’m discovering, is a huge part of this aging thing. Our parent feels guilt for putting us out, frets about being a burden, worries about picking up the phone to ask for help. We the adult children question our decisions, second-guess our actions, and feel guilt for all we can’t do. I feel similar guilt with my preschool-aged children—worrying about their school, wondering if I’m reading enough books, stressing because they like only one vegetable. But with young children, it’s ok—even expected—to ask for help. You hire a babysitter...

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Opening The Conversation on Care

From our Care Blog

Molly Rowe owns FirstLight Home Care of Salem, MA with her husband, Steve, and lives in Swampscott with their two sons. A few weeks ago, I wrote about our regrets related to my father-in-law in the last few years of his life. Since then, I’ve heard many stories from people who’ve shared similar experiences caring for an aging parent or loved one. Every story is different of course, but there’s one sentence I keep hearing over and over: “Looking back, we should have had help.” It’s mind-boggling to me, really, that we are all in this “caring for our parent”...

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Living a Purpose-Filled Life At Any Age

From our Care Blog

Molly Rowe owns FirstLight Home Care of Salem, MA with her husband, Steve, and lives in Swampscott with their two sons. Molly Rowe - Owner, FirstLight Home Care of Salem, MA Of all the things that baffled us about our dad’s (my dad-in-law’s) behavior in the last few years of his life, there’s one thing that stands out most of all. It wasn’t that he started freezing all his food (including his butter) or sleeping in a chair every night. It was that he stopped doing crossword puzzles. Crossword puzzles were a mainstay in his house after his wife died...

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Conversations We Wish We’d Had

From our Care Blog

Molly Rowe owns FirstLight Home Care of Salem, MA with her husband, Steve, and lives in Swampscott with their two sons. About a year ago last summer, my husband, his siblings, and I sat around our kitchen table having the conversation we’d long avoided—how to care for Dad. Like most people who end up sitting at this table, we had a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. We Googled things like home care and visiting nurses, debated how to take his driver’s license away, and fretted about how we’d bring it up to him. Little did we...

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Traveling With Seniors

From our Care Blog

A few weeks ago my 80-plus year old parents told us “kids” that they were going to take a trip to see my mom’s sister in Seattle and that they are going to be staying with her for a few weeks. This would require a plane ride with a change of planes in Denver (unfortunately no direct flights from here), a car rental scenario, and a group of adult children worried for the safety and wellbeing of them. They are taking this trip next month, so we’ve been helping them get ready and organized to go on their vacation. This...

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The Perfect Gift For Father's Day

From our Care Blog

It’s that time of year when sons and daughters flock to buy Hallmark cards for their dad and try and find the perfect gift. Maybe you’re thinking about a shirt, but that will probably just add to the unworn selection already in his closet. Or maybe you’re considering golf balls, because you know how many he loses in his zest to lower his handicap. You're probably thinking "if he wants something he goes and buys it" or "he has everything he needs". Do you remember what you got your Dad for Father’s day last year? Chances are he doesn’t either....

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