January 2014 Empty Nest

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Empty Nest

January Special Section

Empty Nest NorthFulton.com | January 2014

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Ask Pam »

Your Expert in Senior Home Care Since 2006 Q; My wife and I spent more time than usual with my parents over the Holidays and they need extra help. They aren’t ready for an assisted living yet but cannot be left home alone.

Can Senior Helpers keep my parents safe at home?

Pam; Yes! We help many families who are in your same situation; Mom and Dad aren’t ready for a move quite yet but living at home without help isn’t safe. Often times it is best to start off with just a few hours a few times a week and adjusting this as their needs

• Alzheimer and Dementia Care • Transportation and Errands • Bathing, Dressing and Light Housekeeping • Fall Risk Care • Caregivers Available from 1 hr./day to 24/7 and Live-in

change. The wonderful thing about our care is that it is flexible and can change with your parents!

Senior Helpers of Alpharetta is a Family Owned & Managed Company that has been helping families since 2006.

• Assisted Living Placement Assistance • Custom and Flexible Schedules • Transition Care • Short and Long Term • Family Owned and Operated

Senior Helpers: Matt Fredenberg, Elizabeth Jackson, Pam Hodgson, Hutch Hodgson

770.442.2154 Your Local Senior Care Expert.

Senior Helpers is your Hometown solution for Private Home Care and Transportation.

Senior Helpers has specially trained Caregivers (Certified Nursing Assistants mostly) that can provide care anywhere from one hour a day to live-in and 24/7. Senior Helpers is Licensed in the State of Georgia and all employees are bonded/ licensed and insured and have passed all background checks.

Call Senior Helpers today to learn more about caring for an elderly parent or loved one.

770-442-2154. Or visit Senior Helpers online at www.seniorhelpers.com/ northatlanta

Interviewing Veterans-Enriching For Every Generation (NAPSI)—More and more Americans are looking forward to the holidays—and other occasions—as a way to look back.

That’s because they’re seizing the opportunity to interview some of the older members of their family, preserving the insights and highlights of their lives.

Making this especially meaningful—and simple—is the Veterans History Project (VHP) of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, nearly 22 million war veterans currently reside in the United States. Each one has a unique story to share, if only someone would ask.

During this holiday season and beyond, VHP asks volunteers, including students in grades 10 or higher, to record veterans’ interviews or to submit veterans’ original wartime photos, diaries, correspondence and other documents, which will be preserved at the Library of Congress for posterity.

The Project’s congressional mandate is to collect, preserve and make accessible the wartime stories of America’s veterans who served during World War I and through the recent conflicts. The goal is for future generations to hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.

VHP holds nearly 89,000 collections, of which over 12,500 are digitized and fully acces-

sible through its website, www. loc.gov/vets.

Veterans Benefit “As a veteran, I understand how important it is to share your experiences and preserve them for generations to come.

Veterans who participate in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project have the opportunity to share their stories in their own words, in their own way,” said Bob Patrick, project director.

Students Benefit Educators agree that not only does participating in the VHP process help create a lasting legacy for each veteran, it also provides an opportunity for students to experience history up close and personal—a lesson they won’t soon forget.

“Our students have the opportunity to leave their classrooms, go out into the community and hear firsthand accounts of combat and life during wartime from the people who actually made that history. Talk about bringing history alive!” said Eileen Hurst of Central Connecticut State University.

To find out how to participate in this national preservation effort, visit www.loc.gov/vets. From there, you can search a database of veterans’ stories, watch a 15-minute instructional video and download a field kit, a how-to-record-a-story booklet.

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January 2014

Personal Care Community the way it used to be »

One inclusive fee, no levels of care and a 2 year rent guarantee!

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Finding the right mix of “peace of mind” and economic value for the services rendered to a frail loved one can be a difficult situation To avoid surprise expenses it is imperative that families carefully explore all options available.

This can seem to be a daunting task but in the end the security of knowing your care choice is one that you can feel good about long term is worth the extra effort.

A move can be hard on an aging loved one; every effort made to assure it is a positive long term decision will be worth it.

Hearthstone Personal Care Community prides itself on easing this process by providing peace of mind and financial certainty for our families thru transparency of care at one simple all inclusive rate.

From the time that you enter our doors, you will feel

the warmth and compassion that is an integral part of daily life here. Our team values each person’s individuality and his or her personal needs with the respect that each person deserves.

We work to enhance the life

of each individual producing comfort and security.

Come for a tour of our cozy, tranquil assisted living community located in the heart of Roswell. We are a small 24 suite property providing the utmost in personal care and at-

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tention for your loved one and all for one low monthly fee of $ 2595 with only the addition of Supportive Care for residents requiring assistance with incontinence issues. Come home to peace of mind, come home to Hearthstone.

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Intimate personal care home community in the heart of Roswell with a ranch style home-like setting and 24 personalized suites.

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Come Home to Hearthstone

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Milan Eye Center chosen to be the first to use the Ziemer Laser Milan Eye Center is excited to announce that we have been chosen to be the first practice in the United States to use the Ziemer Laser for Bladeless Cataract Surgery. This exciting news comes right after Ziemer’s new laser was cleared by the FDA to be used in cataract surgery.

Cataracts are the natural clouding of the lens in the eye. As we age, proteins in the lens of the eye become altered and lose their transparency.

Symptoms that cataract patients generally describe include blurred vision, seeing

halos or starbursts at night, difficulty reading, needing more and more light to read and frequent changes in their glasses prescription.

Fortunately, removing cataracts has become a safe, effective procedure that our surgeons can perform in an outpatient setting. Indeed, cataract surgery is the most common outpatient surgery performed in the US. Traditionally, cataract surgery is performed with a blade in order to make the initial incisions for entry into the eye.

Blades are also used to correct

any astigmatism in the cornea of the eye during surgery.

Thereafter, the surgeon uses ultrasound waves in order to break down the cataract into small pieces. The pieces are then removed by a specialized vacuum device. Thereafter, an artificial implant is inserted in the eye restoring vision.

Now, Atlanta residents have the option to have a safer, quicker and more precise way of removing cataracts by utilizing our new Bladeless laser procedure. The procedure is quick and precise because of the accuracy of the Ziemer

Femto LDV laser. The Femto LDV scans the entire eye and provides real-time imaging of the eye.

This allows the doctors to determine the exact thickness and location of the cataract and to project a grid of precise coordinates for every single laser pulse that will be emitted during the procedure. This technology allows each procedure to be specifically tailored to patient anatomy resulting in better outcomes.

The laser is an FDA approved device with proven safety and efficacy.

One of the reasons why Ziemer chose Milan Eye Center as the first practice to offer their Bladeless Cataract Surgery is because Drs. Milan Patel’s and Niraj Desai’s exceptional reputation as leading eye surgeons is not only known here in Atlanta, but across the US. Ziemer also noticed that not only is our practice constantly at the forefront of the latest techniques and procedures, but we also provide a friendly, personalized, family-like atmosphere for our patients.

Milan Eye Center has two convenient locations north of Atlanta: Johns Creek and Cumming.

Our locations are ideal for those living in other nearby locations such as Alpharetta, Cumming, Milton, Duluth, Suwanee, Buford, Dahlonega, Dawsonville, Roswell, Norcross, Gwinnett, as well as Johns Creek. Milan Eye Center is a premier ophthalmology practice and is affiliated

with Atlanta’s finest hospitals including Northside Forsyth Hospital and Emory Johns Creek Hospital.

First in US to use the Ziemer Z6 for Laser Cataract Surgery No Blades are necessary for the procedure with Laser Cataract Surgery With the laser, surgeries are safer, quicker, and more precise This new technology allows each procedure to be tailored to each patient’s anatomy resulting in better outcomes.

Performed by Drs. Niraj Desai and Milan Patel, who have extensive experience with cataract surgery.

Understanding Medicare

By PATRICIA SMITH (NAPSI)—During Medicare’s annual open enrollment period, which ends December 7, millions of Medicare beneficiaries must decide on their Medicare Advantage (MA) health plan for the coming year. While many factors go into deciding about a plan—cost, choice of doctors, benefits—there’s one important question Medicare beneficiaries should ask: What is the quality rating of the plans I’m considering?

A high rating means better health care and the best value for your money. Medicare uses a system called Star Ratings.

Plans receive a rating of up to five stars. These ratings are based on things like how well the plan does at keeping people healthy by making sure they get the treatments, tests and vaccines they need to prevent illness, how quickly you can get an appointment and see

specialists, and how the plan responds to your complaints and concerns.

For 2014, over a third of MA plans will receive four or more stars, which is an increase from 28 percent in 2013. Seven of the 11 MA plans earning five stars this year are members of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, an organization representing the nation’s leading health plans.

You can learn more about MA plans—and their quality ratings—using the Medicare Plan Finder at www.Medicare. gov. MA plans are called “Medicare Health Plans” in the Plan Finder.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance also evaluates quality in MA plans; those rankings can be found at www. ncqa.org.

Ms. Smith is president and CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, www.achp.org.

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January 2014

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Untreated hearing loss tied to lower earning potential Maximizing one’s ability to hear well should be part of any smart career strategy. Individual performance in an organization is found to be directly related to listening ability or perceived listening effectiveness. In fact, listening is one of the top skills employers seek in entrylevel employees and in those being promoted.

hearing loss and earnings. The national survey, entitled “The efficacy of hearing aids in achieving compensation equity in the workplace,” clearly demonstrates that hearing loss has a significant impact on people’s ability to earn a livelihood. The study underscores how critically important it is for workers to treat hearing loss early in order to maximize their job performance and earning People who both hear and listen well are also more potential. likely to establish positive working relationships with bosses, clients, and colleagues.

According to Sergei Kochkin, PhD, author of the study: “The real tragedy in delaying hearing loss treatment is An alarming new study by the Better Hearing Institute that when left unaddressed, hearing loss negatively af(BHI) reveals a direct correlation between unaddressed fects individuals and their families for the rest of their

lives in the form of lost wages, lost promotions, lost opportunities, lost retirement income, and unrealized dreams. But when people with even mild hearing loss use hearing aids, they improve their job performance, increase their earning potential, enhance their communication skills, improve their professional and interpersonal relationships, stave off depression, and improve their quality of life.”

The links between hearing loss and dementia

Seniors who have untreated hearing loss may be at an increased risk for developing dementia, a loss of brain function that can affect memory, thinking, language, judgment and behavior. This is the finding of a study conducted by researchers from the Division of Otology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

How might hearing loss and dementia be connected?

Investigators aren’t sure, but they think a common pathology may underlie both conditions, or possibly the strain of decoding sounds over the years may overwhelm the brains of people with hearing loss, leaving them more vulnerable to dementia.

The study included 639 people whose hearing and cognitive abilities were tested over a period of time, starting in 1990 and concluding in 2008. Researchers found that study participants who had hearing loss at the beginning of the study were significantly more likely to develop dementia by the end of the study.

The article concludes that, whatever the cause, these findings may offer a starting point for further research as to whether interventions, even as simple as hearing aids, could delay or prevent dementia by improving patients’ hearing.

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www.miracle-ear-alpharetta.com • 770-504-6305 †Our hearing test and video otoscopic inspection are always free. Hearing test is an audiometric test to determine proper amplification needs only. These are not medical exams or diagnoses nor are they intended to replace a physician’s care. If you suspect a medical problem, please seek treatment from your doctor. *3-year limited warranty on most hearing aids. Audiotone® Pro excluded. See store for details. ††If you are not completely satisfied, the aids may be returned for a full refund within <xx> days of the completion of fitting, in satisfactory condition. Fitting fees may apply. See store for details.

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