Category 'Pain Management'

Check Out Recent Home Care Industry News

by Rita Ude on May 22, 2012 0 Comments

The June edition of the Caring Right at Home e-newsletter contains information, advice and support for adult caregiving.

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Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis

by Rita Ude on April 03, 2012 0 Comments

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic form of arthritis. Although it usually occurs in middle age, its onset also can occur in the elderly.

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What Is Palliative Care?

by Rita Ude on March 20, 2012 0 Comments

Many people associate palliative care with end-of-life hospice care, but palliative care is offered at any stage of disease and can supplement curative treatment.

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House Calls Are Making a Comeback

by Rita Ude on January 31, 2012 9 Comments

A new federal program called the Independence at Home Demonstration will test the effectiveness of providing healthcare to thousands of chronically ill Medicare patients in their own homes, allowing them to remain there instead of potentially entering long-term care facilities.

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Drug Reactions in Older Adults

by Rita Ude on January 17, 2012 7 Comments

Medications help prevent and treat illness and disease, but increasingly among seniors, certain medications are causing adverse drug reactions.

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Study-Exercise Eases Arthritis Pain & Improves Physical Function- Yorkville, Illinois

by Kathy Wetters on January 25, 2011 0 Comments

A study by researchers in the West Virginia University School of Medicine (http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that exercise improves pain and physical function in adults with arthritis and other rheumatic diseases.

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Patient Wishes and Cancer Care in Woodstock, Illinois

by Kathy Wetters on January 02, 2011 0 Comments

Critical need for patients to be informed earlier about the course of an illness and the range of options available including hospice and palliative care. Dartmouth Atlas Project shows individuals in some areas of the country are far less likely to receive comfort care in accordance with their wishes.

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Tackling a difficult job with a smile

by Kathy Wetters on December 01, 2010 0 Comments

An unusually warm November day ended up being a good day for Linda Ranahan, a nurse with Hospice and Palliative Care of Northeastern Illinois. If fact, bad days don't occur as much as people think, she said. "Every day when I go into a patient's home, you never know what you're going to find," Ranahan said. "It could be a good day, it could be a bad day."

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Family Caregivers Can Overcome the Challenges of Chronic Pain; New Resource Helps Meet Challenges of Caring for Loved Ones with Chronic Pain

by Kathy Wetters on September 18, 2010 0 Comments

The National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) has teamed up with the national pain management education program, Partners Against Pain, and advocate and author Lee Woodruff to create the new Caregiver Cornerstones resource. Caregiver Cornerstones provides information, encouragement, and tools to help family caregivers meet the unique challenges of caring for loved ones suffering from chronic pain, such as making sure your loved one receives appropriate assessment and treatment of their pain. Experts estimate pain affects 76 million Americans, more people than diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer combined. Pain can interfere with daily routine activities and those affected may need help from family and friends. Unfortunately, there has been little information and few resources available to help family caregivers cope with these problems - until now. The four Caregiver Cornerstones are:

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At the End of Life,They Offer Comfort

by Kathy Wetters on September 17, 2010 0 Comments

EVERY MORNING, CHRISSY Gresham rests her hand on the list of people she'll be visiting and whispers a prayer. "Please, God," she says,"let me touch the lives of the patients and families I see today." She doesn't have much time to touch those lives either. Gresham, 31, is a hospice nurse, which means that all of her patients are going to die, and soon. Her job is to help them do so comfortably and with as much dignity as possible. "In the hospital, it's always fight , fight , fight to keep people going," she says. But after six years on a neurosurgical ward, Gresham thought that fight often seemed only to extend pain-wracked lives for a few more miserable days or weeks in a sterile, unfamiliar place. Her goal for her patients now? "A peaceful death at home, surrounded by the people they love," she says. "I was called to do this. I truly believe that." She was called to the ever-expanding field of compassionate care. In 2008, an estimated 1.45 million Americans were treated in 4850 hospice programs--up from only 25,000 patients in 1982, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), which estimates that nearly 40% of U.S. deaths in 2008 were in a hospice setting, usually at home. And as Baby Boomers age, "the demographics are going to explode ," says Naomi Naierman, president and CEO of the American Hospice Foundation (AHF).

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