At some point in our lives, we all need some physical therapy, particularly as we age. The older we get, the more brittle our bones, the less flexible our muscles, and the more tenuous our balance becomes. In that case, the gentle, safe, restorative qualities of aquatic therapy exercises in the water can make all the difference between recovery and ongoing physical limitations and pain.

6 Benefits of Aquatic Therapy for Older Patients

There are many benefits to employing an aquatic physical therapy regime. Let’s consider the big ones:

1. The Effects of Buoyancy

Because we are lighter in water than in air, standing in water places less strain on our bones, muscles and connective tissue. Standing in shoulder-level water reduces effective weight by 90%. The reduction in the force of gravity is particularly helpful to patients who struggle with weight-bearing activities, such as those with joint pain, recent bone fractures, arthritis or excessive weight.

2. Increased Resistance

At the same time, water’s higher density provides more resistance to movement, allowing patients to build more strength and flexibility. Water provides natural and safe resistance, compared with free and pulleyed weights often used outside the water. The continuous exertion required for movement in water contributes to toning atrophied muscles by requiring the involvement of many more muscle fibers.

3. The Safety of Water

Patients unsteady on their feet cannot easily fall and get hurt. With water therapy, those who do lose their footing can be easily righted, where their effective weight is a fraction of that on land, thus reducing the risk of falls and injury. The psychological comfort of immersion in water boosts confidence and allows leery patients to enjoy their therapy.

Warm water provides pain relief, improves flexibility and soothes muscles by increasing the blood supply and promoting relaxation. Aquatic therapy is usually performed in pools at 92-96 degrees, a temperature range perfect for patients with chronic back pain and muscle spasms. The heat dilates blood vessels, improving circulation and removing lactic acid – the source of soreness.

4. The Wonders of Hydrostatic Pressure

By exerting pressure in all directions against the body when immersed, and conforming to the shape of the body, water forces the heart and lungs to work harder. A short workout in water, though gentler and safer, can improve cardiovascular health and have the therapeutic value of a longer workout outside the water.

Hydrostatic pressure also provides water with a massaging quality, by compressing aching muscles to reduce spasms and relieve chronic pain.

5. Water Facilitates Good Form

Because of its higher resistance, water slows everything down and allows the brain time to better process muscular movement. Slower, more cognitively-involved movement helps facilitate good technique through a full range of motion. Slower forms of exercises also protect joints from becoming injured.

6. Better Patient Compliance

Rehabbing in water is more fun than on land and less fraught with the perils of falling. Patients often look forward to aquatic therapy sessions and are willing to rehab for longer in water. This psychological element of an improved mood and reduced anxiety should not be discounted: a patient’s frame of mind is an important component of their progress

Nye Health Services – Aquatic Therapy in Fremont, NE

Nye Health Services has five communities in Eastern Nebraska, structured to meet the needs of their residents from independent living to skilled nursing, memory care, and now home care services. A family-owned company with a rich history of connecting with the people they serve, Nye Health Services is open for visits anytime. Call 402.753.1400 to schedule an appointment at locations in Fremont, Lincoln, Norfolk, or visit NyeHealthServices.com for more information.

While we don’t like to discuss it, most of us realize that our loved ones will require some type of care assistance as they enter the later stages of their life. If you’re one of millions of Americans with a parent who requires assistance, there is a lot you need to know. Although two-thirds of individuals in your situation use friends and family to look after their parents, another one-third choose to employ the services of professional care providers through home care organizations.

These will be the most critical points to consider when seeking care:

1. Assess Your Parent’s Situation

Before you can choose a home care solution for a parent, you need to consider their needs. Is their medical condition stable? Do they require skilled personal care? Merely companionship? These will help guide your decision.

It’s also important to consider your parent’s emotional, spiritual and cultural needs. If their primary language isn’t English, for example, you might want to find a bilingual caregiver. Your parent also may feel more comfortable with a care provider of the same sex, or someone who is culturally sensitive to their situation.

2. Home Care Helps with Personal Care

If your parent needs assistance with daily activities like bathing, dressing and using the bathroom, and other self-care activities, you may need a personal care assistant while you are at work or living hundreds of miles away. These services can be provided by home care companies or residential facilities that also provide home care services, such as Nye Health Services.

3. Home Care Helps with Household Tasks

Knowing that your parent is receiving help with household tasks like light housework, meal preparation and shopping can relieve you of the stress of wondering whether they can live independently in a safe and healthy home. It allows your parent to continue to live their life at home, but with assurance they will have meals and a clean, safe environment.

4. Home Care Provides Companion Services

For many elderly individuals who are mentally alert but physically limited, the greatest concern is isolation and loneliness. If your parents are homebound, or nearly so, this is a real concern. Companion services provided by organizations like Nye Health Services bring a friendly companion to your parent’s home to stay with them and provide assistance with non-medical issues, like light housework and basic support. This keeps mom or dad emotionally well and fends off depression – a problem for one in seven older adults in need of care.

5. Home Care Keeps Your Parent as Independent as Possible

Seniors often must relinquish control of their lives when they move to a skilled nursing facility, or nursing home. Aging in place, whether in the family home or in an elder community, allows them to maintain their freedom and live as independently as possible. Home care services make that possible.

6. Be Careful About Lower Costs for Individual Home Care

While the average cost for non-medical home care though an individual caregiver is typically 25% less up front than through a home care agency, your actual costs may be more, and you will have to do a lot of the work yourself. When you hire an individual directly, you are responsible for hiring and firing, background checks, taxes, and other responsibilities that fall on the family rather than on the agency.

Nye Health Services offers seven communities in Eastern Nebraska and Wyoming, structured to meet the needs of their residents from independent living to skilled nursing, memory care, and now home care services. A family-owned company with a rich history of connecting with the people they serve, Nye Health Services is open for visits anytime. Call 402.753.1400 to schedule an appointment at locations in Fremont, Lincoln, South Sioux City, Norfolk, or Jackson Hole, or visit NyeHealthServices.com for more information.

Following discharge from a hospital for injury, illness or surgery, you or a loved one may be in need of therapy to regain your ability to live as independently as possible. This therapy is designed to be a bridge to normal life, rather than a permanent part of life going forward.

For situations such as these, there is short-stay rehab, also known as post-acute rehab. Short-stay rehab is intensive rehabilitation conducted by a multi-disciplinary health care team that might include physical, occupational and speech therapists, along with physicians, nutritionists, nurses and others.

Short-term rehab can get you back on your feet better, faster and stronger. Here are six benefits of this option.

1. Short Stay

Most people are eager to leave health care institutions and return home as soon as possible. Because short-term rehab is intensive and focused on returning patients home, it can often be completed in four-to-six weeks.

2. Customized

Your multi-disciplinary team of health care professionals will design a treatment plan specifically focused on your particular health issues, with the express purpose of building enough strength and confidence to allow you to return home.

The most common therapies provided by short-stay rehab centers are physical, occupational and speech therapy. Physical therapy is generally focused on the lower body and helps patients regain their ability to walk or use mobility devices, build strength and master important daily physical activities like standing up and bending over.

Occupational therapy is generally focused on the upper body and helps patients regain their activities of daily living like brushing teeth, preparing meals and dressing.

Speech therapy aids with swallowing, drinking and speaking.

3. Comfortable

Because their goal is to restore you to normal life, short-stay rehab facilities feel more like living facilities than like hospitals. Residents wear their own clothing and can eat their own food, if they like. Many residents personalize their living spaces and have opportunities to interact with other residents more than in a hospital.

At Nye Health Services short-stay rehab facilities — like Nye Legacy and Nye Pointe in Fremont, Gateway Vista in Lincoln, and Regency Square in South Sioux City — various amenities afford culinary, entertainment and socialization opportunities. These include private dining rooms, a library, chapel, clubhouse, common areas and even conference rooms for those conducting business while they recover. Most campuses provide guest suites for overnight stays by visiting friends and family.

4. Covered by Insurance

Medicare covers up to 100 days of inpatient therapy for patients who have stayed overnight in the hospital for inpatient care, at least three of the last 30 days. Because short-stay rehab is often completed in less than half that time, there is little or no cost to the patient. This is contingent on a variety of considerations, including whether the patient is making progress. 

5. Advanced Equipment and Techniques 

In a short-stay rehab facility, you’re likely to find the most advanced rehabilitation equipment and techniques. In-home therapy is limited by circumstances, but in-patient therapy can offer specialized equipment and unique programs like pet therapy. 

Nye Health Services offers seven communities in Eastern Nebraska and Wyoming, structured to meet the needs of their residents from independent living to skilled nursing, memory care, and now home care services. A family-owned company with a rich history of connecting with the people they serve, Nye Health Services is open for visits anytime. Call 402.753.1400 to schedule an appointment at locations in Fremont, Lincoln, South Sioux City, Norfolk, or Jackson Hole, or visit https://nyehealthservices.com/ for more information. 

If someone close to you is one of the five million Americans suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, you know the pain of watching the mind of someone you love disappear.

For many people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, the best option is a memory care facility that can provide the high levels and specialized types of care your loved one needs. Memory care communities offer specific long-term care plans designed to meet the individual needs of those suffering from memory loss.

Questions to Ask a Memory Care Community

1. How Personal is Care?

Ask the community if staff members help memory care residents with mobility, communication, and activities of daily living like eating and dressing. You want to make sure the memory care community you’re considering is well-suited and specially trained to deliver the appropriate level of care your loved one needs now and the future needs that may arise.

2. What is the Cost of Memory Care Services?

Affordability is a key factor when deciding if a memory care community is right for you and your family. Inquire about the price of admission as well as services like meals and social activities. Determine what the bottom line is for your loved one’s stay. Once you do, you’ll be able to properly investigate what insurance will cover and what it won’t, and what the overall financial obligation will be.

3. What is the Staff to Resident Ratio?

Making sure your loved one enjoys their time in a memory care community is of paramount importance for everyone’s peace of mind, including the patient. A community must be adequately staffed to ensure they are capable of providing care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A good benchmark when reviewing a memory care facilities staff to resident ratio is a ratio of one caregiver for every six patients.

4. How Well is Staff Trained?

Is staff trained specifically to treat people with memory issues? Does ongoing training exist on the latest developments in the field? What about holistic treatment for the residents? While asking questions, observe. Is the atmosphere warm and caring? Are patients engaged? Look particularly for activities that serve as brain exercises.

5. What Security Measures are in Place?

Patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s are highly vulnerable to wandering away. To ensure the safety of residents, a memory care community needs to have doors that are locked at all times and a monitored surveillance system, at the very least. Memory care communities without these safety features and controls in place should not be considered.

Nye Health Services – Memory Care Norfolk, NE

Nye Health Services was established in 1989 on the philosophy that older adults deserve services that recognize the individual and are tailored to their unique needs. As a company, we do not aspire to be the largest, instead, we aim to uphold our mission by providing award-winning health services that make our residents feel genuinely cared for and connected while realizing life’s joy.

For more information about our Memory Care Services and to schedule a visit, please visit our Memory Care Services page or contact us directly. At The Meadows, we are dedicated to helping individuals live each moment to the fullest, fostering a sense of purpose and connection in their lives.

Finally, after a long winter and a spring of wild weather swings, summer is here — and it’s glorious, warm and green.

If you’re a senior living community resident, your neighborhood most likely provides a plethora of opportunities to get more active enjoying the outdoors. But as we age, we have to be careful about overdoing it in the heat. So here are seven of the many great options to consider for summer activities.

1. Hit the Pool

When the going gets hot, there’s no better time to head to the pool to cool off. Whether you’re swimming, floating or just sipping a cool one in a deck chair, the water is always there for a quick dip. You can swim laps if you’re up for the exercise, and as soon as you stop you can cool off. If you have mobility issues, a pool is a great place because the body’s buoyancy in water takes pressure off the muscles and joints.

2. Have a Picnic or Barbecue

Picnics and barbecues have been part of your life and there’s no reason to avoid them now. Most senior living communities organize these events, which feature friends and classic American food.

3. Enjoy the Sunrise and Sunset

Here’s something that is difficult to do other times of year because of the cold. But the cooler temperatures during summer in the mornings and evenings are a plus. Most senior living communities have picturesque meeting spots for viewing the sun’s ascent or descent. Gather some friends and bring a picnic basket to complete the scene.

4. Do Some Gardening

Many people of all ages love gardening because it is such a creative endeavor. It creates beauty for our eyes and noses, and deepens our connection with nature. It has the added benefit for seniors of bringing us outside without requiring excessive physical exertion.

5. Take a Field Trip  

Only your imagination can limit where you go during the summer — whether it’s a zoo, botanical gardens, an outdoor art show, sporting event, outdoor concert or whatever. The great thing is, many senior living communities organize a host of these events, so all you have to do is hop on the bus.

6. Explore a Farmers Market

Most communities host farmers markets during the summer, at which those strolling through can find fresh fruits and vegetables, other foods and often arts and crafts as well. There’s often music and other performers, street food and a general celebration atmosphere surrounding the farm stands. Grab some friends and explore all there is to offer.

There are so many more ideas you could explore, like fishing, playing golf, bird watching and so much more. Summer offers so many outdoor options that don’t require over-exertion. Just make sure to bring the sunscreen, water and a hat to protect yourself outside.

Nye Health Services offers seven communities in Eastern Nebraska and Wyoming, structured to meet the needs of their residents from independent living to skilled nursing, memory care, and now home care services. A family-owned company with a rich history of connecting with the people they serve, Nye Health Services is open for visits anytime. Call 402.753.1400 to schedule an appointment at locations in Fremont, Lincoln, South Sioux City, Norfolk, or Jackson Hole, or visit https://nyehealthservices.com/ for more information. 

Research is increasingly finding that sleep is as important as nutrition and exercise to our daily health. In fact, it could be the most important of all. Humans, like all animals, must sleep. Sleep is a time when our brain consolidates memories, processes psychological stressors, rejuvenates cells, repairs tissues and the entire body rests to prepare for the activity of the next day.

Depending on age, adults require six to eight hours of sleep each night. Getting less than that can cause sleep deprivation that negatively affects our ability to function the next day. Prolonged sleep deprivation leads to a breakdown in bodily and cognitive functions. As we age, the effects of chronic sleep deprivation compound and cause a host of issues.

Obesity

Many studies have linked insufficient sleep with weight gain. Even babies that sleep poorly are more likely to develop obesity in later childhood.

Diabetes

The body requires deep sleep to control blood sugars. Sleeping fewer than five hours nightly is associated with Type 2 diabetes, which can be reversed simply by increasing nightly sleep.

High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease

There is growing evidence of a causal connection between insufficient sleep and a host of heart issues, including stroke and coronary artery disease.

Immune Function

Our immune systems need to recharge nightly for the daily fight against invaders, so it is no surprise that a lack of sleep reduces the body’s ability to fend off infections. In one recent study, individuals who regularly received long, restful sleep were three times less likely to come down with the common cold than those who had just a little less sleep.

Chronic sleep deprivation results in an overall reduction in physical health.

Mental Health

Because sleep helps us feel better physically and process the stresses of ordinary life, going without restorative slumber can have serious negative effects over the long run. People with insomnia are five times more likely to suffer depression, which can interfere with sleep in a vicious cycle. Depression is often treated by addressing sleep issues.

Clear Thinking

Many famous accidents — Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, Exxon Valdez oil spill, numerous medical mistakes — are at least partly attributed to sleep deprivation in the individuals responsible. Because sleep helps our brains categorize and store information, learning and remembering depend on restful sleep.

A Litany of Other Health Issues

Lacking sleep, our bodies release the stress hormone cortisol, which ages our skin. You’re most familiar with that in the form of bags under the eyes. Sleep deprivation also interferes with our sex drive, which is already declining as we age.

Length of Life

Multiple studies show that people who sleep an average of five hours or fewer die 10-12 years earlier than those who get the recommended minimum of six hours.

Most of these issues add up over our time, causing the chronically sleep-impaired among us to look and feel old earlier in life. Much of the physical and mental breakdown we experience as seniors comes from a lifetime of trading sleep for an extra hour of activity.

Nye Health Services offers seven communities in Eastern Nebraska and Wyoming, structured to meet the needs of their residents from independent living to skilled nursing and memory care. A family-owned company with a rich history of connecting with the people they serve, Nye Health Services is open for visits anytime.