Quiz helps adult children determine level of care needed for parents

Fran Graves of Senior Helpers says the day after Thanksgiving is always her busiest day of the year.

"When you call your parents from out of town, they tell you, 'Yeah, I'm fine,' but then you get there for the holiday and you're like, 'Holy mackerel!' because maybe they aren't eating or showering or the house is a mess," Graves said.

"If you ask them if they need help, of course they say 'no' because they want to be independent, and they want to stay in their homes, but you know they need a little support," she said.

That's where a senior companion service can be a life saver.

Senior Helpers, like other similar public and private services in Northern Nevada, primarily connects professional caregivers with seniors who wish to live at home rather than in a nursing home or assisted-living facility.

Often, though, Graves said, it can be tricky knowing when to make the call or deciding how much help is actually needed for one's aging parents.

That's why Senior Helpers offers an eight-question quiz adult children can take online.

The statements give the participant a chance to provide a rating from "always" to "never" in essential categories such as family support, mobility, memory, medical, meal preparation, personal hygiene, home safety and social interactions.

As an example, the mobility statement says: "My parent is very mobile and can walk indoors and outdoors easily without falling. He/she can get into and out of bed, chairs, showers and tubs easily, and can climb stairs without slipping or pausing. He/she can safely operate an automobile and navigate city streets and highways."

John Bowling, a professor at Southern Oregon University, is a "positive aging" expert who created the quiz. He said it's a good yardstick for measuring actual needs.

"Aging parents may insist they're well enough to live in their own homes even if they're not," Bowling said in news release from Senior Helpers. "I developed this quiz to give adult children a guideline to determine their parents' needs, whether they are self-sufficient, if they can live at home with help from an in-home caregiver, or if it's time to move them to a place where they can get round-the-clock care."

Graves said all levels of caregiving can be provided - simply offering companionship for an isolated person or driving a senior to medical appointments or doing grocery shopping for them. At the other end of the spectrum, a senior might need help with personal hygiene and medications, or perhaps 24-hour care.

"Our prices are around $20 an hour, but if it gets to the 24-hour-a-day care level, it costs less to use a nursing home," Graves said, "although it can sometimes be upsetting for them, not being in their own home."

For Lila Tuohy, a 65-year-old wife who still is working full-time for Sierra Land Realty, the choice to call Senior Helpers was "a godsend," she said.

"My husband is 85, and luckily, I work out of my house a lot, but some things were getting difficult for me," Tuohy said.

"I was having to get him up and fed and make sure he brushed his teeth. It was taking me two hours to get him ready for his day. He doesn't do much, mainly watches TV, but when I'd get home every day, I'd have to ask, 'Did you shower today?' I was starting to pull my hair out."

A caregiver now comes into the Tuohy home twice a week for several hours, mainly to help with husband Donald's showers.

"He just doesn't want to cooperate for me," Tuohy said. "I just can't do this every day of the week. He would spray me and make it difficult, partly because he's mischievous, and also because he has been known to get a little belligerent at times."

The caregiver also changes the bedsheets, vacuums the room and handles other miscellaneous tasks for Tuohy.

"I can pretty much keep up if I know the bed is fresh and he is taken care of," she said.

Graves encourages people to take the online quiz if they're wondering whether it's time to get help for Mom or Dad.

"If you're asking yourself those questions, this quiz can really help you," she said.

FAST FACTS:

• More than 10,000 people officially will hit senior status each day of the year in 2012.

• One in eight adults in America is a senior.

• The U.S. population will add one new senior every 13 seconds this year.

• About 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 every day.

• This phenomenon will continue every second of every day for the next 18 years.

• The senior population 65 and older in 2030 is projected to be twice as large as in 2000, growing from 35 million to 72 million and representing nearly 20 percent of the total U.S. population.

Source: U.S. Census data

SENIOR HELPERS' STAY AT HOME SCORE QUIZ:

Senior Helpers commissioned the Stay At Home Score, an eight-question quiz that adult children can take to determine the level of their parents' independency and self-sufficiency. The quiz was developed by John Bowling, a professor at Southern Oregon University and an expert on senior care and "positive aging." The purpose of the quiz is to determine whether aging parents can live in their own homes independently, can live in their own homes with help of a caregiver or if they need to move to a place with round-the-clock care. Go to www.stayathomescore.com.

TO GET HELP:

Senior Helpers can be reached at 775-828-1800. For information about other public and private caregiving services in the Carson City area, call Carson City Health and Human Services at 775-887-2190 or the Carson City Senior Citizens Center at 775-883-0703.