 Senior Comedian Headlines New Home Instead Senior Care Network Website Senior comedian Mary Maxwell, whose deadpan delivery of an invocation at a Home Instead Senior Care network convention attracted 8 million YouTube viewers, is the star of an updated website the network is unveiling. Check out her crowd-stopping performance at the 2009 convention as well as new funny videos on the "Laughing with Mary" page of CaregiverStress.com. Maxwell also is a regular contributor to Caring Connections, a free Home Instead Senior Care network newsletter to keep family caregivers entertained and educated. Read more  Holiday Blues: Home Instead Senior Care Network Releases Warning Signs of Depression Holidays normally are happy times for families, but such is not always the case with seniors. The loss of a spouse and families that live far away can lead to the holiday blues and, much worse, depression. Older adults who are depressed and suffering from health problems such as diabetes may even be at greater risk of death, according to recent research. That's why the Home Instead Senior Care® network has issued a list of warning signs to help family caregivers know what to look for as the holidays approach. Read more Are You Prepared to Care for Aging Parents? Fewer than half of baby boomers are knowledgeable about their parents' medical histories, and 49 percent are unable to name any of the medications their parents take every day, according to a new study by the Boomer Project, a behavior-tracking and research firm. In an emergency, such information could be vital to ensuring proper care. Read moreFull-time Family Caregiver Wins Long Overdue Vacation A family caregiver who has provided nearly constant care to an ailing husband for the past nine years is the winner of the Caregiver Cruise Giveaway from the Home Instead Senior Care® network. The six-day, five-night cruise sets sail January 21, 2012, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with about 200 professional and family caregivers as part of the Home Instead Senior Care Caregiver Cruise. The trip is being co-sponsored by the Home Instead Senior Care network and CaregiverCruises.com on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas. Read more  Loneliness Among Warning Signs of Nutritional Risk, Home Instead Senior Care Survey Reveals Loneliness –it’s one of the most serious obstacles to good nutrition for seniors. In the United States, approximately 40 percent of the population age 75 and older – 6.7 million people – lives alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. These seniors face significant socialization challenges, particularly when it comes to lack of shared mealtime experiences. The Home Instead Senior Care® network has announced the Craving CompanionshipSM program to help family caregivers focus their efforts on ensuring that older adults have mealtime companionship. Read more  USA Today Features Senior Emergency Kit
A story from USA Today focuses on the need for adult children to prepare for their parents' health emergencies. The article highlights Home Instead Senior Care, and describes one family's solution to a caregiving emergency - hiring a Home Instead CAREGiver. The article quotes Georgette Smith, owner of the Indianapolis, IN, Home Instead franchise, and mentions the Senior Emergency Kit. Read more Home Instead Senior Care Recipe Contest Motivates Family Caregivers to Bring Back Senior Mealtimes The Home Instead Senior Care® network has announced a recipe contest to help bring back favorite family recipes and revive mealtimes for elderly who are alone and lonely. The contest, which runs from July 15 to September 15, 2011, will collect family caregivers’ recipes from throughout North America for the Homemade MemoriesSM Cookbook that will be available in time for the 2011 holiday season. The contest is part of a program to help family caregivers combat the depression their elderly loved ones could be facing. Research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care network reveals that lack of companionship is the biggest mealtime challenge for seniors. Read more | 