As you pour yourself into others, try to remember to keep your own “cup refilled” by devoting time to self-care. Here are self-care suggestions to may provide inspiration during these times:

1.) Give yourself permission to take time off for self-care; time to do whatever it is that your heart desires. Put it on your calendar, set reminders, and let others know that this is YOUR time to decompress however you see fit. There is NO reason to feel guilty designating self-care time; you need to be able to sustain the care you provide during this time.

2.) First and foremost, in the heat of what feels to be a battle, it is so important to know that THIS IS TEMPORARY. Hard to see in times of struggle, we know – but true, nonetheless. While we do not know when successful treatments will be found, a vaccination invented, when things return to “normal” (or what the new normal even looks like), on thing is for sure – we will not live in this current state forever. Breathe and hang tight.

3.) If you are comfortable with it, accept help from those who offer it to you. For many who aren’t on the front line, it’s a love offering in a time where they too, feel out of control. Let someone deliver your dinner, mow your yard or pick up your groceries for you. You are important in this time and deserving of attention and it gives you more time to take care of yourself.

4.) Try not to isolate yourself; while you may feel alone, there are most likely others experiencing similar emotions you can talk to. Find a person (even if it’s just a single person), to talk to, cry or laugh with. However, you need to unload the baggage that has accrued at work – make sure you find an outlet to help you unpack it and diffuse some of the heightened emotion these times manifest.

5.) Look for the joys in every day. That’s right, joys are still happening in the world; they just might be a little harder to see through the lens of COVID-19. Be still and present; reconnect with your environment, nature, and the people around you. You will find beauty. Even if you find a single joy per day, journal each and string them together to form a bridge of hope that will help you get to the other side of this pandemic.

We will get through this together – and the CreateAbility Team is here to help you in any way that we can. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We are here and waiting to support you!

Similar Reads:  4 Assistive Technology and Remote Monitoring Solutions for COVID-19 Transmission Reduction

The post Care Providers: 5 Ways to Keep A Healthy Mental Outlook During the Pandemic appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Executive functions are an important set of mental skills. To see how trouble with these skills affects people like Carl in educational, recreational, vocational and residential settings, take a look at a typical day in his life and how it can be changed through the use of assistive technology:

About Executive Function

Many people who learn and think differently have trouble with executive function. Many individuals with ADHD or post brain injury struggle with it.

These difficulties don’t mean they aren’t smart. Brain differences make it hard for people like Carl to focus, set goals, get started, and stay on task. This includes things like doing chores, work tasks, homework and daily routines.

These kinds of struggles are often misunderstood. Others may think that people with executive function issues are just being lazy or aren’t capable of doing more. But with the right support, people with executive functioning issues can thrive.

There are lots of ways to help at work, home and in school. Support can help people like Carl get organized and stay on top of assignments. It can also help them feel less stressed and more confident.

More About Executive Function

Executive functioning issues are difficulties with a set of mental skills that are key to learning. Kids who have trouble with executive function often struggle with working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control.

What Are Executive Functioning Issues?

Some people describe executive function as “the CEO of the brain.” That’s because these skills are what let us set goals, plan, and get things done. When people struggle with them, it affects them in all aspects of life.

Trouble with executive function isn’t a diagnosis or a learning disability. But it’s common in kids who learn and think differently. All kids with ADHD have trouble with it. And lots of kids with learning disabilities struggle with executive function.

The three main areas of executive function are:

• Working memory
• Cognitive flexibility (also called flexible thinking)
• Inhibitory control (which includes self-control)

Executive function is responsible for a number of skills, including:

• Paying attention
• Organizing, planning, and prioritizing
• Starting tasks and staying focused on them to completion
• Understanding different points of view
• Regulating emotions
• Self-monitoring (keeping track of what you’re doing)

Signs That an Employee or Roommate is Struggling With Executive Function:

Trouble with executive function can affect people in different ways. Some individuals may have difficulties in only one or two areas, or in all of them. The difficulties often look like the signs of ADHD. That’s because ADHD is a classic example of a problem with executive function.

People struggling with executive skills may:

• Have trouble starting and/or completing tasks
• Have difficulty prioritizing tasks
• Forget what they’ve just heard or read
• Have trouble following directions or a sequence of steps
• Panic when rules or routines change
• Have trouble switching focus from one task to another
• Get overly emotional and fixate on things
• Have trouble organizing their thoughts
• Have trouble keeping track of their belongings
• Not be able to manage their time

Acknowledgements:

This young adult perspective was Adapted from an NCLD infographic and an article on a day in the life of a 6^th grader, based on the work of Thomas E. Brown, PhD.

The post A Day in the Life of an Individual with Executive Functioning Issues  appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Being a caregiver is a high-demand role, period. While most develop their daily to-do lists, carefully checking off items as they accomplish them; caregivers of consumers with intellectual disabilities, TBI’s, and dementia typically experience a higher degree of variation from day-to-day in correlation to the mental state, physical health, and mood of the person they care for. These changes require patience and adaptability that can cause exhaustion and fatigue in busy caregivers. In fact, Family Caregiver Alliance studies have documented that approximately 70% of caregivers report sleep problems, 60% report sleeping less than 7 hours, and 10-20% use alcohol or sleep medication to go to sleep.

Consumer’s Perspective

While we empathize for the caregivers need for self-care, the population of adults with intellectual disabilities who experience sleep deprivation is even greater than that of the general population. (Doran et al., 2006) Additionally, consumers with intellectual disabilities and dementia thrive in an environment where routine guides their daily responsibilities and stabilizes expectations. For dementia patients, consistent lack of sleep can decrease cognitive functioning and retention (Alzheimer’s Association) and for adults with intellectual disabilities, it impairs their ability to control emotions, attention, and motor skills.

When Sleep Deprivation Collides

When the caregiver has an “off” day with the person receiving care, and the daily to-dos are still there on the list waiting to be accomplished, it is commonplace to handle responsibilities in the time that the caregiver allotted for self-care and sleeping. In turn, the schedule of the person receiving care is off kilter, causing anxiety that, in turn, affects their ability to sleep.

Upon examination of the symptoms of sleep deprivation or unscheduled sleep time from both perspectives, it becomes evidently apparent that without a sufficient place and time to replenish the body’s need for rest – so as to lessen the odds for an “off” day. Ultimately, the culprit of the question, “Who’s inability to sleep is affecting this situation?” resembles the same answer to the question, “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” (It doesn’t really matter; it is important for the BOTH of you.)

Increasing the Odds for Sleep Success

Below you will find some ways we recommend for creating a systematic approach to improved sleep habits:

Creating good sleep habits – The Basics: 

• Designate a routine sleep schedule and stick to it each night.
• Make the hour before you go to sleep your quiet time. (No TV or technology to allow your brain time to decompress.)
• Create an inviting bedroom space with little clutter and comfortable bedding to induce better sleep.
• Invest in light blocking shades so that you can sleep well at any, given time of the day. 

Embrace physiological rules for better sleep: 

• Avoid caffeine in all forms for at least three hours before going to sleep.
• Limit exposure to backlit screens for about an hour before going to sleep.
• Eat your heavier meals earlier in the day.
• Spend a set amount of time exercising and/or getting outside each time. Do avoid exercise too close to bedtime to allow physical adrenaline to subside.

Most importantly, make sleep a PRIORITY; not an option or variable in each day’s schedule. Scheduling/tracking your sleep are important factors for the health of both the person receiving care AND the caregiver. The power to make it happen, however, lies with the caregiver or the organization the caregiver works for.

If you are a caregiver would like information on how CreateAbility’s MeMINDER app can affordably and efficiently help you make (and keep) sleep a priority for both the caregiver and the consumer, click here.

The post The Cyclical Effect of Sleep Deprivation on Caregivers and Consumers appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

HomePortal couples CreateAbility’s “Sparkplug” skill with Z-wave modules to detect and control items in the home.

Many commands and requests are possible, but here are a few typical examples:
“Alexa, tell Sparkplug to turn the fan on” (light, space heater, etc.)
“Alexa, tell Sparkplug to tell me when the dryer is completed”
“Alexa, ask Sparkplug to teach me the basics” (or, show me an example)

Deliveries to demo centers and Independent Living Centers have already started and the team is gearing up for orders to the general public.

One exciting new component of the HomePortal system is an Alexa-controlled Microwave.

Voice-Enabled Microwave

Being able to use something as simple as a microwave means so much more for the individual that isn’t able to see the buttons or person that has trouble pushing those buttons. To them, it was one more element of life that was not available to them before without assistance. With an interactive microwave, the user gains not only the function of an everyday appliance but the more important benefit of an added layer of independence.

Our interactive microwave utilizes Amazon Echo’s technology through CreateAbility’s Sparkplug system. Like Amazon Echo, the microwave responds to a full range of pre-established voice commands such as:
• “Alexa, tell Sparkplug to microwave pizza, 2 slices.”
• “Alexa, tell Sparkplug to microwave popcorn.”
• “Alexa, ask Sparkplug for the remaining cook time.”

Our special internal module doesn’t alter the microwaves original capabilities so everything else remains functional as well, simply enhanced. This makes it easy for others in the home to use the microwave in the typical way, via the front panel.

HomePortal was made possible through a Phase II grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), grant # 90BI0022.

The post HomePortal and Voice-Enabled Microwave now shipping appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Fear not. Clients, loved ones and healthcare professionals that use our technology can have peace of mind that their information on our systems is safe.

You may have heard that there is a major flaw in the security of the World Wide Web — one that has even Internet security firms feeling a little panicked, according to a recent article “Heart Bleed Bug Could Compromise Large Part of the Internet”.

We want you to know that CreateAbility’s systems and the data in them are safe.  Since our technology babysits your loved ones, we take this very seriously.

Fatefully, the most popular open source cryptographic library and data transport layer implementation that is used specifically to encrypt traffic on the Internet has a bug in it.  This bug enables hackers to steal password information by causing systems to spew the “secure” information held in RAM – allowing attackers to steal the information.

CreateAbility’s systems keep all of the user account and password information is an encrypted database, and not in RAM.

You can read more about this in the link below, but essentially a massive vulnerability has been found in OpenSSL by a team of security engineers at Codenomicon and Neel Mehta of Google Security (he’s essentially a super Ninja warrior when it comes to protecting data).

In geek speak – OpenSSL is the open-source software package broadly used to encrypt Web communications. The flaw allows attackers to steal the information that is normally protected by SSL/TLS encryption, which is used to protect Web applications, e-mail communications, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).

Essentially, that means a lot of Internet users are affected. And potentially, passwords, private communications and even credit card information could be available to hackers courtesy of this newly-discovered bug.

For more nformation about Heart Bleed, See:

http://beforeitsnews.com/business/2014/04/heart-bleed-bug-could-compromise-large-part-of-the-internet-2612796.html

The post Keeping Your Data Safe – Even in the Most Serious Attack on the Internet appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.