Thank you caregivers and certified nursing aides for your hard work and the care you provide for our seniors. More caregivers are always needed as seniors in America are living longer. You can learn more about becoming a senior caregiver and apply for a job near you. We invite you to take a moment to relax and enjoy this week's stress relief photo and inspirational quote and share them with loved ones. This week's photo was taken looking over the rooftops on a winter day in Paris, France. Enjoy the extra day today and have a great week.

The decision on whether to wear make up on a daily basis lies in personal preference, but sometimes wearing make up to a job interview or a special event adds an extra boost of confidence. For caregivers who may not wear make up on a daily basis, or for those who do and seek new styles to try, the Eve app offers tips and tutorials.

When users first open Eve, they find themselves on the Discovery tab. This area displays a rotating list of different tutorials and tips, ranging from Quick Hairstyles to Brick Red Lips. For caregivers who have already mastered the basics of their daily make up routine, this area allows them to quickly scroll through and find new ideas to try. Every tutorial is accompanied by a photo on the main page, allowing for easy browsing.

For those new to make up techniques, the Basics tab offers video tutorials for Covering Blemishes, Eyeliner Basics, French Braids, Straightening Hair and more. Caregivers can watch the videos in this area to be introduced to these techniques in detail before they need to use them in one of the look tutorials. 

For caregiver job interviews, wearing a little bit of make up can give you an extra boost to make you look put together and professional. Extremes should be avoided, so shelf the blue eye shadow in favor of browns, grays and other basic colors that match your skin tone. On Eve, a basic tutorial called "Makeup For The Office," guides caregivers who may not be sure where to start step by step through how to complete the look. 

This tutorial refers to contouring, which caregivers can learn from a tutorial in the Basics tab. The tutorials also suggest products for users to consider using. The Products area of the tab shows all of the products that a caregiver decides to save. 

All of the tutorials in the app are available for free, making it easy for caregivers to click around and try many different looks if they so desire. The Favorites area allows caregivers to save tutorials that particularly catch their eyes to revisit later. 

The Eve app is available for Apple platforms.

Senior caregivers, let us know your feedback on this app and keep us posted if you discovers additional apps that assist with caregiving duties and help relieve caregiver stress. You may also refer-a-friend to a senior caregiving job and win prizes weekly and monthly on Caregiverlist. 

-Paige Krzysko

Senior caregiving services are continuing to grow as more seniors, especially seniors living in developed countries, are living much longer lives than previous generations. Why are seniors living longer?

• Better Nutrition
• Better Healthcare Access
• Better Emergency Treatment (Heart Attacks, Strokes)
• Caregivers

This week's photo features the simple beauty of a white rose in all its glory. The white rose is a symbol of purity, new beginnings and honor and reverence. Caregiverlist invites you to enjoy the photo and share it with loved ones. At Caregiverlist we know the realities of caregiver stress. Thank you caregivers and certified nursing aides for your hard work and caring for our seniors. Please refer your friends to apply for part-time and full-time job positions on Caregiverlist.com and visit our career center for additional career tools. We hope you have a great week. 

"All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today." -Indian Proverb

Vermont nursing home care costs are among the highest in the nation. Aside from Alaska and Hawaii, the top 10 most expensive states for nursing home care are on the east coast.

Vermont senior care planning includes understanding costs of nursing homes in the chosen area, along with their overall ratings. Many times, hospitals will discharge the senior to a nursing home for rehabilitation. If the senior’s stay is longer than the Medicare-covered 100 days, those costs becomes out-of-pocket.

Nursing homes cost a lot of money — ask any family whose senior loved one is burning through their assets in order to get quality long-term care in a nursing facility. The sad truth is that the general consumer has no idea how much nursing home care costs in their area, and usually doesn’t learn of those costs until their back is up against the wall and long-term care is needed.

Long-term senior care costs are a concern among our readers and we at Caregiverlist have an ongoing mission to educate the consumer. To that end, we are constantly updating our nursing home cost database and have released the latest costs and ratings for Vermont nursing homes.

Below is a snapshot of Vermont nursing home costs and ratings:

Total Number of Nursing Homes: 38

Average Single Price: $301.95

Average Double Price: $280.65

Average Rating: 3.1 (out of 5)

Star Rating Snapshot:

5-Star        2

4-Star        19

3-Star        14

2-Star        3

1-Star        0 

Some seniors and their families will prefer to stay at home and hire an in-home professional senior caregiver.  Hourly rate for senior home care in Vermont can range from $11 to $28 per hour, depending on the location and level of care required. A quality home care agency will fully vet an in-home caregiver with a thorough background check. As opposed to hiring a caregiver directly, an agency provides all necessary liability and worker's compensation insurance protections and payroll taxes as required by law.

Vermont offers Choices for Care (1115 Long-Term Care Medicaid Waiver), a Medicaid-funded, long-term care program to pay for care and support for older Vermonters. If a senior meets the clinical and financial criteria, they can receive help with costs for professional care at home, in an enhanced residential care setting, or in a nursing facility. There is also a separate Moderate Need program in place and seniors and their families can learn about program eligibility directly from a Home Health Agency in their area.

Seniors and their family caregivers can research nursing home costs and ratings in any state nationwide through the Caregiverlist Nursing Home Directory, the only resource with this trademarked information.

A good way to start anticipating for those future long-term care costs is consulting with a professional who can come up with a  financial action plan that includes an assessment of your family’s assets and future spending needs. Caregiverlist can also provide a care plan to find senior home care agency options in Vermont and help you learn about the costs for senior care.

*according to the 2014 U.S. Census

Senior caregivers need to keep track of a lot for their senior clients and communicate progress or issues back to their senior clients' families. Throughout the day it might seem easy to make a mental note, but it can be difficult to remember specific details later. Using the Senior Care Manager app from the Institute of Aging gives senior caregivers a place to record specific information and share it with the families of senior clients at the tap of a finger. 

When caregivers first create an account, they also need to create a "CareZone" profile for each of their senior clients who they would like to use the app to assist. Each CareZone profile has its own permissions attached to it. As such, caregivers can share one profile with the loved ones of their first senior client and a second profile with a different group of people without either group being able to access the other's private information. 

The basic profile for each senior client asks for contact information plus some additional medical and lifestyle information that can be helpful, such as blood type, allergies and faith. After the profile has been created, caregivers will see on the main screen that there's an icon of two people in the upper right hand corner. This designated area allows caregivers to Invite Others to use the app and access this profile. Once an invitation has been accepted, the other users have collaborative access to edit and update the information in the app as well as see everything that the caregiver posts throughout the day. 

The first two categories in the app offer News & Offers as well as Resources for senior caregivers. The News and Offers section pulls articles into the feed based on interests that users can select from a list such as Alzheimer's Disease, General Health, Migraines, etc. The Resources section focuses on the opportunity to e-mail an expert at the Institute on Aging for advice on a specific home care issue or to get information on services they offer for in-home services to financial matters. 

The rest of the categories offer collaborative care options for senior caregivers and the loved ones in their senior clients' lives. Caregivers can track medication history by taking a photo of the pharmacy label on the medicine or typing in instructions on dosage and frequency. They can set a reminder for when the medication should be taken as well as a refill reminder. This makes for easy coordination between different groups of people who might be spending time with a senior client on different days to stay on the same schedule. 

Other care documenting options include the Journal feature to record any important notes throughout the day, the calendar feature to share important appointments and the To Do area with tasks that need to be completed by a certain day. The Photos & Files area gives caregivers a place to share insurance numbers, instructions and any other pertinent information. Lastly, the Broadcast area allows caregivers to share audio clips for their senior clients loved ones to hear a little message through the app. 

The Senior Care Manager app is available for Apple platforms. 

Senior caregivers, let us know your feedback on this app and keep us posted if you discovers additional apps that assist with caregiving duties and help relieve caregiver stress. You may also refer-a-friend to a senior caregiving job and win prizes weekly and monthly on Caregiverlist. 

-Paige Krzysko

It is cold and wintery in many places, but hopefully you are staying warm and comfortable. Thank you caregivers and certified nursing aides for your hard work and caring for our seniors. Senior care training assists caregivers to better manage a senior's care needs and manage caregiver stress. This week's stress relief photo was taken on a bridge in Zurich, Switzerland. It has become popular in many places to adorn bridges with these displays of love. Please enjoy and feel free to share the photo and inspirational quote with loved ones. We hope you have a great week.

"When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, 

everything around us becomes better too."  -Paulo Coelho

Whether you're looking to surprise a loved on Valentine's Day, to share something special with a senior client or to spoil yourself, try cooking a homemade meal. The New York Times Cooking app offers a variety of tasty sounding recipes ranging from basic recipes for daily cooking to fancier recipes for a special occasion. 

The homepage of the app features the Latest Recipes category by default. An array of new recipes such as Wild Rice and Quinoa Stuffing or Vegetarian Skillet Chili show up here for users to browse. Recipes like the Vegetarian Skillet Chili are comprised of  ingredients typically found in a pantry, such as canned tomatoes and beans plus garlic and onion. 

The length of time needed to make the recipe and the number of servings appears at the top for a quick decision about how much work it will take. A recipe like this one would be perfect for caregivers to make on a day off and eat throughout the rest of the week for dinner, or to share with a senior client who's trying to eat healthy. Users can also see how many stars the recipe has from fellow app users who have previously made the dish. Unfortunately, the app does lack a comments area to read about any tips or difficulties other users experienced when making the recipe. 

Back on the homepage, other topics for sorting recipes include Vegetarian, Times Classics, One Pot, For Two and Gluten-Free. For other dietary restrictions, caregivers can type in the search for terms like Low-Sodium, Low Cholesterol, Low Sugar, Kosher or Vegan. This feature serves particularly useful for caregivers whose senior clients have dietary restrictions set by their doctors. Narrowing down the recipes by diet restrictions still gives caregivers plenty of options. A search for Low-Sodium recipes offers 514 recipes to choose from. 

The major other area of the app features lessons on How to Cook. For example, the first screen that appears after selecting the category says, "Learn to Cook Salmon." Ideal for caregivers who are new to the kitchen, this area of the app serves as a step by step guide for not only the act of cooking salmon, but also selecting the correct cut and giving it the right preparation to be successful. 

This section of the app provides detailed instructions and videos on all of the various ways to cook salmon. Caregivers can learn to sauté, poach, sear, roast, broil or cook en papillote with their fish. Underneath the details for some of the techniques, the app brings up recipes which use that method for caregivers to choose from. This area of the app also features some videos and photos to augment the learning process. 

An additional feature of the app gives caregivers the ability to save recipes for later use if they create an account. The NYT Cooking App is available for Apple platforms. 

Senior caregivers, let us know your feedback on this app and keep us posted if you discovers additional apps that assist with caregiving duties and help relieve caregiver stress. You may also refer-a-friend to a senior caregiving job and win prizes weekly and monthly on Caregiverlist. 

-Paige Krzysko

Caregivers provide companionship and caregiving to seniors, and must remember to "care for the caregiver." Thank you caregivers and certified nursing aides for your hard work and caring for our seniors. This week's stress relief photo was taken in the village of Oia, on the gorgeous island of Santorini in Greece.  We invite you to take a moment to enjoy the photo and the inspirational quote and feel free to share them with loved ones. Have a great week.