The American Red Cross has a series of free presentations that local groups may request from Lyn Polk, a senior health specialist who earned a gerontological nurse credential from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

The Red Cross also has a book/DVD set available for $25; it contains much of the information given in the live presentations.

Following are the class titles and main topics. Just call Lyn Polk at 816-841-5203.

Home Is Where the Heart Is: Keeping Safe at Home

• Check your home for hazards
  
• Prevent fires, falls, infections, and injuries
  
• Be prepared for emergencies (storm preparation is stressed)
  
• Develop an emergency escape plan
  
• Create first aid and disaster supply kits
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklets on home safety and disaster preparation, and checklists

It's a Numbers Game: Vital Signs and Medication Management

• How and why to measure temperature, pulse, respiration, and blood pressure (includes equipment and practice time)
  
• Know when a change is significant and how to report the change to the physician
  
• Learn medication administration techniques and recordkeeping
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on caregiving skills, vital signs record, and two medication records

Prevent a "Back Attack" While Helping Your Loved One Move

• Safely position your loved one in bed, assist him to transfer and walk, and help him use his mobility equipment properly
  
• What is a gait belt and why would I use it?
  
• The causes, prevention, and recognition of pressure ulcers
  
• Protecting yourself from injury
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on moving and positioning

You Want Me to Do What? Assisting with Personal Care

• Bed baths, oral care, grooming, and dressing techniques
  
• Giving a shampoo to someone in bed
  
• Positioning a bedpan or urinal
  
• Protecting fragile skin
  
• Cutting toenails and fingernails
  
• Handout: Red Cross booklet on personal care

Rocker Knives, Plate Guards, and Thick-It: Helping Your Loved One Eat

• Good nutrition and how to assist an ill person
  
• Ways to stimulate appetite
  
• Help for dementia patients who can't focus long enough to eat
  
• How to feed someone
  
• What to do if your loved one chokes often
  
• Assistive devices that help a weak or paralyzed person eat independently
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on healthful eating, detailing special diets and useful tips
  

Healthy Eating for the 21st Century

• The basics of nutrition using the food pyramid
  
• Omega-6 and omega-3 fats, what vitamins are "in" and "out," and why inflammation is the new hot topic
  
• Reading food labels and the importance of fat content and portion control
  
• Principles of a Mediterranean diet that helps reduce inflammation and manages diabetes, heart disease, and weight
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on healthful eating and handouts on fats and vital daily nutrients

Of Frogs and Flight Attendants: A Caregiver Learns Self-Care

• Signs of caregiver burnout, depression, and stress-related illness
  
• Realizing caregiver limitations and setting realistic limits on their expectations
  
• Respite care and tips for locating it
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on caring for the caregiver, list of caregiving Web sites, list of local caregiver resources, caregiver stress test, and checklists

What Is All This Paperwork? Legal and Financial Issues of Caregivers

• Legal issues surrounding caring for someone else
  
• Working with the patient to set legal directions for her future health care preferences
  
• Levels of care, advance directives, budgeting, insurance, end-of-life planning, and funeral planning
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on legal and financial issues and publications from the Missouri and Kansas state bar associations

Help! Someone I Love Has Alzheimer's Disease or Another Dementia

• What is happening in the brain
  
• Common behaviors that occur, why, and how to manage them
  
• Communicating with a dementia patient
  
• Minor physical changes in the home that can prevent behavior problems
  
• Protecting dementia patients who wander
  
• Gaining cooperation with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, eating, and medications
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on dementia care and other handouts

To Sleep, Perhaps to Dream

• When is a sleep problem serious?
  
• How much sleep do we need?
  
• How does lack of sleep affect our bodies?
  
• How sleep deprivation affects weight control
  
• Medical issues contributing to poor sleep
  
• Common sleep disorders
  
• Sleep hygiene

Compassion, Respect and Humor: Caring for a Loved One with HIV/AIDS

• HIV/AIDS and what causes it
  
• How it is spread and how safe you are to care for a patient
  
• Infection control practices
  
• Common symptoms to expect and how we can help control them
  
• Protecting patients from illness and infection
  
• Emotional issues of the care recipient and the caregiver, and how to provide or support
  
• Legal and end-of-life issues
  
• Handouts: Red Cross booklet on HIV/AIDS