Golden Years Home Care

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Golden Years Home Care 30 years of in-home senior care, still family-owned and still run by Ken and Carrie Ballard. HCO #344700040

Caregivers trained to notice what's changing, and a team that coordinates with your parent's doctors — so one person isn't holding it all alone.

10/16/2026

Does Medicare Pay for Home Care?

Short answer, usually no.

Medicare pays for short term care a doctor orders after a hospital stay. It does not pay for the day to day help at home, the mornings, the meals, the company, which is what most families actually need.

What does pay: long term care insurance, if your parent bought a policy years ago. Some Medicare Advantage plans, so call the number on the back of the card. And for veterans, a benefit called Aid and Attendance that most people have never heard of.

Bring whatever paperwork you have to the assessment and we will work it out together.

Golden Years Home Care serves Sacramento, Roseville, Elk Grove, Folsom, Lincoln, Davis, Fairfield, Moraga, Monterey, Irvine, San Diego and Mission Valley, California. Family owned since 1996. Care starts with a free in-home assessment.

10/15/2026

What Dementia Care at Home Looks Like Day to Day

What does dementia care at home actually look like day to day?

Honestly, a lot like an ordinary day. Just with somebody there to keep it steady.

The caregiver arrives at the same time each morning. Helps with getting up, washing, bathing, dressing. Makes breakfast. Medication reminders happen there too.

By midday it is lunch and a short walk. Folding laundry together, old photographs, music they have always loved. Small familiar things, and they matter more than they look, because they give the day a shape.

Late afternoon is often the hardest stretch, so we plan for it. Quieter activities, fewer surprises, lights on before it gets dark.

What makes the difference is not the task list. It is the same face at the same time of day, week after week.

Golden Years provides dementia care and Alzheimer's care at home, plus 24 hour home care when the nights need covering too. Family owned since 1996. Care starts with a free in-home assessment.

"Everything's fine."That's what she says every Sunday, and it's the least useful sentence in the conversation.She isn't ...
10/15/2026

"Everything's fine."

That's what she says every Sunday, and it's the least useful sentence in the conversation.

She isn't lying to you. She's protecting you. Nobody wants to be the reason their daughter flies across the country, so the call becomes the weather and the neighbors, and you hang up knowing nothing.

Short visits are the same. The house was tidied for you. She rested for two days before you arrived.

If you're a few states away, there's more you can set up from there than most people realize, and some things that have to be done before the emergency rather than after it.

https://goldenyearshomecare.com/caring-for-a-parent-from-another-state/

She's fine at lunch. By four in the afternoon she's somebody else.Restless, asking the same question for the ninth time,...
10/15/2026

She's fine at lunch. By four in the afternoon she's somebody else.

Restless, asking the same question for the ninth time, putting her coat on, certain she needs to get home while she's standing in her own living room. By morning she's calm again and the whole evening looks like it never happened.

It has a name. Sundowning.

It isn't her being difficult, and it isn't random. It's fatigue, fading light, and a body clock that's stopped telling her when the day is over. Which also means some of it responds to small changes.

We've written up why it happens at that hour, what helps, and what makes it worse.

https://goldenyearshomecare.com/sundowning-dementia-late-afternoon/

She'll be fine when you get there.Dressed, cheerful, delighted to see you. She rested for two days before you arrived an...
10/14/2026

She'll be fine when you get there.

Dressed, cheerful, delighted to see you. She rested for two days before you arrived and planned what she'd say. After you leave, she'll sleep for a day and a half.

That isn't evidence. It's a performance, and you're the audience it was prepared for.

If you want to know how your parent is really doing this holiday, stay an extra day. Nobody performs on the third day.

We've written up what to actually look for while you're there, including the things families miss, and what to do with it in January instead of letting it slide.

https://goldenyearshomecare.com/visiting-a-parent-over-the-holidays/

A dementia diagnosis does not have to mean leaving the family home.Our Co-Active Care approach keeps clients involved in...
08/20/2026

A dementia diagnosis does not have to mean leaving the family home.

Our Co-Active Care approach keeps clients involved in their own daily life rather than doing everything for them. Folding laundry together instead of folding it for them. Preparing lunch alongside them rather than serving it. The routines that anchor a day are worth protecting for as long as possible.

Golden Years provides dementia care and Alzheimer's care at home, with every care plan overseen by a nurse care manager.

Family-owned since 1996.A dementia diagnosis does not have to mean leaving the family home.

Our Co-Active Care approach keeps clients involved in their own daily life rather than doing everything for them. Folding laundry together instead of folding it for them. Preparing lunch alongside them rather than serving it. The routines that anchor a day are worth protecting for as long as possible.

Golden Years provides dementia care and Alzheimer's care at home, with every care plan overseen by a nurse care manager.

Family-owned since 1996.

If you are looking into overnight care, ask one question before anything else: does the caregiver stay awake through the...
08/19/2026

If you are looking into overnight care, ask one question before anything else: does the caregiver stay awake through the night?

It sounds obvious. It often is not asked.

At Golden Years, 24 hour home care means caregivers working in shifts, so someone is always awake and present. Live-in care is different: the caregiver lives in the home and has a scheduled sleep period. Both work well, in different situations.

If a parent wanders at night, or has fallen before, you want someone awake. If the need is company and help at either end of the day, live-in care is usually the better fit.

Worth knowing the difference before you call anyone.

Discharge day feels like the finish line. It's actually the starting gun.The 30 days after a hospital stay are when thin...
08/14/2026

Discharge day feels like the finish line. It's actually the starting gun.

The 30 days after a hospital stay are when things quietly fall apart: the new prescription that duplicates an old one, the follow-up appointment nobody scheduled, the walker that arrived but never got adjusted, the four days of not really eating.

None of those are dramatic. Together they put people right back in a hospital bed.

This is where we act as care quarterback — coordinating between the discharge team, the primary physician, home health, and the family so nothing lands in the gap between them. Someone has to hold the whole picture. Usually that job defaults to the adult child who already has a job.

Coming home this week? Call before discharge, not after. Call us at: 916-333-0383

Nine years is not a job. It's a relationship.We get asked what makes a caregiver great, and families almost never descri...
08/12/2026

Nine years is not a job. It's a relationship.

We get asked what makes a caregiver great, and families almost never describe the tasks. Nobody says "she was excellent at laundry." They say the house felt different. The arguing stopped. Mom started getting dressed again.

That's not a skill you can train in an orientation. It's temperament — patience, steadiness, the instinct to notice something's off before anyone says it out loud. We hire for that, and then we build the training around it.

Dolores, thank you. Nine years of calm is a career worth celebrating.

Know someone with that temperament? We're hiring across Sacramento and San Diego.

Smoke season doesn't announce itself. The sky looks fine and the number is already bad.For an older adult with COPD, ast...
08/10/2026

Smoke season doesn't announce itself. The sky looks fine and the number is already bad.

For an older adult with COPD, asthma, heart failure, or any lung condition, poor air isn't an inconvenience — it's an ER visit two days later.

What helps:
· Check AirNow.gov before you open a single window
· Keep windows and doors closed; run the AC on recirculate
· A portable HEPA unit in the bedroom does more than one in the living room
· Move the daily walk indoors, don't skip it
· Watch for new cough, wheeze, unusual tiredness, or confusion — and call the doctor early, not late

Our caregivers check air quality as part of the morning routine during smoke season. Ask us how we handle it.

Address

717 K Street , #211
Elk Grove, CA
95814

Telephone

+19163330383

Website

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