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As people age and enter their golden years, everyday living is often not as easy as it was once before. For example, cooking might be unsafe due to the sharp utensils and high temperatures it involves. Driving oneself can be difficult and dangerous if your vision has worsened.
In some situations, elderly individuals handle their increasing need for help by moving into a nursing home, retirement home, or other type of assisted living facility. However, an increasing number of seniors are opting to age within the comfort of their own homes.
Because of this, many adult children make it their responsibility to provide some sort of care and assistance for their elderly parents. Most adult children, however, are not trained to provide caregiving services. But with the following tips, you can get some guidance on how to provide home care for your elderly parents.
1. Have Other Family Help with Home Care
Informal or formal, whenever you provide care for someone, you must understand the demands of caregiving. It can be difficult to handle the responsibilities of caregiving on your own, especially if your elderly parents need full-time care. So seek help from other family members to join in on the caregiving efforts. You and other family members can rotate to help so that everyone has the energy and time to commit to caregiving.
2. Make the Home Safe
Seniors are at higher risks of falls, so you want to do what you can to make your elderly parents’ home safe for them. Eliminate tripping hazards, such as slippery throw rugs and exposed electrical cords. If seniors have mobility issues, consider installing handrails, especially in the bathroom.
3. Help with Food and Meal Preparation
Seniors do not always feel safe cooking meals for themselves and might be unable to go out to buy groceries. In these situations, elderly individuals are at high risk of malnutrition, because they will either choose to eat poorly, on a minimal basis, or not at all.
To avoid this, take the time to do meal preparation for your elderly parents. Take them out to do grocery shopping, cook them healthy meals, and take care of the post-meal cleaning. You can even prepare meals in advance that they can easily reheat later on. These premade meals will ensure they still have food for when you cannot be there to cook for them.
4. Provide Transportation
Many seniors no longer drive. Regardless of their reason for giving up their driving privilege, this lack of transportation can not only make it feel as though they have lost some freedom, but it can also prevent them from running important errands and attending social gatherings and events. If seniors cannot make it to important events, then they may feel like they are missing out and start to develop feelings of loneliness.
Help them out by providing transportation or helping them run errands when you can. If you are making a trip to the grocery store, consider calling to ask if they need anything and then drop off their groceries. If there is a family gathering or other event you are planning to attend, consider picking them up beforehand.
5. Check In with Your Elderly Parents
In the event you cannot physically visit your parents, you can and should still check in with them. Even scheduling weekly phone calls can be a form of care. So give them a call to stay in touch and ask how they are doing.
6. Get Professional Help
Caregiving is a demanding responsibility, so it can be especially difficult for an untrained individual to provide consistent elderly home care to a loved one. Hiring a professional caregiver to help out your elderly parents is a great option for you and them.
At Assisting Hands Home Care, we can provide home care for your elderly parents with our complete elderly care services in Brookfield, WI, and the neighboring areas. Our professional caregivers are trained and licensed to provide home care services, so you can trust that your parents get the care they need.
With elderly home care from Assisting Hands, you can instead spend the quality time you have with your parents by bonding and engaging in activities with them. Meanwhile, our caregivers will provide help with activities of daily living (ADLs), meal preparation, light housekeeping, and more.
In the event you do not want to a permanent caregiver, you can seek assistance from our respite care services. Within these services, you can take a break from providing informal home care and have a professional caregiver take your place. This is beneficial for when you are going on vacation, when you have other matters to attend to, or when you need some time for yourself.
No matter how much help your elderly parents need, Assisting Hands is here to help.
