Tips to take Care of Your Elderly Parents at Home
December 13, 2022
If you have elderly parents living at home with you or on their own, caring for them is usually the first step in the long-term care plan for seniors. This is an effective way to save money while remaining in the comforts of one’s home. This also allows the family members to assess home care requirements versus facility-based care. It’s usually the adult children responsible for caring for the elderly parents at home. Here are a few tips for adults to effectively care for their elderly parents at home.
Look Out For Their Well Being
Initially, caring for elderly parents at home can simply be about making a daily phone call to check in on them or assessing how they are doing, through tidbits of conversation. This, however, simply isn’t enough in most cases. Unless seniors have Alzheimer’s or Dementia, they tend to hide their condition while talking to their children on the phone. In most cases, you need to physically oversee and assess how seniors are faring living independently.
You must be aware of the signs that tell you your parents need assistance to live safely at home. It is easy for you to miss some of these signs as you are coping with a full-time job and having to take care of your wife and kids. But you must watch out for the needs and well-being of your aging parents.
Make The Home More Accessible And Safe
A significant detriment of seniors living at home is any type of injury or fall. This is why you must prioritize safety when caring for your elderly parents. They will benefit from making a few structural modifications to make the home more accessible, such as installing stairlifts to make the upper stories of the house more accessible to elderly parents who have trouble climbing stairs. You can achieve most of the modification by performing a few minimal DIY modifications, and enlisting the help of a few helpful hands from friends or family.
Enlist Helpers
As your parents age, their needs grow proportionately. This makes caregiving a huge responsibility as time goes by. You should not wait till a crisis occurs to determine what is needed, who is best equipped to provide the particular type of care, and how frequently it is required. It is wise to involve the entire immediate family. It should be a team effort instead of you having to shoulder it all, whether it is providing care on scheduled times of days or respite care.
The family should also contribute to a general fund that would support the enlistment of professional in-home care providers or someone to come in and take care of the house as needed. Don’t try to attempt it all alone, as it can easily wear you out.
Try To Provide Ready Meals
Many seniors suffer from malnutrition, and one of the primary reasons behind this is that they lack the stamina or the ability to buy and prepare their own food. This is why many seniors skip meals or rely more on processed food that does not provide the required nutrition. You must arrange for services that can provide your elderly parent with access to nutritious and healthy meals keeping their dietary restrictions in mind. These services are readily available nowadays, and you can arrange for them no matter where you live.
Keep Your Elderly Parent Active
Most seniors prefer to live independently, which works well for some of them, but it should not come at the cost of their formerly engaged, active lifestyle. You need to see to it that your elderly parents can still get to the recreational, social, and religious events and activities that they used to participate in and enjoy. If you aren’t able to accompany them, arrange for a companion or enlist the help of acquaintances or related organizations who can take your parents instead.
Make Sure They Have Access To Safe Transportation
Most seniors have a traumatic ordeal as they have to hand over the keys to their cars as they lose mobility. But this should not be limiting them from getting around. You can easily arrange a safe driving plan for your elderly parent by choosing from various senior transportation options that are now readily available. Do adequate research to pick the safest and most efficient driving service to get your elderly parent where they want to go.
Be Aware Of The Financial Obligations
Initially, it might seem financially difficult to care for the elderly at home. But there are quite a few resources available that will aid you in caring for your elderly parents at home easily without having to cash out your savings account. Do some research online for ways to receive funding aid from organizations and agencies to support the expense of caring for your elderly parent.
Take Care Of Yourself
You have to realize that you cannot care for someone unless you are in sound health. If you are incapacitated, you are not in any condition to care for your elderly parent living alone. You have to be able to find the stamina, energy, and resources required to care for your elderly parents effectively.
So be sure to eat healthy foods, get lots of sleep, and keep your body fit by exercising. Also, remember that caring for an elderly parent can also be pretty taxing on your mental state. So be sure to take good emotional care of yourself as well. Take relaxation classes, do yoga, or do anything that allows you to unwind emotionally and be stress-free.
Summing Up
Taking care of elderly parents might seem challenging at first, but there are many ways you can receive support to make the process easier. Take the support of your friends or family or enlist the help of caregivers to help you out. You can also make changes to the house to make it more elderly-friendly. At the end of it all, remember to take care of yourself through the whole process. You don’t want to fall sick yourself while you are caring for an elderly parent.