Tag: Home Care

If your elderly family member is suddenly dealing with a great deal of pain, it’s important to start putting together a plan for managing it. Pain is one of those things that gradually becomes worse until it’s all your elderly family member can think about, so figuring out how to make it less of a problem for her is crucial. That way she can get back to enjoying her life as much as possible.

Understand What Chronic Pain Does to Your Senior

Chronic pain is a lot more serious than many people realize. It can reduce your elderly family member’s mobility, affect her sleep, make her more prone to falling, and affect her emotionally. There are very few parts of your senior’s life that are left untouched if she is facing chronic pain. That’s why dealing with chronic pain is about more than just trying to relieve the pain.

Get to Know Your Senior’s Signs of Increased Pain

What does it look like when your aging family member’s pain is ramping up? Is she having more trouble with mobility? Or is she more irritable than usual? If your aging family member is avoiding moving or seems more lethargic than usual, pain could be behind those actions. Talk with your elderly family member about what she is experiencing and how it affects her daily life so that you have a deeper understanding of what is going on.

Talk with Her Medical Providers about Possible Relief

There might be pain relieving techniques that your senior hasn’t tried yet, especially if this pain is new for her. Talk with her doctors about what might work for her and what she could try. For some seniors, becoming more active can be helpful, but she might need more help doing that. 24-hour home care can assist your elderly family member in rebuilding her mobility safely.

Make Life Easier in General for Your Senior

It’s a good idea to do whatever you can to make life easier in general for your elderly family member. That might mean helping her to put easy menus together or even outsourcing meal preparation to 24-hour home care providers. Whatever is causing the most difficulty for your senior right now has a solution, you might just have to look at it from a different angle.

Ensure She Has Support Around the Clock

Chronic pain is something that your senior may find is starting to affect her at all hours of the day and night. It might be beneficial for her to have 24-hour home care available overnight when she’s having trouble sleeping and needs help. It’s equally helpful to have caregivers available during the day to help with transportation and other complications.

Managing pain involves coming up with a plan that is flexible enough to adapt to your senior’s situation and thorough enough to account for all of the variables she’s likely to encounter. That type of planning is a lot easier to do when you’ve got experienced help along the way.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/treating-pain-elderly

If you or an aging loved one is considering 24-hour home care in St. Paul, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

Your dad lives alone, and it’s getting hard for him to manage his daily routine without a helping hand. Have you looked into senior home care services? They’re an excellent partner to an older adult’s desire to age in place.

What Do Home Care Aides Do?

A home care aide can help your dad with many of his daily tasks. If he needs help getting in and out of the bathtub for his morning shower, his caregiver is there to lend a helping hand. Once he’s showered, if he needs someone to help trim his toenails, apply skin cream, or get dressed, his caregiver is there.

When it comes to housework, a caregiver can vacuum carpets, sweep hardwood or tile floors, clean counters and sinks, and dust furnishings. His caregiver can change your dad’s bedding and towels, put things in the laundry, and make up the bed with clean sheets. When the wash is done, senior home care can fold everything and put the items away.

Does your dad still drive? If not, how often do you have to take a day off to bring him to his appointments or take him shopping? Hire a caregiver to take him to area businesses, stores, and medical offices. If your dad just wants to take a scenic drive on a sunny day, that’s always possible.

A senior home care aide can help your dad remember when it’s time to take his medications. He won’t forget to take a dose. And, his caregivers can also remind him when it’s time to order a refill. If he needs to see his doctor to get his prescription renewed, that’s also an option.

Caregivers can cook meals for your dad. If he doesn’t cook or has a hard time preparing the meats and vegetables needed for the meals he wants to eat, his caregiver can cook meals for him. They’ll plan menus together, shop for ingredients together, and make the meals and snacks. Your dad has company while he eats, too.

Companionship is a major benefit of senior home care. Your dad doesn’t have to be alone all day. His caregiver is there to watch movies with, talk to, or play games with if your dad likes playing cards or other multiplayer games.

Sit Down With Your Dad and Other Family Members

Gather the family for a talk about senior home care. If your dad or others in the family have questions, write them down. You want to make sure you ask them when you talk to a home care expert. The more involved your dad is in the discussions, the easier the transition is for him.

Now that you have a list of questions, call a senior home care specialist. Go over your questions and make sure you understand the services, pricing, and schedules. Once you know what your dad needs and how often he should have a caregiver, book senior home care visits.

If you or an aging loved one is considering senior home care in Coon Rapids, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

People age differently. What may be easy for one person can be frustrating for another. Health issues create difficulties with activities of daily living. Loneliness and isolation impact how safe or confident you feel. If you haven’t stopped to consider the importance of home care, it’s time.

As you get older, confidence can decrease. A chronic health condition can leave you stressed. If it’s a serious condition that impacts your safety, living alone adds to that stress and uncertainty.

New aches and pains can impact mobility. As it gets harder to move around, it can be harder to do things you used to do with ease. Home care providers can help with all of this.

They Assist With Daily To-Do Lists

Your dad has several medications to take during the day. He’s good about taking his morning pills with breakfast, but he often forgets mid-afternoon pills. With a caregiver’s help, your dad won’t forget when it’s time to take his next pill.

Home care providers also assist with personal care, grooming, and hygiene. If your mom has a hard time washing, brushing, and styling her hair due to arthritis in the hands, home care aides can help. They also assist with oral care, toileting, dressing, and ambulation.

Home Care Providers Help With Housekeeping

Arthritis pain is typically managed with over-the-counter pain medications, icy/warm ointments, and regular exercise. When arthritis pain flares up, it can make it difficult to walk around. When the washer and dryer are in a basement, carrying a basket of laundry up and down basement stairs is unappealing.

Home care providers help with all aspects of light housekeeping and laundry. They can wash and dry clothing, bedding, and towels. They can run a vacuum, mop floors, wipe down surfaces, and dust furnishings. They’ll make beds, replace towels, and tidy up clutter.

They Provide the Socialization Your Parents Need

Your parents may be alone, but they don’t have to be lonely. Companionship services are an essential part of home care. Your parents have caregivers stopping by for conversation and engaging trips to local stores, museums, and theaters.

If your parents don’t like to eat alone. Caregivers can help with meal preparation and join your parents for the meal.

Home care aides offer the chance to age at home without struggling to stay safe, happy, and confident. Talk to your parents about their daily routines. Find out where they struggle and hire home care aides to help with those tasks.

If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in Minnetonka, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.

Every senior’s situation is a bit different, but there are similarities in how they respond to certain facts. Your elderly family member may intellectually know that she needs some extra help, but that doesn’t make that help easy to receive.

Your Senior Is Just Used to Doing Things Herself

One of the most common reasons for seniors to argue against help from elder care providers is that they’re just used to handling everything on their own. This is especially true if your elderly family member has been doing well for a long time. It’s difficult to admit that some tasks are getting tougher and even that she’s getting older.

She’s Worried about Her Privacy

People who are private and who have lived alone for a long time might very easily balk at having someone else in their space, even to help them. This is especially true if your elderly family member now needs help with personal tasks, like bathing and getting dressed. There are a lot of feelings that this can dredge up for your senior, so it helps if you can listen to her and help her to work through them.

She’s Concerned She’ll Lose Her Independence

Many times, aging adults are concerned that having someone else helping them means that they will no longer be able to be independent. Your senior may worry that elder care providers will take over all of their decisions and choices, and that she will be stuck in a situation she doesn’t want to be in. This isn’t how it works, and you might have to give your senior time to see this happening for herself.

It’s Difficult to Accept Help, Even if She Needs It

The bottom line is that it can be awfully difficult to accept help at all for some people. Beyond just being used to doing things for herself, your senior may have never felt as if she had anyone she could trust who could help her. That might be something that she has to do some inner work on, either with a therapist or as part of the process of accepting help from elder care providers.

Growing older is not always an easy and flowing process. Sometimes it really is difficult, especially when your senior needs help, but doesn’t want it. Try to be understanding with your senior and avoid giving her ultimatums, because those may not have the results you expect.

If you or an aging loved one is considering elder care in Burnsville, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.