What does independence mean for your aging adult? That might be a question that you and she need to sit down and answer together. As your elderly family member grows older, she may fear that she’s losing more of her independence every day. This fear can cause her to become hyper-independent, making decisions that can lead to dangerous situations for her. But can you really help your elderly family member to maintain her independence?
Answer Safety Questions First
Anything that compromises your elderly family member’s safety is automatically a threat to her independence. Working with home care assistance can help your elderly family member to ensure that she’s addressing safety concerns before they become emergencies. Knowing that your senior has help available for safety issues helps you to feel more secure as well.
Increase Physical Activity
If your elderly family member is finding that she’s moving less and less than she used to, she may want to talk with her doctor about how much physical activity is okay for her. By becoming more active, your elderly family member increases her strength, her endurance, and her ability to remain as independent as she can. The key to sticking with any movement plan involves finding a physical activity that your senior enjoys doing so that she wants to keep going.
Keep Your Senior Socially Engaged
Social engagement is another key component of keeping your senior as independent as possible. As she grows older, it may be more difficult for her to stay as socially active as she used to be. Finding ways to make that easier for your senior to do on her own terms is essential. Elder care professionals can offer hands-on help while also making socializing easier and offering companionship themselves.
Help Her to Keep Her Brain Active
Finding ways to keep your senior’s brain firing also helps to preserve her independence. You can accomplish this goal in any number of different ways ranging from taking classes to reading more, playing games with friends, and staying social. Whatever keeps your elderly family member’s brain engaged is good for her, so find ways to incorporate more of those things into her daily life as much as possible.
Establish Routines That Support Your Senior’s Needs
Everyone has routines, even when they don’t realize they do. Your elderly family member may need to pay more conscious attention to routines as she grows older. Doing so is going to help her to hit all of her goals and targets, which is an important part of maintaining her independence. Home care assistance can be a crucial part of establishing and sticking with routines for your senior.
Remember that independence does not have to mean that your senior always does everything completely by herself. No one is completely independent, and that is true for your elderly family member, too. Having the help that she needs, when she needs it, is one of the biggest ways to help her to keep her independence for as long as possible.
If you are considering home care assistance in Summerlin, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.
Our caregivers and staff members treat our clients, residents, and their families with the utmost respect. Our focus is to provide the highest quality of care and service with compassion and dignity.
- Why Assisted Living is the Right Move for Your Senior - December 13, 2024
- Recognizing When Seniors Need Medical Advocacy - December 6, 2024
- 5 Signs Your Senior Could Benefit from Memory Care - November 24, 2024
