Aging at home can be a wonderful experience that helps you maintain your independence while getting help from others when needed. But it also comes with some challenges, including increased medical and physical needs. If you’re caring for an aging parent or other loved one at home, you know how stressful it can be to juggle their care while still managing your life and responsibilities.
Having reliable in-home care services on hand can help lighten the burden of these tasks by providing companionship, emotional support, transportation assistance, meal preparation, and medication reminders.
In this article, we will highlight some common stumbling blocks that elders may encounter while seeking to age while remaining in the comfort of their homes and how in-home care can supplement dignified aging.
The Challenges of Aging At Home
It can be tough to navigate aging at home if you are an elder living on your own, and while most of these challenges include those of a physical nature, growing more frail and incapacitated can often negatively impact the emotional headspace of you or your loved one. The list of challenges that accompanies aging at home on your own or with a relative as a carer include:
Lack of physical support to conduct everyday activities such as bathing or doing house chores
Lack of support in running errands or maintaining the household
Lack of emotional support as motor skills and coordination start to fail, rendering elders helpless or feeling inadequate
These may necessitate that you seriously consider senior care or hiring a part-time or around the clock caregiver.
Offers In-Home Emotional Support and Companionship
Caregivers are not only there to help you with your daily tasks, but they can also provide companionship and emotional support. Companionship is vital for the emotional well-being of older adults.
The risk of depression, social isolation, and other mental health issues is reduced when a person has someone who cares about them in their life. In addition, it’s been shown that having someone around such as a caregiver, who is willing to listen or help with simple tasks can reduce stress levels, which may also lead to better physical health overall.
Addresses Your Loved One’s Personal Senior Care Needs
Home health care aides can also help with personal care needs, such as bathing and dressing, and other self-grooming activities, which are among the most time-consuming responsibilities of an aging adult. All these are vital to maintaining the dignity of aging adults into their golden years.
Home health care aides can assist with this critical task by helping you into the tub or shower, providing soap and shampoo (if needed), washing areas like your hair or face that may be difficult for you to reach yourself, rinsing off the soap suds with warm water before getting out of the tub/shower--and drying off after getting out!
Dressing involves putting on clothes covering all parts of your body except the head, hands, and feet; some people find it easier if they wear socks first so they don’t slip while putting on shoes later on in their dressing routine.
If someone has trouble dressing due to arthritis or other mobility issues explicitly related to upper extremity movement limitations, then hiring an aide who specializes in dressing assistance would be advisable because they possess special training which enables them to provide better quality care services compared to general caregivers who are not trained specifically towards assisting clients during these types of situations.
In-Home Aides Help With Everyday Activities
Home health care aides help with transportation, meal preparation, and medication reminders. They can also help you prepare for your day by preparing breakfast or lunch before leaving the house.
If your loved one cannot cook on their own anymore, a home health aide can prepare meals for them every day so that they don’t have to worry about what they’ll eat each morning when they wake up.
A home health care worker may even be able to assist in preparing frozen meals ahead of time so that there is less work involved when cooking during their off hours (or whenever else they might be available).
Aging at Home For Your Independence
As you age, you may find daily life tasks become more challenging. In home care can help you maintain independence and live in your home for as long as possible. Home health aides are trained to assist with transportation, meal preparation, and medication reminders so that you don’t have to worry about these things when it’s time for them to be done.
They also provide for your personal care needs and other self-grooming activities, which they render with gentle care and dignity. Professional caregivers are also trained in proper CPR techniques for elderly patients who need assistance during home health care visits, which means that you are in good hands in the event of an emergency.
Our name literally implies that we’d like to retain your comfort at any expense. Our carers are highly trained and pass the compassion test with flying colors, and we would value the opportunity to render compassionate care to your loved one.
We hope this article has given you some insight into the benefits of aging at home. As we mentioned, it’s important to know what kind of care services are available in your area and how much they cost. If you want to go with us at Comfort Keepers, contact us today! We’ll be happy to answer any questions or concerns that may arise along the way so that when it comes time for those first visits from our caregivers (or anyone else), they’ll be able to get started on their new normal with ease.
