Interactive Caregiving

What are aspects of home care agencies that you should look for when choosing the right one for your loved one?

Q) If I want to maintain the highest quality of life for my mother, what should I look for in  home care agencies?
From a Concerned Daughter - Sarasota

A) The agency I know the best is Comfort Keepers. We take a distinctive approach to senior in-home care. It’s called Interactive CaregivingTM.
Interactive Caregiving helps clients reach a higher level of independence and quality of life. Our specially trained caregivers – our Comfort Keepers® – enhance their personal care, companionship and homemaking services with daily activities that keep clients engaged physically, mentally, socially and emotionally.

Research shows that seniors who stay actively engaged retain better cognitive function, stay healthier and live independently longer.

Comfort Keepers home care agencies tailor Interactive CaregivingTM to respect each client’s individuality, helping them stay engaged with life-long interests, such as hobbies and connections to organizations and friends in the community. Our caregivers are trained to do with a client, not for a client which fosters independence and engages them in life, as opposed to creating dependence.

Here’s how Interactive Caregiving benefits our clients:

Physical activity – Appropriate to each client’s ability, this may include shopping, a walk in the park or backyard, or dancing around the living room. Even moderate levels of physical activity have been shown to improve a senior’s overall physical and mental health. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control reports that exercise strengthens seniors and lessens their risk of falling. (More than a third of seniors fall each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.)

Social activity – This may include reminiscing, trips to church and events, hobbies, and helping clients stay in touch with friends. These activities boost seniors’ self-esteem and enjoyment of life. A Harvard School of Public Health study, reported in the July 2008 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, found that the most socially active seniors had the slowest rate of memory decline. Memory loss among the most socially engaged seniors was less than half that of the least engaged.

Mental stimulation – Comfort Keepers help clients exercise their minds with activities such as puzzles, talking about current events, arts and crafts, and reading. Mental engagement helps prevent depression and symptoms of dementia. The Memory and Aging Project at Rush University Medical Center – a study published in 2007 in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology – found that a cognitively active senior was 2.6 times less likely to develop dementia than a cognitively inactive senior.

The overall result: emotional well-being

Combining physical, social and mental engagement, Interactive Caregiving enables seniors to achieve and maintain sound emotional health. And sound emotional health gives seniors the confidence to stay active and socially engaged. It’s all connected.

We strive to Make Every Moment of Life Matter

You can learn more about our home care agencies' Interactive Caregiving at www.interactivecaregiving.com

For more information on our homecare agencies please email us at Sarasota@comfortkeepers.com or call us at (941) 921-4747.