Old age is a phase wherein elderly individuals need safety and comfort so they can live a healthy life without worries. Unfortunately, if the family members of an old person lack awareness about their changing behavioral patterns, they might abuse the elderly. Thus, elders need someone to understand and provide for their needs and concerns so they can enjoy their old age.
Aging isn’t something anybody can prevent. However, as a family member, you must learn with arising conditions to sustain the good health of the elderly. You should assist them as they deal with memory and hearing loss, osteoarthritis, diabetes, dementia, and depression.
In this article, you’ll learn five effective ways to ensure the safety and comfort of your family members.
Contents
1 Protect Their Hard-Earned Assets
One of the major signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease among seniors is their forgetfulness in paying their monthly bills. These memory-related conditions put the elderly at risk for both financial abuse and mismanaged personal finances. Even when they don’t develop this health concern, they might still struggle with their financial issues.
Here are four ways you can do to quickly act on protecting their assets:
- Block calls from scammers: As a family member, you must stand up to immediately protect the hard-earned assets of your aging loved one. You should talk to them as often as possible so you can discuss their need to protect their finances during early-stage dementia. Also, you must prevent elder abuse by blocking potential calls from scammers.
- Set automatic payments: Another easy thing you must do is set up automatic payments for your aging loved ones. Doing so enables you to have their rent, bills, and credit card payments automatically taken care of. If they continue to overspend, you should provide them with preloaded bank cards instead of debit or credit cards.
- Check their real estate assets: If your parents have real estate properties, you should take some time to learn about them. This strategy allows you to understand their financial ambitions when they start investing in these assets. The insights you’ll receive will enable you to guide them as they plan for their future.
- Talk to an elder lawyer: This strategy allows you to establish a living trust who can legally manage the assets of your elder loved ones. This person will guide you in safely and effectively managing your estate. As a result, you should follow their instructions when the elderly aren’t capable of handling their financial affairs due to dementia.
You may also consider signing up on WayWiser and others to effectively safeguard their financial independence so they can live their best lives. This app is currently developing new product features to protect your senior family members as they age. This tool will guard access and detect fraudulent attempts to their most susceptible assets with the help of art machine learning.
2 Stay Updated On The Latest Technology
With recent technological innovations, there will always be new equipment that can enhance every aspect of care your loved one must receive. For instance, you may assist them as they book an appointment with their doctor. More so, you may consider investing in virtual reality (VR) tools for seniors who suffer from Alzheimer’s and a cloud-enabled fall detection wristwatch.
Another new gadget you can invest in is a proactive cognitive artificial intelligence (AI) product. This equipment initiates conversations to help your seniors stay in touch with their relatives. In turn, they’re likely to engage in healthier behaviors that’d motivate them to take daily medication.
If your elder family member suffers from fur allergies, you can give them a robotic pet. This tool was intended to foster meaningful connections with the person as they play with them. That said, your loved one will receive companionship and calmness, which can boost their happiness.
You can also invest in a toilet seat with sensors that can easily determine the identity of its user. Then, it’ll scan the bowl to identify its size, frequency, consistency, and color. As a result, you’ll receive insights about the health of your seniors so they can prevent extreme illnesses.
You may also register on a cloud-based platform that improves the health and wellness of the patient. The emergency voice call-out and fall detection of this technology will provide you with a subtle way to track their falls. Also, it’ll monitor their vital signs like respiratory and heart rate, physical activity, and oxygen saturation.
3 Allow Them To Socialize
Humans are social beings that are reflected in their behaviors. When surrounded by like-minded individuals, they can function better. However, seniors are likely to isolate themselves, which may lead to negative effects on their family members and friends.
Active socialization is one of the best ways for the elderly to enhance their mental well-being. This component improves their cognition, mood, memory recall, and healthy behaviors. That said, you must create new opportunities for them to play a role in your family and your community.
Here are common solutions you can take to successfully improve the social life of your senior loved one:
- Increase your quality time with them: Spending time with the elderly will help them feel valued. Thus, you must share their wisdom with your relatives once a week or call them as much as possible if you can’t be there with them. Their stories of the past will give you relevant insights, which can significantly affect and guide your life.
- Suggest hosting friends: If your loved one is showing signs of isolation and loneliness, you must reach out to their friends so they can hang out together.
- Promote outdoor activities: Allow your senior family member to join you on weekly trips to the grocery store. Then, you may consider watching a movie with them at home or the cinema. Also, you can take them on a five-minute stroll in a nearby park so they can get some fresh air.
- Encourage joining a club or practicing volunteerism: Volunteering is an easy way to keep the brain working, which can boost their mental health. That said, you must encourage your senior loved one to join a volunteer organization like a church, library, or theater. Alternatively, you can suggest to them to join clubs like a senior fitness class or bookworms, which promotes social interaction.
4 Coordinate Your Care
Seniors with complex medical issues require professional assistance that’ll safely manage their health. They should see multiple specialists and doctors from various fields. More so, they might need to take multiple medications, have several medical appointments weekly, and require assistance inside their houses.
With professional care coordination for seniors, you’ll ensure that you’ll receive the assistance you need to take good care of your relatives. This type of service involves multiple medical experts who’ll specialize in the health of the elderly. This team will help the patient meet their medical needs, supply the needed resources, and update the care team.
With care coordination for seniors, doctors will stay informed about the progress of the medical condition of your family member. This strategy will save the patient and your family from redundant screening, testing, and treatment, which might be expensive. More so, their team of physicians will always receive updates on the shift in medication and medical history.
Coordinating your care with a professional service provider will ensure that your senior family member will gain better healthcare outcomes. Since patients are more satisfied with personalized and streamlined care packages, you can expect your loved ones to improve their mood. As a result, you won’t have to constantly deal with their ever-changing behaviors that might stain your relationship with them.
5 Modify Your Home
Deciding which type of care your senior family member needs can be a challenging task. You might be considering putting them away so healthcare professionals can monitor their conditions. Alternatively, you’re analyzing the stress of keeping them at home since you can afford to provide them with technological tools.
One positive thing about keeping your aging loved one at home is you’d all enjoy family time together. Doing so can eliminate the feeling of loneliness they might feel if you send them away. Furthermore, this type of care provides them with a friendly environment where they can feel wanted and useful.
If memory loss starts developing, your senior loved one will live in a family surrounding. As a result, they’ll produce feelings of peace and a sense of control as they deal with the illness. Otherwise, moving them to a whole new different place will be stressful and can disrupt their normal routine.
If your elderly family member isn’t showing signs of complex medical symptoms, you must consider keeping them at home. Consequently, you’ll have to make sure your house is a safe place where your aging family member will thrive. Thus, you should widen doorways and hallways to accommodate a wheelchair and place a waterproof seat in the shower to prevent falls.
Key Takeaway
As a person ages, they might develop severe health symptoms. That said, you should take some time to modify your home and coordinate your care to a professional provider. Then, you must allow them to practice active socialization and provide them with up-to-date devices to improve your support.
