Elder Care: Is your elderly loved one starting to feel as if they don’t see family members or friends as much?
It could be due to the Covid-19 pandemic or just the fact that people are so busy these days, they don’t have or make time to socialize. If your elderly loved one is feeling lonely, it is crucial that you help them to feel better. There are numerous ways that you and an elder care provider can help with this.
Making Plans Together
Are you the one who usually makes the plans for your elderly loved one? For example, maybe you make up all the plans and then, just tell your elderly loved one what is going to happen. If that is the case, maybe, you could do things a little differently from now on. It might be a good idea to start having your elderly loved one help make the plans. For instance, you could pick the time of when you are going to dinner with them and they could pick the restaurant. Just helping to make decisions could make your elderly loved one feel less alone.
Connecting Regularly
Do you find your own life to be full of appointments, work, and running errands? Are you making it over to your elderly loved one’s home less and less? This is normal. It happens. Life does often get in the way of socializing and visiting with loved ones. However, if your elderly loved one is feeling lonely, it may be a good idea to have companion care at home providers connect with them regularly. Just having someone come to their home and sit with them a few times a week could help to reduce their feelings of loneliness.
Having a Pet
If there aren’t many family members or friends in your elderly loved one’s life it is no wonder they are starting to feel lonely. However, there might be a solution – what about getting them a pet? It could be a guinea pig or a cat. Sometimes, dogs are a lot of work for senior citizens. However, cats and guinea pigs are a bit easier to take care of since your elderly loved one wouldn’t have to take them outdoors. If this is something you believe would help your elderly loved one to feel less alone, talk to them about it. See what they think. You or a home care provider could even help with the light cleaning it might take to pick up after the pet.
Conclusion
These are some of the best tips to help senior citizens to prevent or overcome loneliness. If your elderly loved one has been feeling lonely, let them know that you understand and want to help. Share these tips with them to see what they believe would or could help. Then, you and the companion care at home providers can work together to help your elderly loved one to start feeling less lonely.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Elder Care in Mount Laurel, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Attentive Care Inc. at 1-800-493-5660
Sources
https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older-adults.html
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/loneliness-and-social-isolation-tips-staying-connected