Home Care Addresses Social Isolation Worries

Dignity Care - Home Care Addresses Social Isolation Worries

A recent Harvard School of Public Health study published in The American Journal of Public Health suggests that “strong social ties, through friends, family and community groups can preserve our brain health as we age and that social isolation may be an important risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly.” The study also indicated that those elderly engaged in many social contacts had the slowest rate of memory decline.

home care social isolation

For elderly persons living alone, maintaining that social contact becomes extremely difficult.  Remaining in one’s home always seems like a wonderful goal but it can bring unintended consequences, the most common one being isolation.  The less able one is to get out and around (or drive), the more they stay at home, alone and out of touch, the fewer activities they are involved in, and the more they withdraw into themselves.  This hastens decline, both physically and mentally, which keeps them home even more – a vicious downward spiral.

Using in-home care services is one way to introduce people into their daily lives, and offer the possibility of connections and relationships.  Our caregivers often establish strong bonds with their clients, bonds that enrich both of their lives.  Although the caregiver starts out as a support and helper for the client, it is not unusual for the relationship to evolve into one where the caregiver is learning from the life stories of the client, where they both share laughs or worries about life, where the client can offer advice and wisdom.  The social contact becomes as important as the caregiving tasks that are getting completed.  The hours the caregivers spends in the house bring energy, connection, the outside world.  Caregivers help ward off the social isolation and the decline that comes with it.

 

Caregivers Forced to Choose Between Caring for a Loved One and a Job

Dignity Care

At least 42 percent of U.S. workers have been caregivers for aging loved ones in the last five years. In fact, most family caregivers work full or part-time while caring for their parent, spouse, aunt, uncle, or other loved one.

jugging your job and caring for a loved one

The majority (68 percent) of family caregivers report making work accommodations because of caregiving duties including: arriving late/leaving early or taking time off, cutting back on work hours, changing jobs or stopping work entirely.

If this is you, you understand the challenge of juggling work and caregiving.  You’ll want to know that AARP is fighting for workplace flexibility, like family leave or paid or unpaid sick leave, to support family caregivers as they balance work and caregiving responsibilities.  AARP is pushing for legislation that would:

  • Let employees use their existing sick time to help care for a family member; or
  • Give employees a few hours of unpaid time each year to help care for their loved ones; or
  • Allow employees unpaid leave to take their loved ones to the doctor, in the same way 15 states allow employees to take unpaid time off to attend parent-teacher conferences and school events.

Video from AARP

 

Medication Tips For Seniors – Caregiver Information

Dignity Care - Medication Tips For Seniors - Caregiver Information

Did you know that nearly one-third of the population has difficulty swallowing pills? Most people don’t swallow pills correctly. This often results in gagging, choking, and vomiting, which usually results in people not taking their medications at all, or not taking the recommended dosage, which then results in a need for later additional medical care.

If you are caring for a senior who has trouble swallowing their pills, here are some medication tips and some good news. Researchers have found new techniques that make pill-popping easier, even for large pills.

German researchers recently tested two methods of swallowing pills and found that 80% of the time these methods worked better than the normal way of taking a pill. The first is the “pop-bottle method,” and it makes tablets go down with ease. The second is the “lean-forward technique,” which sends capsules straight down the throat. Both have been rigorously tested by 151 volunteers who swallowed numerous dummy pills for the sake of science. And now they are being shared with the world via their publication in the Annals of Family Medicine.

Read about each method so you can try it yourself or have the senior you are caring for try it. Just may make life a little easier for you both.