How Does 24-hour Home Care Help Seniors with Dementia Feel Grounded?
Seniors who live with dementia can sometimes feel as if life is suddenly unpredictable or confusing. As the dementia progresses, those feelings of confusion often grow. One of the best ways that family caregivers can help their aging adults with dementia to feel more comfortable and safe is through consistent daily routines. 24-hour home care providers can help families develop routines and support that seniors with dementia need so badly.
Routines and Dementia
Dementia affects cognitive abilities like solving problems, regulating emotions, memory, and more. As dementia continues to worsen, those issues also worsen. Unfamiliar environments or changes in what they expect can be really upsetting for seniors with dementia. Routines, on the other hand, help seniors with dementia to know what to expect. They create a predictable situation, which reduces anxiety and lets seniors with dementia feel a sense of control over what is happening. Routines anchor them in what is happening now, rather than leaving them to worry about what might happen.
24-hour Home Care Supports Consistent Routines
Aging in place is possible for seniors with dementia, especially if they have some help along the way. Family caregivers may find that it gets tougher as dementia progresses to keep up with routines, especially when seniors start to have more trouble with sleep issues, wandering, or other difficult behaviors. When home care providers are available around the clock, they can help seniors with dementia to eat meals on time, establish consistent sleep and wake times, and handle daily hygiene activities on a set schedule.
What Do Routines Look Like?
The best part about these routines is that they adapt to meet the preferences and needs of the seniors receiving care. A sample day might include waking up with gentle reminders instead of a scary alarm, followed by daily grooming tasks. Seniors might then have breakfast and engage in activities like reading the paper or listening to music. Mornings might leave some more flexibility for a variety of different activities that rotate based on the day. Lunch at a consistent time helps to stimulate appetite when seniors with dementia might have trouble eating. Afternoon activities can be similar to morning ones, followed by a healthy dinner and evening wind-down activities. All of that should lead to a bedtime routine at around the same time every day.
Personalized Care Adjusts to Meet Needs
In the beginning stages of dementia, morning and afternoon activities might be less structured and more independent. Or seniors might wake up on their own, without reminders. As dementia progresses, the help that 24-hour home care providers offer can adjust to meet those new needs. They might help to set up activities more often or go with seniors on afternoon walks, for example.
The right help is going to offer seniors with dementia the support they need with whatever tasks are more difficult for them, without infringing on their independence. 24-hour home care providers offer the flexible assistance that seniors and family caregivers need to manage the demands of life with dementia.
