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Six Tips for Easing the Transition Into Home Care

As seniors start to need more help, their feelings about having help might start to become a little more rigid. It’s tough to accept help when someone has been independent for a long time. Finding ways to make the transition to accepting home care services takes a little experimentation, but family caregivers can try some of these ideas.

Keep Communication Open

Talking about what to expect with elder care, what the concerns are, and what preferences seniors have can do a lot to make the situation easier to accept. Keeping the lines of communication open and caring allows seniors to feel like they still have a choice. It’s important that seniors do know that this is something to help them, not to limit them.

Assess Care Needs

Each senior’s situation requires something different from family caregivers, from home care providers, and from other types of assistance. Fully assessing these care needs might involve talking to doctors, talking to the senior who needs help, and looking more closely at safety risks in the home. Getting a thorough picture allows caregivers to tailor assistance as needed.

Create a Comfortable Environment

Aging in place is so important because home is where seniors feel comfortable and safe. The idea of moving can feel traumatic, even if it’s just an idea. Keeping seniors in their homes means ensuring that home is both safe and comfortable, even as their health and their needs change. Home care assistance can help seniors stay on top of this.

Establish Structured Routines

It’s tough for seniors to have the stability they need in their daily lives if they don’t have structured routines to lean on. Home care providers can do a great job of helping seniors establish routines that meet their needs and that are comfortable and flow. Good routines help seniors get the sleep they need, eat meals at regular intervals, and address other needs along the way.

Offer Emotional Support

Seniors may not realize just how much emotional support they need while they age in place. It’s possible that they have fewer social interactions than they did in the past, and that means finding new ways to meet those needs. There are also new emotions involved in aging in place, even when that’s something seniors want to do. Home care providers understand and are able to offer emotional support when seniors need it most.

Continue to Adjust Care Plans

No care plan is perfect, especially over time. Needs change and plans need to change as well in order to keep up. Elder care providers continue to work with seniors and family caregivers to ensure that proper needs assessments are up to date and that resources to meet those needs are available.

Transitioning into home care services can be a big milestone for aging adults. This type of care allows seniors to stay in their own homes, with elder care professionals taking over tasks that are becoming difficult. The goal is always to keep seniors healthy, comfortable, and safe, especially in their own homes.

If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in Tempe, AZ, please call the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Scottsdale at (480) 284-7360. We are here to help!

Four Tips for Promoting Independent Living for Your Senior

Many aging adults are finding that they want to maintain their independence for the foreseeable future, but maybe aren’t sure how to accomplish that. There are several things that you can do that help her, without taking over and without reducing her independence in any way. If you’re careful, you can find the right combination for her and still make sure that her needs are met, especially with the help of home care.

Identify Physical and Health Challenges That Affect Independence

One of the challenges that can affect your senior’s ability to age in place and to remain independent can be her health. If she already has chronic health conditions, that may cause her to feel as if there’s no way that she can be as independent as she would like to be. Work with her doctor to determine what changes she can make in order to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

Assess Your Senior’s Social Situation

Home Care in Tempe AZ
Home Care in Tempe AZ

Your senior’s social situation impacts her overall health far more than either of you might realize. Loneliness and depression can very quickly arise with isolation, and your senior’s health issues may cause her to isolate or may make it difficult to continue the activities that made up her social life.

Assess Fall Risk and Put a Fall Prevention Plan Together

It’s vital that you understand your senior’s risk of falling. Her health and her mental and emotional state can all impact her overall fall risk, which means you need a solid plan that accounts for all of her potential risks. Your senior’s fall prevention plan may need to change periodically to keep up with her changing needs and risk factors.

Consider Hiring Home Care Services

Hiring home care providers might sound counterintuitive when you’re trying to preserve your senior’s independence, but it’s actually an incredibly helpful step to take. There may be some areas that are literally just out of your senior’s abilities right now, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t continue to be as independent as she is able to be. She just needs a little help in specific areas, and home care can provide that.

Your senior’s needs and wishes will continue to change, but if you both work together you can craft a plan that keeps up with those changes and helps her to have the best quality of life possible. Ultimately, that’s all you really want for her at this stage of her life.

If you or an aging loved one is considering hiring home care in Tempe, AZ, please call the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Scottsdale at (480) 284-7360. We are here to help!