If your aging parent, other family member or close friend either lives on their own or is supporting or caring for another, you will naturally want to ensure they are experiencing a good quality of life, are healthy and happy, and feel comfortable with and confident in their responsibilities.
With this in mind, continue reading to learn how to best support your loved one as they get older.
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In Senior Living Facilities
If your loved one has already made the move to senior living- or assisted living facilities, then there will already be a number of safety procedures and medical, emotional, and physical support measures in place.
Furthermore, at prestigious, established, and renowned senior living facilities, special courses and groups have been created that can assist residents with any changes they are experiencing (either physically or mentally), with the aim of assisting people with mild cognitive impairment, helping with recovery from an operation, or even just helping them adapt to becoming older and less physically able.
At Home
If your aging loved one is still living independently at home, it is highly likely that they will continue to do so for many years to come and it may always be this way.
However, in terms of being there to support them, this can take many forms, and one of the most fundamental means of offering support is to offer assistance with anything and everything that appears to have become overly difficult, left to one side, or is taking substantially longer that it did before.
Tact is of the upmost priority in these situations and it is incredibly important to be as informal and casual as possible when offering your help, as it may well be difficult for your loved one to open up and admit they are struggling, even to their nearest and dearest.
Out and About
Obviously, freedom and independence are as important to the elderly as they are to children and people of all ages in-between; but as people get older, it can sometimes be hard to find the motivation to go far from the comfort of one’s own home, especially in the winter months.
Encourage your loved one to go shopping themselves rather than ordering in; ensure they are au fait and comfortable with a local cab service; and show them how to use the vast resources found on the internet to find a hobby group, walking club, or lunch-meet up that they will enjoy.
Excursions and Activities
The generalization that elderly people like nothing more than to be sat at home of an evening with a blanket, slippers, and reruns of I Love Lucy is widely inaccurate (in the vast majority of cases, anyway).
One of the best gestures you can undertake for your aging loved one is to create new and exciting memories with them—take them to the seaside, to national parks and woodlands, and to other areas of interest such as museums and art galleries. Stimulate their mind, create wonderful experiences, and encourage physical activity as much as possible to ensure their quality of life is strong.
Read also: Routinary Habits That Help Aging Loved Ones Stay Healthy