How Can I Help My Elderly Parents Stay At Home: 12 best ways

You click on this topic because you have some elderly parents who need care and attention or maybe your friend is having to deal with their parents and you thought you could proffer solutions to them.

So if you are among those who search for “How can I help my elderly parents stay at home”, then you are in luck because we concluded a survey on this and have compiled our results in this article.

The truth is; that people grow with time, we can’t stay young forever, the very young and vibrant people we grew together with have now become old, and as that we must learn to take care of them just as they did for us.

While our parents experience these natural changes, it can also affect us too, because we are now the active demographic who should take care of them, these recent changes can affect our work, our personal family, or even our way of life.

So knowing how to help our elderly parents stay at home will go a long way to bringing us both peace and stability, read through and learn from the experience of others, we hope the answers here will also help you out.

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Understanding Trapped Caring for an elderly parent

Think of a situation where you feel trapped in a manner where things are not moving the way they should. It is often characterized by being worried about what is going to happen next.

You may feel trapped caring for the elderly when you have unrealistic expectations of them and yourself.

This may also happen when you expect how the elderly should act without considering what they are capable of handling.

It often results in disappointment and frustration when you try to control them.  Fortunately, you will learn how to avoid and overcome being trapped caring for an elderly parent.

Caring for elderly parents at home benefits

This is a situation where you share a home with your parents and possibly with other members of your family.

Caring for elderly parents at home is different from having your elderly parents at a retirement facility.

It requires taking direct responsibility for their well-being with love, patience, care and commitment.

Here are the benefits of helping your elderly mom and dad stay at home;

• Increased bonding and trust.
• Improved mental health for all concerned.
• Transfer of inter-generational experiences.
• Lessen burden.

How can I help my elderly parents stay at home?

You can easily do this by following the instructions below;

• Regular visits /Pay Attention
• Agree with them
• Check their medications
• Consider hiring a help
• Provide food suitable for the elderly
• Personal and environmental hygiene
• Modify their homes
• Discuss their finances with them
• Consider hiring a driver
• Help them secure/ update their documents
• Engage them
• Draw a schedule

Regular visits /Pay Attention

Often times the elderly live in the village while their young ones reside in the city. Sometimes they could all be in the same locality, in the same or different houses.

Whichever setting, it is important to visit them regularly and pay attention to them, even if they live in the same house as you, it is important to see them before you go out and when you come back.

The elderly parents welcome this social interaction with joy and a high sense of satisfaction. These visits and attention would give you a good indication of their level of safety, health, and general well-being.

During your visit, it’s always best to check around the house for any issues that may need to be addressed such as the overall cleanliness of the house or if anything is broken that may need to be fixed. Also, do a routine check of their food supply, laundry, mail, and plants.”

Agree with them

It is important to note that being elderly does not make them stupid or fools, which means that their opinion counts in everything that concerns them.

Many of them who were very energetic and intelligent young persons still see themselves as such. This could make them refuse some care on the grounds that they can take of themselves and make brilliant decisions too.

So you must agree with them as well as factor their decisions in the cause of taking care of them. That would help you win their trust to allow you to take care of them.

Sometimes they see themselves as a burden to those taking care of them. So you must agree with them to accept the reality of being old. When you agree with them on the modality of taking care of them, they cooperate tremendously.

Trying to agree with them would help you assess their mental status and know when to seek medical help.

Check their medications

Go through their medication to confirm that they are available and properly prescribed. Ensure there are prescribed refills when there are stockouts.

If you are in Nigeria, use the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) mobile authentication code on the drug pack to confirm the drug as genuine. If the drug is counterfeit, report it to (NAFDAC).

To avoid over or under-dosing, you should have a chat with the elderly and any other caregiver around to assess their knowledge of the medication/dosage.  “If they are on a number of medications, it is best to buy a pillbox organizer with compartments labeled with the days of the week as well as AM and PM doses.

This can help simplify their medication-taking process, make out time to visit the hospital with the elderly so as to interact with the Doctor, Pharmacist, and Other Health Care Professionals about the diagnosis, prognosis, drug interaction, adverse drug effects, home tasks and schedule for the next hospital visit.

You click on this topic because you have some elderly parents who need care and attention or maybe your friend is having to deal with their parents and you thought you could proffer solutions to them.

So if you are among those who search for “How can I help my elderly parents stay at home”, then you are in luck because we concluded a survey on this and have compiled our results in this article.

The truth is; that people grow with time, we can’t stay young forever, the very young and vibrant people we grew together with have now become old, and as that we must learn to take care of them just as they did for us.

While our parents experience these natural changes, it can also affect us too, because we are now the active demographic who should take care of them, these recent changes can affect our work, our personal family, or even our way of life.

So knowing how to help our elderly parents stay at home will go a long way to bringing us both peace and stability, read through and learn from the experience of others, we hope the answers here will also help you out.

Consider hiring a help

You are probably asking How can I help my elderly parents stay at home because you haven’t gotten a helper.

Considering the nature of your schedule, you may need to hire someone to help take care of your elderly.

They do not need to be left lonely all through the day; someone should be there to take their calls and attend to their domestic needs like using the toilet, bathing, dressing up, feeding, taking medications, laundry, housekeeping, and other errands.

You can even visit any of the accredited massage therapy schools in the world and hire the services of a massage therapist who can help them out.

Providing these for the elderly is a full-time job, you should consider hiring help. More still, having someone always would help keep them away from depression and lighten the burden of aging for them and other members of the family.

Provide food suitable for the elderly

Just like infants, the elderly should be given priority in feeding in the home. They often small quantity of food but it must be consistent so that they would gain the required nutrients.

However, they must eat healthy foods with adequate calories, you must bear in mind that they are less active due to their age and as such, they should not overfeed. so as to help them to remain healthy without putting on weights.

You should consider drawing food rosters for them to maintain healthy feeding and timely too, you can search for the best culinary schools near you and employ some professional chefs to assist.

Most elderly persons feed better when the food is easy to chew and easy to swallow. Therefore there food should be soft but not in liquid form except when it is necessary.

Chewing is an important activity in feeding because it exercises the jaw muscles and allows the food to mix well with the saliva for enhanced digestion. So the elderly would be on liquid food only when it is necessary.

Personal and environmental hygiene

The elderly are like flowers, they blossom when you manure and water them; they also wither when you neglect them.  Good personal and environmental hygiene can help your elderly parents stay at home when they would find the home a happy place to be.

Their personal hygiene would require good oral hygiene, bathing, nail cutting, and shaving.

These would make them feel refreshed and energetic, having them on clean clothes and bedspread would make them happy and improves their self-esteem.

Environmental hygiene can help your elderly parents stay at home when their bedrooms, bathroom, and living room are clean, odorless, and rodent-free.

You would also ensure that the outdoor surroundings are kept clean for them to enjoy clean air.

Modify their homes

Making good assessments and modifying their homes are ways you can help your elderly parents stay at home. Their quality of life improves as long as the home is safe and suits their daily routine.

Therefore, you must assess the home and identify potential barriers and hazards with a view to modifying them.

Some of such modifications are;

• Installing a ramp for wheelchairs or walkers.
• Installing handrails and grab bars at the toilet and shower.
• Installing a raised toilet.
• Testing (or installing) smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.
• Checking the overall lighting in the house to make sure it is bright enough.
• Plugging in a few auto-sensor nightlights throughout the home so they are able to see if they
• Wake up at night.
• Make sure there are non-skid mats or strips in the shower or bathtub or any other potentially
• Slippery areas of the house.
• Removing extra clutter that is lying around or furniture that is in the way.
• Removing small rugs.
• Make sure cables, cords, and wires are safely tucked away to prevent potential falls.

Discuss their finances with them

Sometimes the elderly are afraid of being taken advantage of financially.

They could be afraid of running out of cash, sometime, they could want to save for their decedents.

In some instances, they totally forget about their finances, for these reasons or more they often do not want to talk about their finances.

Discussing their finances with them would help the caregiver work within the budget as well as give the elderly some assurance that their resources carter for their expenses.

Consider hiring a driver

Assessing the ability of the elderly to drive and operate machines is very important to prevent misuse and accident.

So hiring a driver for them would keep them away from possible accidents. This would also help your elderly parents stay at home as their movement would be tailored appropriately.

Help them secure/ update their documents

The elderly would need to secure or update their documents like retirement documents, wills, and so on, with governmental or non-governmental organizations.

Helping them in these areas would give peace of mind to the elderly and their family member as well as help your elderly parents stay at home.

Engage them

The elderly needs to be kept active with some fun activities like indoor games, little tasks like hand knitting, and social interactions with family members and visitors.

So keeping them active can help your elderly parents stay at home.

Draw a schedule

This will help them become orderly.

Drawing a schedule of their activities each day like time to bath, eat, medications, and sleep.

The schedule should contain their interest areas like time to be visited by the doctor, other health professionals, priests, friends, etc.

Frequently asked questions

[sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0=”h3″ question-0=”How can I avoid stress while taking care of my elderly parents?” answer-0=”You can avoid stress when you follow these steps: itemizing the daily tasks involved, sharing tasks with others concerned, finding time to take care of yourself” image-0=”” headline-1=”h3″ question-1=”What to do when your elderly parents can’t walk??” answer-1=”These are some of the steps you can take when your parents can’t walk; call for a medical examination, consider helping to aid adjustments and movements, involve a physical therapist, consider the use of a wheelchair and other walking aids, consider bath room, and toilet modifications as well as the use of adult diapers” image-1=”” headline-2=”h3″ question-2=”What to do when your elderly parents can’t eat??” answer-2=”Ensure there are no further medical challenges like dental problems, sour throat, or drugs side effects, feed them nutritious food in small quantities up to 5 or 6 times a day, provide them with easy-to-chew food, provide them with healthy snacks and smoothies, keep a record of what works, maintain their feeding schedule” image-2=”” count=”3″ html=”true” css_class=””]

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Conclusion

This brings us to the end of the article on: How can I help my elderly parents stay at home, we hope you got value.

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