How To Help Your Elderly Parent Keep Their Independence In Old Age

One of the chief reasons why elderly people do not want to go into care homes is because they fear that they will lose their independence and become far too reliant on a system that may not support their independence. This is something that was pretty much confirmed in research by the Live In Care Hub (www.liveincarehub.co.uk), which you can read in their Better At Home Report. With that in mind, continue reading to discover some of the steps you can take to help your parent maintain his or her independence.

Determine what their care needs are

The first thing you are going to need to do is figure out what their care needs are. While you have opted not to send your parent to a care home, it is likely that they are still going to need a bit of outside assistance. This could be in the form of a carer who comes in throughout the week or it could simply be a bit of help from family members in terms of getting around. You should think about the tasks your parent needs to carry out on a daily or weekly basis, for example, taking medication or doing the grocery shopping, and then determine whether or not this is the sort of thing they would need help with.

Find community resources

The next thing you need to do is assess your parent’s home to determine whether or not it is safe and suitable. You may want to make modifications to their home if not. For example, you may want to tear down walls and make the property more open plan so it is easier for your parent to get around. You may also want to modify fixtures to make them more user friendly or install easier-to-access sinks and showers. It all depends on the needs of your parent. Aside from this, looking into a home monitoring system comes recommended. These systems are designed to recognise any changes in your parent’s activity. So, for example, if your loved one took a fall, the system would send an alert to you and potentially 999.

Find community resources

The final piece of the puzzle is to look into community resources. Is there anything going on in the community that would be of interest to your loved one? There tends to be senior centres and such like in most areas in the UK. You can also look into any community help too, for example, meals on wheels. This would enable your parent to get one or two meals delivered per day so that they do not need to cook themselves.

As you can see, there are a number of different things that you can do in order to help a loved one maintain his or her independence. If you follow the advice that has been provided in this article, you will be giving your parent the assistance they need to ensure they are cared for without taking over their life or making them feel restricted. It is all about finding the right balance.