Here’s How To Take Care of Your Grandparents In The Pandemic Times
The pandemic has been hard. Be it children, working youngsters, or the elderly – everyone in a family has been affected by the annoying virus and its aftereffects. The old folks among us, especially, wondered a lot about how to spend their idle lockdowns, or the few who were living alone had trouble arranging their weekly grocery needs amid all the chaos. A majority of the elderly population have admitted to developing one or more mental health problems like anxiety, depression, or milder forms of dementia during the pandemic times and still struggling to cope. With the noise of the deadly pandemic getting a little less harsh now, here are tips to help your elderly parents or grandparents come to terms with happiness once more.
Spend Quality Time with Them
Almost 40% of elderly Americans have admitted to feeling lonely even when their family is beside them. The thing our seniors crave the most is – companionship. Yes, they always look for someone to talk to and share their things with. So, as you too may be spending most of your time inside the house, devote some time to the elderly and see them smile the widest.
Be All Ears for the Elderly
Communication can be the best and most effective medicine for seniors. Observe how their mood changes after a good laugh or a lengthy, deep conversation. So, it is important for the caregivers or family members to be available for their seniors. After all, a little love and care are going to have a long-lasting impact on the health of your elderly loved one. So, always ensure remaining available for them no matter what.
Help Them with Their Daily Chores
Post the age of 65, a large portion of seniors have difficulty walking, remembering things, and whatnot. All of this results in them facing difficulty in performing even the most basic household tasks like washing, keeping their belongings in place, etc. If you are working remotely and have time, help your grandparents remember their schedule. Wake them up, assist them in their daily chores, accompany them on a morning walk, let them have a hearty breakfast. Trust us, they will adore you for this.
Get Them Acquainted With Advance Technology
Technology has made our lives so much easier. Imagine how wonderful it would be for your elderly parent to avail of its benefits too. When the world is maintaining a safe social distance, they will be able to video call their friends and share those long-lost tales of their childhoods. Or maybe they can use that oven to bake their first cake and share the happiness with everyone in the family – only if you can teach them how to use it.
Register for a CDPAP Program
And, if you find yourself too busy to help your aging parents or relatives, help them register for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). Using the CDPAP program, they can choose the caregiver of their choice – someone from their own family and friends. This way, they will be taken care of without any financial burden as in the program, the government will be paying the caregiver for his services under this program.
Caring for the elderly is not as easy as it seems. It takes an enormous amount of effort and time to take care of an ailing or aging senior at your premises. These trying times have become another cause of worry and have made keeping their sanity intact much more difficult. However, the above tips can help you sustain the mental health of the seniors in your home. Let us know which tip helped you the best while caring for your elderly loved one or grandparent.