What Are the Most Important Things if Your Senior Wants to Age in Place?

If your elderly family member has informed you that she wants to age in place, you need to make sure that you’re both as prepared as you can be. Here are just a few of the things you need to know. 

Stay Mentally Active

Elderly Care Manassas, VA: Aging in Place

Keeping your senior’s brain as active and engaged as possible helps to keep it healthy. The brain is a muscle, and just like other muscles in your senior’s body, it needs to work in order to keep working. Find ways to challenge your elderly family member’s brain and to keep her going. 

Avoid Fall Risks 

Assess your senior’s home for fall risks and make some changes if necessary. Falls are a huge source of injuries for older adults, and people who fall once are twice as likely to fall again. It’s vital to make your senior’s home as safe as possible. That’s going to help her now and it’s going to help her as she continues to age in place. 

Continue to Exercise 

Whether your elderly family member has always been active or she’s just getting back into exercise, it’s a vital part of aging in place. Moving more on a regular basis helps your elderly family member to maintain muscle tone, keep her balance, and stay flexible. She’s going to need all of those in order to be able to successfully stay in her own home. 

Get Help When it’s Necessary 

Your elderly family member might not see a need for it at first, but you and she are going to eventually need help. Elderly care providers are able to assist your senior with a variety of different tasks that are necessary if she’s planning to stay at home. Everything from household tasks to things as personal as bathing become more difficult. Having help on hand already is going to make all of that easier. 

Learn as Much as Possible 

The more that you know as your senior’s family caregiver, the more supportive you can be. There’s a lot that you’ll learn as you go and there’s a lot that other caregivers can teach you. Joining a support group made up of other family caregivers can help you to learn a lot of what you need to know. 

Aging in place is a viable solution for your elderly family member, but she has to be properly prepared. It’s not a situation that your senior can jump into without the necessary supports. 

 

If you or an aging loved-one is considering Elderly Care in Manassas, VA please contact the caring staff at Thrive Health Care Services today(703) 992-0484