As people age, their emotional and social needs change along with their physical needs. Healthcare focuses on safety and managing the elderly’s healthcare, often missing the senior’s changing emotional and social needs.
When seniors are moved out of their homes, they often become despondent, have a lack of motivation, and sometimes it seems the pilot light of their personality goes out. Symptoms such as anger, depression and anxiety are often managed with medications. More medications often leads to gait imbalance, weakness, loss of appetite, and even more depression.
How do we balance the elderly’s safety needs vs emotional needs? They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. That is the crux of this article, and the topic of my next talk: The Balancing Act. Aging can be and often is an avalanche of losses for seniors. The loss of independence (driving), losing a loved one, loss of beloved activities and hobbies, losing friends, and often loss of socialization from busy family members. When a senior moves from his familiar neighborhood and friends, they are unlikely to make new friends easily. Seniors socialization needs shift from having an interest in new people and places, to wanting the comfort of familiar and established relationships. We are conditioned to believe that once you lose your physical independence, a life of worth and freedom is simply not possible. That is where we come in.
Giving seniors control and options in their care is a simple but often overlooked concept. Caring for the elderly, whether in their homes, independent living, or assisted living centers, is often centered around the convenience of the caregivers and staff. Everything from bathing, eating, dressing and ambulating fits into the routine of the facility.
Simple questions like ‘When do you like to bathe?’, or ‘What time do you like breakfast?’ allows seniors to assert their authority over their lives and gives them back a sense of control and purpose. Sometimes it is the simplest of things that make all the difference.