Spot the Signs this Easter

Would you Spot the Signs?

Visiting loved ones at Easter is something many of us are looking forward to.  As your parents or other family members age, it can also be an excellent time to check in to see how they are coping at home.  While you are visiting, you may want to look out for signs that your elderly loved one might need extra help.

To help, we have launched a new checklist which families can use to assess how their loved one is doing.

The checklist includes important day to day activities such as:

• Home safety – Using appliance, stairs, locking doors
• Scam risk – Are they aware of and cautious of scammers?
• General health – Are they taking medication, sleeping well, in pain, losing weight?
• Personal hygiene – Do their hair, nails and clothes look clean?
• Nutrition – Are they eating meals, are they drinking, is food going out of date?
• Home cleanliness – Are the kitchen and bathroom clean, are the curtains opened, is the bed being changed?
• General life admin – opening post, booking appointments, attending their social events

Other key areas to pay attention to are

• Memory & confusion
• Mobility & balance
• Eating habits
• Changes in hygiene or appearance
• Mood & social interactions

A sudden change in any of these things can be a sign that a little more help could be useful to help your loved one remain independent.  This checklist is designed to help you take a step back, reflect on what you’re seeing, and gain a better insight into your loved one’s health and wellbeing.

At Home Instead, we often get calls from family members following a crisis. Maybe an illness that required a lengthy hospital stay which often results in reduced mobility, or maybe a fall that’s taking a while to recover from.  This means that a person what was previously independent, may require several calls per day that they don’t want.  What we’ve found in our years of working with older people is that by starting the care conversation and introducing care earlier, these types of crisis events can be avoided.

Our Care Professionals are trained to look out for signs of changes in their clients and can help ensure medication is taken regularly, notice changes to mobility that may lead to falls and suggest equipment to reduce these risks, make sure their clients are eating well, assist with personal hygiene and so much more.  Even just a handful of hours per week may help to hold off the need for much more intrusive care, and can gently introduce the idea of having a regular visitor to help out where needed.

You can download a checklist by visiting www.careconversations.co.uk or request one by email from [email protected].

If you’d like to discuss how we might be able to help your loved one, please ring us on 01759486486