Posted May 13, 2020 0 0
Seniorcorp, providers of at home care in Virginia Beach and the surrounding areas, offers the following care tips for Alzheimer’s to help minimize anxiousness and irritation for individuals diagnosed with dementia, while keeping both them and their caregivers safe:
- Make self-care a top priority. Now more so than ever, it’s important to evaluate your own degree of stress, and make a plan to make certain you’re healthy – both physically and emotionally. You can only offer the best care assistance for a senior loved one if your own needs are met. This might mean restricting time spent monitoring the news as well as on social media, maintaining connections with close friends, and making time for pleasant, enjoyable hobbies.
- Take care of personal hygiene. Correct handwashing techniques are crucial for all of us, but might be hard for anyone with dementia to manage. Depending on the individual’s stage of the disease, it may help to wash your hands together, demonstrating for your loved one; or, position signs beside the sink in the bathroom and kitchen with a message to wash for 20 seconds. And note that repetition, a common behavior in Alzheimer’s, can perhaps work to your advantage in this situation.
- Choose your words closely. When speaking to a loved one about changes associated with COVID-19, it’s important to keep it very simple, utilizing a calm and reassuring tone. Beth Kallmyer, Vice President of Care and Support at the Alzheimer’s Association, suggests statements such as, “We have to stay inside because that’s most safe for us, but we’ll do it together. I’ll be with you and we’ll be okay.”
- Be sure to have a backup plan. If you contract COVID-19 yourself, or experience another medical problem that would stop you from safely providing help for a senior loved one with dementia, it is critical to have a strategy in place for who could take over to fulfill your caregiving responsibilities. A skilled home care agency, like Seniorcorp, is the ideal choice, with professional aides who are trained in specialized Alzheimer’s care.
Allow Seniorcorp to help you. Our highly qualified dementia caregivers are fully trained and experienced in both adhering to proper protocol pertaining to decreasing the risk for contracting coronavirus, as well as in the specialized kind of care that’s most effective for anyone with dementia. Call us at 757-640-0557 for additional care tips for Alzheimer’s and to schedule an assessment to learn more about our top-rated at home care in Virginia Beach and the surrounding areas.
