Does Your Senior Feel Unsafe at Home Alone?
Helping your parent maintain their safety is an important element of being an effective family caregiver. While this means actually addressing their safety needs, it also means ensuring they feel safe and secure. This feeling is an important part of maintaining a sense of control and quality of life as your parent ages. Many elderly adults will not directly tell their adult child they do not feel safe in their own home, fearing it will make you worry, or cause you to change their ability to age in place in their own home. This makes it important for you to pay close attention to your parent's behaviors and the things they say to detect signs they might feel unsafe when they are at home alone. This allows you to make changes to their routine and their surroundings to increase this feeling of security.
Some things that might indicate your aging parent is feeling unsafe at home alone include:
● Asking you to stay with them more.
● Finding reasons for you to be in the home with them at night.
● Asking you to add heavier curtains to windows, which they may feel could block others from seeing into their home.
● Frequently asking if you've locked the door, or even calling you after you've left to ask if you made sure you locked the door.
● Telling you stories about things they heard or saw outside their home that seem as though they were frightening, even if your parent tries to sound completely casual about them.
● Heavily emphasizing news stories about home invasions or other crimes that might have occurred in or around their area.
If your senior is feeling unsafe at home alone, now may be the ideal time for you to consider starting home care. This care provider can be with your parent during the times of day when they feel insecure or afraid to help them feel more comfortable and at ease.
Introducing home care into your routine with your aging loved one can be one of the best things you do as a family caregiver. An in-home senior care services provider can be with your aging loved one on a fully customized schedule to ensure your parent has access to the care that is right for them, when it is right for them. As a family caregiver, knowing your senior has this care can provide a tremendous sense of peace of mind and confidence that your senior can live their highest quality of life as they age.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering home care in Northeast Ohio, please talk to the caring staff at Avalon Home Health Care today.
Call us at (440) 863 -3609.