The coronavirus is especially devastating for seniors who don’t have robust immune systems, which is why you need to come up with a long-term plan for boosting your aging loved one’s health and preventing too many germs from getting into his or her home. While you won’t be able to prevent your loved one from coming into contact with every germ, carrying out a few simple steps can greatly reduce your parent’s risk of contracting this virus.
1. Disinfect the Home Thoroughly
Keeping your loved one’s home as clean and sanitized as possible is one of the best things you can do in the coming months. Any germs your loved one comes into contact with could compromise his or her immune system, making it difficult to fight off the coronavirus if he or she is exposed to that as well. When you’re cleaning, you need to use high-quality products designed to eradicate any germs your loved one comes into contact with.
2. Enforce Strict Hygiene Habits
Every person in your loved one’s home must maintain impeccable hygiene habits until a vaccine has been created or the pandemic has subsided. This includes washing their hands multiple times a day or whenever they touch any surface that hasn’t been sanitized. They’ll also need to keep their distance from your parent as much as possible.
3. Quarantine Those Who Show Symptoms
Someone in your family might get this virus at some point, and you’ll need to completely quarantine that individual if so. At the very least, the person must stay in a room alone and have as little contact as possible with everyone else in the family. The family member should also have his or her own restroom if possible and completely refrain from going into the kitchen.
4. Don’t Allow Nonessential Visitors into the Home
Until the stay-at-home orders have been lifted, you must keep all visitors out of your loved one’s home unless they’re absolutely essential. Some family members might be tempted to visit your loved one, but those meetings could increase the risk of your parent becoming sick. If it’s necessary for your loved one to have a visitor, that person must thoroughly sanitize his or her hands and avoid touching anything.
To keep your loved one from having multiple visitors come in to provide assistance, consider hiring an at-home caregiver. If your aging loved one needs help managing everyday tasks or encouragement to adopt healthier lifestyle choices, turn to Home Care Assistance, a leading provider of home care services. Home Care Assistance provides professional in-home caregivers around the clock to help seniors live longer, happier, and healthier lives.
5. Try to Maintain Healthy Lifestyle Habits
Staying relatively healthy is another step your loved one can take to reduce the risk of contracting this virus or any other illnesses. While it might be tempting to sit on the couch all day and snack on unhealthy treats, that’s only going to suppress your parent’s immune system. Following a healthy diet, exercising for a few minutes a day, and getting plenty of rest each night can boost your parent’s immune system and help him or her fight off illnesses.
If your loved one needs help following healthy habits that can boost his or her immune system, a home caregiver can be a wonderful source of support. Not every senior has the same care needs, which means they don’t all need the same type of in-home care. Huntsville families can rely on Home Care Assistance to provide individualized care plans to meet your elderly loved one’s unique care needs. Our holistic Balanced Care Method was designed to help seniors focus on healthy lifestyle habits such as eating nutritious foods, exercising regularly, and maintaining strong social ties, and our Cognitive Therapeutics Method offers mentally stimulating activities that can stave off cognitive decline and delay the onset of dementia.
6. Work with an In-Home Caregiver
When it comes time to get some help with your loved one, an in-home caregiver might be the best option. Many senior care facilities are overloaded right now, and sending your loved one to that type of environment could expose him or her to several strangers every day. A caregiver can look after your loved one in the safety and comfort of home.
Families who find it difficult to care for their aging loved ones without assistance can benefit greatly from professional respite care. Huntsville, AL, family caregivers who need a break from their caregiving duties can turn to Home Care Assistance. Using our proprietary Balanced Care Method, our respite caregivers can encourage your loved one to eat well, exercise regularly, get plenty of mental and social stimulation, and focus on other lifestyle factors that promote longevity. Call us today at (256) 716-9940 to discuss how we can give you the peace of mind that comes from knowing your loved one is being cared for with professionalism and compassion.
With information surrounding coronavirus/COVID-19 changing by the hour, it’s challenging to stay updated on the most recent best practices for keeping seniors safe at home. At Home Care Assistance, we understand how critical it is for seniors and their caregivers to protect against coronavirus as much as possible. All our team members have received detailed communication on infection control protocols, including effective cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces and hands. Our caregivers can pick up medications, groceries, and anything else a senior needs, minimizing their interaction with large groups of people. For more information on how Home Care Assistance helps protect clients, click here: https://www.homecareassistancehuntsville.com/covid-19-home-care/.