Holidays are a great time to assess our elderly loved ones

HI all, I hope you all had a great Easter. Holidays are a great time to assess the progressing needs of your loved ones. We are able to see and interact with them in a setting that can help us assess the abilities and disabilities of the elderly family members. Take note of their memory while they are telling stories. Do they recognize those around them that should be familiar to them. How is their weight? Hygiene, speaking skills? These can all be clues that your senior loved one needs more care than previously thought. If they are losing a lot of weight, they may be forgetting to eat. Showing signs of a memory deficit. Along with the inability to recognize someone in their family that they are familiar with. Because we do not always see our loved ones we may not realize their deficits in memory and care needs. Holidays pose a great opportunity to analyze these issues. If you notice a change in your elderly loved one, it is a good time to set up an appointment with their physician. Caregivers are usually the first to notice these changes but if the loved one lives alone or has other caregivers, this is a perfect time to assess these changes. Some changes that affect memory do not necessarily mean dementia, it could be that they have a urinary tract infection or other illness. Infections can create devastating effects on the elderly. I am putting together a post dealing with the housing options of our senior loved ones and will have it up soon. It might be these times that we visit where we notice the senior needs more care and supervision then they are receiving and housing options can be confusing. I will try to put the blog together with the best information I can find. Thanks all and have a great week!