Signs Your Parents Need Help
Let’s just say for a moment you are having a hard time remembering where you put your keys this week. Hey! Shit happens. If it happens a couple of weeks in a row, you might be thinking to yourself, “What the hell?” Your partner might ask,”What’s going on, honey? Is something bothering you?” You say, “Nah, just work stuff. You know.”
The next week, you hurt yourself skiing the bumps really aggressively. You know, back slamming, face diving, ski smashing bumps. At first the stiffness in your back seems like a consequence of stupidity. You apply ice, stretch, take it easy. After a week or two you start to wonder, “Will I ever get over this?”
And, of course, you do start remembering your keys, and your back does get better. But, what if it didn’t. Are you doomed? Is this it? Probably not, but whatever you have been doing to get over the problem has not fixed the problem. During this interim period everyone will offer you advice. “Drink more water. Eat more vegetables. Two hours of ice, two hours of heat. Continuous stretching through the whole cycle. See a chiropractor. See a masseuse.”
Now imagine, you are older, and you have spent 20 years in sustaining mode and your memory is failing you. You’ve read the amyloid dribble and all the recent research. Your friends and family are concerned. They come to you with “The Conversation”.
“We’re worried about you. Do you think it might be time for us to consider a community or in house care occasionally?”
You immediately think to yourself, “F___.” Saw this coming. And then you think, “Is this better for my kids? I hate being a burden.” At the same time this fear rises in you. You remember your friend Guy and his wife Agnes. She checked him into a facility that when you visited the stench of urine inundated your senses. He was lost playing parcheesi and waving his arms in a room with a women saying things in a pleasant voice after having been a world famous physicist just months before. When you visited Guy you told yourself, “Please shoot me if anyone ever suggests an Aging Community.” You immediately called your friend Brad, the guy you can rely on, and had the conversation about killing you if anyone even suggested you go into an old folks home.
Here is a list of signs that one of the seniors in your life might need help from this article:
Changes in Physical Function and Mental Status
- Difficulty keeping track of time
- Sleeping for most of the day
- Poor diet or weight loss
- Loss of interest in hobbies and activities
- Changes in mood or extreme mood swings
- Difficulty getting up from a seated position
- Difficulty with walking, balance and mobility
- Unexplained bruising or injuries
- Marks or wear on walls, door jams, furniture and other items being used to help with stability while walking through the home
- Uncertainty and confusion when performing once-familiar tasks
- Forgetfulness, including forgetting to take medications or taking incorrect dosages
- Missing important appointments
- Consistent use of poor judgment (e.g. falling for scams or sales pitches, giving away money)
It is not what you notice, or what needs to be done:
IT’S HOW AND WHY YOU DO IT
Mental aging problems are usually an accumulation problem and might not be able to be solved but can certainly be mitigated by, oh no:
- Food
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Meditation
- Anxiety reduction
- Purpose
Who have thought? Before you shuffle them off to an assisted living community at the tune of $36,000 a year you might want to try some life style changes that actually improve their lives. A change in lifestyle take time and energy so don’t think after one week, “This isn’t working.” Give it eight to twelve weeks and then rethink the problem.
Physical problems like eyesight, mobility, and hearing have great solutions now and on the horizon.
- For hearing problems check out the latest earbuds with noise cancelling.
- For vision issues, don’t be cheap, buy high resolution monitors and connect them to their news sources for reading
- For reading have the system automatically read to them
- For interfaces to the computer, they hate computers, use smart assistants (voice activated)
- For ambulation check out the new exoskeletons that keep them upright while walking, no matter what
Last statement.
YOU CAN BUY A LOT OF STUFF FOR $36K A YEAR. THINK ABOUT IT
