Senior Care Tips: Encouraging Your Parents to be Responsible for Their Health during Aging

Senior Care in Markham

Stepping into the role of being a family caregiver for your elderly parents and creating a senior care plan for them does not mean that you are taking away all of their need or ability to take care of themselves. Encouraging your parents to be responsible for their health throughout the aging process and continue to take steps to seek better physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing supports a higher quality of life and helps keep them active, engaged, and enjoying life to the fullest.

This September, greet the new season by refreshing your approach to senior care and empowering your parents to take responsibility for maintaining their own health throughout their later years. Some of the ways they can do this include:

• Keeping up with routine health checks. “I feel fine” is never an excuse for not keeping in close contact with the doctor and going in for routine checks throughout the year. Many health issues have few to no symptoms in their earliest stages, but can quickly escalate to much more serious problems if left unaddressed. By going in for regular checks of their cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, and other basic health signs your parents allow their doctors to detect potential problems early so they can address them promptly and effectively. Make sure your parents know what tests they should be getting and how often so they can make sure they keep up with their own health maintenance;

• Be aware of cancer risks. It seems no one wants to talk about cancer, but ignoring its existence and not making it a part of your regular health routine only increases your risk of serious consequences if it does arise;

• Form relationships. Many seniors start to feel disconnected and socially irrelevant as they get older, which can lead to them withdrawing from social situations and not being as active in their family, hobbies, and previous friendships. Remind your parents how important to their emotional, mental, and physical health regular social interaction is and encourage them to find ways to boost their social connections. Something as simple as having conversations with their neighbors or joining a special interest club allows them to develop friendships so that they can ward off depression, feelings of isolation, anxiety, and loss of motivation that can increase their rate of physical decline;

• Speak up. Make sure that your parents know that just because you have developed a care plan for them and that they have a senior health care services provider who gives them help throughout the week, which does not mean they are not the center of their care. Encourage them to speak up about health concerns, questions, and ideas they have about improving their health so that your entire care team can work together to support their highest level of health.

If you or an aging loved one are considering senior care services in Markham, contact the caring professionals at Staff Relief Health Care 24/7 at 905.709.1767.