Caring for Your Elderly Relatives During Lockdown
June 02, 2020
If there is one thing that this lockdown has taught us all, it’s that you will want to spend more time with your elderly relatives. Being away from the vulnerable among us may be good for their health, but it’s not good for those of us who love to visit Grandma. Given that those over the age of 70 have been encouraged to self-isolate during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s been a couple of months now and it’s difficult for the mental health of our older relatives.
The elderly have to avoid the public spaces and anywhere they have to gather in close quarters with other people. This also isn't easy given the isolation and social distancing rules! We need to be able to care for our elderly, and that includes those who are in care facilities. The good news is that there are plenty of things that you can do to support the older relatives in your life, so let’s make a list!
- Make sure that you have the right food and medicines to keep them healthy. If you are visiting elderly relatives, bring them their groceries to the list they need and pick up prescriptions from the pharmacy for them. Even the visits for supplies are really going to help your relatives to stay as well as they can. Plus, you can socially distance in the front yard and say hello!
- If you have a relative in a care home, you need to consider their safety and their health. You can find a Coronavirus elder abuse lawyer if you need one, but where possible you need to try to visit as often as possible and ensure that they are in the best health possible. Care homes are not allowing many visitors right now, so you need to try and encourage video calls so that you can still stay in touch as much as you can.
- If you can’t go in and visit anywhere, you should leave supplies on the doorstep and keep your eldelry relative safe by not going inside the house. Keeping distanced can be really hard, but it’s the best way to keep your grandparents as safe as possible. Stay two metres apart and avoid touching anything. If you’re dropping off supplies, use single use gloves and try not to touch them with the gloves, too.
- Kind gestures can go a really long way and something as kind as having flowers delivered can change their mood. FaceTime and Skype may not be a concept that they are familiar with, but it’s something that is going to help you to stay in touch! The phone is all well and good, but keeping them happy by showing your face can make a huge difference to their mood.
- Remind your relatives that this is something that will eventually get easier to handle, but they need to take their time and be patient. Self-isolating is important, and the longer they do it for, the faster they get out of it.
0 comments