How often your senior washes her hair, showers, and even how she dresses can be a big clue about some of the issues she might be facing. It’s important to look at those tiny details so that you can help her to find solutions when she comes up against a problem.
Changes to Your Senior’s Routine Can Indicate Problems
The biggest thing to know about your elderly family member’s personal hygiene is that when changes happen, it’s usually a result of other changes behind the scenes. Your elderly family member could be having physical issues, such as mobility problems, that restrict what she’s able to do. She could also be experiencing cognitive issues that convince her that she doesn’t need to bathe. All of this is cause for concern.
Simplify Routines for Her
One solution that can help quite a bit is to simplify your senior’s routines. If you help her to lay out her clothing choices the night before, that can be a visual reminder to bathe. Instead of wearing a complicated hairstyle, she might enjoy trying a new one that is a little easier for her to do on her own. Even your senior’s current style of dressing might benefit from a little bit of simplification. All of this can help her to feel as independent as possible.
Add Some Tools to Her Routine
Another option is to add some tools to her routine to help your senior to deal with the changes she’s experiencing. For instance, a shower chair and a longer shower head hose can allow her to sit as she bathes, which can take a lot of stress and strain off her body. Talk to her doctor about any other sorts of tools that might be helpful for her.
Get Some Extra Help
At a certain point, your elderly family member may need even more help with personal hygiene tasks. Senior care providers can help immensely with this because they are thorough and they help to preserve your senior’s dignity at the same time. Although this can be incredibly embarrassing for your elderly family member, it really doesn’t have to be.
If you haven’t been noticing much about how often your senior showers or how well she’s taking care of herself, now is the time to start noticing those details. Even small changes could be an indication that something else is changing and needs to be addressed.
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING SENIOR CARE IN AMES, IA, FOR AN ELDERLY LOVED ONE, CONTACT GOLDEN HEART SENIOR CARE OF DES MOINES, IA AT 515-631-5033. OUR CARING STAFF CAN ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS!