Your parents and older relatives spent their time supporting you through a range of roadblocks you encountered in life. Now that they are older, it’s your turn to repay the favor. But how can you, your partner, siblings, and children provide the vital support that seniors need as they grow older?
Help Them Find Communities
It’s easy for seniors to become isolated from the world around them. Their friends may not live close enough anymore. Or they aren’t as mobile as they once were. However, staying in touch with a community can help stave off degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, which will ensure their quality of life is as good as it can be. There are plenty of elderly communities around that you can find and introduce your relatives to, allowing them to meet people their age who share their interests. This means they won’t solely rely on you for the company, and can even have new experiences.
Give Them Ways to Contact You
Life can be exceptionally busy, there’s no doubt about this, and because of this, there’s a risk that you neglect to get in touch with your elderly relatives as often as you should. However, this shouldn’t mean they cannot get in touch with you when they feel like a chat. Smartphones, laptops, and tablets may intimidate them at first, but they are crucial for ensuring that they can contact you, allowing you to offer the support they need. They won’t need the latest smartphone, but something easy to use and with a strong wifi connection will do the trick.
Include Them
When planning how to support your parents, you need to remember that they are not just there. They are still human, and they will always have their preferences for how they want to live. Because of this, you must include them in any plans you have for offering support. Don’t neglect to ask them what they want to do, whether it’s visiting them at their house or go somewhere else where they can get some fresh air. It’s easy to feel like you lose your autonomy the older you get, so providing a chance to retain their independence will do wonders for their well being.
Assess What They Need
Sometimes, you can’t provide exactly what your elderly relatives need, so you need to assess these needs and look for solutions. While they might live at home now, medical conditions could impact how easy this is for them. If this is the case, you can consider retirement homes or care workers who will visit your relatives to provide the treatment they need. Services that offer such assistance include https://catholiccarecenter.org/long-term-care/, which will provide expert service and give you and your relatives the peace of mind you need.
Support
Supporting your elderly relatives will help them manage their senior years more comfortably and prevent any of the loneliness or isolation problems that can come from old age. Whether they require a helping hand now and again or need more professional support, you can be there for them no matter what and make the best of the last years you have with them.
This is a collaborative post.
In health,
Melinda
lookingforthelight.blog 
great info Melinda! Many thanks for this ppost!
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These are some great tips Melinda. Maintaining their autonomy is important for our parents as they grow older. I know with my parents, when we bought our house, we did so with the idea that they could move in with us when they were ready to. We’ve come to realize, though, that they may never be ready; they value their independence too much. Now we’ve turned our attention more to supporting them and letting them know we’ll do whatever we can to help them remain in their home for as long as humanly possible.
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Thanks, Terri, I learned first hand with my grandparents. They made it clear they wanted to stay in their home and die there, period. It took a lot to make it happen but I did. It was hard for me to let my gramps build a new life after my granny died. I wanted him to be happy but it was hard to see him hanging out with people I didn’t know. That may not make sense. They were always hanging with family only, never had outside friends, so even though the people were older I was somewhat distrusting at first. Being a bit overprotective.
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I get it Mel…. I think we tend to become a little more protective as our loved ones get older. We want them to be happy, but we also want to keep them safe. I’m sure his bringing into his circle that you didn’t know made you a little worried for his safety and security at first.
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Especially the first woman! She was a wealthy widow and they became good friends. My gramps was very lower middle class but they hit it off. She would stop by and bring him food and chat. She was very nice and came to his funeral. She was lonely too.
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