Losing a loved one is difficult at any age, but particularly for seniors, who may have spent decades in a loving partnership. Moving on from a partner’s death is never easy, and it can be incredibly challenging for an older individual who has built longstanding routines to effectively process a spouse’s passing.

If you are a loved one, caregiver, or friend — or even a senior struggling yourself — the following four tips may be helpful in dealing with the aftermath of a spouse’s death.

1. Encourage the Surviving Partner to Be Kind to Him/Herself

The pain, fear, sadness, and guilt felt at a spouse’s death can be overwhelming. There is no one avenue to effectively process these feelings. But encouraging gentleness is helpful in avoiding debilitating feelings of guilt and doubt. Asking questions like “could I have done something differently?” is often self-defeating and ineffective. Rather than attempting to immediately understand why, and putting any blame on him or herself, encourage the surviving spouse to be as personally self-loving and compassionate as possible.

2. Seek Professional Support

There is often a stigma about seeking mental health support, a stigma that may be more common among older generations. Working with a therapist or other qualified mental health professional can be essential for working through grief regardless of your age or gender. If a senior is struggling, encouraging him or her to find support can be essential in starting the healing process as well as breaking down any taboos around counseling that may exist.

3. Maintain Physical Health

The loss of a spouse can be physically devastating to many older individuals. It is not uncommon for one spouse to pass shortly after the other, as the “will to live” ceases to exist.

As a caregiver, encourage a grieving partner not to neglect their own physical health — and if possible, participate by joining them for exercise or preparing meals together. In addition to the physical benefits, the camaraderie is essential in healing after a spouse’s death.

4. Socialize

Grieving alone can be an essential part of the process of navigating a loss. However, social support is essential to ultimately working through the grief and getting over a loved one’s passing.

Encourage the grieving senior to spend time with friends and family, and do your best to provide consistent social support. Walks, meals, trips, and other activities are all effective ways to spend time together.

Contact Us For Help

Home Helpers of Drexel Hill offers experienced caregiving services for seniors. Contact us today to learn how we can help care for the loved ones in your life.

Caregiving is not for the faint of heart. While helping a senior or other loved one navigate a difficult — and sometimes heartbreaking — journey, most family caretakers will experience intense physical and emotional exhaustion. Unfortunately, burnout is a frequent effect of assuming a caregiver role. Understanding the symptoms and causes of burnout is crucial to overcoming or avoiding it.

Understanding Caregiver Burnout

Caregiving is inherently stressful, but burnout is different. Burnout occurs when the caregiver’s exhaustion reaches a point where it begins to interfere with caretaking responsibilities.

Symptoms

Everyone responds differently to highly stressful situations. Caregivers who are experiencing burnout may exhibit some or all these symptoms:

• Feeling isolated or lonely
• Irritability or feelings of uncontrollable anger
• Changes in weight or appetite
• Feeling hopeless
• Apathy or resentment toward the person in their care
• Increased use of alcohol, drugs, or other coping mechanisms

Causes

Many caregivers initially underestimate the intense mental, physical, and emotional demands that the role entails. Some liken the job to caring for a newborn, except that, while a new baby becomes increasingly more independent and less demanding, the opposite is often true of a senior or someone battling a degenerative condition like dementia. New parents are frequently met with sympathy, casseroles, and offers to help. Sadly, the same can’t be said for most caregivers. The stress, demands, and emotional toll of this often-thankless task often trigger burnout symptoms. Other possible contributing factors include:

Shouldering too much responsibility: Caregivers
often unintentionally take on an unsustainable load,
often because they’re not sure where or how to
seek help.

Lack of training: Few family caregivers are
adequately trained in how to perform their medical
responsibilities or manage difficult situations.

Juggling other roles: Many caregivers are
consumed with crushing guilt that the time and
energy they devote to caretaking negatively affects
their roles as employees, spouses, or parents.

How To Combat Burnout

The first step toward avoiding or overcoming caregiver burnout is recognizing that it’s normal and understanding how it occurs. Since everyone experiences burnout differently, overcoming and avoiding burnout may look different for every person. Assessing and addressing the factors that caused the burnout is an excellent place to start.

Joining and actively participating in caregiver support groups, whether in person or online, reduces stigma and helps caregivers seek and find the care they need. For many caregivers suffering from burnout, seeking and deploying meaningful help dramatically reduces burnout symptoms. Examples might include utilizing respite care, hiring an alternate or associate caregiver, or delegating tasks in other life roles.

If you or a loved one is or may be experiencing caregiver burnout, schedule your free assessment and learn how we can help ease your care burden.

Acceptance of bringing outside care into the home can be one of the trickier aspects of aging. Aging with dignity while maintaining function is always important, but at some point, your or a senior in your life may need to relinquish some independence and accept help. Here are five things to look for that indicate you or a loved one can benefit from in-home care.

1. Personal Hygiene or Home Cleanliness Troubles
Perhaps the most obvious sign that your loved one could use support in the home is when he or she is no longer able to manage what is known as activities of daily living (ADLs), which can include the following tasks:

• Bathing

• Grooming

• Oral and nail care

• Dressing

• Preparing and eating food

• Mobility

• Running errands

• Basic housework

A caregiver can aid in any of these duties to maintain appropriate personal hygiene, ensure healthy, nutritious foods are consumed, and stay on top of light housekeeping to keep your senior and the household running smoothly.

2. Frequent Falls
Have you or your senior experienced a fall? Whether it is due to blood pressure fluctuations, weakness, or loss of balance, falls are a danger that cannot be ignored. Having in-home care means an extra set of eyes and hands on-site to prevent falls or assist when your loved one does take a tumble.

3. Difficulty With Medication
Seniors may struggle to keep their prescriptions and supplements organized. If your loved one is confusing medicine dosage and frequency, he or she may need a caregiver to step in and ensure that medication is taken appropriately. A nurse can assist with medication management and setting up the pillboxes.

4. Isolation and Loneliness
Sometimes, having a caregiver is more about much-needed companionship for seniors who spend most of their time alone. This can be especially helpful if you or your loved one is unable to drive, limits interactions with friends or family members, or avoids religious services or other activities he or she used to enjoy.

5. Medical Professional Recommendation
Has a doctor, social worker, or other medical care provider suggested that in-home care could be beneficial for you or an elderly parent? Pay attention to that advice; it is based on objective observations or expertise about certain health conditions that your senior may have, especially if he or she has had a recent hospitalization and is slow to recover.

Proposing in-home care may seem monumental, but with Home Helpers of Drexel Hill on your side, you can maintain or improve your loved one’s quality of life. Contact us for more information about how to introduce the idea to your family as well as how to find a caregiver to provide much-needed assistance in the home.

Living through this pandemic has been challenging for everyone, but no group has endured quite as much as the senior population. Not only are they at a higher risk for complications due to the virus, but they are also more isolated in part to social distancing. There are ways to stay in touch, but not all elderly people have a good understanding of technology or a caregiver to help. Let’s look at what options are available for your loved one to stay connected and how you can help, even from a distance.

The Joys of Video Chatting

Software and apps have been developed to bring video chatting to virtually everyone’s home. This technology was initially for business applications, but nowadays, most people with a smartphone or tablet have used a video chatting feature. These are the most common video chatting platforms offered for free or at a low cost:

• FaceTime (for Apple products)

• Skype

• Zoom

• Facebook Messenger

• Google Duo (for Android products)

• WhatsApp

The Underlying Problem

While video chatting is readily accessible and affordable, it only works easily for those people who understand how to navigate it or can troubleshoot issues. Some seniors can adjust to new technologies with little to no assistance, but others, especially those with dementia or motor skill limitations, may require more support. Overcoming this obstacle takes a little creativity and perseverance, on your part as well as that of your loved one or a caregiver.

A Special Market

Video chatting devices for the golden aged market are an easy solution to this technological generation gap. Some of these products even allow you to control the device remotely, so you can contact your loved one easily from a distance. Here are some of the top products to make video chatting easier for your senior:

• The GrandPad
• ViewClix
• Google Nest Hub (with Duo)
• Facebook Portal
• Konnekt Videophone
• Amazon Echo Show

These gadgets may accommodate those with different abilities, and some of them can even allow your senior to see photos, check the weather, or play games.

Before you invest in new tools or download multiple platforms, consider what features are most important for your loved one and are simple to operate. It may take some practice, but hopefully you and your senior can adapt and stay connected until you may again meet in person.

For more ideas to help you and your loved one make it through these trying times, turn to Home Helpers of Drexel Hill. We have resources and care options to help you or your senior maintain the highest quality of life.

2020 has been a challenging year for most everyone, especially seniors who are vulnerable to illness. With stay-at-home orders and social distancing becoming a major part of our daily existence, you or your loved one may hesitate to go out for necessities, including food, medicine, or hygiene essentials. Fortunately, many delivery services have expanded their services to bring those needed items directly to you or a senior. Here are some of the services that you or a caregiver can arrange to make life easier for your loved one who is safer at home during the pandemic.

Groceries

Grocery delivery services have taken off in a big way. While they are not new, these services have become a mainstream convenience that people of all ages rely on to have both fresh and nonperishable goods provided. While some big names in grocery delivery may not be available in your area, the following companies serve most communities throughout the country:

• Shipt
• Instacart
• Amazon Fresh
• Fresh Direct
• Peapod

You or a caregiver should check with your local grocery stores to see if they also offer home delivery to save on a trip to the market and exposure to germs.

Meal Kits

If your senior can cook independently or with the assistance of a caregiver, a meal kit delivery service may be a fun option. These companies send all of the ingredients for a meal along with easy-to-follow instructions for preparing the dishes. Companies such as Silver Cuisine, Home Chef, and Sun Basket cater to seniors who may have special dietary needs or restrictions to accommodate.

Hot Food

Cooking at home may not be an option for every senior, but restaurants and other stores offer additional delivery services. Meal delivery services including Door Dash, Uber Eats, and Grub Hub offer their menu items that can be delivered straight to you or your loved one’s door. Ordering is as simple as placing an order through a tablet or cell phone. For seniors who have limited funds, signing up for Meals on Wheels may be a great option. Since 1969, Meals on Wheels has offered hot meals to seniors at risk for malnutrition. These meals are customized to fit a senior’s dietary needs including sodium levels, caloric intake, and sugars.

Other Deliveries

Beyond food, items such as medical supplies, personal hygiene goods, and prescriptions can also be sent straight to the home. From mail-order pharmacies to subscription cleaning supplies, virtually anything needed to run a senior’s household can be shipped directly.

If you or a caregiver could use more advice about how to keep seniors safe during this difficult time, contact Home Helpers of Drexel Hill. We offer services and resources with your loved one in mind.