Everyone can be susceptible to depression at one point or another, even your aging family member. Seniors may spend a little more time depressed than other people might, though, especially if they live alone and aren’t around other people a lot. Here are some ideas that can help if your elderly family member is battling depression at this stage in her life.
Depression Is a Serious Health Concern
Lots of times people try to downplay depression as an insignificant concern. But depression can quickly take a toll on your senior’s quality of life and it can lead to other serious problems. A depressed senior is more likely to withdraw from all of the things she enjoys in her life, which can lead to her becoming isolated. None of that is good for her overall physical or mental well-being.
Talk with Her Doctor about Possible Causes
If your elderly family member has never experienced depression before, it can be startling to her to suddenly be faced with it now. There are lots of potential causes for depression and some of them can be surprising. Health issues can cause depression, for instance, and some medications have side effects that can lead to depression. Talking with your senior’s doctor can help to rule out medical causes and find out what might be happening.
Put Together a Plan
Once you’ve got a better idea of what your senior is up against, it should be a little easier to put together a plan for helping her to resolve her depression. Medication changes are one possibility, if that’s what’s contributing to her depression. Other changes, like adjusting sleeping routines and making dietary changes, can also have a positive effect. Your senior’s doctor can help her to determine what she might want to try first. Changing routines can be difficult, so it can help to have senior home care helping your elderly family member to stay on target.
Ensure Your Senior Is Socially Engaged
Social engagement is especially important if your elderly family member has been withdrawing for a long time. This is another area in which home care providers can be tremendously helpful. Senior home care providers spend time with your senior, engaging her in conversation and helping her to take care of whatever she needs help managing.
Find Other Ways to Support Her
There may be other ways that you can help to support your senior as she battles depression, too. Making regular appointments to spend time in person can be important, but if you live far away, that can be difficult. Video calling and spending time with your senior in other ways may be good ideas. Talk with your elderly family member about what else she might need or want to help manage her depression.
The sooner you and your senior take action to battle her depression, the better. That’s because it can have such a big impact on her daily life and her health, and you want to reduce that impact as much as possible.
