If you have elderly loved ones that you see on a regular basis, there’s a lot that you can do to help to keep them healthy, even amid cold and flu seasons or if they’re living in assisted living communities. Your commitment to helping them be as healthy as possible can not only help them to live longer and have a more fulfilling life, but it can also help you to get healthier, too.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways you can help keep your elderly loved ones healthy.
Be Active With Them
If you just try telling your elderly loved one that they should be trying to be more active, even if you give them a regimen that they could easily follow on their own, the chances of them really making these changes in their life are pretty low, especially if they haven’t ever really been too active in recent past. But if you take the time to be active with them, they’re much more likely to want to follow through with more daily activity.
Even if you can’t get out and be active with your elderly loved one each day, taking a few walks together each week, heading to the pool together, or doing some low-impact sports together can be great ways to be active together and spend quality time with one another. And the more active your elderly loved one is, the better they’ll be able to do things like fight off illness and avoid slips and falls.
Help Them Remember To Take Their Medication
As many people get older, they often need to take medication to help with certain illnesses or symptoms that they’ve developed. However, many elderly people who should be taking medication find that they forget or miss doses occasionally, which could have detrimental impacts on their health.
To keep this from happening to them, you can take on some of the responsibility of helping them remember to take their medication. You can set alerts on their phone or smart home devices, you can call them daily to check in and see if they’ve taken their medication, or you can have someone else take part in these reminders as well.
Keep Sick People Away From Them
Older people often have weaker immune systems and can be taken down hard by common sicknesses that others can easily fight off. Knowing this, you’ll want to try to make sure that your elderly loved one stays away from sick people as much as possible.
While you can’t always avoid people who might be sick when you’re out in public, you can be vocal about people who spend a lot of time with your elderly loved one not coming to see them when they’re sick and steering clear of being in the same room until their symptoms are gone.
If you want to help your elderly loved one to stay healthy for as long as possible, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you with this.
