Easy Ways to Prevent Your Senior’s Medication Mistakes

If your elderly loved one takes a number of different medications, they may begin to get confused about dosage and frequency, and mistakes can occur. Even seemingly harmless mistakes put your senior at risk for health complications as a result. To keep these medication errors from occurring, consider the following tips:

Observe closely

Your elderly loved one may be making the same medication mistake over and over without realizing it, note senior care professionals. To catch these errors before they progress, you’ll want to monitor them closely. Look for signs of medication overuse, including mood swings, sluggishness, erratic behavior, and running out of medication early. 

If it’s clear that your senior is continually mixing up their daily medications, consider hiring a home care professional to come and help administer daily pills. This individual can make sure that your loved one gets the drugs they need to stay healthy, without taking too much or too little and putting their health at risk. 

Invest in a pill sorter

Your senior may make a medication mistake because the names of the drugs they take are similar, thus causing confusion. To prevent this from happening, eldercare professionals advise investing in a pill sorter. This allows you to divide up necessary daily medications in advance, thus preventing your elderly loved one from having to keep track of what’s what. Instead, they simply take all of the pills assigned to that day. This tool also prevents unintentional overdose.

Learn about how drugs interact with one another

According to people who work in home care, Asheville-Hendersonville families should be aware of any potential drug interactions. When your senior is prescribed a new medication, ask the doctor how this drug may interact with others that the elderly individual is taking. Your senior’s doctor should have a full and updated list of all of the medications that person is taking at any given time to help prevent unwanted interactions.

Home care professionals remind families that certain foods can interact with drugs too. When your senior is prescribed a new medication, ask about any foods that they should stay away from while they’re taking these drugs. You’d be surprised by some of the foods that cause a reaction, so this is something you should check on every time. 

Tips for Keeping Your Senior Healthy During Flu Season

Elderly individuals are particularly susceptible to the flu, and are hit much harder than younger people when they do get sick. For this reason, it is important that you encourage your senior to get their flu shot. When it comes to senior health, this is one of the best sources of protection against this nasty and often debilitating illness. Other tips for managing flu season safely include:

Wash hands regularly

Remind your senior to wash their hands before preparing food, after using the bathroom, and periodically throughout the day. They may forget and end up getting themselves sick as a result, so this gentle reminder will prove useful. Some senior care professionals even suggest posting small signs around the elderly person’s home so that they are reminded to wash their hands throughout the day, even if they are home alone.

Avoid contact with people who are sick

While it may seem rude, it’s best if your elderly loved one steers clear of people who are sick until they’ve made a full recovery. Germs can spread quickly, even during a brief interaction with someone who’s sick. Encourage them to talk on the phone, but avoid face-to-face contact until you’re sure that germs won’t spread to your senior.

Ask people who come into the home to wash their hands

Keep your elderly individual’s home a safe and healthy place by asking visitors to wash their hands when they come over for a visit. This helps to prevent them from bringing germs from the outside into the living space. According to those who work in eldercare, Asheville-Hendersonville families should consider setting up several bottles of hand sanitizer around the home so that people can quickly get rid of germs during a visit with an elderly relative.

Get plenty of rest and eat well

When the body is weak due to poor diet or lack of sleep, that person becomes more susceptible to illness. For this reason, it’s important to ensure that your senior is eating a diet full of lean meats, fresh fruits, and vegetables. They should also get a sufficient amount of rest, and may consider taking naps throughout the day.

If your elderly loved one is unable to head to the grocery store to buy nutritious ingredients for their meals, consider hiring a senior care professional to help with this task so that your senior will be able to enjoy a meal packed with vitamins and nutrients.

How to Protect Your Senior From Financial Abuse

Unfortunately, scammers prey on elderly individuals as they unleash various types of cons. However, family members and friends can step in and help protect their seniors from elder abuse. When it comes to preventing elder abuse, senior care professionals recommend educating your elderly loved one about scams, while talking with them about the warning signs of these scams. 

Why do elderly individuals fall for scams?

There is a number of different reasons why an older individual may fall for a scam. In many cases, it’s because they are home all day with time on their hands. Scammers pick up on loneliness or boredom and try to become a sympathetic ear for that senior. Over time, they develop a rapport with them, and eventually become able to swindle them. 

To protect your elderly loved one in this situation, eldercare professionals advise telling seniors that it is not rude to hang up on a telemarketer or other unknown person who calls and begins to pressure them. They should also learn about offers that seem too good to be true. Many seniors fall victim to scams that arrive via junk mail. Remind them that if an offer seems absolutely perfect, chances are that there’s a catch. 

Alert them to the dangers of programs that promise easy money

Seniors on a fixed income may worry about keeping up with inflation, and “get rich quick” schemes may seem highly appealing to them. It’s important to talk with your elderly loved one about these scams, and remind them that any offer that promises instant cash or large amounts of wealth is not real. Avoid e-mails or phone calls from people who promise such riches, and never give personal information to these people. This includes full name, address, or any sort of financial information. Scammers are clever and can use even small bits of personal information to rope seniors in.

If you believe that your elderly loved one has fallen victim to a scam, start by having an honest conversation with them so you can gather evidence. From there, take these details to the proper authorities. Remember that many people have no shame in taking advantage of seniors, so make sure that your elderly loved ones are protected. 

Crucial Bathtub Safety Tips For Your Senior

A warm bath is a relaxing and comforting experience, particularly on a cold day. However, the bathtub can pose a hazard for your senior. In fact, The National Safety Council states that more than 400 people drown in bathtubs each year.1 This does not account for the hundreds more who slip and injure themselves entering or exiting the tub. To keep your elderly loved one safe as they enjoy a bath, keep these tips in mind:

Install a bath rail

A bath rail is an essential device that helps to ensure that your senior gets in and out of the tub safely. There are many different styles to choose from, and they are able to fit over the tub without doing permanent damage to its structure. Grab bars are also useful. They come in a number of different lengths, and give the elderly individual something to hold on to in the event that they start to slip. 

Both of these tools help seniors to keep their balance, and can be used to stop a fall before it happens. Remember that towel bars are not sufficient substitutes for bath rails and grab bars. Senior care professionals encourage families to have these tools professionally installed to ensure that they are set up properly. 

Invest in a bathtub chair

According to those who work in home care, Asheville-Hendersonville families should think about investing in a bathtub bench or chair that assists an elderly individual as they enter and exit the tub. These products have legs that sit both inside and outside the tub, and allow the senior to sit on the bench and slide across, thus making getting in and out less dangerous. 

Mechanical bath lifts are also helpful as elderly individuals get in and out of the tub, note eldercare professionals. There are battery or water-powered lifts, though battery-operated models are preferable as they cut down on the risk of mold developing within the device. 

Also, home care professionals encourage families to install non-slip treads or a bath mat inside the tub to cut down on fall risks. This is useful for all family members, and not just elderly individuals. Keeping tubs clean can also make bathing safer, as soap scum or mold buildup can quickly make the surface slick and dangerous. 

1 http://seniorliving.about.com/od/improvepersonalsafety/a/bathtub_safety.htm