It isn’t unusual at all for some aging family members to experience a great deal of fear around bathing tasks. If that’s the case for your senior, try some of these suggestions.
If She Feels Unsafe, That’s Scary for Her
Elderly Care Drexel Hill, PA: Seniors and Bathing
It’s important to understand why something as normal and simple as a bath or shower can be frightening for your senior. She may have never been scared of anything in the past, but now things have changed. Whether she’s more unstable on her feet now or cognitive changes have caused her to experience sensory issues, the bottom line is that your elderly family member feels unsafe and anytime someone feels unsafe, that’s scary. It’s vital to look at how you can improve safety conditions in the bathroom.
Preparing for Baths and Showers Helps a Lot
Preparation matters in just about anything you undertake, including helping your senior take a bath. Let her relax first while you get everything that she needs. It can take a few moments to set up a shower chair, for instance, if she uses one. When you’ve got everything ready, that’s the time to go talk to your senior and let her know what’s about to happen.
Take Your Time and Encourage Her to, as Well
You definitely want to take your time and encourage your senior to take her time, too. There’s no need to rush any of this and rushing can make either of you slip or experience some other injury. Any time you’re planning to help your senior with a bath or shower, make sure you have plenty of time to do so. You’ll want time to set up properly, time for your senior to safely bathe, and time for dressing and cleanup afterward.
Let Her Do What She Can Do
There’s a big difference between helping and overstepping what your senior needs from you. There are probably quite a few tasks related to bathing that she’s perfectly fine to handle on her own. Let her do those things. If you take over everything, that’s going to remove some independence and that’s not something you want to do to your senior.
Bring in Someone with Experience
It’s not always possible for you, your senior, or even both of you to get used to this helping her bathe situation. There are lots of reasons for this, so there’s no reason to feel embarrassed or upset if you need to bring in someone else, like elderly care providers. They’ve got experience helping people to bathe while also making sure no one gets embarrassed in the process.
You may not ever be able to completely remove the fear from bathing for your senior, but you can definitely find ways to help her to have a much better experience with a necessary task.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering Elderly Care in Drexel Hill, PA please contact the caring staff at Correct Choice Home Care today at (267) 323-1700.
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