Change is hard and moving is stressful. Now, imagine that you have to change your entire lifestyle. This is what many seniors have to go through when they deal with transitional care. They may have to leave their home for a community, or downsize their home and allow strangers to come in and help them. There are ways to help ease your senior and make the changes smooth.
5 Ways to Help With Transitional Care
If you aren’t careful, your senior could get very sick because of that change. If they have any chronic conditions, their symptoms can be made worse. There can also be symptoms like losing their voice, urinary tract infections, high blood pressure, delusions, falls, and so much more.
But fear not, these 5 tips should be able to help you with transitional care.
1. Prepare and Educate
You should always make sure that you talk to your senior about what is going to happen. Make sure that they understand that things will be different and why.
It’s also important to educate yourself. Your senior is relying on you as their caregiver. Make sure you have all the information you need to make everything as easy as possible for both of you.
This information can include what to do if you are going from home to a hospital, what’s the best community for your senior’s needs, and who your senior’s doctors are.
2. Keep Communication Open
There’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to senior care, even more so when it’s just the beginning. Your senior could be moved from a hospital to a community without having important info.
See if you can find a way to make sure all people get the information they need. This could mean keeping records yourself and making copies to hand out. It could be asking your senior’s doctor to send the info to the people who need it.
Make sure everyone is on the same page.
3. Pay Attention to Your Senior’s Care Goals
Do you know what your senior wants when it comes to their care? Do they have any treatment preferences? Would they prefer to be at home or a community? Do they have an advance directive?
If no such options are available, it’s important to think about what your senior would truly want. If you have to, gather opinions from other people who know your senior well.
4. Make a Team
The best way to get through all the changes in one piece is to create a team. This way everyone can help you make sure your senior gets the best treatment. It will also make your senior feel supported and safe.
Make sure anyone who is going to help and care for your senior knows what they’re doing. Make sure they know how to care for any chronic conditions that your senior may have.
5. Avoid Hospitalizations
It’s best you avoid any unnecessary changes in their environment. This can mean hospitalizations or ER visits. This can mess with the flow of care your senior gets and upset them. Upsetting them can cause illness and agitation.
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