How to Help Your Loved One to Avoid Isolating Herself Socially

Elder Care in East Hampton NY

Social isolation is a huge danger for elderly loved ones. To help keep your loved one from avoiding social interactions, see if some of these solutions would work for her.

Make Sure She Can Get Where She Needs to Go

Lack of transportation can be a huge problem for elderly loved ones when it comes to staying involved socially. This is particularly an issue if your loved one can no longer drive herself. Make sure that you’re available, that she has access to other transportation, or that someone else can drive for her. You can even hire elder care providers to make sure that your loved one arrives safely and gets home safely.

Encourage Her to Take Care of Her Eyes and Her Ears

Often loved ones who have trouble seeing or hearing may start to remove themselves from social interactions. This can happen because they’re embarrassed at not seeing or hearing as well as others around them or because they don’t want to be a burden on anyone. Make sure that your loved one is keeping up with appointments for both of these issues.

Provide Adaptive Devices When Necessary

Other health situations can also cause your loved one to shy away from social interactions. In most cases, having the right adaptive devices can make all the difference in the world. Work with your loved one’s doctors and other medical practitioners to make sure that she has access to any and all assistive devices that might help her. A small sampling of assistive devices could include:

• Hearing aids
• Walkers or canes
• Glasses
• Dentures
• Incontinence supplies

Encourage Family Members, Friends, and Neighbors to Visit

If your elderly loved one is more of a homebody, it could be that most of her social interaction needs to come to her. Try talking to other family members, friends, and neighbors about stopping in to visit your loved one more often. Making those visits more prominent around meal times can help your loved one to eat more regularly, too. Talk to your loved one about how often she’d like to have visitors and then work out a system where people can see when they’d be able to visit.

Talk to your loved one regularly about what she’d like to do to keep her social life active as well.

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring professional elder care in East Hampton, NY, call the caring staff at Artful Home Care today at 631-685-5001.