Can Elderly Care Help Protect Your Senior from Foodborne Illness or Infection?

Homecare in Southampton NY: Senior Food Safety

Starting elderly care can be an exceptional way for you to ensure that your aging parent gets everything that they need to live their highest quality of life as they age in place.

While you might immediately think of this care provider as assisting your parent with needs such as supporting their mobility and fulfillment of personal needs, providing transportation, and giving them reminders to help them remain compliant with their medications and treatments, it is important to note that their highly personalized care can offer a much wider variety of benefits to your senior.  One of these can be helping your aging parent to avoid foodborne illness or infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than 48 million people throughout the country experience a foodborne illness each year.  While most of these cases are quite mild, as a family caregiver it is important that you recognize that senior adults are at particularly high risk.   The care of an elderly care provider, however, can help to protect your parent and reduce the risk that they will experience the potentially devastating consequences of such an infection.

Some ways that elderly care can protect your parent from foodborne illness or infection include:

• Keep the kitchen stocked. 

A senior who does not have a well-stocked kitchen is going to be more likely to eat questionable food than one who is well-supplied.  A care provider can provide your parent with safe and reliable transportation to the grocery store and assist them in shopping to make sure that the food that they have in their kitchen is fresh, safe, and healthy.

• Check foods before eating for those with sensory limitations.

If your aging parent is dealing with a decreased sense of smell, taste, or even vision, they might be more likely to contract such an infection.  This is because they might not be able to detect the sometimes subtle sensory clues that food is spoiled, such as a bad smell.

• Discourage unhealthy eating habits in those with cognitive functioning limitations.

A senior who is dealing with memory loss and other forms of cognitive functioning decline is more likely to make unhealthy, dangerous decisions about their eating because they do not understand what they are doing. A care provider can supervise your parent, ensuring that they do not make unsafe or unhealthy decisions, such as eating food that is expired or taking food out of the garbage to eat.

How can elder care help?

If you have been looking for ways that you can boost your parent’s quality of life, starting elderly care can be an exceptional choice.  As a family caregiver, you want to know that your parent is getting everything that they need to stay healthy, safe, comfortable, and happy as they age in place.

A busy schedule, personal limitations and challenges, and even living at a distance can create care gaps that keep you from being able to give your senior the level of care that you feel that they deserve.  An elderly home care services provider can step in to fill these care gaps in efficient, effective, and nurturing ways that are right for your elderly parent as an individual.

These highly personalized services are specifically designed not just to address their personal needs, but also to encourage them to live a lifestyle that is independent, active, and fulfilling throughout their later years.  This can include helping them to make good lifestyle choices, addressing personal challenges in a way that helps them to stay safer and healthier, and planning activities or outings that will stimulate their mind, support their mental and emotional health and encourage engagement in the world around them.

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

Sources:
https://www.foodsafety.gov/risk/olderadults/index.html
http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2014/11/seniorcitizensfoodbornediseases.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html