Could you, your senior parent(s), or an elderly loved one benefit from in-home companionship services? This article will explain what in-home companionship services are and help you decide if they could help you or somebody you love.
What Are In-Home Companionship Services?
We often think of senior care in terms of physical aspects. Many of the things we first think of when we think of senior care are acts of personal care. Helping seniors get in and out of bed, get up and down stairs, use the toilet, shower or bathe, eat food, and more. All of these fall under the umbrella of personal care and if you or an elderly loved one could use help with these Activities of Daily Living, you can arrange for in-home personal care. But what if the issues you or your elderly loved one face aren’t physical but mental and emotional.
For seniors who are lonely, depressed, or are struggling with onset symptoms of a neurodegenerative disease, there are companionship services. These work in much the same way as personal care services, but instead of helping seniors with their physical health, they help them with their mental and emotional health. Just because seniors have physical health issues more often than younger people doesn’t mean they don’t also have mental health issues. Quite the opposite, actually.
Do seniors face mental health problems often enough to really necessitate a whole category of care having been devised to help them? Well, over the past year, the coronavirus has demonstrated the mental toll isolation can take on people, but many seniors have lived in a kind of isolation already for years. Many seniors live in cities without many friends or family, if any. They don’t interact with many people socially and they can become detached from reality. The effect is especially profound on seniors who live alone, but even couples can become isolated together. This isolation leads to loneliness which leads to depression and depression can be an existential threat.
It’s remarkable how much in-home companionship services can help. These services give seniors an outlet to discuss their worries and concerns, including concerns they might not feel comfortable discussing with family. These services keep seniors tethered to reality and can help them keep in contact with others. They can also just be fun.
What Do In-Home Companionship Services Include?
In-home companionship services can cover:
- Conversation
- Listening to problems
- Reminiscing
- Paying card games
- Playing board games
- Helping seniors keep up with correspondence
- Accompanying seniors to social events and appointments
- And more!
Executive Home Care
To learn more about in-home companionship services, please contact us via our website or call (888) 963-9133.