Elder Care in Maple Grove MN
As dementia progresses, your senior’s brain experiences changes in how it processes information. That means that even if her eyesight is functioning properly, her brain may not interpret what she’s seeing properly. That disconnect can lead to safety concerns, like falling, running into furniture or walls, and other possible safety issues. These tips can help your elderly family member to be able to process what she’s seeing more safely, and how elder care can help.
Patterns Can Be Confusing
Patterns, especially complicated or busy patterns, can be visually confusing to your senior. This is especially true if those patterns are on rugs, furniture, and curtains. It’s much easier to replace those items with plain, solid colors. Slipcovers can be really effective on furniture and they’re easy to use over just about any furniture.
Contrast Can Be Important
Contrasting colors helps your senior to differentiate edges and differences. For instance, if there are stairs in your senior’s home, use bright masking tape along the edges of each step in order to make it more obvious for her. It also helps to make sure that walls and floors are contrasting colors if possible. This can help to prevent your senior accidentally bumping into the wall. This also helps with dishes and your senior’s table. If the dishes contrast with the table, they’ll be easier to spot. An elder care provider can also help your senior get around the house safely.
Signs Need to Be Obvious
Many family caregivers use signs in their senior’s home to help identify things like where the bathroom is or what items are in specific cabinets or drawers. If you’re focusing on making these signs attractive or pretty, they might miss the mark. It’s much more effective for your senior if those signs are brightly colored and use pictures and other obvious signals.
Elder Care Providers Can Help, Too
If your elderly family member’s dementia is progressing quickly, these tips may help but not as much as having someone there with your senior helps. Having elder care providers there with your senior can ensure that she has assistance when she needs it and that there’s someone there to watch for possible issues. They can also help with other chores, like laundry and cleaning, as well as meal preparation.
Accommodating the processing changes that are happening in your senior’s brain is really important so that you can help her to be as safe and as independent as possible. This can assist her in continuing to do as much as she can for as long as she can.
