Key Components Of Stroke Recovery

A stroke is a traumatic and devastating medical event for a senior and their family. However, once it has happened, it’s time to shift the focus to recovery. Elder care services professionals explain that focusing on recovery is essential in order to allow your elderly loved one to regain their physical and mental abilities. A few ways to do this include:

Focus on reducing risk of another stroke

Many strokes come as a result of uncontrolled or undetected medical conditions, such as hypertension or diabetes. After a stroke has occurred, your elderly loved one must get a full assessment from a doctor in order to prevent it from happening again. Encourage your senior to take all medications prescribed to them regularly, and to eat a diet that’s high in fiber, low in fat and salt, and full of lean protein. Those who care for seniors explain that prevention is an essential step that is often overlooked during the recovery process. 

Partake in a comprehensive recovery program

After your elderly parent has a stroke, they’ll need to take part in a comprehensive recovery program designed by highly trained medical professionals. This may include physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. These various specialists can help to get your loved one back on track and recover the skills they may have lost in the stroke. 

Alter a living situation as necessary

After a stroke, your family member may not be able to attend to the tasks of daily living anymore. According to those who work in assisted living, Iowa families need to carefully analyze their senior’s needs after a stroke and make any necessary adjustments. This may include having a home care professional come in to assist regularly, or they may need to be moved either temporarily or permanently to an assisted living facility or nursing home.  

Join a stroke support group

A stroke support group can help to prevent feelings of isolation as your senior recovers from this traumatic medical event. Your elderly loved one’s neurologist can help to direct you to a group in your area. The experience allows them to feel a connection to others in the community who have gone through a similar situation, while also helping you to learn more about stroke and the recovery process.

The days and weeks following a stroke can be stressful both for the survivor and their family. However, when you take quick action to get your senior on a comprehensive recovery program, they’ll be able to make great strides as they regain the skills they lost during the event. 

How to Devise a Comprehensive Senior Care Plan with Your Family

Caring for an elderly parent can be a full-time job, so it’s often helpful to get siblings involved in order to divide up the work. However, this issue can be a touchy subject among family members. One sibling may feel that they’re shouldering too much of the burden, while another may feel as if they’re excluded from the decision making process regarding their parent’s care. In order to keep everyone satisfied and ensure that caretaker burnout doesn’t happen, keep these tips in mind:

Have a formal meeting

While it may seem strange to call a formal meeting with members of your family, this is often the best way to establish a solid plan for caring for your aging parent. Instead of assuming that everyone is on the same page about caretaking responsibilities, get it all out in the open during this conversation. If you’re scattered throughout various parts of the country, schedule a conference call or a Google hangout. 

Be realistic about who can do what

While everyone wants to chip in to help care for your elderly loved one, it’s not always possible to ask all siblings to make an equal contribution. For example, if one person lives across the country and another is caring for a newborn baby, other siblings will need to carry more of the caregiving weight. There’s no need to feel shame or guilt about this, but it’s important to be honest. Don’t offer to make dinner for mom every night when that commitment simply isn’t realistic. When everyone is honest about what they can and can’t do, it prevents the senior from accidentally being neglected. 

According to professionals who work in at-home care, Cedar Valley families should consider mapping out the senior’s daily care schedule on a calendar. This calendar can then be typed up and distributed to all of the siblings, ensuring that everyone knows exactly when and what they need to be doing to assist their elderly parent.

Don’t be afraid to ask for additional help

Sometimes adult children feel guilty about bringing in someone from elder care services in order to care for their senior. Remember that there is no shame in asking for extra help from someone outside of the family. So long as the senior is properly cared for, that’s all that matters. 

Top Tech Tools That Allow Your Senior to Age in Place

Technology is making it easier than ever for your senior to stay right where they are as they continue to age. Thanks to these gadgets they can continue to enjoy the comfort of their own home while you can feel content knowing that they are safe. When it comes to in-home care, Iowa families can get peace of mind using these tools. Some of the items that you should know about today include:

StoryWorth

This beautiful device brings family members together for fun and a deeper understanding of family history. Using this tool, family members get to learn about one another, while discovering how they interact as a unit. In fact, StoryWorth enables you to invite up to six family members to write their own stories using e-mail, their website, or by recording audio and uploading pictures. Piece these stories together to get an accurate look at what that family is really about. 

WalkJoy

If you’re nervous about your senior as they move around their home, eldercare services professionals say that this is the tool for you. This platform addresses fall risks, including unhealthy walking conditions and other potentially dangerous situations. Fix these issues before they become a major problem. 

The Prevent program

This program uses clinical research to offer digital tracking tools, coaching, support, and other programs needed to help stop diabetes. The tool can coach your senior toward better health, allowing them to ward off diabetes and the host of other problems that often go with it. 

CareSolver

Caring for an elderly loved one can be a challenge, and CareSolver’s Care Plan Library can be a powerful resource. This reference tool offers details about financial matters and legal issues, and also highlights some other key free resources that a caregiver might need.

CareAtHand

When you or a residential care professional see your elderly loved one on a daily basis, it can be hard to get a real sense of how that person’s health is holding up. This tool relies on predictive algorithms to accurately track the health of that patient. It makes it easier to spot when this person’s health is worsening, allowing for appropriate adjustments in medical care as a result. When it comes to handling care for elderly family members, use technology to make the process easier and safer for everyone involved.