Your senior may not seem to have a reason to be depressed, but just like anyone else, depression can strike for seemingly no reason at all. What matters is finding solutions that help your elderly family member to make the best of the situation and to stay as healthy as she can. Spending time at an adult day care center can offer some practical help to your senior that can make even periods of depression feel a little less dire.
Helping with Personal Care
Depression is a cycle, and there are cycles that can play into depression. For instance, people who are depressed often can find it difficult to keep up with personal care tasks like bathing, changing clothes, and brushing teeth. Being behind on those tasks can contribute to feelings of depression, sending the whole cycle around again. Help from caregivers at an adult day center makes quick work of these tasks, helping your senior feel better overall.
Ensuring Your Senior Eats
It’s also common for people who are depressed to have trouble eating. It might be physically difficult for your elderly family member to put meals and snacks together or she might just have no desire to do so. Spending time at adult day care offers her a chance to eat healthy meals and snacks, keeping her nourished as much as possible.
Offering Socialization Opportunities
Your elderly family member may also be withdrawing more from the people around her when she’s feeling depressed. It can feel like way too much effort to seek out companionship and socialization. With access to an adult day center, your senior has lots of opportunities to socialize. Even if she’s not up for engaging in lots of different activities, there are people around her that she can talk to and interact with as much as she’s willing to.
Keeping Track of Health Concerns
Depression takes a huge toll on your senior’s overall health as well. Senior care services ensure that your elderly family member’s existing health issues are addressed and don’t get overlooked. If there’s something that her doctor needs to address, you’ll have the information you need to make sure that happens.
Reminding Your Senior to Keep up with Medications
If your senior takes medication, either for treating depression or for other health issues, it’s important that she remembers to take it as prescribed. This is another way that adult day centers can help your elderly family member to stay on track. Failing to take medications, even if they aren’t for depression, can make your senior feel worse overall and that’s not a situation that you want her to experience if it can be avoided at all.
Everyone has those times when they just don’t feel great emotionally. But when your elderly family member has options like going to adult day care, she can find ways to work through the challenges she’s encountering when she’s battling depression. That might not be enough to completely lift the dark clouds for her, but it can make life easier.
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