Older adults often find themselves faced with social isolation. With COVID-19, whether seniors live at home or are in a community, this isolation has been magnified.
Fortunately, there are ways this sense of isolation can be lifted for seniors, even in these times. Home Care Assistance has developed several programs and initiatives designed to minimize social isolation for seniors.
How Home Care Promotes Social Distancing
Social distancing is the best way to avoid getting the virus. Caregivers can help make social distancing possible for seniors by going out to perform daily tasks, so seniors don’t have to leave the house themselves. Caregivers can help bring a sense of calm and stability in a senior’s life by:
- Doing grocery or other shopping
- Going out to get medications
- Setting up video chat options for telehealth or family communication
- Providing one-on-one companionship and stimulating activities
What’s more, our trained caregivers are armed with the latest knowledge, follow safety protocols, and execute all of the CDC’s recommendations.
How Family, the Community, and Online Resources Can Help
There are many creative ways people can keep older adult’s company.
Friends and family members can coordinate drive-bys to celebrate milestones, birthdays, or holidays, including Mother’s and Father’s Day. Participants can decorate signs commemorating the occasion, honk and wave as they pass by their loved one’s house, and drop off gifts.
An isolated older adult and family member or friend can also take socially-distanced walks together (with masks and a distance of 6 feet between them). More traditional forms of communication, by way of phone or email, may also help stave off a senior’s feelings of isolation.
Seniors can also reach out for connection. Goodnight Zoom and Lunchtime Laughter, activities that are both offered through the Zoom platform, provide free daily activities for seniors to stay engaged and socially connected. Goodnight Zoom pairs an isolated senior with a child for story time.
Lunchtime Laughter is geared toward Alzheimer’s patients, family members, and caregivers. It offers a noon comedy session to help participants cope with social isolation during social distancing.
How Home Care Assistance Can Help
At Home Care Assistance Mesa, we’ve been using our proprietary Balanced Care Method to promote the emotional and physical wellbeing of our clients long before the pandemic began.
As always, we hire dedicated caregivers who are passionate about caring for seniors and expertly match our clients to caregivers. Currently, we prefer to make these matches on a one-on-one basis to help minimize risks associated with COVID-19.
We have a procedure in place for conducting online or phone-based virtual assessments to determine the needs, preferences, and wants of new clients. We also currently provide in-person assessments in situations where it is safe to do so.
One aspect of our service differentiating us from other home care agencies is that we provide each client with a full Care Team, not just a caregiver. Our Rapid Response Team constantly updates protocols and communicates best practices to our caregivers through our caregiver app to help keep our clients safe in their homes.
Caregiver/Client Safety Protocols
We have thorough protocols in place to help mitigate the risk of contracting COVID-19. This includes:
- Enforcing travel reporting requirements: Caregivers, clients, and caregivers are asked to report if they have been to a location on the CDC advisory list within the past two months. We will not place a caregiver with a client for a minimum of 14 days if travel has occurred.
- Taking safety measures, including conducting mandatory temperature checks for caregivers before every shift; stocking offices with PPE and disinfectant items for caregivers and clients; updating disaster preparedness plans for clients; and maintaining strict guidelines relating to exposure to COVID-19.
In these times where long-distance caregiving is a necessity, HCA can help seniors maintain their social distance and tackle the sense of isolation that accompanies it. We can perform daily tasks outside the household for older adults; facilitate opportunities for seniors to communicate virtually; and create resources that promote not only social engagement, but stimulation for the mind and body as well.
If you need support caring for a loved one, call us. Our trained caregivers can provide support to fit your schedule and provide you with peace of mind. We understand aging and we can help your loved one age in a healthy manner.
Amanda Butas is a Certified Dementia Practitioner, and a Geriatric Care Manager. You can call her at (480) 699-4899. You also can visit Home Care Assistance at our new office next to Bed Bath and Beyond, located on Power and McKellips roads, at 2031 N. Power Road, Suite 103.