How Can I Honor My Elderly Parent’s Privacy While Providing Care?
If you’re the caregiver of a senior citizen, you know that getting privacy isn’t an easy feat. That is true for both yourself and your care recipient. You both deserve a little alone time. So how do you go about it? It’s your job to provide care. Can you honor your elderly parent’s privacy while providing care? Let’s take a look at a few ways to pull that off.
Offer Regular 30-Minute Alone-Time Periods
Sometimes, offering privacy to an elderly loved one isn’t entirely possible. Certainly, this is true for seniors who have mobility issues and/or illnesses that require constant care. In some cases, you may actually have to schedule breaks between you and your aging parent. Of course, only when it is safe to do so, take some time off during the afternoon or evening. Give your parent some time to rest, read or watch TV alone.
“For seniors and caregivers who live together, it’s important to maintain boundaries of communication, time, and independence,” writes Jessica Fairbanks of Home Care Assistance in Cedar Falls, Iowa, “If you spend too much time together, these boundaries may start to blur. To uphold these boundaries, take frequent breaks. Spending 30 minutes apart from your loved one every afternoon may provide much-needed mental solace.”
Instill a “Don’t Click” Policy
There are countless online scammers. Sadly, they often target seniors. Don’t let your elderly loved one become the victim of a scam by responding to emails that may give away private information. Help Mom and/or Dad avoid accidentally forfeiting such vital information as online account passwords. Insist that your elderly loved one never clicks on any links sent to him/her in an email.
“When in doubt, throw it out,” advises the National Cyber Security Alliance, “Clicking on links in emails are often how bad guys get access to personal information. If an email looks weird, even if you know the person who sent it, it’s best to delete.”
Set up Shower Bay in a Convenient Room of the Home
One thing that many seniors dread is the lack of privacy they get when it is time to take a bath. This is especially true for those who have mobility issues. When a caregiver’s help is needed to get into a bathtub, it can muster up feelings of embarrassment and anxiety. Forward Day’s Shower Bay portable shower helps to do away with all of those negative feelings.
Shower Bay is a safe and portable shower designed for wheelchair users. It provides a true shower experience without any dangerous wet-environment transfers or expensive home renovations. Shower Bay’s unique design allows for quick assembly in any room of the home where there is a faucet nearby. Just snap the unit together, connect to a standard faucet, and turn on the pump!
A daily shower should be enjoyed, not dreaded. The warm, gentle massage of water running through our hair and down our back is one of the best parts of our day. Most of us take this rejuvenating sensation for granted, but many people with mobility limitations miss their shower times because it means their privacy goes out the window! At Forward Day, we’d be happy to help your elderly loved one eliminate these feelings of dread.
If you have any questions about our Shower Bay portable showers, please don’t hesitate to contact us to ask them. Give us a call at 1-877-593-4461 or email us at info@showerbay.com
