Ramping up the Importance of Keeping Clean During This Time of Self-Isolation

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Ramping up the importance of keeping clean during self-isolation

Stopping the spread of the coronavirus requires us to stay at home to self-isolate. It also involves practicing social distancing when we must leave home. For many, this new lifestyle is hard to get used to. Senior citizens, however, are having especially tough times right now. In many cases, they’re being forced to cancel or postpone their doctor’s visits. So, to protect their health, it’s important to ramp up their cleaning routines while they are self-isolating.

Stress the Importance of Hand Washing

Ever since the coronavirus began making headline news, we’ve been hearing about the importance of keeping clean hands and handwashing. Of course, there’s no excuse for not washing your hands on a regular basis. But, these days, it’s more important than ever to stress the necessity of keeping hands clean. To prevent the spread of infection, be sure to encourage your elderly loved one to wash his/her hands regularly throughout each day.

Washing hands

It is especially important to wash your hands before, during and after preparing and eating food; before and after caring for someone who is sick; before and after using the toilet; before and after treating a cut or wound; after changing adult incontinence products; after cleaning up an elderly person who has used the toilet; after blowing your nose; after coughing or sneezing; after petting or feeding an animal and after handling garbage.

Clean Living Areas Frequently

Your elderly loved one’s bedroom and most frequently-used bathrooms need to be cleaned every day. Make no exceptions, even if it’s as simple as a quick wipe down of all surfaces with a disinfectant wipe. Making sterilization a part of your daily routine will help to significantly minimize the potential of an older adult getting sick.

Bathroom cleaning

“Sterilization is key!” insists Sara Zeff Geber on Forbes.com, “The virus can stay on surfaces for a long time, so they’ll need to be cleaned frequently. Even if we’re in isolation, it’s unavoidable that we’ll need to expose ourselves to the outside. If you’re bringing a bag of food to your loved one, it might even be a good idea to wipe down the cans or other surfaces. Remember, don’t hoard cleaning supplies – just take enough to manage your own living spaces.”

Leave Bathing Reminders

Many elderly individuals don’t feel the need to bathe on a regular basis. For some, it’s because they don’t leave the house all that often – even prior to the coronavirus pandemic. For others, there are senses of embarrassment they can’t overcome because they need assistance with their bathing routines. And, in other cases, dementia sets in and disables seniors from remembering to bathe. To combat any of these issues, try leaving bathing reminders around the home.

Elderly bathing

If your elderly parents are not bathing because they have dementia and are forgetting to bathe, or because they have lost some of their ability to smell, then post notes around their house to remind them to bathe,” recommends Toronto’s Carefect Home Care Services, “By taping a few sticky notes or pieces of paper to the wall or door of the bathroom, you can remind them to bathe at least every other day. You can also put a calendar in their home with days circled to remind them when to bathe.”

Contact Forward Day and learn all about how our Shower Bay portable showers can help your elderly loved ones keep clean during self-isolation. Give us a call at 1-877-593-4461 or email us at info@showerbay.com.

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