When it turns cold and gray in the winter, many older adults begin to feel like the weather: dreary. Always Best Care Jacksonville owner Marlynn Bruno believes the best medicine for the winter blues can be the company of others, even caregivers.
“We do see our clients handling Thanksgiving and Christmas without [loved ones who have passed away] or their adult children have moved away,” Bruno, who has owned her Florida franchise with her husband for over 10 years now and started as a caregiver for her grandmother at 17, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “We do have seasonal depression for the traditions that they’ve shared [that] can no longer be shared so we try to reach out and recreate those with them. We’ve had caregivers that have invited their clients to their own family celebrations for holidays, or they have separate ones with them at the client’s home.”
Socialization comes in many forms. To help older adults avoid loneliness, Always Best Care offers an Always In Touch complimentary phone service that gives daily check-ins or weekly socialization calls for companionship. Bruno’s mother-in-law, who has Alzheimer’s, used the service after her husband passed away and it allowed her to continue a tradition she held dear to her heart.
“She had a martini for 50 years every afternoon when her husband got home from work. So when he passed away that was the loneliest part of the day,” Bruno said. “So we signed her up with Always In Touch and they would call her every day at 4 o’clock. She’d make her martini and they would sit and chat and it just really helped her through that really lonely time.”
There is also strong evidence that maintaining an active lifestyle can help people maintain balanced moods. One option for older adults is Silver Sneakers’ indoor exercise programs, which are available for use at the gym or at home and are covered by select Medicare plans. When the weather is pleasant, pickleball, water aerobics and yoga are just a few of Bruno’s recommended low-impact outdoor activities for her older adults. But caregivers should not be afraid to adapt activities based on their seniors’ physical abilities.
“I have a client with dementia and she was an A1 tennis player and now she’s not able to do so much physically,” Bruno said. “So I said we could just set up ping pong on the dining room table just to practice those strokes, which is exercise. You’re not going to have to move as much, but we try to incorporate whatever they used to do into their daily lives.”
Home Sweet Home is a feature appearing Mondays in McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. The story focuses on a heartwarming, entertaining or interesting happening affecting the world of home care. If you have a topic that might be worthy of the spotlight in Home Sweet Home, please email Special Projects Coordinator Foster Stubbs at [email protected].
