As your loved one gets older, there are usually two areas that they find themselves concerned with, and probably do you. There can be fear around both possible serious physical health issues that may occur with age, as well as mental health concerns. While any serious problems should always be reviewed with your loved one’s primary physician, it can help both you and your loved one to understand that some brain aging is normal as a person ages, and not a cause of immediate concern. Hiring home care assistance providers can help with the stress of aging.
As the brain ages, like almost all other parts of the body, it changes. The changes that occur can affect mental function and your loved one’s ability to complete certain mental tasks with the speed that she used to.
Here are just a couple of ways the brain changes in the senior years.
- Blood flow to the brain may begin to slow down and decrease.
- The brain may become inflamed, which can be a response to an injury (such as a fall).
- In some areas of the brain, the neurons begin to communicate a bit less effectively, making the process of thinking something through, or multi-tasking a bit more difficult than before.
- In addition, some parts of the brain, especially those linked to learning and other complex problem-solving capabilities may shrink.
And while looking at this list may seem a bit frightening, for most elderly individuals, these changes only result in some minor mental abilities, that may be frustrating at times, but not concerning.
Your loved one (or even you or her home care assistance provider) may notice these changes over time:
- She’s unable to pay attention for as long as she used to. She might lose track of a long conversation or have a harder time following a complicated plot line of a movie.
- She has problems with multitasking. Your loved one may no longer be able to pull off a large holiday meal with many food offerings that have to be prepared simultaneously.
- She forgets names or words more easily. You may notice she struggles to remember the name of her favorite actor or a city she visited as a youth.
Most of these mental struggles are just that – struggles. They may make some things more difficult or slow going for her, but your loved one can still live independently. As a caregiver, you might discover offering her help by having a home care assistance provider assist with tasks that stress her mentally (like filling out insurance forms or paying monthly bills online) can bring her relief and you as well. A home care assistance provider can also help with meal prep, whether it’s just for her or if she’s having company and wants a more complex meal.
Your loved one can still learn new things, make new memories, and develop new talents as she ages but how she goes about it may look different than when she was younger. And that’s okay. It’s all a normal part of aging.
If you or an aging loved one is considering Home Care Assistance Services in Stockton NJ please contact the caring staff at Expert Home Care today at (732) 937-5320.
We have been providing Home Health Care to New Jersey families since 1985, and have grown to become one of the largest licensed providers of Live-In Home Care in the upper New Jersey area. Our many years of New Jersey home care experience has produced a company that over 8,000 clients have come to rely on confidently, for help.
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