How Senior Home Care Can Help Someone with Low Vision
Low vision and vision impairment affect millions of adults, especially the elderly. Low vision makes it difficult for seniors to do everyday things. Sometimes, standard vision improvement tools such as glasses, corrective lenses, and surgery are unable to overcome the impairment.
If you are caring for an elderly loved one, you may find yourself having to do a lot of things for him and becoming a bit overwhelmed. February is Low Vision Awareness Month and one of the things that you’ll be happy to learn is there are resources out there that can help you take care of your loved one with low vision.
Low vision often makes certain daily chores or activities nearly impossible without assistance. Here are some great ways a senior home care team can help your loved one and you with these tasks he can no longer do on his own.
Driving
Because of low vision, many seniors have to stop driving. It becomes too unsafe to attempt to navigate the roads, but that doesn’t mean they have to stay home all the time! In addition to using public transportation, you can have a senior home care provider help with rides to important appointments and activities. Your loved one can know that he’ll arrive safely to his destination when he has a senior home care provider help with transportation.
Cooking (and Eating)
Those with low vision may find it difficult to read a recipe or use standard kitchen measuring tools like tablespoons or measuring cups. Seeing the fill line for ¼ teaspoon is just too small. But you don’t want your loved one to have to rely on all premade or frozen products that are often full of preservatives and salt. Having a senior home care provider come in and help with meal prep and preparation can be one way to make sure your loved one is still having meals made with fresh ingredients, while also making sure the recipe can still be followed. Your senior home care provider can also help prep food for later consumption such as chopping up vegetables to snack on or dicing onions to be tossed into a sauce later. When it comes to low vision, it’s not only reading that gets difficult, chopping and cutting up items can become quite dangerous when your loved one cannot see the cutting board well enough to keep his fingers out of the way.
Reading
One option for someone with low vision might be purchasing large print books that he can enjoy but if those do not help, a senior home care provider can come over and read to your loved one as well. The senior home care provider can read from the daily newspaper or work their way through your loved one’s favorite novel. This task may also help your loved one find a social connection as well.
Services such as these can help your loved one stay independent and make the most of the sight he has.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Home Care in Hazlet, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Lares Home Care 888-492-3538 or 732-566-1112.
