Blog > Home Care Allows Seniors the Chance to Live Independently

Home Care Allows Seniors the Chance to Live Independently

When you were a teenager, what kind of thoughts did you have about the future? If you were like a lot of teens, you couldn’t wait to get out on your own. You wanted to live independently. No longer would someone (your parents) be able to tell you what to do. It was exciting, that prospect. Know what? That’s how some seniors also feel, especially when they struggle with daily life.

No one wants to rely on another person for the basic necessities in life or simply to stay safe. They want to remain independent, but then the natural course of time takes its toll.

When that senior turns to their spouse, adult child, or other family member or friend for assistance, it might be following a major medical event, like a heart attack, stroke, cancer diagnosis, or even surgery. It may also be when they receive the difficult diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Or perhaps it’s because they can no longer do the things that had once been simple to do, like getting out of bed.
Most seniors first turn to family and friends. It’s the obvious first option. However, things change. The relationship dynamics change. Given enough time, the relationship can become strained.

Before long, the elderly person is struggling to live independently. At first, things were easier. Having someone stopping by to bring them food, help them take out the garbage, and do other errands around the house (often the things they don’t really want to do) seems great, until you lose less and less of yourself, of your independence.

Eventually, that aging senior wakes up one morning struggling to do the most basic of things on his or her own. That’s when they become intimately and acutely aware of what they’ve lost: their autonomy, their independence. Home care can play a vital role in getting them back to feeling like they have some control over their lives.

How could home care make a difference in this matter?

First and foremost, a home care agency is there to support aging men and women who are facing any number of physical or health challenges. The main goal is to make sure they can remain home, where they tend to be most comfortable.

A home care aide is going to treat their client like a fully functioning adult, someone who can make their own decisions for them. This doesn’t imply that family won’t, but where family members first and foremost focus on the safety of that aging senior, they tend to lose sight of other aspects in life that matter for quality.

You see, quality of life remains vital for everyone, regardless of age, physical infirmity, health challenge, or even terminal diagnosis. Just because a person is facing any of these things doesn’t mean they have to roll over and let go of their independence.

A home care aide can be a buffer that allows family to focus on being what they are: family, and helping an aging senior still feel as independent as they can be, without being ‘told’ what to do or not to do by their own adult children.