5 Ways to Help Your Aging Parents
Helping your parents live comfortably as they get older is an act of love and appreciation for everything they did for you throughout your life. Here are five ways you can help your aging parents.
1. Help keep their prescriptions organized.
Aging parents often have a complex array of doctors’ appointments and prescriptions that they need to keep organized. Taking daily prescriptions incorrectly can have devastating consequences, so it is vitally important that they understand when and how to take each prescription and the appropriate dosage.
Apps such as the Medsafe Medication reminder can help your parents remember which medications they need to take at what time. The app can also notify them when it is time to reorder their pills.
2. Ensure they have enough money to live comfortably.
While your parents may not need many luxuries, they must be able to live comfortably in their later years. After all, they spent their entire lives working hard and taking care of others. One way you can help ensure they have enough money to live comfortably is with the help of life settlement companies.
Companies like American Life Fund will buy life insurance policies for lump-sum payments providing the funds needed to live comfortably. By pre-paying funeral expenses, your parents can have the peace-of-mind knowing they are not leaving their children with financial hardship.
3. Set up grocery delivery.
Even if your parents are still very mobile and independent, grocery delivery is a highly valuable service. Your parents will have everything they need without having to go out when it is raining, cold, icy, or extremely hot, depending on where they live.
Additionally, they won’t have to worry about carrying a bunch of groceries from their vehicle to their home, which also means fewer opportunities for falls. Grocery delivery services are significantly more common than they used to be and are available in most areas.
4. Protect their quality of life when it comes to hearing loss.
A lot of people accept hearing loss as a part of growing older, but that shouldn’t be the case. While hearing loss and hearing damage throughout a lifetime is normal, your parents do not have to live with it. Hearing Health USA operates over 200 offices across the country and provides the testing and treatment for a wide range of medical conditions that negatively impact hearing. They can work with your parents to ensure they get the hearing aids they need to communicate normally with those around them.
Hearing loss can have a significantly negative impact on their quality of life as they suffer trying to communicate and get frustrated with their efforts. Hearing aids can restore their ability to interact with others naturally and remove a great deal of aggregation from their lives.
5. Encourage them to be as social as possible.
Depression among the elderly is well-documented and creates a serious concern. It is vital to help your parents stay as active as possible, spending time with both friends and family. Keeping them social may include getting them involved in a senior citizen group, helping them get to and from church, as well as organizing day trips, outings, and get-togethers. If you aren’t sure what is available for seniors in your area, you can check with the library, community newspaper, or chamber of commerce.
These are just a few suggestions on how you can help your parents. The primary goal is to ensure they maintain a high quality of life throughout their later years. Financial stability with a life insurance settlement, the ability to stay social and communicate clearly with hearing aids, if needed, and help with groceries and prescriptions can go a long way.