As seniors experience changes over time, tasks that were once easy can become full of anxiety and even discomfort. Bathing is one such task. Personal hygiene is incredibly important for overall well-being, so it’s important for families to find a way to help seniors become more comfortable with bathing. This might even include enlisting the help of personal care at home to make bathing easier and safer.
Be Open and Understanding
Talking about what’s making bathing uncomfortable is a great way to start understanding what’s going on. Discussing fears, concerns, and preferences helps family caregivers to put a plan in place that makes this necessary task easier. Sometimes seniors aren’t even consciously aware why they’re avoiding bathing, but talking about the situation in a loving way can help explore those feelings.
Establish a Routine
Having a consistent routine around bathing makes it predictable and familiar for aging adults. Home care providers can help with establishing supportive routines without adding pressure. Consistency is a great tool for reducing anxiety because it eliminates feeling uncertain and not knowing what to expect.
Choose the Right Products
Sometimes the problem is the products in use during bathing. If fragrances are too strong or products leave skin feeling uncomfortable, seniors are definitely not going to be happy about bathing more often. Evaluating how well those products are working and making a swap for other ones can be a good answer.
Create a Relaxing Environment
When the bathroom is a safe and relaxing environment to enjoy, bath time is going to be more comfortable overall. Personal care at home can help with ensuring safety. It’s also good to include non-slip rugs, comfortable towels, and assistive devices like shower chairs.
Use Adaptive Techniques
Techniques make all the difference, too. For some seniors, the shower may be more intimidating now than ever before. That might mean that it’s time to make a switch from standing in the shower to using a shower bench or chair instead. Or it might mean using a handheld showerhead to direct water away from the head and face more easily.
Support Independence
Something that is important to remember is that seniors need to maintain independence when and where they can. If there are areas in which they’re comfortable handling tasks on their own and it’s safe to do so, that’s something to support. Adding tools like grab bars in the shower can encourage independence even more.
Consider Personal Care at Home
Seniors may be wary of having help from elder care providers during bathing at first. But this type of help offers them dignified support exactly where they need it the most. Caregivers are there to offer empathetic support, not make the situation more complicated or difficult. Once seniors experience the benefits of this type of help, they’re often more open to it overall.
Helping seniors to feel more comfortable with bathing might mean making some or all of these changes. Personal care at home can do a lot to remove the feelings of anxiety that can keep aging adults from taking the best possible care of themselves.
If you or an aging loved one are considering personal care at home in Dallas, TX, please contact the caring staff at Clear Path Home Care today. Call (817) 631-7710.
Clear Path Home Care provides compassionate, high quality home care in Bosque County, Hill County, Navarro County, Henderson County, Erath County, Somervell County, Johnson County, Ellis County, Parker County, Tarrant County, Dallas County, Kaufman County, Rains County, Hood County, VanZandt County, and Rockwall County in Texas.
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