Preparing to Welcome Your Senior Home From the Hospital

When your senior is getting ready to come home after a hospital stay, you’ll want to prepare yourself and the house for their arrival. Home care professionals explain that preparation is essential in order to keep your elderly loved one happy as they continue to recover. Take these steps to ensure that this is the case:

Plan ahead

Even if the discharge is still a little while away, it’s still important to make plans about how you’ll proceed when your loved one is released. This is especially true if you’ll need to make special accommodations in your home in order to better assist the elderly individual. You’ll want to have bathroom grab bars and other fixtures installed well before your senior arrives.  You may also need to rearrange the space if a hospital bed, wheelchair, and other similar items become necessary. 

Don’t forget to get rid of unnecessary area rugs in order to reduce your loved one’s chance of slipping in their fragile state. Make sure cords that lie on the ground are secure and not located in high traffic areas. These small details will make that elderly individual’s return a much more pleasant experience for everyone.

Learn about your new responsibilities

When your senior is home, they’re no longer in the care of highly trained doctors and nurses. This means that you and other family members will need to shoulder much of the caretaking burden. For the sake of senior health, you will need to get educated about this process. 

According to professionals who work in home care, Chapel Hill families should spend some time talking with their elderly family member’s doctors and nurses about the caregiving process. This means finding out about administering different medications, changing bandages, and other essential parts of preserving their senior’s wellbeing.

Get assistance if necessary

Caring for an elderly loved one can certainly become a full-time job. For many people, this fact is overwhelming. Never feel ashamed to ask for help in providing your senior with what they need. You may consider having an elder care professional come in several days per week in order to help with bathing, changing, and the distribution of medication. This gives family members a break from the caregiving process, allowing them to feel refreshed and recharged once again.