Combating Senior Isolation This Winter!

Want to help yourself or a loved one avoid isolation as winter approaches? Need help fighting winter isolation for a senior in your life? Want tips to help preventing winter isolation from experts in hospice care in Ann Arbor?

Past their sixties, the older a person becomes, the more likely they are to live alone. As mobility and other health concerns become more of an issue, living alone can lead to a greater risk of isolation. In winter this can be a particularly big issue when many seniors worry about slippery conditions and moving around in bulky clothing and visitors may be less likely to stop by.

To help you combat senior isolation this winter, we’ve put together a list of our top 7 tips to stay connected! 

1. Build a Network: It might be harder for family members to visit a senior in winter, so ask neighbors to check-in on them once week. You can also utilize other modes of communication, like phone calls or connecting online, to fend off isolation. Try putting a weekly call in your calendar to help you remember!
2. Keep Them Nourished: Nutrition is incredibly important when it comes to keeping seniors feeling their best, but meal prep and cooking can become a real challenge. Help seniors stay nourished by arranging meal or grocery delivery. You can take a big task off their to-do list and free up their time for socialization and activities. 
3. Get to Know Community Services: Make sure seniors are familiar with the local senior center, senior transportation options, and other senior services in the community. AAA can be a good resource for discovering and locating all that’s available in the community. 
4. Tackle Medical Concerns: Being proactive addressing health and medical conditions will help seniors feel more confident to get out or take visitors at home. Help out by making appointments for them, arranging for medical supplies to be delivered, and etc. 
5. Mobility Assistance: Keep encouraging and reminding seniors to use their aids like canes, walkers, hearing aids, glasses, etc. to keep them moving and engaging with others easily and safely.
6. Transportation: Offer and arrange rides to appointments and activities. You can use community senior transportation services, private services, or simply call a taxi!
7. Consider Assisted Living: A facility designed to keep seniors healthy, active, fulfilled may be the best bet to combat senior isolation and other concerns that become too much for family members to take on. 

With these strategies to combat isolation this winter, the senior you’re caring for should get through the season happily and confidently. If you have any questions about helping a senior through winter or other needs from assisted living to hospice care in Ann Arbor, give us a call today. At Hillside Terrace, our family shares life with yours.