How To Offer Support For Elderly Relatives During Lockdown
If you’re living somewhere that a lockdown is in effect, you might be worried about how you can look after and care for your elderly relatives when it’s challenging to get out and see everyone you want to. Being stuck inside can cause stress to seniors, but you want to ensure their safety. Part of this safety, however, comes from the support you can provide, so here are some tips on offering support for elderly relatives during a lockdown.
The Financial Side
Many people are saving more money than ever before during the lockdown. They can’t go to restaurants or bars, and with the stimulus check on its way, they have some measure of financial support to assist them if they are not currently employed.
However, while most of this seems to apply to the millennial unemployed, you also have to ask, will senior citizens get a stimulus check? After all, seniors will need to pay for goods and groceries, too. If they are still a ways off retirement, or even seeing a sudden disruption in their income, whether renting property homes or offering home repairs on the side, they also require some support.
The Social Side
No, you can’t go round to their house for a coffee, and it’s likely not even a good idea to stand at the door for a chat. Even so, you don’t need to forget about your relatives while this is going on. It gives you a chance to socialize with them better than ever before.
Face it, everyone’s schedule is pretty much wiped clean. There’s nothing that anybody has planned right now, so you can use this to your advantage. Give them a phone call to check in on them, or even send them a Skype call so you can see one another as close to face-to-face as you can right now. Let the grandkids or great-grandchildren call them as often as you can because they probably miss them dearly.
The Active Side
Many people have taken advantage of all the free time and lack of post-work exhaustion to start working out, going for runs, and get into better shape, and you can encourage your elderly relatives to this, too.
Your relatives can go for walks around the block, but they can also stay active in their homes or gardens. There are plenty of online workouts for all ages that you can recommend to try out so they can remain active without needing to leave the house.
The Nutrition Side
Nutrition is important at any time, but lockdown measures drive the desire to snack and nibble on junk food throughout the day, as it feels like there’s nothing else to do.
Rather than leave your parents or grandparents to snack on cookies and candy, you can complete their weekly grocery shopping and fill it with nutritious but fulfilling meals that will be much better for them than the overprocessed and sugar-filled alternatives.
Staying In Touch
While you can’t embrace your parents and grandparents like you used to, you can still take these steps to provide the support that they might not be able to give themselves. If nothing else, it will help get you out of the house and do some good for the community while also reminding your elderly relatives how much you care.