{"id":1254,"date":"2020-11-10T06:23:15","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T06:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/?p=953"},"modified":"2020-11-10T06:23:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T06:23:15","slug":"how-to-determine-if-a-senior-needs-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/2020\/11\/10\/how-to-determine-if-a-senior-needs-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning signs: How to determine if a senior needs help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s face it, growing old is a little confronting to the most of us.\u00a0 Imagine going from total independence to having rely on someone.\u00a0 The transition for some can be terrifying, but it doesn&#8217;t have to be.\u00a0 However, in some cases, seniors try to hide the fact that they require assistance in avoidance of having full-time care.\u00a0 So, what are the warning signs and how do you determine if a senior in your life needs help?<\/p>\n<p>So, we&#8217;ve put tother a list of a few things to look out for&#8230;<\/p>\n<h3>Difficulty Performing Routine Activities of Everyday Living<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>taking a bath or shower<\/li>\n<li>looking after personal appearance in daily grooming and dressing<\/li>\n<li>Toileting<\/li>\n<li>Continence<\/li>\n<li>struggle in general mobility (e.g., moving from the bed to a chair)<\/li>\n<li>Eating and maintaining nutrition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Changes in Physical Function or Appearance that are Concerning<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Noticeable weight loss due to poor diet, difficulty cooking, eating, shopping for food, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Unkempt appearance due to difficulty dressing and grooming.<\/li>\n<li>Poor personal hygiene and unpleasant body odor<\/li>\n<li>Noticeable decline in personal care, untrimmed nails or lack of oral care.<\/li>\n<li>Bruises, wounds or marks on the body that could indicate a senior has fallen.<\/li>\n<li>Noticeable burns on the skin could indicate a senior is struggling with cooking.<\/li>\n<li>Changes in sleep patterns, such as sleeping for most of the day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Changes in Behavior or Mental Awareness<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Lack of motivation.<\/li>\n<li>Loss of interest in hobbies and activities.<\/li>\n<li>Difficulty keeping track of time.<\/li>\n<li>Failure to return phone calls to friends and family members.<\/li>\n<li>Extreme mood swings.<\/li>\n<li>Increased agitation<\/li>\n<li>Verbal or physical abusive\u00a0behaviors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Physical Clues That Your Parents Are Neglecting Household Responsibilities<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Dirty house and\/or extreme clutter.<\/li>\n<li>Stacks of unopened mail, late payment notices<\/li>\n<li>Unpaid bills, calls from collectors or utilities being turned off.<\/li>\n<li>Spoiled food that doesn\u2019t get discarded<\/li>\n<li>Little or no fresh<\/li>\n<li>Stained or wet furniture or carpet.<\/li>\n<li>Urine odor in house (signs of incontinence).<\/li>\n<li>Pots and pans with noticeable burn marks indicating food has been left unattended whilst cooking<\/li>\n<li>General upkeep, such as the lawn, garbage collection not being maintained<\/li>\n<li>Signs of unsafe driving, such as automobile dents and scratches.<\/li>\n<li>Unfilled prescriptions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Warning Signs That Your Parent Might Be Developing Dementia, Alzheimer\u2019s Disease or Some Other Cognitive Impairment<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"false\">\n<li>Forgetfulness, including forgetting to take medications or taking incorrect dosages.<\/li>\n<li>Missing important appointments.<\/li>\n<li>Consistent memory lapses.<\/li>\n<li>Increased confusion.<\/li>\n<li>Loss of reasoning skills.<\/li>\n<li>Consistent use of poor judgment (e.g. falling for scams or sales pitches or giving away money).<\/li>\n<li>Difficulty performing familiar tasks.<\/li>\n<li>Frequently misplacing items.<\/li>\n<li>Frequently getting lost when walking or driving.<\/li>\n<li>Repetitive speech patterns.<\/li>\n<li>Inability to complete sentences.<\/li>\n<li>Changes in personality or behavior.<\/li>\n<li>Poor personal hygiene and wearing the same clothes over and over.<\/li>\n<li>Inability to recall names of familiar people or objects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you or a loved one is experiencing these signs and needs to go into full-time care, <a href=\"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/contact\/\">please contact our office<\/a> for additional information.\u00a0 Alternately, if you&#8217;re still trying to determine if a senior needs help, check the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myagedcare.gov.au\/\"> My Aged Care website<\/a>. It offers valuable information to those looking to research more on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s face it, growing old is a little confronting to the most of us.\u00a0 Imagine going from total independence to having rely on someone.\u00a0 The transition for some can be terrifying, but it doesn&#8217;t have to be.\u00a0 However, in some cases, seniors try to hide the fact that they require assistance in avoidance of having [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[21,22,64,23,62,57,28,71,77,25,26,36,81,68],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aged-care","category-health","tag-aged-care","tag-aged-care-advice","tag-aged-care-facility","tag-agedcare","tag-dementia","tag-elderly","tag-family","tag-home-care","tag-hospital","tag-housing","tag-nursing-home","tag-pensioner","tag-retirement","tag-stress"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trustedagedcare.com.au\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}