Ways to Stay in Touch with Elderly Loved Ones During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it remarkably difficult for families to keep in contact with senior friends and family. Individuals who are 65 years of age or older, or who live in senior care facilities, have been recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as high-hazard for the infection. For most families, protecting senior friends and family from disease implies doing so without face-to-face visits and finding alternative approaches to associate with one another.

Fortunately, there are more assets accessible than any other time to help families stay close even while socially distancing. Following are some suggestions for protected and imaginative approaches to remain close with senior friends and family during this difficult time.

1. Make video calling simple

Apparatuses like FaceTime, Skype, Zoom and WhatsApp permit families to communicate effectively through video calls. The majority of these applications and stages are free to download. FaceTime video calling comes standard with iPhones, while Skype and Zoom offer free video conferencing on an assortment of gadgets.  Furthermore, WhatsApp is a free video calling and communication application that can be used with Androids or iOS.

With all of these various choices, it can be confusing or difficult to know which one should be used when communicating with your senior loved one.  To make it simpler, let your senior relative’s necessities function as a  guide. The best applications tend to be those that are easy to utilize and that are free for friends and family.  On the off chance that your senior already has a cell phone, tablet or PC, speaking via a video chat may be the least demanding choice. If your senior has already been utilizing a specific application, feel free to proceed with that.

2. Plan a window visit

You have probably seen viral photographs of “window visits” individuals are having with senior relatives at their homes or outside of their senior care facilities.. During these visits, relatives stay outside, yet they talk with their loved one on the telephone or carry handcrafted signs with messages. It seems considerably more like an ordinary visit when seniors can see their friends and family, even if it’s only through a window.

Notwithstanding window visits, families are additionally putting a social separating turn on different sorts of house calls. For example, friends and family may sit on their patio and loved ones sit on a folding chair in the yard far away and visit that way, or from a vehicle.

3. Take a virtual get-away

Certainly, most retreats, exhibition halls and other fun places are shut to general society. Nevertheless, you and your senior loved one can investigate the world together from the security of your own home. For instance, why not call them and take a visit through an online historical center together?

You can experience free online virtual voyages through Yellowstone National Park, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Louver in Paris and even Mars. However long your senior cherished one has access to a savvy gadget, they will have the option to visit with you through your desired web application.

4. Rediscover snail mail

Putting a letter in the mail is still a viable alternative, and it can give anybody a passionate lift to get a card, letter or blessing via the post office.

Consider sending letters consistently, and  utilize snail mail as an approach to inform friends and family of unique or informative events when you can not all physically be together.

All things considered, the CDC likewise suggests that everybody wash hands with cleanser and water for at least twenty seconds or utilize a hand sanitizer containing sixty percent alcohol before sending out or receiving mail.

5. Enroll guardians’ assistance

On the off chance that your senior loved one has restricted capacities or lives in a senior care home, see how on-site staff can assist them in keeping in contact.  For example, numerous facilities are purchasing tablets and having staff take them to inhabitants’ rooms intermittently to video visit with their families.  This is especially significant for occupants who can not participate in such functions without the assistance of someone else.

In case you are going the non-electronic course, staff at senior care facilities can likewise be approached to help with letters and cards so your cherished one can furnish you with regular updates.

6. Utilize the telephone, and do so twice as regularly

The telephone still works, and hearing from family and friends can make a big difference in a senior’s day.  Consider increasing the number of calls you make to loved ones who are isolated.

Reaching out to loved ones via social media or the telephone is crucial, as social isolation can lead to hypertension, coronary illness, weight gain, anxiety, and dementia.

Staying in touch with friends and family who are in senior care facilities during COVID-19 can be challenging, but with the applications available today, a little effort can certainly go a long way.

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *