How to Find Meaningful Activities for Your Elderly Loved One
Senior Care in Comstock Park MI
Meaningful activities help to give your elderly loved one a sense of purpose. They don’t have to be complicated, but they can cover a lot of different activity levels and types.
Look at Your Loved One’s Lifelong Interests
Throughout your elderly loved one’s life, she’s had interests and hobbies to turn to. Chances are very good that at least some of those interests and hobbies still fascinate her. If your elderly loved one has always been handy with tools, for example, she might enjoy matching up nuts with corresponding bolts. Or she might enjoy helping you to set the table for dinner every night so that it’s just so. The activity doesn’t have to be big, but if it’s related to something that she usually did, it’s likely to speak to her.
Look at Your Loved One’s Current Abilities
Your loved one’s current skill levels may play quite a bit into the types of activities she finds meaningful. If she’s always enjoyed singing or making music, for example, then that can be something that she continues to enjoy down the road. In the case of someone who always liked using tools, it’s possible that arthritis or other ailments hamper her ability to use those same tools any longer and she may find those types of activities more frustrating than meaningful.
Be Creative
It’s important that you put a little bit of creativity into your brainstorming with these types of activities. If your loved one enjoys helping you clean, find something that she can do along with you, such as using a duster. If she’s always loved having pets around, have her help you with specific pet care activities, such as grooming the dog or cat.
Rotate the Activities to Maintain Interest
If you stick with the same one or two meaningful activities for your elderly loved one, they’ll by default become less meaningful for her over time. Instead, spend some time every few weeks brainstorming new activities and then rotating them in to her daily life. Using this technique also helps you to keep up with your loved one’s changing abilities over time.
You can find ideas for meaningful activities just about anywhere. Support groups are a good source of ideas, as are your loved one’s senior care providers.
If you or someone you know needs help with senior care in Comstock Park, MI, contact Gauthier Family Home Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services in our community. Call us at (616) 258-2300 for more information.
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