Exercises Your Parent Can Do to Help Prevent Falls

One of the most important things that you can do as a family caregiver is help your parent stay as safe and healthy as possible throughout their later years. A major part of accomplishing this is helping your senior to avoid falls. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that falls are the leading cause of serious injuries among elderly adults, and that millions of seniors seek emergency medical care each year due to these injuries.

Caregiver Lexington NC – Exercises Your Parent Can Do to Help Prevent Falls

Helping your parent prevent these falls is essential to protecting their health and safety, and helping them to maintain the quality of life that they deserve throughout their later years. One way you can do this is by encouraging them to stay physically active and perform exercises that will keep their body strong, responsive, flexible, and better able to avoid falls.

Some exercises that your parent can perform to help them to avoid falls include:

• Balance. Balance is about keeping your parent on their feet and helping them to correct themselves if they start to lose their balance. Help them to achieve and maintain better balance by encouraging them to stand behind a chair, rest their hands on the back, and lift one leg up to the knee of the other or as high as they can. They can then release one hand and maintain their balance before returning to the start position and repeating on the other side. As they get better, they can lift their legs higher and take both hands off of the chair.

• Yoga. Yoga is rapidly growing in popularity among elderly adults. This ancient practice emphasizes balance, strength, control, and flexibility. Because of its gentle nature and simple customization, your parent can do whatever their body is capable of doing to begin, and then gradually increase as they get stronger.

• Walking. The most accessible exercise possible for most people, walking is a fantastic way to burn calories, strengthen muscles and joints, and improve flexibility and range of motion in joints. Whether you walk together around the neighborhood or go window shopping, walking lets your parent improve the strength and stability of their body and give you opportunities to make memories you can treasure into the future.

If you feel that your parent’s needs or challenges are too much for you to handle their care successfully, or you feel that they would simply benefit from additional support and assistance, now may be the ideal time for you to consider starting home care for them.

As a family caregiver, knowing that your aging parent has the highly personalized services of an in-home care provider can give you peace of mind and reassure you that they will get everything that they need both when you are with them and when you are not. This care provider’s services can fill care gaps that exist in your routine and offer your parent additional benefits such as reliable transportation, dedicated companionship, and professional care to help them manage their individual challenges and limitations.

This can reduce your stress and ensure that you are able to focus on other obligations in your life as well.

Sources:  http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/healthy-aging/in-depth/fall-prevention/art-20047358
https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0922-older-adult-falls.html
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6022a1.htm

If you or an aging loved one are considering Caregiver Services in Lexington NC, please contact the caring staff at Tender Hearted Home Care today. (704) 612-4132.