Tips for Helping Your Senior Cope with Pain

It is an unfortunate reality that a large percentage of elderly adults cope with pain on a regular basis. In fact, up to 50 percent of seniors living in the community report experiencing chronic pain. Health problems, lingering injuries, and aging can all contribute to pain, and this pain can compromise your parent’s functioning, health, well-being, and quality of life.

Home Care Lexington NC – Tips for Helping Your Senior Cope with Pain

Fortunately your role as a family caregiver can help you to address this issue and allow you to improve your parent’s health, well-being, and quality of life by helping them to cope with pain effectively on a regular basis.

Use these tips to help your parent cope with pain:

• Talk about it. Many seniors are reluctant to talk about their pain. They might feel as though they are whining or complaining, or that they are being overly dramatic. Talk about the pain and be honest about it. Just talking about what your parent is going through and encouraging them to be open about it can reduce the mental and emotional health impact and support them in seeking out the proper management and treatment.

• Talk to their doctor. Ensure that your parent is honest with their doctor about their pain. The doctor cannot do anything to help them with this situation if they do not know about it. Talk about how much pain they are feeling, when they are feeling it, and what, if anything, helps. This can help the doctor to identify issues that might be causing the pain and what measures can be taken to ease and control this pain effectively.

• Talk about emotions. Pain is a physical experience, but it is an emotional and mental experience as well. Talk to your parent about how their pain is making them feel and be willing to address issues such as anxiety and depression that can arise as a result of it. This can make your parent feel stronger and has been shown in some studies to reduce experience of pain as well.

If you have noticed that your senior’s challenges have increased to the point that you are no longer able to handle them confidently, or your own limitations or schedule have changed and made it so that you can no longer fulfill your parent’s needs, now may be the ideal time for you to consider home care for them.

Home care can fill care gaps that might exist in your care efforts and ensure that any care tasks that your parent needs but you are not able to fulfill on your own are handled respectfully and effectively. This can not only help your parent to stay as healthy, comfortable, safe, and happy as possible as they age in place, but it can also ease your stress and support a better quality of life for both you and your parent.

Source:  http://www.modernmedicine.com/modern-medicine/content/properly-assessing-pain-elderly

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