After making the decision to utilize personal or in-home care services for your elderly loved one, it is important to evaluate the status of your family member to ensure you provide accurate information to your Comfort Keeper so they can properly care for your loved one. Comfort Keepers in Santa Clarita has devised an easy method for you to analyze their health condition. Our method uses your 5 senses.
- Sight: The senior’s physical appearance can be a sign that they are physically or mentally challenged with completing normal daily tasks. Some of the signs to look for include:
- Are they wearing dirty clothes?
- Is personal hygiene not taken care of?
- Is their home orderly and clean?
- Sound: Listening to what seniors say and how they are speaking can provide insight on their mental status. Certain issues aren’t just a case of “old age,” so make sure to look for some of the following common changes:
- Do they call you by name?
- Are they speaking normally?
- Do they talk about the future and their goals?
- Are they aware of current news?
- Smell: You can use your sense of smell to see if your family member is participating in their normal routines.
- Does their living environment have unpleasant odors?
- Do the refrigerator or cupboards smell?
- Is their body odor natural and clean?
- Taste: You can certainly analyze the food there are ingesting to see determine their health status.
- Do they have fresh and stocked pantry food?
- Check the expiration dates of the food in their fridge.
- You can also examine their medication to ensure proper usage and pills.
- Touch: Lastly, using your sense of touch you can feel their body and see how their health is.
- Do they have unusual lesions or bruising on their skin?
- Does their skin feel healthy?
- Are they losing unusual amounts of weight?
These are just some of the ways you can use your 5 senses to analyze your loved ones health. If you have a checklist and want to speak with a Comfort Keeper, then contact our Santa Clarita office at 661-287-4200.
Comfort Keepers
Serving – Santa Clarita & Granada Hills
23900 Lyons Avenue
Santa Clarita, CA 91321
