What Can You Do to Maximize Visits to Your Senior When You Live Far Away?

By Jamie Shapiro | September 9, 2020 | Comments Off on What Can You Do to Maximize Visits to Your Senior When You Live Far Away?

Visiting your senior might be difficult to do if you live far away right now, but if you’re going to be helping with her care, it’s important to visit when you can. Those visits can help you both to work out care plans and to lay the groundwork for what might be coming. 

Try to Meet Your Senior’s Doctor

Elder Care Evanston, IL: Maximizing Distance Visits

Meeting your elderly family member’s doctor is a great way to get a handle on her health issues now and her expected prognosis. This also gives you a chance to establish a working relationship with your senior’s medical team. If you do need to interact with them when you go back home, you have an idea who they are and what your senior’s health experience is in a more normal situation. 

Get a Little Nosy  

During your visit is the perfect opportunity to get a little bit nosy with your aging family member. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re raiding her medicine cabinet, but it might mean that you’re asking her some of the tougher questions about how she’s really doing. Try to get an understanding of what your elderly family member’s life is like right now and what her needs are. This is going to help you to find the right resources for her so that she’s got what she needs. 

Talk to Other People Who Spend Time with Her 

If you haven’t met your senior’s friends and neighbors, this visit might be a good chance to do so. This is also a good time to make sure that your aging family member’s friends and neighbors have your contact information, just in case they need to get in touch with you for any reason. If there are other resources that might be helpful for your senior, like bringing in elder care providers to help with certain tasks, then now might be a good time to put that plan into action. 

Remember to Spend Time Enjoying Your Senior’s Company 

When you’re with your elderly family member, it’s important that you’re able to spend at least some of that time just enjoying each other’s company. There’s likely a lot more to your relationship with each other than just what you’re able to do for her or what she needs. When you allow yourself some time together that isn’t about pressure and heavy topics, that can be a relief for you both. 

The visits you’re able to have with your senior may not be as frequent as you’d like, but you really can make the most of the in-person time you have together. 

 

If you or an aging loved one are considering Elder Care in Evanston, IL, contact the caring staff at Companion Services of America today at (847) 943-3786. Our home care service area includes Northbrook, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Evanston, Des Plaines, Skokie, Lake Forest, Wilmette and the surrounding areas. 

Jamie Shapiro
Latest posts by Jamie Shapiro (see all)
Posted in Elder Care Evanston IL, Maximizing Distance Visits and tagged ,