Senior Care Services That Can Help Your Parent With COPD
Posted on: 22 April 2019
If you have a senior parent that also suffers from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), you likely spend a great deal of time worrying about your parent's well-being. COPD is a chronic and progressive disease that affects breathing quality, lung capacity, and can have serious complications if the person gets respiratory infections of any kind on top of their COPD. While you may think and worry about your parent often, it can be difficult for you to physically be there for your parent as much as you would like to be. As such, you may be wondering what kinds of services may be available to help your parent that suffers from COPD in their daily life. Learn some of those services and determine what would be best for your parent.
Housekeeping Services
One of the most difficult aspects of your parent's daily life when they have COPD is keeping up with housework and housekeeping. It is difficult to push a vacuum or even straighten up when you are constantly short of breath and/or need to pull an oxygen tank along with you.
As such, one of the best services you can arrange for them is to have a housekeeping service come in weekly or several times a week to help you parent out with their home. Try to also find a housekeeping service that will change bed linens and do laundry for your parent. This will take a major load off of their plate and allow them to spend their time on other tasks.
Personal Care Services
At a certain point with COPD, virtually any task is going to be a difficult exertion. This can include getting dressed in the morning, getting undressed, or taking a shower, among other things. Senior home care services can help with these tasks and more.
Companies that offer senior personal care services have caregivers specifically trained to assist in these tasks of daily living. The amount of assistance provided will depend on what your parent wants and needs. The idea is to assist rather than do the task for your parent (if possible).
Medication Assistance
COPD often comes along with a large number of medications and treatments daily. Not only is there often a need for oxygen at least some of the day, but there are also steroids, other pills, inhalers, and nebulizer treatments. These treatments are often staggered throughout the day, sometimes every few hours.
This is a lot of medication to keep track of for anyone, let alone someone who is a senior and suffering from a serious medical condition. As such, having home care services providers there to help keep your parent on track with their medications and to assist them with their treatments can be a major benefit. They will ensure that your parent stays on schedule with their medications and that everything is administered properly.
Now that you know more about the personal care services that can benefit your parent with COPD, you can talk to your parent about getting some of these services in their home as soon as possible.
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