How To Tell If A Loved One Needs Help To Stay At Home Safely

Are you home for the holidays? In addition to celebrating, take a moment to make sure family members are still capable of managing their daily lives on their own. Often older adults need some help to stay safe and healthy, but don’t like to admit it.

To help determine if loved ones are safe at home, Visiting Angels, the nation’s leading provider of compassionate home care, has developed this simple checklist:

Check their appearance: Are their clothes clean? Are they wearing appropriate clothing? Is there any inappropriate body odor that could indicate difficulty bathing, washing their hair or brushing their teeth? Have they made any drastic changes to their appearance - wearing more or less makeup, not wearing dentures, etc? Appearance is an immediate clue that the activities of daily living may be becoming more difficult. It’s also a potential indicator of deteriorating vision and possibly changes in mental acuity.
More